FAX Bayh, Lugar, Hill: FISA Unconstitutional, Repeal NOW

I try to FAX my congress critters every weekend. I started this a few months ago. I was so disgusted last weekend I skipped a weekend, but I caught up yesterday.

The title of the FAX:

FAX to Congressman Baron Hill, Similar Versions to Senators Lugar and Bayh, Subject: Recent FISA Law is Unconstitutional, Must be Repealed.

Text follows below.

We were utterly appalled and disgusted at your recent vote SUPPORTING legislation that purports to not only legitimize the illegal, unconstitutional wide spread spying on American citizens by the current Bush / Cheney regime over the past six years. That legislation went even further, abolishing control by courts even further, and granting even broader discretionary powers to the office of the Attorney General, whose current incumbent has now appeared at least a half dozen times before Congress and demonstrably committed perjury and spat in Congress' face on every appearance. You may have noted that Congress and the Democrats approval rating has COLLAPSED in polls as a result. This is simple cause and effect.
   Why you continue to support legislation and acts by this administration that are clearly unconstitutional, and are destructive of the most fundamental guarantees of civil liberties under the Bill of Rights, at this point completely escapes us. Do you not accept our Constitutional system which is based on the rule of law?
   You and the other 40 so-called 'Blue Dog Democrats' who voted for this are a disgrace. Until you change your actions to indicate you believe in America and the Constitution and the law, and are willing to have the courage to reject the current administration, we will neither donate to nor support your incumbency as we did in the last election.
   You took an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect and defend this nation.
   You did NOT take an oath to continue to support an administration that lied us into an illegal war and is rapidly turning this nation into a full-time, warrantless surveillance police state.
   That you continue to act in fear every time this lying administration says 'Boo' and trots out their latest lies about the terrorist boogey-men would be laughable if the consequence were not so serious.
   If you did not run to take the oath to uphold the Constitution, and protect the rights and privileges of American citizens, what DID you run for office for?
   I am including in this fax two documents for your serious review.
   The first is the press release from the American Civil Liberties Union (and yes, we are proud card carrying members), announcing that even the FISA court has declared the Bush / Cheney regime is out of bounds and must obey the law.
   The second is a cogent and timely article by John Dean, of the Watergate era in American history, pointing out the severe dangers to our nation that this legislation represents.
   It MUST BE REPEALED IMMEDIATELY. And Cheney and Bush should be impeached.

In Unprecedented Order, FISA Court Requires Bush Administration to Respond to ACLU's Request That Secret Court Orders Be Released to the Public (8/17/2007)

The So-Called Protect America Act: Why Its Sweeping Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Pose Not Only a Civil Liberties Threat, But a Greater Danger As Well

•  Tip Jar.

  So. Is this how you do a tip jar? Just post the first comment??

  by HeartlandLiberal on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 03:54:34 AM PDT

  •  Yes. I have e-mailed and e-mailed my

    Senators and Congressman, until I am blue in the face. Believe me when I say that they know how I feel about everything. Does it really matter to them?

    by Owllwoman on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 04:12:53 AM PDT

    •  I am not sure email is effective

      I have been told by too many with contacts in Washington that email is pretty much ignored, or at least not given very much credence. It is too easy to send it, and their accounts, like everyone's, are simply swamped with inbound email, everything from legitimate email from constituents to the 80% plus of all email that is spam that is circulating on the tubes at any one time.

      Just before checking back on this post, I finished reconfiguring my personal email server I run at home to drop use of one major DNS blocklist, because all my relatives in Alabammy who are on bellsouth were being rejected because their carrier got itself blocklisted. This will probably result in an upsurge in spam getting through my filters, but I will fine tune later with whitelisting, this was a quick and dirty.

      But the email situation is dire. Spammers have just about destroyed the reliability of email.

      by HeartlandLiberal on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 04:52:53 AM PDT

      •  They always seem to answer.

        Stabenow waits until she has a break from Congress and then I get a flood of e-mails from her. The only one Carl didn't answer was the one I sent him about bombing Iran. Wonder why?

        by Owllwoman on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:01:56 AM PDT

        •  I am amazed, but pleased, too.

          Congress SHOULD be throwing whatever resources are necessary at leveraging email communication. It would insure participation and commentary by so many more.

          Occassionally I did get canned replies from Bayh's office, but only occassionally, when I was sending emails up until this past spring, when I invested in a FAX/Printer/Scanner/CoffeMaker combo (well, it does so many things, that is how it seems sometimes). Very convenient, and an average FAX is costing me 7 cents, which I consider a good investment. Even long faxes are way less than first class postage.

          The problem with surface mail is it is reported to linger so long making its way through security testing that it may not get to the office of your Congressional reps for many weeks, which does not work for critical issues.

          by HeartlandLiberal on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:09:41 AM PDT

•  One small observation...

  Lugar didn't vote - period.  Coward!!  

  And if either one of the other boneheads had voted against it, it wouldn't have passed.  I called Bayh's office right after the vote and expressed my anger and incredulity that he would actually vote in favor of this piece of crap legislation.  I've posted that episode in another diary as a comment.  Here's how that went:

  I expressed my disbelief that he would sell us out to an Admin who's corruption and incompetence have been so damaging.  I also told them that this affirmative vote by Sen. Bayh just lost him my vote when he's next up for re-election, as he can't be trusted.  Then, I made the 'mistake' of saying I couldn't support someone who "licked the balls" of Bushco (paraphrased).  I was told that "that wasn't lady-like language" and was HUNG UP ON!.  When I called back to apologize and re-word my comment, no one would answer the call. (Caller ID much?) After repeated tries, I then called the main office downstate and got voice mail.  I left a message outlining what happened and asked if it was their policy to respond in this manner.  Then, I tried the local office once more.  Still got voice mail, so I left a message asking if it was standard policy to hang up on voters expressing their opinions in strong language.  I sincerely doubt I'll get a call back, but if I do, I'll pop in with an update.

  That was on Aug 7th.  Still no response.  Big surprise there, eh?  

  I am sick to death of these weinies and can't wait to vote their useless carcasses out of office.

  Hill is not from my district and thankfully, my Rep (Visclosky) voted against it.  I may still write him a letter just to express my contempt for him as a (gag) fellow Hoosier.

  by HoosierDeb on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 04:23:00 AM PDT

•  I got a pathetic letter from Hill this weekend

  It was obviously in response to my FAX of two weekends ago, when the legislation was going down.

  It was a rambling, incoherent promise that he believed in support human rights. With absolutely no direct reference to the FISA legislation, or anything else.

  It was a classicof a letter from your Congressman that tries to sound sincere and push your buttons, but in the ends says absolutely nothing and is useless.

  by HeartlandLiberal on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 04:55:09 AM PDT

  •  And I thought I alone got those!

    by NC Dem on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:01:17 AM PDT

  •  Me, too

    I've gotten a few of those types of letters, too.  Platitudes and pap, for the most part.  Next time, I should just scribble my reply across their babbling.  Maybe something like, "That's nice, but how about an answer to my QUESTION?!!?"  Perhaps that would get their attention?  

    One could hope..........

    by HoosierDeb on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:09:23 AM PDT

•  Returned one to Bayh with Red Markup and a D-

  I once returned one of Bayh's after marking it up as though I were back in a former career grading papers. He only got a D-. The page was dripping red ink.

  by HeartlandLiberal on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:11:08 AM PDT

  •  That's hysterical!

    I would have loved to see a copy of that!  Maybe this could be another tool we could use to make our points a more assertive.  We could use their own response letters, copies of newspaper articles, excerpts from their websites, copies of their voting records, etc... as a 'backdrop' for our evaluations of their performance.  Hard for them to wiggle out of stuff when you're using their own words/actions to hang them.

    Whaddya think?  

    by HoosierDeb on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 05:19:35 AM PDT

•  Hoosier here

  Good blog - HeartlandLiberal.  I am not really a liberal, just an anti-authoritarian neo-con.

  There are many like us around here...just waiting to be enlightened further.

  by Gethsemani Sam on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 07:11:19 AM PDT