from the diaries, with minor edits. –Jérôme

[I’m cross-posting this from a diary by smintheus at DailyKos.  It has risen to #1 there.  It seems that our President may have committed a felony, and confessed on national radio.  So smintheus is asking for a pan-blog protest to make Congress act.  Sounds like a good thing to try to me.  And I know with the activist spirit here at Booman, some of us might help.  Not to interfere with the 12 days of justice.  Just more e-mail to write.  More cross-posting to do.  More faxes.  More calls.  And x-mas shopping, too.]

This cannot stand. In ordering the NSA to spy secretly on America, George Bush has overturned United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18, which prohibits domestic spying by NSA; violated the federal act which created the FISA court to oversee covert domestic investigations; and trampled upon the Fourth Amendment guarantee against warrantless searches. It cannot stand for a day, much less a month while Congress is in recess.

Friday, when Sen. Specter said he’d make investigating the allegations a top priority in January, it was barely possible to pretend that they might be false. But by Saturday’s radio address, when Bush defended his policy and insisted it would continue, we had entered a full-blown constitutional crisis. George Bush would love for Congress to back down from a fight next week, to go home grumbling “Wait until next year.”

Operation Flabbergasted We cannot let that happen. We have to ensure that by Monday, all hell has broken loose in D.C.

Every Senator needs to know there’ll be jolly hell back home if they don’t demand Bush stop it now. The MSM needs to be discussing the `constitutional crisis.’ There has to be a plan immediately to make this happen. I’ve got one.

We know that domestic spying by the NSA is Orwellian. We don’t need to wait for panels of experts to declare the obvious, that Bush’s policies violate the Fourth Amendment in the most fundamental way. Further, it is clear that the White House is panicking over the implications of this leak, very much as the Reagan White House panicked when the Iran Contra story broke and they thought impeachment might be looming. Bush’s radio address manages to be both offensive and defensive at one and the same time (it reminds one of the cornered Richard Nixon).

We also know that significant numbers of Senators and journalists are utterly fed up with the Bush administration’s record on civil liberties. Some are positively spoiling for a fight (if you don’t believe me, check out the grilling Terry Moran gave Alberto Gonzales about torture on Nightline Thursday). So we also know that it’s entirely possible for us, at this moment, to drive this issue home once and for all, if we can mount a worthy campaign.

The only campaign that would be worthy of this issue, in my opinion, will be one that produces the biggest fire-storm that Washington has ever seen. If we do not attempt to take back our country now, then when?

We need both coherent goals and effective methods to make this happen. There is little time to lose. Fortunately, as we’ve shown in the past with internet-based campaigns, things can be organized extremely quickly if people are willing to do their part.

GOALS

As far as possible, our declared goals must be as clear, straightforward, plausible, and uncontroversial as possible. I have no illusions that it will be easy to achieve these goals; George Bush and friends stonewall almost as a matter of course. But our declared goals must throw into stark relief the illegality of the administration’s policies and the nature of the constitutional crisis.

I propose that we ask each U.S. Senator to demand that President Bush:

  •    immediately reverse this directive on domestic spying
  •    promise to desist in the future from warrantless spying on Americans
  •    cooperate fully with a bi-partisan investigation of the policy
  •    release the texts of the directives along with the legal opinions they were based on
  •    identify to the Senate all residents of the US who were targets of unconstitutional spying

METHODS

The most important things that need to be done are to

  •    build an ad hoc network to promote this campaign, to include blogs, activist groups, grassroot organizations, local and state Democratic Party organizations, and some media darlings like Randi Rhodes
  •    contact Senators to make the above requests
  •    contact journalists covering Washington to alert them to the campaign and to request full coverage of the constitutional crisis that the President has provoked

I’ve arranged them in the order that they need to be addressed. We will want to have the main outlines of a network in place by late Sunday, if we are to get the word out far and wide on Monday to inundate Senate offices with calls, emails, and faxes demanding action.  We can wait until tomorrow to begin advancing along the second and third prongs of this strategy. I’ll post another diary tomorrow on those subjects, once this one gets off the ground.

I’m dedicating this first diary to the issue of developing an internet-based network of support for this campaign. When I conceived my “Awaken the Mainstream Media” campaign back in May, it took me days of writing emails and phoning around to create such a network. It worked, but it took more time than we have in this instance. If Kosmopolitans want to see this work, then they’ll have to step forward to volunteer to post about this on their own blogs, and to help to contact others who can be roped in to support us.

So who do you know? Who do you read, or listen to? Whose email lists are you on? What local mailing/phone lists can you enlist to get the word out to put pressure on the Senate? What part of this can you help to organize by Sunday?

Seem like a lot of work? It is. Now keep your eye on the prize.

Update [2005-12-18 10:24:52 by BostonJoe]: Went to bed after the bars closed last night. (No, I wasn’t in the bars, I just slept after they closed.) Woke up this morning to the feeling that the Booman Tribune is activist central for the progressive blogosphere. I’m biased. But I believe that. As is frequently been the case in the last couple of months, I am busier than I would like to be, even on this Sunday morning. I don’t have time to comment individually, as I normally would. So, I’ll do it in this update. Thanks for front-paging this Jerome. Whenever I see your name near the top of things, I always think “serious and credible,” something I don’t always think about my own writing. If I didn’t make it clear in my introduction, this idea is not mine. It belongs to smintheus from dKos. He wrote the entire thing except the introductory comment. My role in this protest was essentially as a cutter and a paster. I don’t think they had that job description back when the founders were meeting in Philadelphian and all that jazz. But I’m glad that role exists now. The Internets are truly powerful. And this has the potential to be big. Maybe the rest of the world will sleep through Bush’s confession. But I’ll be damned if that is going to happen unless we try to do something about it. And by your response last night/this morning, I know that we can make a good effort to have an impact. Right here from the little pond. This is truly the New England town hall. The Cicely, Alaska church meeting room. We have a voice. A collective ribbit. And we will make them listen, damnit. Or get froggy voices trying. Some other notes. Super is right — don’t stop the 12 days of justice. Just do a little more. CabinGirl is right. These issues all play together. Throw in some stuff about Alito not being an adequate check on Bush’s abuse of executive power. All of you are right, in your outrage. Feingold said it on national TV yesterday (though I still have not seen the link). Bush is not a King. This is not how our system of Government works. Good luck. And try to manage you Flabbergastedness effictively. And don’t forget to get by the pasta bar this Sunday, to celebrate the noodly greatness of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (Some people end raving speeches with God Bless America — but secular me, you know, I just want you to eat much pasta and for his Noodly Appendage to Touch you All).