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S/SW blog philosophy -

I credit favorite writers and public opinion makers.

A lifelong Democrat, my comments on Congress, the judiciary and the presidency are regular features.

My observations and commentary are on people and events in politics that affect the USA or the rest of the world, and stand for the interests of peace, security and justice.


Tuesday, August 07, 2007

A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Primer

The new FISA - The current FISA bill's Orwellian title is "Improving Foreign Intelligence Surveillance to Defend the Nation and the Constitution Act of 2007." The text of the FISA legislation itself is available from the Talking Points Memo Document Collection.
The "caving senators" - "Julie" writes a community blog at The Democratic Party. Here is (my) abbreviated list of the 16 Democratic senators voting for the new FISA bill, according to Julie. She included some rather inflammatory Wikipedia biographical information, so take that part with a grain of salt.
Julie's "Roll of Shame:"
Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA); Evan Bayh (D-IN); Thomas Carper (D-DE); Kent Conrad (D-ND); Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Daniel Inouye (D-HI); Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Mary Landrieu (D-LA); Blanche Lincoln (D-AR); Claire McCaskill (D-MO); Bill Nelson (D-FL); Ben Nelson (D-NE); Mark Pryor (D-AR); Ken Salazar (D-CO); Jim Web (D-VA).

The trembling Representatives - Speeple News has the list of 41 House Democrats who "trembled before the mighty Bush." This post is also an excellent analysis of the bill that is now the law of the land. To quote the intro:

Of the 41 House Democrats who voted today to roll over on the eavesdropping amendment that the White House demanded be added to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 26 30 were Blue Dogs. The bill, Orwellianly named the Protect America Act, passed 227-183, with 181 Democrats and two Republicans opposed.

These are the Dems who ... failed us. Who failed our country.
Correction (8/9/07): A correction needs to be made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Primer post.
According to WakeUpAmerica's (Fox) tally of 8/4/07, several Democratic senators, besides ailing Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, did not take part in the FISA amendment vote. They are: Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Patty Murray of Washington, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Also, Senator Barbara Mikulski's "yes" vote was left off the original list.
The References:
  1. Reference links page: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (also title linked above)
  2. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 - Wikipedia
  3. Thanks to Dan Fejes for leads on this story
My links:
Cross posted at The Reaction.
My “creativity and dreaming” post today at Good Second Mondays is a poem about broken boundaries.
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4 comments:

TXsharon said...

Good info. and resources, Carol. I'll use this.

Mike Davis said...

It is so infuriatingly disappointing!

Anonymous said...

Carol,
I am responding here because I didn't want to sign up for the other blog that you are on. Thanks for playing the 8 things game. I'm a social worker who can write, Huh? Funny, I had the same complaint in school and disliked having to write papers with others because their writing was never up to my standards.

Carol Gee said...

Thanks to all for your comments -
TxSharon, I'd be glad for you to use the primer. Activism rocks!
Mike, I want to be forgiving, but I'm not there yet.
Margaret, good to hear from you here. I, too, could hardly tolerate those SoWk classes that had group projects. Ugh! Aren't we glad we don't have to make an 8 A.M. dull and boring class this morning?