The Democratic leadership, apparently under pressure from the ACLU and other concerned advocates, has postponed marking up a draconian, permanent FISA bill next week, so that's the good news stemming from news and blogging alerts such as the one I posted earlier today: "10 Days Left to stop the Dems from caving on FISA." But it seems party leaders and some committee chairmen are still rushing to mark up troubling bills that threaten civil liberties and give telecom companies sweeping immunity before mid-October, while not yet disclosing their contents beforehand to civil liberties advocates. By tomorrow, there will be full-fledged alerts sent to the ACLU's 600,000 members, and additional information about how to halt the passage of an even worse law than what passed in August will be online at the ACLU's website here and elsewhere online.
Here's the latest news from an ACLU spokesperson about the fast-moving political developments that threaten your civil liberties, with a FISA bill that allows virtually unlimited warrantless wiretapping of any communications between Americans and foreigners:
The ACLU wants Congress to just let the Protect America Act expire or we want them to look at a real alternative bill with meaningful civil liberties safeguards, but we are getting signals that the Democratic leadership is not listening, so we are going to have to turn the heat on again.
The good news is that we asked for and got a delay from the Senate Intelligence Committee on its planned markup of legislation, and we are hearing that we may get a delay out of the House side too, but we are still concerned because we've not seen any drafts or had the opportunity for significant input on legislation. Once it's out of Intel, it's much harder to get improvements. The bad news is we are hearing there might be a vote as early as the week of October 15th!
We are getting our activists whipped up: Telling them to ask Members of Congress not to fall for administration fear-mongering once again. We've got a set of basic principles that should inform any legislative efforts.
Some senators and representatives are asking for the documents that have been subpoenaed relating to spying on Americans, which is a positive step. But, Congress should not act on FISA before they see the documents.
The last thing we need is for Dems to be backed in to a corner again on core civil liberties issues by a weak and unpopular president.
We are also extremely concerned about the telecom companies getting off the hook for breaking the law by cooperating with the illegal wiretapping program. Why is the administration on the hill lobbying on behalf of the telecom giants anyway?
On the Senate side they have had a few secret dog and pony show hearings with DNI Mike McConnell - senators are telling us they no longer believe him and yet, he is the one of a handful of witnesses they have heard from. Instead of listening to the thoughtful testimony of multiple witnesses, they are only hearing the administration - and they seem to be following the administration's playbook. The Senate Select Intelligence Committee seems to be in lock step with DNI McConnell - even though it is led by Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
Leadership promised that they would reconsider the mistakes they made when they voted for the so called "Protect America Act," and they have the responsibility to make sure if a bill is made into a permanent law, it is a good bill. Remember the letter from Pelosi and Reid saying they would re-consider the mistakes they made on FISA the first chance they got? There was public hand wringing about the rush to pass the so-called Protect America Act - several members of Congress publicly called the bill sloppy. Now, they are talking about passing a permanent statute that has not been vetted and reviewed? As I wrote above, we all know that whatever passes the Select Intelligence Committees is likely to be the bulk of the bill both houses will vote for on the Floor.
If you want to stop this train-wreck, despite the promises in August by Democrats that they'd undo the damage of the previous FISA bill, you should check regularly at the ACLU links, for voter contact information and talking points to preserve civil liberties. Also, even more effective than email are direct phone calls, and to contact your legislator by phone simply type in your zip code here to let them know what you think about giving in to the Bush administration on civil liberties --again.