morning all

cristy, someone downstairs posted that obama is justifying his postition by claiming “he’s seen some cia data”

that would be “team b” if anything and it is rovian and frightening obama would resort to it

feingold has seen all data and he says this bill is rediculpous

obama is lying about his “cia data” and I am getting frightened by him

Morning Christy
TO THE PHONES!

it was revdeb, here’s her quote;

NPR covering the FISA vote; Obama partially building a relationship with CIA. Changed based on additional information….

this is BULL, obama is playing the fear ticket and it’s disgusting, he is distancing himeself from me

actually, someone was reporting what was said in the “analysis” on NPR this morning that Obama was caving in order to get in good with the intel. community.

Barf!

hellow again elliott…this statement from obama is really going to hurt us, we need to call him out on it immediately and we have the arsenol, he is trying to claim he has seen data that alarms him yet it does not alamr feingold

I am really starting to dislike this man

You should call his campaign office or his Senate office and tell them just that, then.

actually it was the other rev., bev.

ah, got it

“the intel community” is team b, why the hell does he want to cave to team b?

he needs to cave to US, he can play footsy with the cia through when he’s president and I GUARANTEE joe and valery will help him get FAR more done if he does NOT submit to some team b bull dink

Thanks for staying on this, Christy.

I just sent a FAX to Obama and copied it to Bill Nelson, one of my Senators. The full text can be found by clicking my name, but here is the final paragraph:

You sir, stand poised at a unique tipping point in the history of our country and your actions this week will say much about our joint futures. I urge you to stand with those brave patriots who founded our country on its love for liberty. To take this stand is not to appease the “loony left”. To take this stand is to join with our founders and a majority of voters today to endorse liberty as the only true course to security. Should you choose instead to “triangulate” to the middle on this issue, your action this week could well be seen by future historians as a missed, last, chance to prevent our Constitution being relegated to the dustbin as another failed experiment.

Now for a few phone calls to follow up.

ah, then that’s who I want to give the credit

Ahhh– so it wasn’t an actual quote, but somone’s analysis? Well, that’s a horse of a different color altogether. It’s one thing if it’s a direct quote — it’s quite another if that’s someone’s spin coming from god knows where as “analysis” before this vote. There are rumors and innuendos floating everywhere — a number of them being planted by McCain supporters. Skepticism on all sides for the next coupla days, gang — the GOP has just as much interest in divide and conquer as the Dems have in CYA…

We need to hold ALL of their feet to the fire, regardless.

think J. Edgar Hoover. NO ONE would dare cross him. Intel folks have a lot of power that they can use in a lot of ways.

he needs to play nice after he’s elected, not before, not when what he’s doing is going to let criminals against our country get away with their crime

and that’s the way he needs to put it to them as well, that the telecom immunitiy is a no option, they are gonna have to give up these criminals

think J. Edgar Hoover. NO ONE would dare cross him

I bet his dress maker would

Christy, I’ll make the calls—again—but I don’t know how we’re going to stop this train wreck. I sure hope we’ve got a plan B ready to go.

Ahhh– so it wasn’t an actual quote, but somone’s analysis? Well, that’s a horse of a different color altogether.

/agrees, that feels quite a bit better then some “analysis”

OT with some good news. There is an excellent piece on Pam Spaulding in today’s Raleigh “News & Observer”. (It’s essentially the state newspaper.) The article is on the front page of the Lifestyle section and takes up most of the page.

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1133055.html

I love the covergence of the timing of the article’s being printed with the ongoing discussions of the life of Jesse Helms. There’s so much for us to do but this article shows that progress is being made.

btw, Ari Melber has a piece in The Nation on the Obama campaign’s response to pressure from supporters on FISA — it’s worth a read.

you mean his non-response?

On Josh’s site in the news corner is this:

The New York Times reports that the planning for the Democratic Convention has gone over-budget, is behind schedule, and has failed to meet its fundraising benchmarks. Convention organizers may have to scale back some of their original ambitious goals.

Not sure how this squares with the announcement that his speech is going to be in Mile-High stadium (yah, I know it has a corp. name now but I won’t go there)

Did everyone have a decent weekend? It rained like crazy here most of the time…

and has failed to meet its fundraising benchmarks. Convention organizers may have to scale back some of their original ambitious goals.

he gets on board with fisa and I BET he meets those benchmarks, I BET

That’s great — I adore Pam. So glad to see her getting some well-deserved recognition. Thanks for the heads up!

mine was very nice, stayed at home for a change, had plenty of tennis and gym

off today too

oooh, excellent. How nations are born…or re-born.

Slow weekend. DIdn’t want to celebrate the 4th—nothing to celebrate.

Christy—are you and the gang going to Austin? I don’t see any of you speaking this year. I can’t decided whether or not to go and waffling is not my usual mode.

I think I am going to make that point when I call the senator today and tomorrow, that I was as FORMER contributer and will NEVER contribute to him again unless he reverses this BIZARRE position he is taking

bing

good article.

It would be better if the 20K activists really had been able to push him. He’s feeling more like an immovable object every day :(

It’s fairly hot here in So Ca, but we were camping at the beach and it was perfectly beautiful and as a side FDL benefit, when I shared with the Lake where we camped — Oxnard — I found that that is where Dearie lives and we planned to get together the next time I get up there.
Nice to get to know pups better.
Thanks for asking. :)

I’m not going — with Mr. ReddHedd’s parents being so ill, I didn’t think it wise to schedule anything during July. His mom just got discharged from the hospital to medical rehab, but his father is doing worse — still in ICU. We may be flying back and forth to Phoenix quite a bit over the next few weeks as a result.

I was asked to do a couple of things, and had to turn them down, which is a bummer. But it didn’t seem prudent to have to cancel on folks at the last minute (like I had to do for the media conference in Minneapolis for the same reason earlier this summer…)

(((ReddHedds)))
so sorry to hear the news isn’t better for your FIL

So sorry about the in-laws. TRying to do parent care from across the country is extremely stressful. Been there. I hope there is some kind of support system for them and for you and Mr. Redd in Phoenix. Couldn’t have dealt with my mom’s fall last Nov. without the friends she had and even the reich wing cousins who did help out.

His brother is out there now, but they have to go back home at the end of the week next week. And what we’ll do from there is still up in the air, hence my need to keep options open at the moment. It’s really been exhausting having both of them in the ICU at the same time at the end of June. I’m really glad his mom is making so much progress — she’s doing wonderfully considering her health issues. But his dad is not doing so well, and I fear he may never make it out of the hospital. We all know this is a very real possibility, but that doesn’t make it any easier, ya know?

{{{Christy and Mr. ReddHedd and your family}}} being supportive in stressful medical times is wearying for everyone. You take good care of your family, Christy, and yourself. We’re carin’ for you!

Sending prayers your way.

No, it isn’t easy no matter what happens. We have long since passed the days of extended families being close by and it does make a difference. Wishing you some peace and comfort as you deal with it all.

I guess I can take some solace in the thousands who have joined the group at Obama’s website to try to prevent immunity, but I still have a very bad sense of foreboding. I truly feel that if retroactive immunity is signed into law, our Constitution will take a hit from which it may not be able to recover. Am I being overly dramatic about this being a vote of historic significance?

Busy, productive - I made bread and butter pickles, planted some beans, broccoli and kale in the garden, did some sewing.

Thanks for asking about our weekends — was thinking about you yesterday PM re your FIL with some hope.

One of my mother’s neighbors (another widow) came to visit. Lib’s 86 and has had very serious heart surgery. She was in ICU for a long time and then was discharged to medical rehab for two more months.

But, long story short, she looks wonderful and is doing very well. Wouldn’t have guessed this outcome when she was in the hospital. She, like your FIL, did have lots of people encouraging her that she would get better.

You and your entire family have lots of us hoping and praying for his full recovery and for your MIL.

My calls are done. Brown will support Feingold, Voinovitch won’t. Both offices report lots of calls. Sent my fax to Obama as well.

Boxturtle (So this is what pi$$ing up a rope feels like)

It’s good to hear your MIL is improving. I recently was dealing with my mother appearing to be near the end, even with a call from the doctor saying it was only a matter of hours, but she pulled through and is now home, looking forward to a family visit with my kids later this summer. Warmest wishes for improvement with your FIL, also.

Where’d everybody go?

I’m off to work. I’m grateful to be able to make some money today.
I’m grateful that my son is home and safe.
I’m grateful that there are still folks who believe in working to call our government to accountability.
Keep your chins up and find something to smile about.
Where there is life, there is hope.

My letter to Dianne Feinstein:

Dear Senator Feinstein,

I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July celebrating our nation’s birth and the Declaration of Independence, which details all the ways the British Crown was trampling on the rights of citizens, and even details that these citizens implored the legislature to do something to correct the problem, but were ignored.

It seems we are facing a similar situation today: We have a president who is trampling on our rights and freedoms, invading our private spaces, holding prisoners without charge, torturing, and now wants to listen to, or read, every last message we send, together with being allowed to build suspicion lists and accumulate database information without rollback, and carry on without so much as a hint of a warrant from any court, for periods from 7 to 60 days.

It also seems that too many Democrats, yourself included, seem inclined to vote for this awful 4th amendment destruction.

On top of all that, Title I of this bill seems to be preparing the necessary dehumanizations and legal justifications for the next war of choice. Is it going to be Iran? Is that why WMD are being redefined in a way that will include IEDs and just about any terrorists, insurgents, wars of liberation, or rebellions, to be Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Agents of a Foreign Power?

Are you promoting, and voting for, a casus belli to go to war with Iran, Dianne?

If you are not, you should explain, preferably on national TV, and definitely in the Senate, why Section 110 of Title I of this bill defines any explosive, incendiary or poison gas weapon that can cause a mass casualty incident as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. An MCI need not be any bigger than a large traffic accident — a far cry from the Geneva Convention definition as a weapon that causes massive indiscriminant military and civilian casualties or a weapon of annihilation.

You should not vote for this bill at all. We do not need a green light for warrantless searches of anybody and everybody, looked at only after a week has passed by a court, with no provision for rolling back all the accumulated AI and data mining data.

You should vote to get rid of telecom immunity (Dodd/Feingold amendment).

You and your fellow Democrats (you are still a Democrat, right?) should explain to the American people why you want to pretend that every suicide bombing is a mushroom cloud — before you start the next war, not after. This is the most irresponsible behavior possible, and my blood is boiling that you are supporting it.

Our Constitution has already taken a fatal hit. What the horrific bill slapped together by Democraps does is codify the hit into permanent law. They even set an expiration date specifically to coincide with the NEXT general election so that it will not change because no one will want to appear “weak on terra”. So, we will go through all the crap again about how important it is for Big Brother to spy on us all to keep us alive and everyone will cave and extend the bill again.

When cahtting this up with folks over the holiday - the usual response was there are more important issues: Iraq, healthcare, economy etc.

It really really bugs me that Obama’s pulling the old shop worn run to the middle strategy. With the total disgust with the way things are right now, it seems unnecessary and probably counterproductive.

It really really bugs me that Obama’s pulling the old shop worn run to the middle strategy. With the total disgust with the way things are right now, it seems unnecessary and probably counterproductive.

Obama’s new way of doing things in Washington is the old way of doing things with the single change that he’s the one doing them.

Sen. Dodd has a post up at HuffPo on FISA. Updated the post above…

your tool link added to my blog, Christy. Spreadin’ the synergy….

Somebody else suggested that this was part of a deal with the leadersheep. The leadersheep would pressure Hillary to drop, in return Obama would back off on FISA. That makes sense to me.

Boxturtle (The leadersheep does NOT want the public to know who knew what & when)

Christy and Firedogs -

spent the week end campaigning with local congr. candidate - incl: parade (huge turnout due to gas $$) and 5 local festivals.

everyone we talked with started with the same 2 issues: Iraq and energy independence in that order.

although I am fighting tooth and claw with all here on the FISA issue, it was heartening to know red state Texans want us the hell out of Iraq yesterday and none of them complained about the price of gas - all emphasized the need for energy independence and at least 70% of them seemed to recognize fossil fuels were not the answer

ps - had some fun doing the Mike Stark thing and following the local congressweasel around wanting to ask about his record on veterans benefits - bwaahaahaaa - he cancelled his ’sayin a few words’ to the biggest of the 5 crowds - per his campaign “due to time constraints”

I know preview is my friend, but something’s hinky at my end this morning - so just gonna cross my fingers and hit ’submit’

Christy:

I’m having trouble understanding some of the Feingold fact sheet you linked to. For example:

“Under the bill, surveillance can begin after the FISA Court authorizes the program, or if the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence certify that they don’t have time to get a court order and that intelligence important to national security may be lost or not timely acquired. This broad ‘exigency’ exception could very well swallow the rule, and undermine any presumption of prior judicial approval.”

What happened to the 72 hour window of surveillance the govt. was allowed prior to getting a warrant?

Also this:

“The bill prohibits intentionally targeting a person outside the U.S. without an individualized court order if “the purpose” is really to target someone reasonably believed to be in the U.S., and it requires the executive branch to establish guidelines for implementing this requirement. But the guidelines are not subject to judicial review, and the bill does not include provisions approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee bill that would require the government to obtain a court order whenever a significant purpose of the surveillance is to acquire the communications of an American. This important “significant purpose” language had the support of 38 Senators when offered on the Senate floor, and was included in the House bill.”

Do you, or do you not, need a warrant to wiretap an American citizen - in or outside the U.S.?

Christy, I appreciate the time and energy you guys put into creating handy dandy tools to make it easier to call our Reps. and Senators. The tools are fine for those who believe that calling the Senator’s or Rep’s offices are the most effective way of getting your point across. However, I do not believe that is the most effective way, especially for my Rep and my Senators, since they are all Rethugs as is most of their office staff. I do not trust Rethug staff to be able to articulate my position to their bosses adequately, and at best, I think a call would end up with me as a slash on a count within a column labeled “For” or “Against.” I believe if I send a fax (preferably, because I believe they are kept on file, with some to be sent answers. I’ve received a few. One from my rep, one from Sen. Kyl, and one from Libby Dole, to name the few I can think of off the top of my head.) or even an e-mail (although I think those are too easily just deleted without actually being printed out or read), it stands a much better chance of my actual points getting at least heard. Sorry, but I thought you might just have the techs discuss if there is a better way to dispense faxes than I have found so far. I usually determine a group who I want to send the faxes to and then use microsoft fax software to broadcast the faxes.

rec’s
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/7/12251/78273

I believe that the House bill would extend wiretapping without an order up to a week. But that’s only part of the problem. All wiretaps could be considered exigent and so begun before FISA court approval. Add into this that if the FISC did not approve such an order the government could continue the wiretap throughout the appeals process and keep all the material so acquired even if the appeal went against it.

As for the second part, this is a prohibition on reverse targeting, wiretapping an American by saying you are really wanting to wiretap someone abroad whom that American is in contact with. The problem here is in the guidelines. Since there is no outside, independent review, it boils down to the government asking itself if it was really targeting a non-American and answering itself wink, wink that, of course, it wasn’t.

Related to this last are basket warrants and/or the government’s ability to hoover up a lot of communications including those involving Americans but arguing that Americans weren’t its targets but holding on to the information anyway.

That should read:

Since there is no outside, independent review, it boils down to the government asking itself if it was really targeting a non-American and answering itself wink, wink that, of course, it was.

Thanks, Hugh — that sums it up neatly. Lina, if you have more questions, EFF has some more background on some of those issues here. Including a link to this from Slate which is a useful layout of some of the myths involved. This from Ryan Singel at Wired is also great on the Judge Walker decision.

WELL, Senator Salazar’s office messaging system is down. The menu can be heard, but pressing the numbers does not work.
After a long holiday weekend with family, it is only prudent to conclude that Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) wants NOTHING to do with his constituents, whatsoever and would prefer that we leave him the hell alone to take care of business HIS WAY in the United States Senate.

I have no representation in WashDC.

Digg obama group response:
http://digg.com/political_opin.....ma_on_myBO

And, of course, digg CHS!
http://digg.com/politics/FISA_.....ule_Of_Law

The League of Women Voters has joined the fight!!!

They sent out this action alert early this morning:

ACTION ALERT: Stand Up and Fight for Civil Liberties
Before Congress left for the Independence Day recess, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a bill that would seriously threaten the civil liberties of all Americans. The Senate is poised to act on this same bill when it returns from recess on July 8.

We need you to encourage your Senators to keep protecting civil liberties by opposing legislation that would authorize warrantless wiretapping of American citizens without judicial protections and would grant immunity to telecommunications companies for possible illegal eavesdropping!

Take action today to ask your Senators to protect civil liberties!

Tell your Senators to oppose H.R. 6304 and limit the ability of government agencies to obtain information about Americans without the appropriate judicial constraints. While the intelligence community needs the authority to track terrorists abroad, this can and should be done without threatening our civil liberties.

TAKE ACTION
1. Contact your Senator now, by phone or by email, and tell them to stand up for civil liberties and vote against H.R. 6304. Tell them that warrantless wiretapping of Americans is unacceptable in a democracy. Remind your Senators that retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies is wrong.

2. Send this alert to other concerned citizens - your grassroots network, your friends and coworkers. Encourage them to contact their Senators today!

BACKGROUND
Learn more about what the League has done to protect civil liberties.
Sign up to receive Action Alerts directly by email. Don’t miss an opportunity to take action! It’s easy to sign up and the League will never share your email with others: http://takeaction.lwv.org/lwv/mlm/signup/.
For additional information, please contact LWVUS Grassroots Lobbyist Christina Vamvas at lobbying@lwv.org.

League of Women Voters
1730 M Street, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036
202-429-1965 www.lwv.org lwv@lwv.org

This just dawned on me…I can’t imagine that Sens. Dole and Burr being in Washington to vote tomorrow. They will in all likelihood be in Raleigh, NC attending Sen. Helms’ funeral at 2pm.

Reddit this post too!

I’ve posted a Dkos diary with a timeline of Obama’s statements regarding FISA and related events, including links to those statements: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....466/547691

Christy,
Thanks again for keeping this issue up front!

Now even the League of Women Voters is on board!

Subject: ACTION ALERT: Stand Up and Fight for Civil Liberties
To: “Robert Schacht”
From: “League of Women Voters of the United States”
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:22:40 -0400 (EDT)

ACTION ALERT: Stand Up and Fight for Civil Liberties

Before Congress left for the Independence Day recess, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a bill that would seriously threaten the civil liberties of all Americans. The Senate is poised to act on this same bill when it returns from recess on July 8.

We need you to encourage your Senators to keep protecting civil liberties by opposing legislation that would authorize warrantless wiretapping of American citizens without judicial protections and would grant immunity to telecommunications companies for possible illegal eavesdropping!

Take action today to ask your Senators to protect civil liberties!

Tell your Senators to oppose H.R. 6304 and limit the ability of government agencies to obtain information about Americans without the appropriate judicial constraints. While the intelligence community needs the authority to track terrorists abroad, this can and should be done without threatening our civil liberties.

TAKE ACTION

1. Contact your Senator now, by phone or by email, and tell them to stand up for civil liberties and vote against H.R. 6304. Tell them that warrantless wiretapping of Americans is unacceptable in a democracy. Remind your Senators that retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies is wrong.

2. Send this alert to other concerned citizens - your grassroots network, your friends and coworkers. Encourage them to contact their Senators today!

The email then gives some “Background”.

Bob in HI

Recommended! ANd dugg and reditted everything I could possibly find on this issue!

ATTACK!

Bravo!

Hey ES, thanks. I hope all those links will be helpful to people who are following up on this stuff.

Called Murray and Cantwell in Washington State.

Hey Christy,

I am arriving late to the thread…Sent you an email with a graphic. You are welcome to share it.

First-time poster here (though a longtime lurker) … RBG kindly registered me manually, since my repeated tries to do so never resulted in a confirmation e-mail.

Anyhow, I’m in northern Virginia and this a.m. sent the following e-mail to my 2 senators:

Please work to defeat H.R. 6304, the FISA rewrite now before the Senate. Not only does its retroactive immunity/amnesty provision for telecoms establish a separate rule of law for the politically well connected (as opposed to the everyday person, who must bear the full consequence of breaking a law), it effectively puts in the hands of the Executive Branch powers that properly belong to the Judicial Branch — by depriving courts of the ability to adjudge the legality of future Executive Branch actions.

Having no bill at this point is better than passing this bill. There is no pressing need to rewrite FISA at this point, and certainly no reason to trust that the Bush administration will abide by anything the Congress passes. If there’s no rewrite of FISA for a few months, the original FISA — which since its inception has been the exclusive means for national security surveillance of international communications — remains in force, including its 72-hour grace period for conducting surveillance until the FISA court decides on whether to issue a warrant, which it has done for all but a handful of requests over the years (something like 5 warrant requests rejected versus more than 18,000 approved since FISA’s inception).

FISA has been amended numerous times over the years to keep up with changes in communications technology. In every other respect, the act has been good enough for every law-abiding administration since 1978 — clearly the current administration isn’t in that group, and didn’t even use the intel they had (and were getting, without court warrants, before the 9/11 attacks) to prevent or properly respond to those attacks.

I urge you to work like a bulldog to defeat this bill, which would make the 4th Amendment a truly dead letter. Doing so will demonstrate that you take seriously your oath of office, to defend the U.S. Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic.

Also followed up with phone calls to their offices, and at least this time Sen. Warner’s person sounded professional (and not gruff, dismissive, or sarcastic — as in previous calls) and listened to my whole spiel. Sen. Webb’s person was also professional — and better yet, sounded interested in what I had to say.

Thanks for the comment Mark and for the work on contacting your Senators.

Of course, you do realize that now that you’ve de-lurked, there’s no going back so enjoy yourself and join the festivities!

Excellent letter, Mark.

And dakine has now informed you of the Bolden Rule, once you’re wet you must regularly visit the pool, er, lake.

Welcome aboard! Pleased to meet yer!!!

I’d call all 100 senators, but my area code always gives away the game!

Seriously, I’m lookin’ forward to the festivities here.

I’m not shy and will do my best to live up to the Bolden Rule … though it’ll usually be late at night! (The only reason I can do any posting today — or phoning of senators, for that matter — is it’s a slow week at the office.)

Just an FYI:

I just printed off the League of Women Voters Release and distributed copies to my neighbors. With the League being a nonpartisan political organization, I knew I would have an “in” with my conservative neighbors…

Still no position from Senator Pryor.. his office needs more calls.. They hadn’t even heard of the Dodd Feingold amendment.

Good on ya, all around, mark!!

;~D

From the Raleigh News & Observer’s blog Under the Dome:

McConnell to attend Helms funeral
Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on July 7, 2008 - 2:52pm.

Tags: Elaine Chao | Jesse Helms | Mitch McConnell | Under the Dome

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will attend Tuesday’s funeral for former Sen. Jesse Helms in Raleigh. At the family’s request, he also will deliver the eulogy.

McConnell joined the Senate in 1984, representing the nation’s other major tobacco-producing state of Kentucky.

In his statement Friday on Helms’ passing, McConnell said:

“Today we lost a senator whose stature in Congress had few equals. Senator Jesse Helms was a leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in. Jesse and Dot were great friends to Elaine and me. We mourn his passing and extend our deepest sympathies to the extended Helms family.”

McConnell is married to Elaine Chao, the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Comments (0)

I just received this from Diane Feinstein’s office: I write this in response to your communication indicating your concerns on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) now before the Senate. This bill has passed the House of Representatives.

This legislation contains multiple sections, including one that deals specifically with liability for telecommunications companies. However, the primary intent to this new bill is to modernize our intelligence gathering capacity. The technology and communications industries have seen vast changes in the past thirty years since FISA was first written in 1978. This has changed the way surveillance is conducted, and the original law cannot adequately address these procedures. This is precisely why FISA needs to be modernized.

It is important to understand the consequences if the Senate does not pass this bill. We would either have to extend the temporary surveillance bill passed last August - which should not happen - or allow surveillance on certain foreign targets to expire which would lay the Nation bare and decrease our ability to identify and protect against terrorist threats. Neither of these options is acceptable.

I strongly believe that this bill is substantially better than the version the Senate passed in February 2008, which I opposed. It is also a major improvement from the Protect America Act that passed in August 2007, which had few privacy protections and was never intended to be a permanent solution. This bill:

Includes provisions I authored that make clear that FISA is the exclusive (or only) authority for conducting surveillance inside the United States. This is crucial as it requires that all future Presidents must act only within the law. FISA would be the only legal authority for conducting surveillance on Americans for intelligence purposes, and only legislation that specifically provides wiretapping authority in the future would be an exception to FISA.

Requires the government to obtain a warrant before surveillance can begin. This applies to all Americans - anywhere in the world. The Protect America Act allowed surveillance for up to six months before getting a warrant. This bill ends all warrantless surveillance of U.S. persons. In this sense it is precedent setting.

Bans reverse targeting, which was a concern under the Protect America Act. Reverse targeting would allow the government to collect the contents of telephone calls and e-mails of an American by conducting surveillance on the people with whom they communicate. This is prohibited in this bill.

Requires that the government implement procedures approved by the Court for minimization. If an American’s communication is incidentally caught up in electronic surveillance while the Government is targeting someone else, minimization protects that person’s private information. This has been a hallmark of FISA for 30 years, but court review and approval of minimization procedures was not included in the Protect America Act. It is here.

Requires the government to receive a warrant to conduct surveillance on an American outside of the United States. This means that Americans’ privacy rights are protected everywhere around the world. A court warrant has never been required outside the United States before; this would be the strongest protection ever.

I understand your concern regarding Title II of this bill, which creates a process that may result in immunity for telecommunications companies that are alleged to have provided assistance to the Government. I agree that this is not the best approach to the current legal challenges to these companies. Earlier this year, I authored an amendment that would require court review of the legality of these companies’ alleged actions. Under my proposal, cases against the companies would only be dismissed if the Court found that they acted legally. I continue to believe this is the right approach. I have joined as a co-sponsor on an amendment which accomplishes this, and will vote for it when it is able to come to the floor.

There may be amendments offered to the FISA legislation to strip or modify the telecom immunity provisions. Know that I will support any that I believe improve the current bill.

Bottom line: this FISA legislation, while not perfect, would bring intelligence activities back under U.S. law. It provides significant improvement in oversight and accountability of our intelligence collection programs while still giving the intelligence community the tools needed to keep our Nation safe. And, it provides the strongest privacy protections to U.S. persons in history.

In conclusion, I have served on the Intelligence Committee for seven years and I take the responsibility extremely seriously. If there is no bill, our Nation goes bare in mid-August, unless the Protect America Act, which does not offer, even remotely, the privacy protections for U.S. persons that are included in this bill, is extended. Additionally, the President - any President - cannot enact a program outside of this law in the future.

I hope this helps you understand my concerns. Attached to this letter, you will find my statement on the Senate floor from June 25, 2008.

Christy, when my mom was in a similar situation a few years ago, I was surprised to find that I could get considerable help from the hospice people. I’d always thought their support was for “end of life” issues, but they were great at helping me, the out-of-town relative, coordinate support. It may be worth a try.

Hi, just got off the phone from Harry Reid’s DC office - was prompted to call via an email from DFA.

Harried woman answered after I waited 4 min for someone to take the call, then after I started with “I’m calling to ask Senator Reid to use his power as Senate Majority Leader to pull the FISA “compromise” bill from the floor …” she put me back on hold.

Came back after 2 min; listened to the entire paragraph (I’m calling to ask Senator Reid to use his power as Senate Majority Leader to pull the FISA “compromise” bill from the floor which will ultimately grant retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies who spied on Americans.”)

She said she’d pass it to the Senator - I asked how things were going - she said phones were “Ringing off the hook in Opposing the compromise bill.”

A reminder [i.e., I’ve said it about 1786 times before]:

The issue here is QUANTITY of input to Senators, not QUALITY. It may be personally satisfying to pen an eloquent letter or e-mail, but that particular one counts no more than a few sentences scrawled on a postcard.

The goal is to register NUMBERS of contacts with the Senatorial offices. Someone will be answering the phone and making a tally of in-coming calls. We want the numbers to knock their doors off.

When I worked in a Congressional office, one of my jobs was to compose answers to incoming mail. I was the one who read the stuff on “my” issues — not the Congressman. This is about 40 times as true for a Senatorial office that has to cover an entire state.

So your carefully crafted, intelligent, flawless argument is NOT going to change the Senator’s mind — or even that of his/her Legislative Assistant. They’ve “thought this out” [read: made the political calculation, read DiFi’s bogus memos about how “we on the Intelligence Committee are smarter than you and have read SuperDuperSuper Secret Stuff, so we know”] and decided on a position. The only thing that’s going to change that is an avalanche of correspondence from constituents.

I encourage everyone to

** call, using the wonderful tool provide to us by FDL;

** call your local Senator’s “district office” as well. They’re not going to “catch” you, and it will appear that two calls have come in on this issue;

** forward a link to this diary to friends, relative, co-workers — everyone on your e-mail list, together with a SHORT note asking them to call.

The most important thing you can do is generate as many calls [or faxes, e-mails, etc.] as possible to scare them into believing that there ARE constituents of theirs that DO pay attention and DO care. You [we] may not have a realistic “alternative” candidate to vote for, but we can make noise. They don’t like noise [unless it’s applause].

As someone said above: “to the Bat-phones.”

DiFi = DINO

Saturday Nov. 10, 2007 06:32 EST
Dianne Feinstein — Bush’s key ally in the Senate — to support telecom amnesty

(updated below)

Two months ago, Dianne Feinstein used her position on the Senate Intelligence Committee to enable passage of Bush’s FISA amendments, granting the President vast new warrantless surveillance powers.

Last month, Feinstein used her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ensure confirmation of Bush’s highly controversial judicial nominee Leslie Southwick, by being the only Committee Democrat to vote for the nomination (The Politico: “Sen. Dianne Feinstein had emerged as a linchpin in the controversial nomination”).

This week, Feinstein used her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to enable confirmation of Bush’s Attorney General nominee by ensuring that the frightened Chuck Schumer didn’t have to stand alone (Fox News: “Schumer’s and Feinstein’s support for Mukasey virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation”).

And now, Feinstein is using her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee — simultaneously — to single-handedly ensure fulfillment of Bush’s telecom amnesty demands, as her hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, reports:

Feinstein backs legal immunity for telecom firms in wiretap cases

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that she favors legal immunity for telecommunications companies that allegedly shared millions of customers’ telephone and e-mail messages and records with the government, a position that could lead to the dismissal of numerous lawsuits pending in San Francisco.

In a statement at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering legislation to extend the Bush administration’s electronic surveillance program, Feinstein said the companies should not be “held hostage to costly litigation in what is essentially a complaint about administration activities” . . .

Feinstein, D-Calif., plays a pivotal role on the Judiciary Committee, which has a 10-9 Democratic majority. If she joins committee Republicans in voting next Thursday to protect telecommunications companies from lawsuits for their roles in the surveillance program, the proposal — a top priority of President Bush — will become part of legislation that reaches the Senate floor.

In conclusion, I have served on the Intelligence Committee for seven years and I take the responsibility extremely seriously. If there is no bill, our Nation goes bare in mid-August, unless the Protect America Act, which does not offer, even remotely, the privacy protections for U.S. persons that are included in this bill, is extended. Additionally, the President - any President - cannot enact a program outside of this law in the future

.

(my bold)

Christy,

Is it not a breech of their oath to go around stating our country goes bare in mid August? If she sits on the Intel Committee then she knows better. She’s committing fraud with her constituents. Can she be sued for this fraud? Could we sue anyone making this “go bare” fear statement?

BTW CHSmith family is in the Klynn family thoughts and prayers.

DiFi is a real disappointment. I can only wonder what the underlying truth is about her. Is she somehow complicit in this thing as Jonathon Turly (sp)suggests? Is she just ignorant about the law? Or maybe she just doesn’t care. More likely, I’m the one who just doesn’t get it.

Mauimom, you have NOT wasted effort in repeating this 1700+ times — since as a newly unlurked and Bolden Ruled firepup, I’ll be leaping to the Bat Phone and dialing my senators’ district offices (and passing that recommendation on to the several fellow-staters I’ve e-mailed who’ve already phone their Capitol offices). Good to know several ways to increase their “count”!

Thanks for the posting SonomaRus; I called her office and they said she had no position on the Dodd/Feingold/Leahy amendment AND based on her letter, she will vote against it as -in her mind- it is not better than that she is co=sponsoring which is the Bi