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Sen. Feingold: FISA a mistake, Bush broke the law

Submitted by AmyW on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 2:56pm.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

In a streaming press conference hosted by The Washington Note, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) outlined the recent Feingold-Hagel bill proposing the creation of an independent intelligence commission and also admitted his outrage at the revised Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that passed the House last week and is expected to pass the Senate.

After explaining the need for a commission to assess and improve intelligence gathering procedures, Sen. Feingold took questions that immediately went to FISA. When asked what he thought about Republicans and many Democrats willing to sign the bill, Feingold expressed deep disappointment and frustration.

"This legislation gets it totally wrong," he said. He acknowledged that the primary source of media attention has been immunity for the telecommunications companies, something he calls a "farce."

He feels the rest of the bill, however, is equally if not more reprehensible.

"The president ran an illegal program -- equivalent to an impeachable offense," he said, later adding, "I'm blue in the face already trying to tell people this has happened to you."

Feingold continued to express his contempt for the bill, and his aggravation with many "rank and file" Democrats who approved it. He wouldn't speak directly to the possibility of a filibuster, but said he and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) planned on spending a lot of time on the Senate floor talking about the problems with FISA and are "not going to let it quickly pass."

He responded to one question referencing an op-ed piece he wrote in Friday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He said he hopes the next president will be Barack Obama, but either way he hopes the next administration will return to an equal executive branch as the founders intended and roll back some of the outrageous policies of the Bush Administration.

In the op-ed, he wrote:

"The speech we hear in January, I hope, will be many things: honest, hopeful, inspirational. But above all, I hope it will be candid about the need to reverse the Bush administration's abuse of executive power and to uphold the presidential oath of office that our framers crafted so simply and so well."

In response to a question that addressed statements that claim this FISA deal is in fact a compromise and an improvement in many areas, Feingold responded: "Anybody who says this is an okay bill, I question if they've even read it."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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SENATOR DODD, FILIBUSTER TELECOM IMMUNITY NOW!!!

Submitted by SkeeterVT on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 12:45pm.
Dear Senator Christopher Dodd: The last time the Senate considered a reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, you promised to filibuster against any legislation that would grant immunity to telecom companies from lawsuits stemming from their failure to abide by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and demand that the federal government produce court warrants for their confidential customer records. The House has committed a gross dereliction of its duty to uphold the Constitution by passing the FISA revision with telecom immunity. They call it a "compromise" with the Bush White House. I say YOU CANNOT COMPROMISE WITH THE BILL OF RIGHTS. Americans have a RIGHT under the First Amendment to seek redress for the telecoms' violation of their Fourth Amendment right to privacy in their telephone conversations by their failure to demand court warrants. The telecom immunity provision of the revised FISA statute is patently unconstitutional on its face. It deprives Americans of their First Amendment right of petition. It is IMPERATIVE, therefore, that you keep your word and FILIBUSTER to stop telecom immunity from reaching President Bush's desk. Otherwise, it will be necessary to mount an expensive legal action to have the telecom immunity provision declared unconstitutional. Sincerely, Skeeter Sanders
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SkeeterVT, Feingold and Dodd ARE as I Type This

Submitted by drprodny on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 5:30pm.
Now, what are all of us going to do about it?

Call your Senators now and tell them to support the Feingold and Dodd filibuster, and NOT to cave in to a cloture vote. That's the Capitol switchboard link - ask for your Senator either by name or by state, or ask for Feingold's and Dodd's number and let them know you support them, at least!
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FISA Bill

Submitted by ChiefJBR13 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 2:10am.
Just another weak example of leadership on part of the Democratic leadership (contradiction in terms). I hope Senators Feingold and Dodd filibuster this comtemptuous act of treason and the rest of the democrats grow a set of balls. How come they don't stand-up to the worst moronic president in history?
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Hoping Barack will behave...

Submitted by bob1051 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 1:23am.

I, too, hope that Barack Obama will honor his oath of office.

However, the possibility that Bush's successor might choose to respect the Constitutional limitations on his power in no way reverses the damage Bush has done to those limitations. The only way to reverse that damage is to call Mr. Bush and his merry band of executive thugs to account, formally establishing that what they have done is criminal, and not accepted precedent.

If we do not call them to account---if instead we just wait them out, then sit around congratulating one another that they're gone and breathing sighs of relief that our new president is soooo much better behaved---then we have made ourselves complicit in all of Mr. Bush's crimes, rendered the rule of law inconsequential, and set precedents that any future leader may call upon to legitimize his own dictatorial actions.

Our founders took it as an absolute certainty--not just a possibility--that unchecked power will not only corrupt but attract the already corrupted to seek it out. They bequeathed us a robust system of government expressly designed to check the excesses of power by preventing its concentration in any one set of hands. If we abandon that system out of indifference, ignorance, or the comical assumption that our founders didn't live in such perilous and difficult times, then we truly don't deserve their legacy--and we can count it as an absolute certainty that our children will not enjoy the liberties we cast aside.

Robert Crawford

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I completely agree

Submitted by GwenP on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 7:42am.
Bob, I couldn't agree more with you. Our founding fathers were aware of how easy it is to abuse power which is why they came up with the idea of impeachment. I'm not sure what this administation would have to do to get themselves impeached in the eyes of congress. Never the less, breathing a sigh of relief that they're finally out of the White House come November isn't going to cut it. They must be held responsible for their actions. I think one of the biggest mistakes Ford made all those years ago was pardoning Nixon. Perhaps if he would have been thrown in the slammer as he deserved the message would have been loud and clear - NOBODY, including the president, is above the law. Bush&Co deserve to be put in jail, not just kicked out of office. Fingold and a handful of others are the only ones standing up for what is right. The rest deserve to be kicked out along with Bush - democrats included.
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cindy sheehan is running

Submitted by zeldon on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 10:25pm.
cindy sheehan is running against pelosi and should get everyone's support. a good showing there would get the political class's attention, but more importantly could mean positive energy for the peace and justice and environmental movements.
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Cindy Sheehan

Submitted by SpikeHeels on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 10:59am.
www.cindyforcongress.org needs all the help you can send to end Nancy Pelosi's war on our civil liberties.
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Why is...

Submitted by VettaKing on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 9:48pm.
Russ Feingold, or Chris Dodd, not the head of the Senate? Who did Pelosi and Reid blow to get where they are? Who is running against Pelosi in her district? Kick her ass out of there. That would be a hell of wake up call to the dino simps.
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Democrats - all bark no bite

Submitted by anagitator on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 9:13pm.
Democrats control Congress. Guess this proves they are all bark and no bite and with zero concern over right and wrong. Pelosi took impeachment off the table and that says all we need to know about her and them.
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NO "SPINE!"

Submitted by kroses98 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 8:46am.
There should be a drastic overhaul of the Democratic Leadership next term, no matter the results of the election, before the Democratic Party is taken into EXTINCTION, by its present so-called "Leaders!"
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Democrats - all bite

Submitted by walter716 on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 10:03pm.
Clearly the all knew what was going on all along! This cover up is to protect the administration and the leaders of congress from both parties. Pelosi and Reed are right there in the middle of it all. The only thing that was compromised last week were the morals and values of the country. More war funding, imunity for the administration and congressional leadership. As the democrats are really just marching along with Bush we should just give the republicans the house. Let the current progressive democrats leave the party, taking away the Democratic majority and end the reign of off the table Pelosi. As they give Bush whatever he wants it doesn't really matter which name controlls the house because it is still controlled by Bush
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This is the time for Obama to show his leadership

Submitted by Jamez on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 7:50pm.
A clear-cut case of letting the Bush administration and its telecom buddies off the hook. If ever there was a chance to show leadership with absolutely no downside, this is it. Obama could take a few lessons from Russ Feingold. Also, I hope that Jim Webb is voting against it.
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Obama: lesser of two evils.

Submitted by Atmost11 on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 7:04pm.
Obama: lesser of two evils. We need MORE differentiation from Republicans. Americans have been lied to for years, they said it was a spy program to only listen in on international phone calls when one of the callers was part of Al Qaida. We dont even know what kind of spying Bush did - not conclusively - although common sense tells us that the spy program was a vast mining operation looking for marijuana - and it distracted and pissed off law enforcement agencies who regarded the intel as nothing but a bunch of noise!
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Make An Offer They Must Refuse

Submitted by ssg13565 on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 6:56pm.

In the spirit of "compromise" maybe Feingold and Dodd should make the telcos an offer they must refuse.

If the telcos paid tens of millions in lobbying to get this bill, what do the American people get in return?

If we are to go along with the immunity part, then the telcos must agree to full and complete testimony on what they did and why they did it. If they cannot do that, then they do not get immunity.

They know they did something wrong. Where else in the justice system does a criminal get immunity without offering something in return?

I see no reason to make this criminal behavior legal in the future. If anything, we must make people realize that if they collude in an illegal act in the future that there will be a price to pay.

Unless we want to pass a Consitutional Ammendment that says ignorance of the law is an excuse.

ssg13565

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I've Always Admired Russ Feingold

Submitted by drprodny on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 3:55pm.
Never more than now.
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Feingold is a true patriot

Submitted by ernieson on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 8:00pm.
He, Kuinich, Wexler have spine and principles needed by Pelosi, Hoyer, and Reid. Tampering with the Constitution to downplay an issue in the upcoming election (if Bush doesn't declare martial law and suspend it) is a dangerous act. Maybe the 60 votes for passage tactic should be used by the Dems. If this passes the Senate, the Dems may have shot themselves in the foot.
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Spot on

Submitted by ernieson on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 7:54pm.
drprodny: Feingold, Kucinich, Wexler have spine and principles that hold true to the Constitution. Pelosi, Hoyer and Reid need spine. This is a risky gamble by the Dems to remove an issue for the Reps in the upcoming election (if Bush doesn't declare martial law and suspend it). There is a lot at stake when tampering with the Constitution and the 4th amendment. The Dems may shoot themselves in the foot if this bill passes in the Senate. This would be a good time for Dems to invoke the 60 vote for passage tactic.
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FEINGOLD FOR VICE-PRESIDENT!!!

Submitted by kroses98 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 8:51am.
Many of us had always wanted a Gore-Feingold ticket. Now, how about an OBAMA-FEINGOLD ticket??? INTEGRITY literally oozes from Feingold's pores!!! He is fantastic, in my mind, and in the minds of many other liberals. And there is our Jewish vote, if you have to think about it that way!
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