Today, July 8th, could mark the beginning of official condoning of warrantless surveillance of law-abiding citizens in the US, not to mention foreign nationals. Much of this information has been covered by Glenn Greenwald in the past week.

Daniel Ellsberg adds his reinforcement here, explains common inaccuracies about FISA reported by the media, and urges everyone to call their Senators now and tell them to VOTE NO.

Some salient points:

Why would the current administration want this amendment to pass, if not for safety of citizens and prevention of attacks?

Using NSA to spy without judicial oversight or constraint on American citizens provides the infrastructure for dictatorship. George W. Bush has frequently said what other presidents may only have thought: “It would be a heck of a lot easier in a dictatorship, if only I were the dictator.”

Other presidents have violated the law and the Constitution in much the same way as Bush, so long as they could do it secretly, but they haven’t proclaimed that as a right of their office as Bush, Cheney and their legal advisors have done.

The oath of office they took, along with all members of Congress, was to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic. I believe that, in the matters we’ve been discussing, the Founders had it right, not only for their time but for ours.

However, in all likelihood, constituents will be ignored and Senators will vote in accordance with their degree of ownership by the telecoms, as did their House counterparts earlier.

What is especially interesting are some of the comments following Ellsberg's blog. Such as:

Comment by little guy
2008-07-07 12:24:34

Once these things have been accomplished we can move on to other much bigger issues: destroying the military-intelligence-industrial complex; dismantling the IRS and the Federal Reserve; rebuilding the educational system; etc., etc..

Comment by Bob Bogus
2008-07-07 13:39:34

I’m afraid that people like Mr. Ellsberg will continue to be ignored until the jackboot comes down full force on the average Amerikan boobus sheeple. But by then of course it will be too late.

We are in a period of “soft fascism” and it seems it will only get worse. And I know writing or calling my congress critter will do no good because he alway votes for fascist legislation (if not also sponsoring it), and most of the people in his district approve of it or don’t care.

Comment by Eric
2008-07-07 20:11:12

Comment by Gregory A. Wood
2008-07-07 21:53:14

ACT NOW! Call your Senator. Make sure your friends know and also do so. As indicated by the many points of view in the responses below, response to the threat of impending fascism is not clear even for those who recognize it. I would like to suggest that democracy depends on a recognition of the common good - enlightened self interest - If we recognize this as the aim of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights we can also see it as our national mythos that can cite to unify and galvanize Left, Right, and Center. The United States is about United States and when we can settle upon the bedrock foundation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights all the B. S. around authoritarian neo-fascist nationalism will blow away like so much dry toilet paper because it just cannot sustain credibility based on lies and fear.

Comment by Oyate
2008-07-07 22:11:38

And worse, there’s no longer any good alternative in the big two parties. Ron Paul was your last and only chance to have a man of integrity as your president in 2008.

What will you do now? What will you do after tomorrow? Will you do anything? Or will you do nothing?

So, dear friends...what do you think? WHAT NOW? Can this country be saved? What can we do? What will YOU do?