No, dc_dux. the democratic leadership in congress is aggressively selling us out:
Link to Hoyer's "compromise" bill:
http://majorityleader.house.gov/docU...RO_001_xml.pdf
Hoyer has a poll on the front page of his official site,
http://www.hoyer.house.gov/
...asking for opinions on Bushs' favorite failed domestic issue. This is the democratic house majority leader, carrying Bush's water on unconsitutional surveillance, and on Social Security "reform", too!
Two right wing dominant US political parties..... what else can one conclude is going on here?
Quote:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...579/535/538477
HOLY CRAP! Amnesty Bill Covers Torturers Too Hotlist
by wj [Subscribe]
Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 11:17:31 AM PDT
The text of the Protect AT&T Act posted on the front page is way more horrible that we thought. The language of that bill not only protects AT&T, et al., but also anyone who assisted the intelligence community. You know who that covers? Let's examine it below the fold.
* wj's diary :: ::
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Who is anyone? Persons are immune from suit include "Anyone" who "provid[ed] assistance to an element of the intelligence community . . . in connection with intelligence activity involving communications that was (i) authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007 and (ii) designed to prevent or detect a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation of a terrorist attack, against the United States and (B) the subject of a written request or directive . . . indicating that the activity was (i) authorized by the President; and (ii) determined to be lawful."
In America, corporations are persons, so they are part of "anyone" as are people like you and me. So, what corporations and people are protected? Well, a few come to mind pretty quickly: Blackwater, KBR employees, Halliburton employees, any person who the government paid to help with interrogations, and any member of the military or government (US or Iraqi) that helped interrogate alleged terrorists. All of these people would be protected from any suit because they were all assisting the gov't at the written request (i.e. a contract) of the gov't and the gov't said it was legal (just ask John Woo - that d'bag).
If this bill passes, it will obliterate any possibility that anyone associated with spying or torturing will ever be held accountable. While the bill seems limited to "civil" actions, any lawyer worth his/her salt can argue that the Congress intended, through this bill, to preclude criminal actions as well. Indeed, it would violate basic rules of statutory construction to interpret the bill otherwise. How could Congress mean to protect people from civil actions if it didn't also mean to protect them from criminal ones? After all, while you can be innocent of a crime but liable for the same actions (See OJ Simpson), the reverse can't be true because the burden of proof for a civil action is much lower than for criminal. Thus, if you can't prove (or are prevented from proving) someone is civilly liable for their actions, they sure as hell can't be criminally liable.
For god sakes, this bill must be killed immediately.
Poll
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....and, just to make that the democrats complete our tranformation into a Bush junta "poice state", as close to overnight as is humanly possibe:
Quote:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6...413/558/538470
They're going to bundle FISA with the War Supplmental Hotlist
by dday [Subscribe]
Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 11:03:10 AM PDT
Here it is. The final indignity. Funding for endless war AND etching out the 4th Amendment will be combined into the same bill to force enough compliance from Bush Dogs to get this bill passed. "By any means necessary" for Hoyer and his corporate lobbying buddies.
The House Rules Committee is meeting at this hour on the "FISA Amedments Act." Later today, they'll be meeting on a technical fix that allows them to waive PAYGO rules and waive consideration of a bill within 24 hours of its rules being set.
The plan is to put the two together.
To be precise, the war supplemental will be attached to the FISA bill. This is being fast-tracked well beyond our ability to stop it. The royalists in the House want war without restrictions and free passes for lawbreakers.
Keep up the calls and emails and faxes, but this is eventually going to take muscle. There is an organization being built right now to combine a defense of civil liberties with the masses of money needed to fight for them. The Strange Bedfellows coalition will remember the betrayal being done today. And they will make each and every member of Congress who votes for this abomination pay.
More as I know it...
...Sen. Obama, incidentally, can't be found.
The two presumptive presidential nominees have differed over the issue. A senior aide to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently indicated the senator would support granting immunity to the phone companies. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was among the most vocal opponents of immunity in the Senate debate last year.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Bankston applauded Obama for his opposition to immunity for the phone companies, and he said he would "call upon him to be as vocal as possible on immunity in the coming days."
A spokesman for the Obama campaign didn't return phone calls or emails seeking comment for this article.
Hope! Change! Please call again soon when we're not so busy!
UPDATE: Russ Feingold:
"The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President's illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the court to grant immunity. And under this bill, the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power. Instead of cutting bad deals on both FISA and funding for the war in Iraq, Democrats should be standing up to the flawed and dangerous policies of this administration."
We have about 15 Senators and 100 or so Congressmen that get this.
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