I am trying to lobby Barack Obama and all the other Senators not to fall into the trap of voting for this odious bill, based on the fear that the media, which is controlled by special interests, will label them as terrorists if they don't. The "soft on terrorism" moniker is how the special interests pulled off the Iraq War, complete with torture, depeleted uranium, and white phosphorous, which has brought down our country's prestige and ruined hundreds of thousands of lives.
Please lobby your Senator, or all of them, if you have time, to vote down this assault on our right to privacy, which contains language to circumvent not only investigations into how this warrantless wiretapping has come about, but has a newly minted definition for WMDs that can allow Bush to start a pre-emptive war in Iran based on someone roasting a weenie on a gas grill in Tehran! You can find their contact info at http://www.senate.gov.
Just like voting for the Iraq War has become a political liability, this FISAAA vote will bite them on the political derriere in the end.
The majority of Americans today are against FISAAA right now, despite the gatekeeping and propaganda put forth by the special interests.
I recommend that before someone presses the "Ivory Soap" button, that you please, please read Seneca Doane's and mcjoan's superb diaries on FISAAA and this diary recommended by Diary Rescue: How domestic surveillance affects you and me.
In this Doane Diary, she cites a diary by mcjoan, which is exemplary in its research on this dangerously stealthy bill (boy, those special interests are so diabolically clever!). She explains that the term for WMDs has been changed in the bill in such a way (which is not at all necessary!) that could potentially allow Bush to unilaterally start a war with Iran or wiretap any American based on one carrying around something as benign as a butane lighter.
The media, which is controlled by corporations and special interests, smears Obama and his family with fabrications regardless of the facts, and, by now, most Americans realize that the media is just a non-stop warmongering 527 anyway. They know that they should not trust what the talking heads say, because they have completely lost their credibility due to their collusion in the pre-Iraq War sham. I don't know anyone who has any respect for their integrity.
The people who were fooled by the lies are the most leery and angry for having been snookered.
This is not a good time to play ball with the bad guys and vote against the American people. We are not as gullible as we were before. We realize that we have been had.
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WARNING: THIS DIARY IS SUBJECT TO GATEKEEPING
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BTW, to those who pre-emptively strike out at diaries that dare to question voting for FISAAA, I searched for the word, purity, in comments, and I found that the ones hollering purity at diarists and commenters, who write about the dire ramifications of the FISA amendment to our livlihoods and privacy, are often the same people, who abused anyone who brought up impeachment.
They were wrong about impeachment, and they are wrong about FISAAA being a benign bill that can be passed as a sacrifice on the altar of electibility.
They are essentially gatekeepers, and they do a very good job of not allowing certain topics that just so happen to have the capability of stopping Bush's wars in their tracks by preventing investigations of what he and his cronies have been up to. These gatekeepers allow talk that is just talk, but filter out any idea that can in actuality hold the special interests accountable for their wrongdoings.
Some have been here a long time and have written diaries and comments that appear fairly progressive, but I can't help noticing that their diaries tend not to affect change. Amusing ditties. Progressive puff pieces.
Some of them make so many comments on a regular basis that they couldn't possibly have a full time job, except this gatekeeping gig at which they excel.
They also tend to break rule #7:
Be civil. Do not "call out" other users by name in diary titles. Do not use profanity in diary titles. Don't write diaries whose main purpose is to deliberately inflame.
They couldn't possibly read the diaries before they comment, because their comments are instantaneous. They must have some sort of mechanism that alerts them when the topic they are gatekeeping has arisen. They beat me to the punch before I could even get up my tip jar. I've seen that they beat other diarists to the punch, too.
How do they do it? Do they look at the diary list all day long and have their put downs at the ready? How can anyone who has any kind of a life do that? I could understand it if they submitted their withering remarks and droll cartoons within a couple of minutes, but when they comment within seconds, it really makes you wonder.
Having studied computer programming, I suspect these gatekeepers may not even have to be there, but use a program which searches every diary for certain words that trigger canned comments that often have nothing at all to do with the diary's main themes.