Let Congress Know We're Watching!

In February, the House of Representatives heard the demands of voters like you and stood up to Bush administration demands for expanded surveillance powers and immunity for big phone companies that broke the law. But now, House leadership is on the precipice of caving in and handing over everything the President has demanded.

Your representative must hear that there will be a major backlash if he or she caves on FISA. Let your representative know you're watching.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Late Friday night, the ACLU caught wind of a dangerous backroom deal brewing. The “deal” would rush a House vote that would push through a dangerous sellout on government spying powers, possibly in the next few days.

We need you to immediately contact your member of Congress. Let your representative know you’re watching and expect him or her to stand firm. That means no immunity for lawbreaking phone and internet companies, and no spying on Americans without a warrant.

Please also call House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at (202) 225-3130, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at (202) 225-0100 or (202) 225-4965. They need to know that as leaders in the House, voters expect them to:

Reject any compromise with telecom immunity. Lawsuits may be our only chance to expose the truth about illegal spying activities by telecom companies and the Bush administration.

Reject Bush’s election year fear-mongering. A bill with real judicial review and no telecom immunity should be the floor, not the ceiling of negotiations.

Time to man the barricades -- and the phones -- again!

http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew05022008.html

Thanks for finding this article -- I'd read it the other day and couldn't get back to it.

This really sounds like the run-up to war, to me, with many Dems complicit, unfortunately. Pray I'm wrong.

Just curious, since you yourself have said -- quite recently -- that Lieberman is good on everything except the war. Like to chime in?

I don't CARE how liberal Joe is on "everything else". It's all dwarfed by the war. Our economy is tanking in large part due to the war, and we are going to hell in a hand basket because of the war -- not to mention constitutional issues, torture, etc. etc.

So Joe votes the right (left) way on school lunches or some such, this means exactly diddly.

You can prove that Joe's a "liberal except for the war" all you want -- that's like proving that Jack the Ripper wasn't such a bad egg afterall cuz he was nice to little old ladies, it was "only" the youngish ones he mutilated.

War-related deficit spending = issuance of excess Treasury notes and bills. Deficit spending financed this way has a contemporary effect on interest rates and the present day cost of money. Our military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are not the only sources of excess deficit spending, but they do have measurable, immediate-term impact on our economy.

Geopolitical instability effected by these occupations also raises the cost of commodities, particularly petroleum.

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

Bush steered us into a ditch, but Joe helped. So screw him and his "liberal" bona fides. Not to mention the fact that he is actively campaigning to attack Iran. He gets no slack from me.

I can understand Reid keeping him in place now, because of the majority problem (not that Reid has done much with that power, but he's done some). After November, it's time to short-sheet Joe.

What is astonishing to me is that McCain is the "small government conservative" and Obama is the "big government liberal". Orwell rules.

From his involvement to Iran-Contra to the present, Ledeen has labored for war unceasingly, yet is still accorded a seat at civilized tables. It would be wonderful if his role in the "present danger" could be fully exposed -- unfortunately we'll probably have to wait for the historians of the future.

He is smart, he is affable, he always sounds so "reasonable", all the while the drip drip drip of the poison goes on.

Israel Ambassador on Fox this morning saying the Iran will have nukes BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR and Iran is a threat to civilization as we know it. AND Iran is preparing the next Holocaust.

The "before the end of the year" thing is obviously code for "before Bush/Cheney leave office."

Bush/Cheney have nothing to lose by bombing Iran -- they don't care how unpopular they are and they don't really care if other Repubicans lose elected seats. Not to mention they don't care about the deaths of thousands of people and the destruction of the American economy. History will be their judge -- approvingly, they think -- and their families and friends won't be hurt. So, not big deal for them AND they're saving civilization! One bomb at a time.

Is there anything that can be done to stop them at this point? Seriously?

Now that Obama is looking like the Dem nominee, the need for a strike NOW is obvious. McCain and even Hillary might be willing to bomb Iran, but Obama? Probably not. He wants to TALK to Iran. We must bomb now, before it is too late.

An obvious point, but one I wasn't thinking of.