but if these democrats cant stand up to this president at this point in time, could they actually stand up to Bin Laden? This is discusting.

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Protect America Act of 2007 (S. 1927). I appreciate hearing from you, and I welcome the chance to respond.

On August 1, 2007, I was faced with a stark reality: the Director of National Intelligence sent a letter warning the Senate of the heightened threat of international terrorism, and urging us to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before the August recess “to ensure that we do not have critical gaps in our ability to provide warnings of threats to the country”. The call to quickly revise FISA in order to reflect developments in telecommunications technology was echoed by four Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. I chose to heed these urgent warnings.

I voted for two measures to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I preferred the legislation offered by Senators Rockefeller and Levin; however, it failed to gather the 60 votes needed to pass. I also voted for the Bond-McConnell version, which did receive enough votes to pass. Corresponding legislation was later approved by the House of Representatives, and the President quickly signed the bill into law.

It is important to recognize that this legislation is a temporary fix to provide our intelligence community with the most immediate tools needed to protect our country – it will be in place for only six months, and it cannot be renewed before it is thoroughly reviewed and authorized by Congress. This gives us six months to create a more acceptable permanent intelligence collection process that that allows us to effectively monitor terrorist communications overseas while also protecting the privacy of law-abiding American citizens. I can assure you I will be one of the Senators working hard to re-establish the constitutional protections that have been eroded by this President and this temporary FISA legislation.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

All best,

Senator Claire McCaskill

Should the police sandbag the windows at the station house, or are you just in town to catch The Brave One? -- William Timberman

Lol. You're a hoot Timberman. Don't get your panties in a bunch. I just get a kick out of seeing the faux earnestness. Oh and don't worry, anyone who regularly reads and comments in UT's comments section knows it's all talk. No one actually expects you to do anything (me included at this point). You are safe here in your "safe house."

Why not then? Fealty towards Bush is perhaps a hard habit to break. W/r/t habeus corpus for instance, I'd bet Repug Senators rec'd very few calls (if any) from constituents urging them to support the continued denial of habeas corpus.-- karrsic

I may have missed another relevant post, but perhaps you folks don't realize this isn't about US citizens? Or even resident aliens? Habeas Corpus for us is safely ensconced in recent rulings of the Supremes. No, this seems to be about giving Al Qaeda Habeas Corpus. Is it surprising that doesn't garner a lot of support except from the surrender at any cost crowd? Is it surprising that your leaders led you down the garden path with false words and misinformation? Tsk.

For those that wish to read the verbiage of said act, try this...

http://www.radicalcongruency.com/?p=2406&akst_action=share-this

That is accomplished by writing "lol" on blogs at people engaged in pre-revolutionary efforts. The actual carrying out of the actions is unnecessary to achieve the desired, highly personalized goals. -- GlennGreenwald

lol. (Honestly chuckling here)

I laugh because it is laughable.

You know what not to do.

JBinMO:

On August 1, 2007, I [Senator McCaskill] was faced with a stark reality: the Director of National Intelligence sent a letter warning the Senate of the heightened threat of international terrorism, and urging us to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before the August recess “to ensure that we do not have critical gaps in our ability to provide warnings of threats to the country”. The call to quickly revise FISA in order to reflect developments in telecommunications technology was echoed by four Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. I chose to heed these urgent warnings.

Translation: "Despite this administration's blatant politicization of literally every level and aspect of government, I accepted every 'urgent warning' I was given, just before fall recess, when such a warning would have the highest likelihood of coercing legislative action. My behavior was completely craven, but I assure you I will magically grow a spine sometime in the future."

Because those "other" folks don't deserve human right. The ragheads that is.

Yeah, we know what you mean pal. We get your point.

I think you mean 42 out of 43 votes against cloture were Republicans... the other coming, of course, from Joe Lieberman.

"My behavior was completely craven, but I assure you I will magically grow a spine sometime in the future."

Like trying to find the tipping-point on a wet noodle. Just not gonna happen.

You aren't very savvy are you? Rights for some and not for others, based on one man's decision, are not rights. Maybe Bush is an honorable man, who would never call anyone an enemy combatant who isn't genuinely about to kill Americans, but what happens when we voters make a mistake and elect someone without such great judgment?

And by the way, you're wrong. There are not clear SC rulings that bar the President from declaring citizens enemy combatants.

Yep. The short bus just pulled up, and the trolls are here to play. Just in time for me to leave work, and do anything else. 'Til tomorrow, guys... have at it!

Do you know a hard disk recovery company in the Bay Area that is reliable and keeps good confidentiality? I have a disk drive with 2 years of hard work on it that isn't responding to the outside world (it may have become autistic).