Progressive Dems block new FISA legislation!

[AnnInLa]

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority Leader, postponed a press conference announcing new reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers banded together and said they would fight any legislation that did not include a set of eight principles on wiretapping that preserve the "rule of law."

"What's most significant is that the Progressive Caucus came together and said to the leadership that all 72 of us require that these provisions be included," said Caroline Fredercikson, Legislative Director for the American Civil Liberties Union. "This changes the dynamic significantly."

http://www.atrios.blogspot.com/

More is at Huffpo, but I can't copy and paste from there, for some reason.

Sorry if this is a dupe.

[Dhalgren]

1. So now the progressives have to fight both parties...

[Beelzebud]

2. Yep, The Blue Dogs and DLC have nearly ruined a great party.

[mod mom]

49. We have a lot of educating to do because I think few are aware of their destructive

behavior.

Rove infilitrated the Dem Party, as well.

[Kagemusha]

3. Then good luck to them in so doing.

They're there to fight the good fight, aren't they?

[Dhalgren]

5. Yes, but it is too bad that they don't have the backing of a political party...

[bigtree]

8. it looks like the leadership may be working with them, not fighting

EVERYone there has to fight for their position, but in the end they have to reconcile their views into a compromise. That's the nature of the institution. I prefer to focus on the compromise, since there hasn't yet been anything actually presented.

[L. Coyote]

13. Indeed. n/t

[cascadiance]

14. Sounds like the first stages of getting new and PROPER leadership that has democratic principles!

[redqueen]

11. Yup! Thank goodness we still have a few left!

:bounce:

[hootinholler]

19. More importantly, the progressives have recognized they have to fight both parties.

This could signal the end of business as usual, which I find encouraging.

-Hoot

[liberalla]

31. I feel encouraged also. May this be the start of something big!

Progressive Caucus Official Position and Fundamental Principles Governing FISA Reform, as adopted

October 3, 2007

We, Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, fully recognizing we live in a dangerous world but proud of, and deeply committed to, the values that have made the United States an exemplar for the world, affirm the following principles to guide consideration over the debate regarding surveillance of foreign intelligence. We hold that these principles represent the pillars by which America gives no quarter to terrorists who would do our country harm, while at the same time ensuring fidelity to the distinctively American commitment to the rule of law, the dignity of the individual, and separation of powers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/05/dems-postpone-rollout-of-_n_67293.html

[babylonsister]

4. Good for them and I hope it holds. nt

[bigtree]

6. "it's not clear that the announcement from the Progressive Caucus influenced their decision"

. . . from the post :shrug:

[Oilwellian]

7. I was able to copy their requests:

1. It should be the policy of the United States that the objective of any authorized program of foreign intelligence surveillance must be to ensure that American citizens and persons in America are secure in their persons, papers, and effects, but makes terrorists throughout the world feel insecure.

2. The best way to achieve these twin goals is to follow the rule of law. And the exclusive law to follow with respect to authorizing foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). As initially enacted by Congress, the exclusivity of FISA was unambiguous. Legislation must reiterate current law that FISA is the exclusive means to authorize foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil.

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) should be modernized to accommodate new technologies and to make clear that foreign to foreign communications are not subject to the FISA, even though modern technology enables that communication to be routed through the United States.

4. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is indispensable and must play a meaningful role in ensuring compliance with the law. This oversight should include, where possible, regular judicial approval and review of surveillance, of whose communications will be collected, of how it will be gathered, and of how content and other data in communications to and from the United States will be handled.

5. Congress must have regular access to information about how many U.S. communications are being collected and the authority to require court orders when it becomes clear that a certain program or surveillance of a target is scooping up communications of U.S. persons.

6. Once the government has reason to believe that a specific account, person or facility will have contact with someone in the United States, the government should be required to return to the FISC to obtain a court order for continued surveillance. Reliance on the FISC will help ensure the privacy of U.S. persons' communications.

7. Congress should not grant amnesty to any telecommunications company or to any other entity or individual for helping the NSA spy illegally on innocent Americans. The availability of amnesty will have the unintended consequence of encouraging telecommunications companies to comply with, rather than contest, illegal requests to spy on Americans.

8. Authorization to conduct foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil must never be made permanent. The threats to America's security and the liberties of its people will change over time and require constant vigilance by the people's representatives in Congress.

[mzmolly]

9. "the Progressive Caucus came together"

That's awesome! We need MORE of this cohesion.

[pingzing58]

10. Some have a backbone. Hope it's a beginning in support of the liberal dem agenda.

[backscatter712]

12. Nice to see there are still some good guys in Congress.

[VP505]

15. Those of us

who support the Progressive Caucus and progressives in general need to make it known to them every chance we get that we "the rank and file" are behind them. Perhaps the leadership will finally wake up. BTW, what is going on with Nancy Pelosi, the last few times I have seen her speak she seems to be severely troubled by something, I wonder if this might be a part of that.

[cascadiance]

16. Perhaps this would be a good day to donate a certain amount to the progressive caucus?

To symbolize our support and backing for this move and to telegraph that there's more coming the more power they exercise in taking back our party?

[emsimon33]

25. How do we donate?

[liberalla]

36. Congressional Progressive Caucus!

http://cpc.lee.house.gov/

Here's the Power of 72:

Caucus Member List

Co-Chairs
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-6)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-9)


Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5)
Hon. Hilda Solis (CA-32)
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-2)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)


Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)


House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-1)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-2)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-1)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-3)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-8)
Hon. Julia Carson (IN-7)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-1)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-9)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-7)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-7)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-4)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-5)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-2)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-4)
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Hon. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Hon. Tom Lantos (CA-12)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-5)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-2)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-7)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-7)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-3)
Hon. George Miller (CA-7)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-4)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-8)
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-1)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-4)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-1)
Hon. Linda Sanchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)
Hon. Jose Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-2)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-6)
Hon. Tom Udall (NM-3)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)

They have contact info at the website, and you can sign up for the CPC newsletter!

[BrklynLiberal]

46. I am so thrilled that my Rep...Gerrold Nadler... is among them!!!!

:bounce:

[liberalla]

47. Yeah! mine is too! Raul Grijalva!

I hope this blocking of the FISA bill signals a real shift in the power struggle. I'm going to start paying much more attention to this group.
:toast:

[FredStembottom]

17. K&R

I sure appreciate some good news like this - anytime!

:thumbsup:

I think I'll just leave it at that and bask in the glow... for as long as it lasts.

[pberq]

18. Kick & Nominated

Now that's the kind of news I like to hear!

[tex-wyo-dem]

20. Excellent news!

Legislation that preserves the "rule of law" instead of giving the Bushies license to crap all over the Constitution and our rights? Imagine that. Unbelievable that preserving the rule of law is now considered "progressive."

Way to go Progressive Dems! :thumbsup:

[cascadiance]

21. Anyone have the bill number handy?

I want to make sure that my donation to PDA (and perhaps also to ACLU) reflects that amount so that they know why we're HAPPY with what they are doing!

Would it be 3356 as noted here? I think that was the bill number of what went through last month.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR03356:

I suspect it isn't, but I don't have time to pursue it further this morning...

[rucky]

22. The Rule of 72

should pay off in the near future!

[annabanana]

23. This is absolutely the best news of the day.

Thank you for posting the Progressive demands, George Oilwellian (post#7 above). This is the kind of work I like seeing down there in Foggy Bottom!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
:woohoo:

[chill_wind]

24. "The Rule of Law". Be still, my heart.

Words we haven't heard emphasized for so long, to hear them uttered in this way is almost thrilling.

AT&T gives OBSCENE amounts of money to both parties. They've been the second largest contributer in 2007. They were reportedly lobbying Congress on this bill very. very hard in the past couple weeks. This is encouraging news.


K&R!

[Honeycombe8]

26. That link (or the Huffington Post) doesn't seem to have an article like this.

Is it gone already? Or am I missing it?

[Me.]

34. That's What I Was Wondering

Edited to add: Found it thanks to Post #31

[scarletwoman]

41. Here's the permalink to the Atrios post:

Suck on this, Steny

And here's the link to the Huffington Post article:
Dems Postpone Rollout Of Controversial Wiretapping Bill

[eridani]

27. Dang, but that's good. Getting progressives of any stripe to act together--

--has often been referred to as being analogous to herding cats.

[leveymg]

28. A piece of good news for a change. It's been a while . . .

I was beginning to just tune out Congress.

[Beerboy]

29. As I understand it, FISA is a 1978 law

designed to curb the excesses of the Executive, after securing funding from the Legislative by whatever means available, being held to review by the Judicial.
Marbury vs. Madison of 1803 is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Richard Steele]

30. Good news for a change! recommended

[spanone]

32. who are these progressives that we can thank them?

[scarletwoman]

35. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has a website:

http://cpc.lee.house.gov/

[spanone]

38. thank you!

[MasonJar]

33. Is there a list? I want to see if John Yarmuth is on it and call him to

join up if he is not.

[scarletwoman]

37. The Congressional Progressive Caucus Membership list is here:

Caucus Member List

[liberalla]

40. Just posted the list above

http://cpc.lee.house.gov/

You can sign up to receive the CPC newsletter too.

[scarletwoman]

43. I saw that -- we posted at essentially the same time. Great minds think alike! (nt)

[liberalla]

48. yes they do!

:toast:

[Roland99]

44. Hey...good idea!

[annabanana]

45. Here is their home page.

They are our best friends in Congress!
http://cpc.lee.house.gov/index.cfm

[bonito]

39. K&R

[madokie]

42. sometimes there's good news other times there's great news

This time its news to love
thanks for the post.

now I can go on about my day with a little smile on my face