|
Finally! Steny Hoyer is being called on his betrayal of our liberties! Glenn Greenwald wrote a powerhouse of an article and call to action over at Salon. As a result, he raised over $20,000 in the first hour for a campaign targeting Hoyer and other Key Democratic members of Congress (leadership, mostly...the traitors). From Glenn: It is now definitively clear that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is the driving force behind a bill -- written by GOP Sen. Kit Bond -- to vest the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers and to vest lawbreaking telecoms with amnesty. Even as his office dishonestly denies that he is doing so, still more reports yesterday -- this one from the NYT and this one from Roll Call (sub req'd) -- confirm that a so-called "compromise" is being spearheaded by Hoyer and the House Democratic leadership. The ACLU and EFF are holding a joint call tomorrow to denounce Hoyer's "compromise" as nothing more than disguised guaranteed immunity for telecoms and, further, because "the proposed deal could be used to authorize dragnet surveillance of Americans' communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment." As a result, there is a major new campaign beginning today aimed at Hoyer and a handful of other key members of Congress who enable telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping. In order to raise as much money as possible for this campaign -- far more than the $85,000 raised (and still being spent) in Chris Carney's district as a result of his support for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty -- we are working to create an alliance with numerous organizations and factions across the ideological spectrum (my bold) which oppose civil liberties erosions, as well as with as many blogs as possible (modeled vaguely after the ideologically diverse alliance that has arisen in Britain in opposition to the sprawling and lawless surveillance state there).
In his updates, Glenn announces that a broad alliance is forming as you read, which includes (so far) the ACLU, leading leftist bloggers, "as well as the faction that masterminded the online money bombs for the Ron Paul presidential campaign, represented by Break the Matrix, Rick Williams and Trevor Lymon." From Rick Williams: Trevor Lyman and I are pleased to advise that BreakTheMatrix is taking up this issue of warrantless wiretapping and the surveillance state in conjunction with our friends and colleagues from the left. Announcing: "Strangebedfellows"-- a strategic alliance of BreakTheMatrix, the ACLU, and the leading online leftist bloggers coming together for the purpose of standing for constitutional rights and freedom online. We oppose this runaway surveillance state that George Bush and the establishment Democrats are trying to enhance (yet again) in the form of a bipartisan "compromise" on warrantless eavesdropping and telecom immunity measures contained in a pending overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
This is good news! We may not be able to stop these yahoos, but if our elected officials won't honor their sworn oaths to protect and defend the Constitution, it falls to WE THE PEOPLE to do so. The Bush Administration, with the aid and comfort of our turncoat leadership, have created divisions in America where they didn't exist. "Divide and conquer" is not just an old saying. It is a strategy. There are multitudes on the Right who share the same attitudes towards our civil liberties as we on the left do. We can work together on the things we agree on and save our differences of opinion for other times and places. The stakes are the highest...our civil liberties, our constitution, our identity as Americans and what we know we stand for. Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd have issued a joint statement vehemently condemning this "compromise." Update: June 18's NY Times has an editorial entitled Mr. Bush v. The Bill of Rights. Worth the read.
|
