Obama came out a few days ago and reversed his position on the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) bill that’s before the Senate right now. This bill would give telecommunication companies (phone and/or Internet service providers a la AT&T) retroactive immunity from prosecution for breaking the law.

Basically, the Bush administration went to the telecoms and said, “we’d like the power to monitor people’s phone calls and emails without ever asking for permission.” There were many rules in place that would allow the administration to do this with permission, but I guess they didn’t want to bother with all that messy paperwork. Most of the telecoms said yes … I’m pretty sure one of the major firms refused, but don’t quote me on that.

So now, there’s a bill before the Senate that will change the law to say that spying on us without permission was okay, it will be okay in the future, and the telecoms were justified in breaking the law when the president asked them to. Obama has spoken strongly against this legislation in the past, but just last week he changed his mind, presumably so he won’t look soft on terrorism.

Russ Feingold isn’t taking this lying down (see the awesome video below). He’s continuing to fight the bill, and this week they managed to push the vote back past the July 4th weekend. If you think it’s bullshit that our presidential candidate would support this violation of our privacy, please join this group on his website that’s urging him to change his mind. I’m sure there are people you can call, but I’ll give you that info when I get it. And Harmon … I know you’re an Obama man … if you have any suggestions, please contribute!