Kia Franklin

Blogtivism and FISA

Over the past few weeks bloggers everywhere have really mobilized around opposing the proposed FISA bill, which will grant amnesty to possible telecom spies who (may or may not have--whatever) cooperated with the Bush administration and violated the 4th Amendment. I've written several posts about why such a law would be a very, very bad idea. Go here to see my first post and a link to all the other FISA posts on TortDeform.

So, this week the Senate will resume consideration of the FISA bill. Rather than complain afterwards it might be good to do something beforehand, yes? So I thought I'd share this tremendously helpful post from Christy Hardin at Firedoglake, laying out several useful tools to help people take action--i.e., make phone calls to your reps, track where your elected official will be, contribute to online discussions, sign petitions, etc. Here's an excerpt, and below is a link to the full post:

Tomorrow is the vote on the FISA bill. What say we welcome back Senators and their staffs from the 4th of July holiday with a rousing bit of patriotic support for the rule of law?

Last week, Blue America launched a call tool to help you get in touch with Senators regarding the FISA bill. We'd like you to put it to some serious use today.

We are asking Senators to vote IN FAVOR of the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy Amendment (S.A. 5064 to H.R. 6304). We're asking for a NO vote on cloture, and a NO vote on the final bill as well.

We also launched a tool last week to help you track activity and elected official public appearances in your area.

The hope is that it has helped and will continue to help you organize action in your neighborhood and to connect with other folks who want to do the same. If you were active over the weekend -- with signs, meetings, and what not -- and have pictures or video to share, please send them along. We'd love to see and share some action from all of you! Keep Reading

Also, I just thought I'd share Senator Dodd's article in the Huffington Post about opposing legal amnesty for telecoms. Here's an excerpt, and below you'll find the link:

That the United States Senate would even have to debate whether to uphold the rule of law is infuriating enough. But two weeks ago, the contrast in priorities became too much: as the Senate refused to address the tide of foreclosures impacting more than 8,000 people every day, it was poised and ready to provide immunity to giant corporations that may have broken the law.

So, I did what I felt I had to: I said no.

By blocking a vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the fight to stop retroactive immunity goes on -- for another week anyway. The Senate will take the bill up again this week as it returns from the July 4th recess. Keep Reading

While it may seem like blogs are being saturated with attention to this issue, it couldn't be discussed enough given its significance. I can't overstate how important this issue is for Americans--for our Constitution, for our access to the courts, and for our right to government leadership that has our best interests, and not those of its corporate sponsors, in mind.

So check out the links above and get involved!

Kia Franklin: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 11:37 AM, Jul 07, 2008 in
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