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Missing in Action -- Obama, Clinton

According to a New York Times report, “the Senate handed the White House a major victory on Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants.”

The bill, approved by the senate in a 68 to 29 vote, “allows the government to eavesdrop on large bundles of foreign-based communications on its own authority so long as Americans are not the targets. A secret intelligence court, which traditionally has issued individual warrants before wiretapping began, would review the procedures set up by the executive branch only after the fact to determine whether there were abuses involving Americans.”

According to the paper, “Among the presidential contenders, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, voted in favor of the final measure, while the two Democrats, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, did not vote.”

There is no word at this early date from Sen. Chris Dodd’s office criticizing the two Democrat presidential contenders for failing to uphold his version of the US Constitution.

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