Nutroots Defeated: FISA Passes 69-28
After nearly two years of hysterical letter writing, protests, threats, and a whole lot of over-the-top rhetoric, the far-left has once again been delivered a crushing defeat.
Much to the chagrin of the shrill lefty blogs, the FISA reform legislation finally passed with a vote of 69-28. What really adds insult to injury in liberal land is that the messiah himself, Barack Obama, voted in favor of the legislation.
As with every other anti-terror issue that has been passed, the left is declaring this a very dark day. For liberals, the idea that no one will go to prison for listening to terrorists or suspected terrorists without a warrant is truly horrifying.
The Nutroots are already planning revenge against any Democrat who dared to allow the eavesdropping on terrorists.
It’s really pathetic that some people in America are willing to do almost anything to prevent the government from having all the tools it needs to protect us. I could care less if the feds intercept my email or listen to my cell phone conversations. Of course this bill doesn’t allow any of that, but even if it did I wouldn’t care.
The one part of the FISA bill that really got left-wingers fired up was the “retroactive immunity” provision which protected the telecom companies from the ACLU. Those companies agreed to help the NSA after 9/11 and were told they weren’t breaking the law. It’s only right that the government live up to that promise, and not let far-left thugs sue them into financial ruin.
-Chris Jones
Showdown Over FISA Expected Monday
One week from today, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire unless Congress passes a new version that President Bush is willing to sign. If it expires, our intelligence gatherers here and abroad will be rendered blind and deaf because the legality of their operations will be put in limbo.
Here is what the President said about the FISA bill yesterday:
Last August, Congress passed the Protect America Act, which updated our foreign intelligence surveillance law to adapt to today’s technology and to meet today’s threats. This bipartisan legislation has aided our efforts to monitor the communications of terrorists and other foreign intelligence targets.
Unfortunately, Congress set this legislation to expire on February 1st. That is just 8 days from today - yet the threat from al Qaeda will not expire in 8 days.
If Congress does not act quickly, our national security professionals will not be able to count on critical tools they need to protect our Nation, and our ability to respond quickly to new threats and circumstances will be weakened. That means it will become harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to recruit terrorists and infiltrate them into our country.
Last fall, the Senate Intelligence Committee completed its work on a bipartisan bill to modernize our foreign intelligence surveillance law. I commend Senators Rockefeller and Bond, the Committee’s Chairman and Vice Chairman, for leading the effort to complete work on this bill.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s bill contains many provisions that our intelligence officials say they need to protect our country. The bill would maintain the vital flow of intelligence on terrorist threats. It would protect the freedoms of Americans while making sure we do not extend those same protections to terrorists overseas. And it would provide liability protection to companies now facing billion dollar lawsuits only because they are believed to have assisted in efforts to defend our Nation following the Nine-Eleven attacks.
This bill still needs some changes, but I am optimistic that with goodwill on both sides we can make those changes quickly. So I ask Congressional leaders to follow the course set by their colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee, bring this legislation to a prompt vote in both houses, and send me a bill that I can sign before the Protect America Act expires on February 1st.
Congress’ action - or lack of action - on this important issue will directly affect our ability to keep Americans safe.
Here’s where we stand as of this morning on the FISA legislation:
The Senate granted at least a temporary victory to the White House on Thursday, turning back an attempt to increase court oversight of the government’s surveillance of phone calls and e-mails that involve people inside the United States.
The 60-36 vote to reject increased powers for the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court came as senators worked against a Feb. 1 deadline to extend the law governing how U.S. intelligence agencies carry out electronic eavesdropping.
Further action on the legislation was delayed until Monday, pushing Congress closer to the deadline, and leaving unresolved the most contentious issue in the bill: whether to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government conduct warrantless surveillance.
The Bush administration is insisting that any new law protect from potentially crippling civil lawsuits those telecom companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
So Monday this whole thing is gonna come to a head. The left-wing nuts are hell bent on preventing the immunity for the telecom companies from being included in the bill.
The President has promised to veto any FISA bill that doesn’t include immunity for the telecom companies and I hope he sticks to his promise.
After 9/11 the Justice Department met with major telecom companies and asked them to participate in a secret program that would allow the NSA to intercept terrorist phone calls. Normally, a FISA warrant is required to legally conduct this type of surveillance.
However, the President used his power to go around the FISA courts and promised the telecom companies that if they agreed to help, they would not be put in any legal jeopardy if the secret program ever came to light.
As with everything in this country the program was eventually leaked to the NY Times and predictably the Democrats began foaming at the mouth and holding endless hearings.
Also predictably, the ACLU thugs filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the major telecoms for “illegally spying on Americans” which is total bullsh*t.
So many months later a bill that amends the FISA legislation and allows the NSA to wiretap without having to go around the FISA courts is in the Senate.
The only sticking point in the bill is the retroactive immunity for the telecom companies. President Bush believes that the companies who agreed to help the government after 9/11 in good faith, should be protected for the help they have already given.
Democrats who don’t really give a rip about fighting the war on terror would love to see the telecom companies be sued into financial ruin because they dared to help the Bush Administration.
Furthermore, the crazy left-wing/America Hating websites encourage people to flood the Senate with emails and phone calls to resist the bill.
The Hot Joints would like to urge everyone to use the numbers below to make your voice heard on this issue. Tell the Congress to do what’s right for America and support cloture on the FISA bill.
-Chris Jones
Toll free numbers for Congress:
1 (800) 828-0498
1 (800) 459-1887
1 (800) 614-2803
1 (866) 340-9281
1 (866) 338-1015
1 (877) 851-6437
Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121
Here are a couple of good articles worth reading about this issue:
Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people’s private communications and financial information.
His comments came as he gave testimony to Congress regarding the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans’ privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
Kerr’s testimony that citizens should say goodbye to privacy is gonna drive liberals absolutely crazy, but is he really saying anything new? As far as I can tell privacy has been dead for years. With cell phone cameras, tiny hidden cameras, and other technology, people no longer have an expectation of privacy.
A person is lucky to have any privacy even in their homes and that was the case long before the NSA began wiretapping without a warrant. If your a terrorist then you should be worried, otherwise get over it.
-Chris Jones
John Aschcroft Talks Telecom Immunity in Op-Ed
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has a very good Op-Ed in the NY Times today about immunity for telecom companies that cooperated on the War on Terror.
The National Security Agency asked the various telecommunications companies in the U.S. for assistance in listening to terrorist phone calls. The Justice Department sent each company a letter assuring them that it would be totally legal for them to cooperate and they need not fear legal reprisals should the programs ever become public.
Of course as with everything the program did become public. Now Democrats want angry, left wing customers of the telecom companies to have the right to sue for hundreds of millions of dollars for invasion of privacy.
The ultimate goal of the Democrats is not for customers to win big money, but to have the details of our intelligence programs exposed in open court.
This will serve to make President Bush look bad, and weaken our National Security which just happens to be the two most important things to Democrats.
-Chris Jones
Democratic Concessions Are Expected on Wiretapping
Two months after vowing to roll back broad new wiretapping powers won by the Bush administration, Congressional Democrats appear ready to make concessions that could extend some of the key powers granted to the National Security Agency.
Bush administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened wiretapping authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess, and some Democratic officials admit that they may not come up with the votes to rein in the administration.
As the debate over the N.S.A.’s wiretapping powers begins anew this week, the emerging legislation reflects the political reality confronting the Democrats. While they are willing to oppose the White House on the conduct of the war in Iraq, they remain nervous that they will be labeled as soft on terrorism if they insist on strict curbs on intelligence gathering.
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