Gotta apologize, this entry is borrowed greatly from an e-mail from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC).
As many of you know, legislation is pending that would make Bush's domestic spying retroactively legal. This is an absurd proposition for any political party, much less one that just 8 years ago held itself out as the "Rule of Law" party.
Changing the law to make up for past violations of the law isn't even in the same zip code as "personal responsibility"
So the BORDC asks you to call your representative this week and next and ask them to oppose the Senators Spector and DeWine bill and Representative Wilson's HR 5825.
For the text of the bills, click here and then scroll to Senate Bill 2453 (Spector), 2455 (DeWine) and House bill 5825 (Wilson).
Ask your senators and representatives to
OPPOSE any other legislation that would give the executive branch new surveillance powers that are immune to oversight by the courts and Congress
SUPPORT a full, public investigation of the NSA surveillance program.
Find your call-in numbers here
Sample Talking Points
Congress should investigate, not legislate. The Administration has not yet answered important questions regarding the program and has blocked investigation into its authorization. A full investigation into the domestic surveillance program is urgently needed to determine the nature and scope of the spying program, as well as the facts surrounding its approval.
Congress should let the traditional court system do its job. Senator Specter's bill, S. 2453, would pull all lawsuits against the wiretapping program out of the traditional legal system and into a secret court that has no procedures for hearing argument from anyone but the Administration. Anyone who has broken the law must be held accountable by the courts.
Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as the exclusive means for conducting domestic surveillance. That law requires that the government obtain approval from a secret intelligence court before eavesdropping on Americans. The proposed new legislation would reward the Administration's stonewalling and failure to follow the laws passed by Congress. The rule of law must be restored before any further changes are considered.
We cannot allow terrorists to change the core values of America. As Americans, we believe in checks and balances, and we have a system that works. Spying on people without a judge's permission and without evidence of any crime betrays that system and violates the law.
Organizations supporting the call-in day include: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Civil Liberties Union, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Center for National Security Studies, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Downsize DC.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, First Amendment Foundation, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, National Lawyers Guild, Open the Government, Privacy Activism.