Smile! We're Watching You Right Now.

TITUSVILLE, FL -- The government wants to spy on us and apparently some Democrats in Washington, DC think that’s OK.

Clint Curtis doesn’t.

“I’m not surprised when Republicans, including the District 24 incumbent, trample on the Bill of Rights and think it’s a good idea,” said the Titusville Democrat seeking the Congressional seat now held by Tom Feeney, “But Democrats should know better -– and should be ashamed.”

Curtis’s statement comes as the White House and leaders of both major political parties are poised this week to announce a “compromise” on a domestic spying bill that could allow the continuance of “warrantless” wiretapping of American citizens and grant immunity to telecommunications companies for their previous participation in the illegal wiretapping.

As the "New York Times" said in its June 18 editorial: “The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation.”

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the government has to get a warrant to intercept communications between anyone in this country and anyone outside it. The special court set up as a provision of the law has disallowed only a handful of warrant requests since the law went into effect in 1978.

The law expires Aug. 3, but the president wants more power to spy, as well as immunity for the telecommunications companies that gave the government private information about Americans without a warrant after Sept. 11.

The problem is special interest money, Curtis said, coupled with a business-as-usual attitude in Washington.

“This is the root cause of the Democrats’ inability to stand up to the Republicans. They are all eating from the same trough,” Curtis said. “This is why we need leadership that will stay true to our values rather than cater to special interest contributors.”

The FISA “compromise” is just one example of how the current administration – with Democratic connivance – has gutted regulations designed to protect the citizens of this country. The consequences have been disastrous: higher oil and gas prices, airlines near bankruptcy, food that’s unsafe and an economy hurtling headlong toward recession.

As Bill Moyers said in an address to a recent media reform conference:
"I see a connection between those disasters and the repeal of regulations designed to prevent exactly that kind of human and economic damage. Who pushed for the removal of that firewall? The political marionettes in Washington who dance to the speculators’ tune, and who are well rewarded with campaign contributions and lucrative lobbying jobs when they have delivered the goods.

“Even honorable opponents of the practice get trapped in the web of a system that can effectively limits politics to those who can afford to spend millions of dollars in their race for office, and who know that their careers depend on pleasing their donors while deserting their voters."

“The only way to safeguard citizens’ rights,” Curtis says, “is to elect representatives who respect those rights and believe in standing up for them.”