Kill the Fourth Amendment Act clears the House

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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Scratch that one off the Bill of Rights soon, based on what the House did today.

HuffPo

WASHINGTON — The House Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.

The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government's responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies.

Most Republicans voted for it. Lots of Democratic opposition, but enough Blue Dog/DLC/corporatist "Dems" broke ranks to pass it.

I usually have a lot of respect for Rep. Nick Rahall (due to his consistent opposition to the Iraq war from Day 1), but he voted the wrong way this time.

This moves to the Senate next, where Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-AT&T has been championing immunity for telecomunications corporations and is one of the biggest backers of this bad legislation.

On a completely unrelated note, guess who made #3 and #4 on Jay's top 5 contributors for 2003-2008, according to opensecrets.com?

AT&T Inc $33,000
Verizon Communications $31,500