Can the Gong Show really exist without Chuck Barris, Murray Langston, Arte Johnson, and Rip Taylor? I have my doubts.
Barbara Boxer on Telecom Immunity
Really, truly worth a few minutes of your day.
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Conversely, here’s Diane Feinstein’s crap automated answer to people who contacted her about her stance on the FISA Capitulation.
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Wash a little of that garbage out of your mouth by watching Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor, and reading the statment he issued today.
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It really baffles me that so few Americans care about this issue. I am perplexed and saddened beyond belief.
Our founding fathers must be so ashamed.
Senate Passes Unconstitutional Spying Bill And Grants Sweeping Immunity To Phone Companies
ACLU Announces Legal Challenge To Follow President’s Signature
WASHINGTON – Today, in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless wiretapping program revealed in December 2005 by the New York Times.
“Once again, Congress blinked and succumbed to the president’s fear-mongering. With today’s vote, the government has been given a green light to expand its power to spy on Americans and run roughshod over the Constitution,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “This legislation will give the government unfettered and unchecked access to innocent Americans’ international communications without a warrant. This is not only unconstitutional, but absolutely un-American.”
The FISA Amendments Act nearly eviscerates oversight of government surveillance by allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review only general procedures for spying rather than individual warrants. The FISC will not be told any specifics about who will actually be wiretapped, thereby undercutting any meaningful role for the court and violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
The bill further trivializes court review by authorizing the government to continue a surveillance program even after the government’s general spying procedures are found insufficient or unconstitutional by the FISC. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever information was gathered in the meantime. A provision touted as a major “concession” by proponents of the bill calls for investigations by the inspectors general of four agencies overseeing spying activities. But members of Congress who do not sit on the Judiciary or Intelligence committees will not be guaranteed access to the agencies’ reports.
The bill essentially grants absolute retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program over the last seven years by ensuring the dismissal of court cases pending against those companies. The test for the companies’ right to immunity is not whether the government certifications they acted on were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that certifications were issued, all of the pending cases will be summarily dismissed. This means Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications.
“With one vote, Congress has strengthened the executive branch, weakened the judiciary and rendered itself irrelevant,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “This bill – soon to be law – is a constitutional nightmare. Americans should know that if this legislation is enacted and upheld, what they say on international phone calls or emails is no longer private. The government can listen in without having a specific reason to do so. Our rights as Americans have been curtailed and our privacy can no longer be assumed.”
In advance of the president’s signature, the ACLU announced its plan to challenge the new law in court.
“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”
For more information, go to:
www.aclu.org/fisa
The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow (Wednesday) on the FISA Amendments Act that the House passed in June.
Today and early tomorrow are the last opportunities to call on your senators to reject this bill, which would do the following:
* Give the president the authority to spy on individuals without a court warrant.
* Provide immunity to the phone companies that broke the law.
Amendments: Before the Senate votes on the actual bill, it will consider three amendments:
* Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment would strip immunity from the bill.
* Bingaman-Specter-Casey amendment would delay immunizing the telecoms until 90 days after the release of the Inspector General’s audit report on the program. This compromise would ensure that Congress knows what it is immunizing.
Specter amendment would require district courts to determine the legality of the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program prior to granting immunity to the telecoms.
The message: Urge your senators to support the amendments BUT reject the underlying bill, because none of the amendments alter the fact that the bill would legalize surveillance without court-approved warrants based on the suspicion of wrongdoing, which the Fourth Amendment requires.
Breaking news! Remind your senators that the Bush administration’s letter to the Senate yesterday threatening a Bush veto if the Bingaman amendment is passed appears to be motivated by the desire to cover up illegal actions rather than to protect the security of our country. If the administration believed its wiretapping program was justified, it would not reject an amendment aimed at preserving Congress’s authority to determine whether the warrantless wiretapping program violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights to privacy before it immunizes the telecoms.
To make your calls:
Look up your senators’ direct phone numbers at www.senate.gov or
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to both of your senators’ offices.
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Address: 8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060
Web: www.bordc.org/
Email: info@bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
In the spirit of the holiday, inspired by a feature in this week’s Time, I’m going to present a question to you guys:
What does patriotism mean to you?
