Fix FISA Now

Image credit: National Archives

If I may take a moment to interrupt our collective explorations on the themes of turtle heads and cats in sinks, it's come to my attention that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is trying to draft another amendment to FISA. As the ACLU explains, it's starting to look like nothing more than a continuation of the lamentable surrender of our rights Congress perpetrated on us a couple of months ago. What's worse, it apparently grants retroactive immunity for any illegal activities telecommunications companies may have engaged in to assist the Bush Administration's illegal activity:

Well this gets a big, fat “hell, no” from me. Via e-mail from Liz Rose of the ACLU on the draft Senate version of the FISA bill, which is not yet publicly available and not being widely shared for review either:

…the Senate bill (Committee draft) does contain immunity/amnesty for the telecom companies…Including retroactive immunity for anything they’ve done wrong in cooperating in illegal domestic spying for the past six years.

If they didn’t do anything wrong, why should they get retroactive immunity? And, worse, if it is likely that they broke laws, why on earth would the Senate just hand lawbreakers retroactive immunity before fact-finding on potential criminal conduct was even completed?!? That makes no logical or ethical sense.

Not Ready To Make Nice

Christy Hardin Smith at FDL has the details. If your Senator is on this list, please call or fax them today. If you're not sure what to say or write, there are talking points galore in those links above. Here is the list, courtesy of FDL and Taylor Marsh:

*Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman — (202) 224-6472
*Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) — (202) 224-3841
*Sen. John Warner (R-VA) — (202) 224-2023
*Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) — (202) 224-5244
*Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) — (202) 224-4224
*Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) — (202) 224-5623
*Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) — (202) 224-4654
*Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) — (202) 224-5344
*Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) — (202) 224-5274

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) — (202) 224-3154
Sen. Kitt Bond (R-MO), Vice-Chairman — (202) 224-5721
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) — (202) 224-3521
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) — (202) 224-5251
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) — (202) 224-5323
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — (202) 224-2921


The bolded Senators are the ones that need concentrated calls — the ones which are not highlighted are already on the right track or, unfortunately, likely hopeless on this issue. If Feingold or Whitehouse are your Senators, do take a little time to call and give them some thanks for standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law, but the bolded names need the most push in the next few days. Might as well make the calls count as much as possible. You can reach them toll free as well thanks to these numbers that katymine found:


1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437

The preceding was lifted lock, stock, and HTML from Firedoglake. I'm sure they won't mind.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has written a terrific column about professional moron Joe Klein's support of the "Protect America Act" of August:

Thus, in two short paragraphs, Klein manages to say: "I am absolutely opposed to X, and I vigorously support this bill which grants X." He's obviously writing about his support for a bill that he has not read and that he has not begun to comprehend. And yet he repeatedly writes articles on FISA for Time, the largest weekly newsmagazine in America. That isn't anything more nefarious or complex than just garden-variety sloth and ignorance.

Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty

Stupidity and sloth may explain why Joe Klein writes such things, but I don't think it explains why he's writing those things for Time. That part of the story might just be best explainable by something nefarious. I can't believe the folks who run that magazine are that stupid.