TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

ACLU sent out this important alert this morning:

"Congress must remedy the situation it created in August when it handed the Bush Administration vast new powers to invade our privacy with no meaningful oversight from the courts or Congress. When Congress failed freedom, it caused a massive outcry from freedom-loving people across the country.

Tell your representative: Stand up for the Constitution, fix FISA.

As the result of the outcry, two bills were introduced yesterday to fix the disastrous Protect America Act that was rushed through Congress in August, rubberstamping the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Both were efforts to fix FISA, but we must make it clear that only the FISA Modernization Bill does the job.

Tell your representative to support the FISA Modernization Bill instead of the RESTORE Act.

The RESTORE Act caves in to Bush’s fear-mongering in a major way by allowing for program or basket “warrants,” which aren't really warrants at all. They're the modern-day equivalent of allowing government agents to sit in our living rooms, recording our personal conversations. Only they're more frightening, because the government now has the capacity to monitor us remotely and without our knowledge, and to save the information in a secret database forever.

Please, call your representative now to stop basket warrants from being used against Americans.

Tell him or her to support the FISA Modernization Bill of 2007 instead of the RESTORE Act.

Here are some talking points for your call:

1. Please support the FISA Modernization Act of 2007 introduced by Representative Rush Holt, instead of the RESTORE Act. Only pass a FISA modernization bill that has individualized warrants.

2. Blanket or program “warrants” that allow the government to vacuum up the international telephone calls and emails of Americans aren’t really warrants at all, and they aren’t constitutional.

3. Americans are looking to Congress to stand up to the Bush Administration, not cave in to threats of being labeled soft on terrorism.

You can look up your representative's phone number and log your call here.

It’s no surprise that the Bush Administration is again using the threat of terror to bully Congress into giving them more power than they need to keep us safe. To counter these misrepresentations, Congress needs to hear that America can be both safe and free by passing a FISA Modernization bill that protects our constitutional rights.

Once you've called your representative, please tell us that you called and if possible, how your call went. This information is extremely helpful to our staff when they meet with Members of Congress, because they’re able to convey how many of their constituents care about fixing FISA. Please tell us if you called and how your call went.

Thank you for taking action and being involved.
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• More background available from ACLU here.

  Labels: police state

| Posted at 11:06 | PERMA-LINK |

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