Just popped over to CREDO and have also e-mailed Edwards.

This was a big reason why I supported Dodd, and it's worth a call or e-mail to the presidential wanna-bes to tell them it matters and we're paying attention.

One more reason my carrier is CREDO/Working Assets.

O/T & color me angry, but another act of REAL leadership would be to see a big chunk of the Stimulus Pkg get over  to those vets sleeping under the fwy overpasses rather than the higher income brackets.

Chances are those vets would go buy something, like a sleeping bag and a bottle of Tylenol but that's more than the disappearing act Bush's friends did with his last check. Candidates are you listening???

No Hillary, you were outspent by the people not the Obama campaign.

thanks, and done!

will e/m edwards, call salazar...a waste of time frankly, but l truly enjoy fucking w/ his staff...damn you brendan...and will also contact reid and inform his office what l think about the situation.

no retroactive immunity, or no bill.

lTMF'sA

lTMF'sA...the revolution will not be televised...Peace

Done and done. And I am so sick of my Senator Harry Reid. What a twerp. That man needs to lose his leadership position.

I already emailed Edwards, will get to work on the others.  

Here's what I sent.  Feel free to borrow or steal outright, just get those messages sent!

Senator Edwards,

As you know, the FISA fight over retroactive telecom immunity is about to resume in the Senate.  The overwhelming majority of the American people oppose granting retroactive immunity and support Democratic efforts to strip it from the FISA bill.

I can't think of a single issue of this magnitude that cuts to the heart of your campaign message as this one does.  This is a straight up case of the quid pro quo that has become the norm in the Washington establishment.  The rich corporations are trying to use their money and their power to influence policy to protect themselves from legal liability.  I know you understand this kind of thing all too well from your days as a trial lawyer.

I hope you will stand up strong and support Senator Dodd in any way you can as he leads the fight to prevent the telecoms and the Bush administration from stonewalling investigations and penalty for any possible wrongdoing.  Also, I hope you will call on your fellow Presidential candidates to do their duty as sitting Senators and weigh in on this important issue, and bring it to the forefront.

I cannot stress enough how important this issue is, and how important it is to fight it in the open.  This is an issue the Democratic party as a whole wins with, hands down.

I have donated to your campaign, and will stand with you through your nomination,  inauguration, and beyond, or whatever other path you may choose to take.

Best wishes to you and Elizabeth, and thank you for everything you do.

Sincerely,

ejmw

Well, I did it.  But there are more issues in FISA than just telcom immmunity and if we succeed with ONLY telcom immunity we have failed.  Personally I think Telcom Immunity is the least of the problems.  

The ACLU sent a letter to Harry Reid urging him to support the judiciary committee bill, not only for telcom immunity but because of the following:

• Bulk Collection: Most importantly, the Judiciary version prevents the government from engaging in mass, untargeted collection of all communications coming into or going out of the United States. The Judiciary Committee fixed an important loophole in the Intelligence Committee approach that would allow bulk collection, which will inevitably sweep in vast numbers of purely innocent communications for government analysis and use.

• Significant Purpose Test: Surveillance tactics in the U.S. that allow the government to obtain the contents of phone and email communications of people in this country without a court order are unconstitutional and un-American. Unlike the Intelligence bill, the Judiciary version makes clear that once a significant purpose of the government's surveillance is to acquire the communications of a particular person here, it must go to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a court order based on probable cause.

• Meaningful Exclusivity: The Judiciary iteration of S. 2248 states in no uncertain terms that FISA is the exclusive means for foreign intelligence wiretapping on American soil, and clarifies that vague assertions of Article II presidential authority do not eviscerate the entire statute. The Intelligence Committee version also creates an unacceptable loophole to FISA's protections against warrantless electronic surveillance by removing some wiretapping from the purview of the statute by changing FISA's definition of "electronic surveillance."

• Oversight: As provided in the Judiciary version of S. 2248, any new electronic surveillance permitted by the legislation should be temporary, subject to a two-year sunset, and include vigorous reporting requirements and an audit of warrantless surveillance going back to 2001.

I find the blogosphere's emphasis on only Telcom Immunity short sighted.  I hope it is only a means to an end - an easily explainable way to defeat the entire Intelligence Committee bill.  

Help me raise money for Jay Nixon, the next Democratic governor of Missouri

Tell me anyone who can look at the Reid/Leahy/McConnell dialogue transcribed by Greenwald and not be totally enraged.

Damn, if this doesn't tell us where Harry Reid's allegiances lie, then we're dumb as a fence post.

When it is all said and done, people like Harry Reid must be made to pay for this with a resounding rejection of their worthiness to represent the American people.  These people are traitors to the Constitution and to the principles of this country.

I often hear Reid's actions excused by people because of the ultra-slim margin held in the Senate.  Well, this is a time when he can stand with his party and defend the rule of law he has pledged to uphold.  He doesn't have the votes but he doesn't need them.  There is a solution and that is a filibuster and at worst an extension of the Protect America Act.  It has become readily apparent that he just doesn't care about this issue.  He is in full support of the President's view on supreme executive authority.

Damn him, anyway!!!  A pox on all their houses.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

Sent CREDO Action e-mail. Cheney really should keep his mouth shut his words enrage me. Stupid asshole.

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; now we know that it is bad economics;" - Franklin Delano Roosevelt