Florida Drug Test Law Makes It to a Top Five List

The Center for American Progress is compiling a list of the top five efforts by the ultra-right to deny Americans living below the poverty line any ability to escape poverty. And today I read that the recently passed Tea Party-backed Florida law to require state welfare applicants to take and pass a drug test before they could receive welfare checks is now on that list.

Teabaggers, it seems, all seem to think that people on welfare are all a bunch of low life parasite junkies. So they got a law passed this year requiring all applicants to put out a

$30 expenditure for a drug test to prove they are drug free. Only then will they be able to collect welfare checks. Those that fail will be kept off the welfare rolls for a year. And if they fail in the next year, they stay off for 3 years.

But really, according to the Center for American Progress, all this does is keep people from escaping poverty.

In all, since July, 96% of all those tested passed. These individuals were then reimbursed by the state for the drug test fee. The other 4%? Well the state is enjoying cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars in not giving the junkies money to buy drugs with. At the cost of millions of dollars in expenditures to reimburse the other 96%.

That is, Teabaggers, always on the lookout for a way to cut costs, have added costs to the state’s budget through this law.

But wait, it gets better.

The company that has the exclusive contract to conduct these drug tests was founded by Florida’s current Tea Party governor, Rick Scott, was a co-founder of this company in 2001. A company that got the state contract. A company whose stock Scott sold last April for a cool $63 million.

But wait, it gets even better.

The sale of the stock precedes a ruling late last month by a Bush-appointed federal district judge, Judge Mary Scriven, that the law just might be a violation of the 4^th Amendment which protects Americans from unreasonable search and seizure. In fact, these drug tests, which are actually medical records, are not kept confidential but are made available to law enforcement groups. Judge Scriven halted enforcement of the law pending decisions on whether the law is unconstitutional; a thing that she thinks is highly likely.

Senate Votes on FISA Today – Part 2: The Vote

Now after lunch, comes the FISA cloture vote, where the previous Ayes, become the Nays.

Not really.

Here is the vote on the FISA bill, a bill fully loaded and ready to take aim at all Americans’ right to privacy and against warrentless search and seizure.

69 Aye – 28 Nay

Here is the rogues’ list. Twenty-three Democrats who voted away our constitutional rights. (No, I don’t bother listing the Republicans and Independents. They can’t help being against our constitutional rights. These 23 have no excuse).

Baucus (D-MT)

Bayh (D-IN)

Biden (D-DE)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Conrad (D-ND)

Dorgan (D-ND)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Inouye (D-HI)

Johnson (D-SD)

Kohl (D-WI)

Landrieu (D-LA)

Lincoln (D-AR)

McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)

Nelson (D-FL)

Nelson (D-NE)

Obama (D-IL)

Pryor (D-AR)

Rockefeller (D-WV)

Salazar (D-CO)

Webb (D-VA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Senate Votes on FISA Today – Part 1: Amendments

Today the Senate takes up debates and votes for amendments to HR 6304, the bill just passed in the House that would, among other things, do something I haven’t really ever seen before: it provides a grant of immunity from civil suits against telecommunications firms that went along with government-ordered eavesdropping on the conversations of American citizens – orders that did not have the benefit of a warrant.

In other words, illegal search and seizure occurred. And now the Senate is in the process of placing their seal of approval on these illegal acts.

HR 6304 has three amendments to be voted on today.
Three Amendments upon which the survival of the 4th Amendment depends.

A roll call vote was requested for all three.

Senator Dole’s amendment to strike Title 2 from the bill, the part of it that grants immunity to telecom firms, came to bat first.

32 Aye – 66 Nay.

Strike one.

Then Arlen Spector’s amendment “to limit retroactive immunity for providing assistance to the United States to instances in which a Federal court determines the assistance was provided in connection with an intelligence activity that was constitutional,” came up next.

37 Aye - 61 Nay

Strike Two.

Senator Bingaman’s amendment “to stay pending cases against certain telecommunications companies and provide that such companies may not seek retroactive immunity until 90 days after the date the final report of the Inspectors General on the President's Surveillance Program is submitted to Congress.”

This is the last hope that we have for our 4th Amendment. Bush has threatened to veto any legislation that puts a delay on any telecom cases until people can see whether any laws were broken and who broke them.

42 Aye – 56 Nay

Strike Three.

On that last vote, those Aye votes appear to be 42 solid votes to deny passage of the FISA bill, don't they? Not so. Barack Obama, who voted Aye three times today, has promised to vote for the bill, as have others.

But I guess we’ll see.

After the Senators get their lunch.

Wouldn't want to yank the guts out of the 4th Amendment without a full belly.

Yahoo Chiefs Get Tongue Lashing From Pro-FISA Congressman

I find it truly ironic that the CEO and the chief legal representative for the internet giant Yahoo! were read the riot act over their actions in 2004, when they provided information on the online activities of a Chinese National to PRC investigators.

Let me explain.

Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan were in DC today to explain to Congressional investigators why they turned over information on a Chinese Journalist, Shi Tao. Shi was tried for subversive activities by the Peoples Republic of China government, convicted mainly based on the Yahoo! information, and given a 10 year sentence for “engaging in pro-democracy efforts” that they deemed were subversive.

Explaining themselves, Yang and Callahan said they were merely complying with what they regarded as a legal order, legal in China, they said.

“It's my understanding that under Chinese law these are lawful”, Callahan explained

Then all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks broke loose.

Tom Lantos (D–Ca): "Why do you insist on repeating the phrase 'lawful orders'? These were demands by a police state.''

The tongue lashing was bi-partisan. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., compared Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government to companies that cooperated with Nazi Germany during World War II.

And then this from Lantos:

“While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies.”

Now the irony. Chris Smith voted Yea on S 1927, the Protect America Act, the legislation that took away my rights against unlawful search and seizure. Tom Lantos was there but withheld his vote. He voted present, not voting.

If Yang and Callahan are "moral pygmies" for turning over online information to China, what must Smith and Lantos be for surrendering rights that all Americans have had since the Bill of Rights was ratified?

Foul, they would cry. We voted (or didn’t oppose) for a law to protect America from terrorists. America is not a cruel oppressive regime. We have the right to protect ourselves and if that means listening in on your phone conversations and emails, we did (or failed to not do) the right thing. China is the oppressive regime, not America.

Give it time Chris. Give it time, Tom.

Congress Takes A Powder, But Not Before Selling Us Out

First before I begin my rant, I want to point out the heroism of Texas Congressmen Al Green (CD-9), Silvestre Reyes (CD-16), Sheila Jackson-Lee (CD-18), Charles Gonzales (CD-20), Lloyd Doggett (CD-25), Solomon Ortiz (CD-27), Gene Green (CD-29) and Eddie Johnson (TX-30). These people voted not to surrender your 4th amendment rights.

The rest of the Texas delegation to the US Congress did.

Before I begin my rant I want to share with you the righteous anger of a friend of mine. Here is, with his permission, a copy of the email that he sent to Congressman Nick Lampson on the occasion of his vote for passage of S 1927, the so-called “Protect America Act” that Bush signed into law yesterday:

“Nick, This vote is the worst vote cast by a Democrat ever. You put your political gain ahead of preserving and protecting the Constitution. You put our civil liberties in the hands of Albert Gonzales and the CIA. Shame on you. You don't have the courage to tell the voters that the Terrorists have already won by destroying our Bill of Rights. You think you can pander to the far right and figure that we have no other choice than to work for your reelection. Such a strategy shows a lack of any political courage and a cynical political view. I guess one of your DC consultants developed the plan. All I can say is thank God you were not one of our founding fathers- we would not have a Bill of Rights.”

So you see, I’m not the only one that’s hacked off.

So now we have a congress on vacation while we have soldiers in the field in two hostile countries. While our congressmen and senators are kicking back and sipping a mint julep on the verandah, soldiers in Iraq are on patrol, and in harm’s way, with 100 pound packs in 130 degree weather. I was thinking about that this morning as I read Don’s email message again, and thought this: maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all considering what congress just did to us in handing over our 4th amendment rights to Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales and the NSA.

Maybe they should stay home until they get some guts to stand up to the Bush Regime. That’s what we sent them there to do but apparently they’re ascared. Bush has got his bullying sword honed to a fine edge. He and his national security advisor tell congress that we are vulnerable and that they can’t go home until they pass a bill that gives the NSA the power to listen in on any telephone conversation that takes place between a US citizen, in this country, with anyone else who does not live in this country – without a warrant. And if they don’t, THEY will be responsible for the next terrorist attack.

The Bush Regime is very good at shifting the blame. But make no mistake. The blame for any future terrorist attack lies squarely on Bush, Cheney and Rove and no one else. When will Congress get with that simple fact? When will Congress declare themselves immune from being blamed, and get about the business of getting us out of this endless war, restoring our rights and liberties, and then, if there’s time left impeaching Cheney and Bush?

In the meantime someone has to challenge this law. Call a cousin in Canada to give them standing and then file suit challenging the constitutionality of this law, because “fixing it”, as they tried to do with HR 3356 isn’t enough, we have to do away with it completely.

So senators and congressmen, relax and enjoy your vacation. And while you are having that second glass of iced tea, think about these words: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”. Think about that and what you just did to us, take some blame, and go back to DC only when you have finally convinced yourselves that we meant what we said last November.

Be not afraid. Fight for truth against the liars. Fight for justice against the corrupt. Fight for patriotism against the traitors.

Fight for us.