ACTION: Petition to US House to stand firm behind the RESTORE Act (FISA)

[seafan]

It's now or never, to preserve the Fourth Amendment.

U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Please go here to sign the petition.

Tell House Members to Stand Firm Behind the RESTORE Act!

The FISA bill passed by the Senate is a disgrace. By legalizing warrantless spying on Americans and granting retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, the Senate seeks to ensure that the Bush administration's illegal spying programs are never investigated or subjected to the rule of law. The Senate bill is a profound betrayal of the votes of millions of Americans who voted in 2006 to put Democrats in control of Congress in order to increase, not eliminate, checks and oversight on this administration, and to restore the rule of law to our country.

The House's RESTORE Act is an infinitely superior bill. It provides real safeguards on the President's spying powers while providing him with the surveillance powers he needs to protect the country. It enables the issue of the legality of the President's spying programs to be decided where it belongs -- in a court of law. And it preserves the crucial balance that has existed for decades between (enabling) necessary surveillance on Americans and ensuring that our political leaders do not abuse that power.

In the wake of the discovery of the Watergate crimes and decades of surveillance abuses, the Congress of the mid-1970s acted on a bipartisan basis to put into place safeguards to ensure that even our highest political officials must adhere to the law and can only exercise eavesdropping powers with real safeguards. The RESTORE Act continues that tradition, while the Senate bill eviscerates it. We urge Democratic House members to stand firm behind the bill they passed and not capitulate once again to the bullying, manipulative demands of the Bush administration for ever-greater unchecked power, as embodied by the warrantless eavesdropping and telecom immunity provisions of the Senate bill.

[robinlynne]

1. The restore act is TERRIBLE. Why is the petition asking for the restore act?

[seafan]

2. The House bill is the one that strips immunity. My understanding is that

this petition will require Bush to get a court-ordered warrant, just as the requirement has always existed under the original FISA law.

[robinlynne]

3. The restore act removed the fisa court in august 2007.

[seafan]

4. I think you are referring to the "Protect America Act" of August 6, 2007.

This "Protect America Act" is the one Bush wanted, that would overhaul FISA. That is the one that our Congress folk caved on, in August, deciding to come back and renew it after 6 months. That is the one that attempts to confer retroactive immunity to the telecoms for their Bush-ordered illegal spying activity.


The "RESTORE Act", now in the House, is the one that does not allow retroactive immunity for the telecoms. It also would allow and affirm the original FISA laws, which have always remained in place, to remain in effect. Bush is fighting madly against this one.



(Bush's "Protect America Act" would expire at the end of this month.) Basically, the RESTORE Act reaffirms our long existing FISA law. (In Bush world, a law is not a law, and each one must be revisited.)



Daily Kos has much more discussion on all of this today.

[robinlynne]

9. ooohhhh. my bad. Thanks. I was thinking of the "protect" america act.

[L. Coyote]

5. Caught CBN News last night, by accident. HUGE ERROR!

They reported that FISA expires on Friday, and Dems don't care! HUGE, HUGE LIE (and blunder?), but great propaganda to the uninformed masses.

FISA does not expire! The Protect America Act, the provisions past in August, does!

[seafan]

6. Fancy that, L. Coyote. Media misleading the people yet again.

You're right.

The only law *to expire* is the one Bush wants to cover his behind. When it does, we will have our original FISA laws still in place to force him to go to the FISA court to obtain a warrant for his spying.

And he can't have THAT.



The easy way to identify any of *Bush's Laws* is to look at the name----> *Protect America Act"===*Healthy Forests*===*Clear Skies*===*PATRIOT ACT*====etc.... All of these bastardize our language to strip us of our human, civil and environmental rights.

[ThomWV]

7. Done K&R

[L. Coyote]

8. DONE. K & R

[Pastiche423]

10. Done

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