These Democrats crossed party lines in favor of immunity

[samplegirl]

I wrote a few senators on this
Don't complain about it here, if your senator voted against this, GO TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK. I just told Feinstein online and I'm sending a letter tonight.

These Democrats crossed party lines to support immunity for the telco's (they voted 'nay'). If you don't bother to say anything about it, then they will keep winning and we will be living in a police state shortly...

Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Webb (D-VA)
Clinton (D-NY) {not voting helps the majority}

[samplegirl]

1. No wonder we never see any change.

[abbeyco]

2. I wrote to mine that day and look at the reply I got:

I called Salazar's office and sent an email saying in essence that he was a DINO and that I'd do everything I could to see him bounced after his term. Here's the lame-assed reply:

Dear AbbeyCO:

Thank you for contacting me with regard to S.2248, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2007. I appreciate hearing from you.

As a U.S. Senator, my primary responsibilities are to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. These responsibilities have guided me during the recent Senate debate on reforming and modernizing the rules governing America’s surveillance and intelligence-gathering system.

As you know, S.2248 passed the Senate on February 12, 2008 by a vote of 68-29. While I was disappointed the Senate did not adopt several amendments that would have gone further in strengthening civil liberties protections, I ultimately supported final passage of the bill.

I believe S.2248 gives intelligence officials the tools they need to pursue foreign threats, and, furthermore, institutes stronger oversight mechanisms to preserve the privacy rights of American citizens. Specifically, S.2248:

· Declares that the FISA court is the sole authority for the approval of electronic surveillance procedures, in response to the Bush administration’s five-year warrantless surveillance program outside of FISA;
· Implements a six-year sunset of the program to allow Congress to evaluate how the new authorities are carried out;
· Requires FISA court approval of foreign targeting procedures for determining that the target of the surveillance is reasonably believed to be outside the United States;
· Grants the FISA court oversight of the “minimization� procedures governing the protection of the identities and private information of U.S. citizens incidentally collected during the monitoring of a foreign target;
· Requires FISA court approval, on an individual basis, of the targeting of Americans overseas based on the court’s review of whether there is probable cause to believe that the person is an agent of a foreign power;
· Requires the FISA court to provide Congress with judicial opinions and interpretations pertaining to the new surveillance program;
· Requires the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to assess overall compliance with targeting and minimization procedures and submit their findings every six months to the FISA court, as well as the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

Taken together, these reforms represent a significant improvement over previous FISA laws in terms of oversight and accountability.

During the debate, the Senate also addressed the issue of retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. As you may know, in the wake of the September 11th attacks, it is alleged that a number of telecommunications companies in the United States were asked by the National Security Agency (NSA) to turn over the personal data of their American customers for examination without a warrant. Subsequently, a number of Americans have filed lawsuits against these companies for violating their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

S.2248 as reported to the full Senate provides narrowly circumscribed, retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies in question. In response to this, I cosponsored Senate Amendment 3858, which would have referred the lawsuits to the FISA Court for review. Under this approach, if the court determined that the companies acted in good faith and had a reasonable belief they were abiding by the law when they complied with the government’s requests, the lawsuits would have been thrown out of court; if not, they would have proceeded as planned. Unfortunately, this amendment did not garner enough support to be included in the final Senate bill.

S.2248 now awaits action in a House-Senate conference committee. Please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as my colleagues and I continue work on this legislation.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your views.

[AndyTiedye]

3. They Are Being Blackmailed and Threatened

Ever since DiFi was taken for a ride on AF1 she has voted with Bush** every time.

Prior to that, she was with us most of the time anyway.

Either blackmail or a Stepford-style replacement happened on that plane.

[warren pease]

5. I think you give her too much credit...

I think the kind of threat that would get her immediate attention would be Bush threatening to pull out of Iraq, thus denying her war profiteer husband untold millions more in blood money.

From a Feb, '07 article on wordpress:

As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.

Each year, MILCON’s members decide which military construction projects will be funded from a roster proposed by the Department of Defense. Contracts to build these specific projects are subsequently awarded to such major defense contractors as Halliburton, Fluor, Parsons, Louis Berger, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation. From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein’s knowledge, Blum was a majority owner of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.

She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were or subsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.

They just can't seem to help themselves, can they. No matter how rich and privileged, no matter how set for life and comfortable, they just can't seem to resist the opportunity to extract another $500 million or so from the American taxpayer. So, given that one of the main tenets of the Bush regime is the continuous upward transfer of money to the top 1 percent that comprise the true ruling class, how is the senior senator from California -- an alleged Democrat -- distinguishable from the skankiest republican con artist?

As to being threatened, does this look like a woman who's scared of the company she's keeping?





If we don't concentrate on getting rid of all but a handful of incumbents in both parties, we'll just sink ever deeper into the corporatist cess pool they've created as our reward for believing all the rabid free market, unrestrained capitalism bullshit they've fed us over our lifetimes. And even if we do manage to purge the corporate suck-ups among them, I'm not sure their replacements would be any better given the overpowering influence of the lavish bribes the corrupt elites shower them with. However, maybe they'd actually do the peoples' business for their first term. But as soon as they need campaign money to keep their seats, it's time to kick them out and elect somebody new.


wp

[samplegirl]

8. I agree

when would you ever see a Republican cross party line?

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[walldude]

4. Wow my senator is on there.. I'm shocked I tell ya!

My senator is an asshole. Colorado finally gets a Dem senator and he turns out to be the bastard child of Joe Lieberman and Alberto Gonzalez...

[Truth2Tell]

6. Particularly sick is Rockefeller.

Rockefeller was one of the few in Congress kept in the loop on illegal wiretapping from early on. And he wrote this immunity bill not only to protect his fat cat contributors at the telecoms, but to protect his own ass. He's the last person who wants the full scope of the illegality to be exposed as it would peg him as a de facto accomplice to crimes against the Constitution.

[ThomWV]

7. Links and phone numbers

Get on the phone, start sending those E-Mials:



Bayh, Evan- (D - IN) Class III
131 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: bayh.senate.gov/WebMail1.htm

Carper, Thomas R.- (D - DE) Class I
513 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: carper.senate.gov/contact/

Conrad, Kent- (D - ND) Class I
530 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: conrad.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm


Feinstein, Dianne - (D - CA) Class I
331 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactU...

Inouye, Daniel K.- (D - HI) Class III
722 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: inouye.senate.gov/abtform.html


Johnson, Tim- (D - SD) Class II
136 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: johnson.senate.gov/contact/


Kohl, Herb- (D - WI) Class I
330 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.html

Landrieu, Mary L.- (D - LA) Class II
724 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm


Lieberman, Joseph I.- (ID - CT) Class I
706 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: lieberman.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm?regarding=issue

Lincoln, Blanche L.- (D - AR) Class III
355 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html


McCaskill, Claire- (D - MO) Class I
717 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: mccaskill.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Mikulski, Barbara A.- (D - MD) Class III
503 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: mikulski.senate.gov/mailform.html


Nelson, Bill- (D - FL) Class I
716 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Nelson, E. Benjamin- (D - NE) Class I
720 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Pryor, Mark L.- (D - AR) Class II
255 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV) Class II
531 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: rockefeller.senate.gov/services/email.cfm

Salazar, Ken- (D - CO) Class III
702 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Stabenow, Debbie- (D - MI) Class I
133 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm

Webb, Jim- (D - VA) Class I
144 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: webb.senate.gov/contact/


Clinton, Hillary Rodham- (D - NY) Class I
476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: clinton.senate.gov/contact

[samplegirl]

9. Thanks for posting

the links and phone numbers!

:hi: