Feingold on FISA

6 Comments

1. 

   NancyImpeachBush on July 1, 2008 at 12:05 pm

   One man that continues to fight for our constitutional rights, Everyone should be outraged. Please folks, call your senators today and every day until this comes up for the vote next week.

2. 

   idredit on July 1, 2008 at 12:18 pm

   that’s Leadership.

   Where’s Barack Obama?

   Playing it safe so he can get a four year lease on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C.

3. 

   infidelpig on July 1, 2008 at 5:13 pm

   good catch bro, thanks

   I have been sending the emails, and voicing opinion.

   we need more of this type of leadership on the hill, in ALL positions.

   peace

   • 

     dada on July 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm

     don’t stop now!  :{)

     peace bro…helluva concept

4. 

   dada on July 1, 2008 at 5:28 pm

   additional input can be had by supporting senator dodd and feingolds amendment to strip immunity from the bill. from friends of chris dodd’s office:

   For the last nine months, when retroactive immunity has surfaced, we have been able to delay its passage.

   We were able to stop it in December because I had an army behind me.

   Two months later, it stalled again — this time in the House.

   And last week, we managed to delay action one last time.

   But when the Senate returns from the July 4th recess, we will vote on FISA legislation that includes retroactive immunity for telecom companies that may have illegally helped the Bush administration spy without warrant.

   It’s a bad bill and we need action to stop retroactive immunity from becoming law.

   I’ve introduced an amendment with Senator Feingold to strip immunity from the bill.  

   This amendment has the support of Majority Leader Reid and Senator Obama, but it needs 51 votes to pass.

   Will you sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of our amendment?

   Sign on now!

   Together, we can prevent this assault on our Constitution.

   Let’s do it one more time.  With your help, we can stop the further erosion of the rule of law.

   We’ll be in touch soon.

   Chris Dodd

   also, you can sign up and become involved with russ feingold’s ongoing work to defend the constitution and get more progressives elected to congress at Progressive Patriots.

   both sites are recommended.

   • 

     idredit on July 3, 2008 at 9:47 am

     Memo to Legislators:

     Federal Judge rejects Bush’s View on Wiretaps

     WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law.The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

     The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or other entities was a “state secret” and citing the president’s constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency’s program.

     But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court.

     “Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.”

     Judge Walker’s voice carries extra weight because all the lawsuits involving telephone companies that took part in the N.S.A. program have been consolidated and are being heard in his court.