FISA and Protect America Act links...

[slipslidingaway]

TELECOM COVER-UP? Nacchio and Qwest: Another Political Prosecution?

and more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2935817


When Does the Sun Set on Warrantless Surveillance?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2917645

[slipslidingaway]

1. Arguments in favor of Telecom Immunity and Counterarguments

http://fisa.wikispot.org/Telecom_Immunity_Arguments

[punkpatriot411]

9. Here's an argument against-- I was wiretapped, and I have no legal recourse now.

Thanks Obama/Pelosi/Dems!

You suck at upholding your oath to protect the constitution- YET AGAIN!

[slipslidingaway]

2. Blue Dog Democrats May Give Bush Victory on Spying

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2970177

"In a January letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, 21 Blue Dog Coalition members made it known they supported granting immunity to the telecoms, and urged Pelosi to move quickly to pass the Senate version of the bill. (The 21 members who signed the letter are listed below.)

Members of the Blue Dog Coalition were integral in the passage of the highly controversial Protect America Act (PAA), a Republican-backed bill that greatly expanded spy powers in August 2007. The PAA was allowed to expire in February in the face of stark warnings from the Bush administration."

.....



Blue Dog Members Pushing for Telecom Immunity

Congressman Joe Baca (D-California) http://www.house.gov/baca /

Congressman John Barrow (D-Georgia) http://barrow.house.gov /

Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-Illinois) http://www.house.gov/bean /

Congressman Marion Berry (D-Arkansas) http://www.house.gov/berry /

Congressman Dan Boren (D-Oklahoma) http://www.house.gov/boren /

Congressman Leonard L. Boswell (D-Iowa) http://boswell.house.gov /

Congressman Allen Boyd (D-Florida) http://www.house.gov/boyd /

Congressman Christopher Carney (D-Pennsylvania) http://carney.house.gov /

Congressman Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee) http://www.cooper.house.gov /

Congressman Robert E. Cramer (D-Alabama) http://cramer.house.gov/HoR/AL05 /

Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-Tennessee) http://www.house.gov/lincolndavis /

Congressman Brad Ellsworth (D-Indiana) http://www.ellsworth.house.gov /

Congressman Tim Holden (D-Pennsylvania) http://www.holden.house.gov /

Congressman Jim Matheson, (D-Utah) http://www.house.gov/matheson /

Congressman Charlie Melancon (D-Louisiana) http://www.melancon.house.gov /

Congressman Dennis Moore (D-Kansas) http://www.moore.house.gov /

Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-North Dakota) http://www.pomeroy.house.gov /

Congressman Mike Ross (D-Arkansas) http://ross.house.gov /

Congressman Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina) http://shuler.house.gov /

Congressman Zack Space (D-Ohio) http://space.house.gov /

Congressman John Tanner (D-Tennessee) http://www.house.gov/tanner /

Blue Dog Coalition web site http://www.house.gov/ross/BlueDogs /

[charakter]

3. Harry Reid needs to step up to the plate

We need Democrats, specially the leadership, to step up to the plate and keep Republicans from "fixing" an entity (FISA) that needs no fixing. Reid please, listen: No-more-civil-liberties-disruptions.

[slipslidingaway]

4. rcy Wheeler and Glen Greenwald on Obama's FISA statement

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6456318&mesg_id=6456318

[slipslidingaway]

5. Feb 2008 - There were Eight votes yesterday on FISA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4574449&mesg_id=4574449

or

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2248

[slipslidingaway]

6. Fascist America, in 10 easy steps - Naomi Wolf

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3585104&mesg_id=3585104

[Cos]

7. Ask Nancy Pelosi at Netroots Nation (vote for the question)

http://www.askthespeaker.org/akira/dtd/2325-885

FISA was the Senate's response to Nixon's illegal warrantless spying on Americans. The Church commission understood that it wasn't enough for it to be illegal for the government to do it - it also had to be illegal for phone companies to collude with illegal spying, otherwise the law would never be enforced. They placed a legal duty on telecom companies to refuse to comply with illegal surveillance. Now that phone companies have broken that law, they see that when a White House can pressure them into collusion, that same White House can pressure Congress into excusing their crimes if it ever becomes public.

Congress has ratified and expanded on Nixon's saying. Do you believe that "if the president asks you to do it, that means it is not illegal?" How can you reconcile Congress' action with the concept of rule of law, as opposed to rule by kings?

They'll ask Pelosi some of the questions that get the most votes, so please click through and vote for my question!

[crimanimalz]

8. US is toast

[slipslidingaway]

10. Remarks of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold - Opposing H.R. 6304

http://feingold.senate.gov/statements/08/06/20080625f.htm


"Mr. President, I strongly oppose H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

This legislation has been billed as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats. We are asked to support it because it is a supposedly reasonable accommodation of opposing views. Let me respond as clearly as possible: This bill is not a compromise. It is a capitulation.

This bill will effectively and unjustifiably grant immunity to companies that allegedly participated in an illegal wiretapping program – a program that more than 70 members of this body still know virtually nothing about. And this bill will grant the Bush Administration – the same administration that developed and operated this illegal program for more than five years – expansive new authorities to spy on Americans’ international communications.

If you don’t believe me, here is what Senator Bond had to say about the bill: “I think the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped to get.” And House Minority Whip Roy Blunt said this: “The lawsuits will be dismissed.”

There is simply no question that Democrats who had previously stood strong against immunity and in support of civil liberties were on the losing end of this backroom deal..."

[defendandprotect]

11. Misplaced

[slipslidingaway]

12. A Dozen Things Read on DU Today re EFF NSA suit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8329583&mesg_id=8329583

[slipslidingaway]

13. Greenwald - The NYT's predictable revelation: new FISA law enabled

massive abuses

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/16/nsa/index.html

"In The New York Times last night, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau -- the reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for informing the nation in 2005 that the NSA was illegally spying on Americans on the orders of George Bush, a revelation that produced no consequences other than the 2008 Democratic Congress' legalizing most of those activities and retroactively protecting the wrongdoers -- passed on leaked revelations of brand new NSA domestic spying abuses, ones enabled by the 2008 FISA law. The article reports that the spying abuses are "significant and systemic"; involve improper interception of "significant amounts" of the emails and telephone calls of Americans, including purely domestic communications; and that, under Bush (prior to the new FISA law), the NSA tried to eavesdrop with no warrants on a member of Congress traveling to the Middle East. The sources for the article report that "the problems had grown out of changes enacted by Congress last July in the law that regulates the government’s wiretapping powers."

In reacting to these leaks, I share Digby's sentiments entirely: "It was so inevitable that I can't even find the energy to get worked up about it." I also don't want this news to distract from what ought to be the singular big story of the day -- namely, whether Obama will release the 3 key Bush DOJ memos that legalized specific torture techniques (as Andrew Sullivan correctly says, a failure of full disclosure "will betray all [] who supported him to restore the rule of law"). Nonetheless, there are some critical facts that need to be highlighted in order to prevent distortion of the meaning of the Risen/Lichtblau article.

These widespread eavesdropping abuses enabled by the 2008 FISA bill -- a bill passed with the support of Barack Obama along with the entire top Democratic leadership in the House, including Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, and substantial numbers of Democratic Senators -- aren't a bug in that bill, but rather, were one of the central features of it. Everyone knew that the FISA bill which Congressional Democrats passed -- and which George Bush and Dick Cheney celebrated -- would enable these surveillance abuses. That was the purpose of the law: to gut the safeguards in place since the 1978 passage of FISA, destroy the crux of the oversight regime over executive surveillance of Americans, and enable and empower unchecked government spying activities. This was not an unintended and unforeseeable consequence of that bill. To the contrary, it was crystal clear that by gutting FISA's safeguards, the Democratic Congress was making these abuses inevitable.

Opponents of this bill were warning that exactly these abuses would occur if the bill was passed..."