Blue America's FISA dollars at Work: Full page ad at the Washington Post
By John Amato Monday Jul 07, 2008 2:45pm 
Check out the new full page Blue America ad placed in the Washington Post today. Thank you all so much for donating to our Blue America/FISA fund so we're able to get our message out far and wide. We believe in the Constitution and so should you! We also bought ads to run against Barrow and to support Regina Thomas in the upcoming GA-12 primary on July 15th. I'll write about that later. When Bush got together with Congress to grant retroactive immunity, that was just unacceptable to many of us.
Donate here to help elect better Democratic candidates to represent our values. Blue America has had great success so far. And you know, a major reason that Blue America exists is to push a progressive message into districts where it's never heard regardless if we win or lose a seat. We still win by getting that message out into the atmosphere.
Almost 6,000 people have donated so far and we have run TV, radio, and newspaper ads in Chris Carney's Pennsylvania district, newspaper ads and patch-thru calls explaining to Steny Hoyer's constituents (and colleagues) his odious role in this massive betrayal of Democracy. ...we are running the following full page ad in the Washington Post and the day after we will explain our efforts to hold John Barrow (GA-12) accountable for his outrageously anti-American votes
Keep making your calls because the vote is coming tommorrow.
UPDATE: Here's Blue America's Andrew Rice:
"Congress must remain vigilant in order to protect Americans from another terrorist attack. However, the bill that is before Congress this week bargains away the privacy of law-abiding American citizens while protecting the companies that allegedly participated in the President's illegal wiretapping program. The Senate should stick to the narrow fix it set out to accomplish by making it clear that the government does not have to obtain a warrant to listen to foreign-to-foreign communications. Instead, this bill allows a significant expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act so that government can eavesdrop on the international communications of innocent American citizens. Since losing my brother on 9/11, I have vowed to improve America's anti-terrorism capability without sacrificing the freedoms that so many Americans have died to protect."
--- Andrew Rice, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, OK
(You can see the full page ad under the fold.)
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SOLD!!!
Talk about money well spent!!!
I just saw Russ Fiengold speaking in support of the Dodd Amendment. I'm afraid the telecoms have bought the necessary votes to get immunity passes. Who knows how much blackmail is being used to get things done and how much was made possible by illegal wiretapping. We are screwed.
I think the ad is great. If Obama votes in favor of this law, he'll deserve to lose in November.
Great ad. If only we could make ALL of the Senate read it. Maybe something like on Clockwork Orange.
They are talking about this on the cable news shows, but only to the extent that Obama supporters are angry because Obama may vote for it. They never go into the details about telecom immunity and the rest of it. They never pursue the details. They don't even attempt to give the pros and cons of the bill.
I just hope the average citizen reads the ad and takes the time to understand what it is telling them.
pissed off patricia @ 4:
That's our new and improved Corporate Media for you. Freaking useless.
John @ 1:
What I didn't realize is that the whistleblower, who spoke on Democracy Now! has never been called to testify by Congress.
No hearings, nothing.
This is very dirty.
Me and my buddy were yapping last night, and he agrees with me no more money for Obama.
Fuck him.
pissed off patricia @ 4:
POP. Tho not nearly as complicated as the Patriot Act, I doubt that many in both
Houses of Congress have read FISA Act, and are just like the newscaster who are
not giving the pros and cons...they don't know presicely what the Bill contains and apparently don't care.
Hi guys -
Howie is living La Vida Loco in HuffPo today - he would like some "Comment-love" and extra hits to help his blog make the FRONT PAGE there. How about it? He's too shy to ask, so I am. PLEASE GO HERE AND COMMENT ON HOWiE'S HUFFPO POST.
thanks ;)
I am shocked that WaPo published the ad. They are writing to the right of Tony Blankley and the Washington Times since dumya got elected.
John @ 1:
We have Feingold coming up next...
pissed off patricia @ 4:
The media will only make an issue out of anything that they can frame on attacks of Obama.
We're doing these ads in response to FISA. Period, And we've been working on it a long time.
Just called Claire McCaskill D-MO office. She is going to vote for it.
Blue America, set your sights on her.
I have a new mission in life.
Unseat McCaskill.
Thanks to my Rep, Russ carnahan, he said no!!!
Kit Bond is utter scum.
My gawd! Kit Bond makes me embarrassed to be from Missouri. And yes, I'm from Missouree. Bond is from Missourah.
Typically White & Bitter Agent Wright-is-right Huessein Provocateur @ 12:
Just got off the phone with his office.
Guess what? LOL.
I asked for swimming lessons too.
The intern laughed!!!
Why does NBC nightly news always, when referring to John McCain, show a picture that's a least 10 years old?
John Amato @ 11:
John, I appreciate the work and money that went into the ad. My point was this is such an important issue that it should be being discussed by the media too. The only time I hear FISA mentioned is when they are listing off Obama's changes.
Ads like this shouldn't even be necessary if the media was doing it's job to inform and educate the public. I meant nothing derogatory about the ad or anyone involved with it.
casper46 @ 13:
TY Missoureeeee!!!!
Call them all!!!
Bond is a pig. I don't throw insults around much, but he is a pig. I wish I could find the video of his infamous plane trip.
Back in the 90s he bumped some guy from 1st class to coach because he needed to fly to Washington.
Someone video taped him eating his in flight meal and he is a PIG!!! It was used as a campaign ad against him...PERFECT!!
casper46 @ 6:
The other day on the radio, one of the stooges slipped up and said 'warrantless domestic wiretapping' when talking ever so briefly about the 'controversy'. He then quickly corrected himself and said 'foreign surveillance'.
It is Newspeak. As Orwell put it: 'the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.'
Here is doublethink.
Ultimately there will only be two words left in the Newspeak dictionary. Doublethink and thoughtcrime.
Salud, my fellow thoughtcriminals.
Joey Sparks @ 14:
Because the media is McCain's base. Just ask Chris Matthews.
Glenn Greenwald has written extensively and eloquently about FISA.
None more so than today, here.
thank you for everyone involved.
glenn greenwald, also, wrote (another) great piece on the FISA appeasement and why it matter so much.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/06/10154/
any democratic pol supporting this appeasement bill deserves neither my money nor my vote. period.
Alice X (Chomsky Nader) @ 18:
i like how you think :-)
eeee, sorry, didn't mean to copy your thought (didn't see it until i hit 'submit')...
the good thing is that we link to 2 different greenwald articles
Samson- @ 20:
No hay problema.
Nothing but thoughtcrimes here.
To my simple mind, the Bingaman amendment sounds good. Bush has said he would veto the bill if Bingaman's amendment is added. Bush is sounding desperate and ya gotta wonder why.
Assume I'm an alien. I have a question to pose about retroactive immunity -- What do the American people want out of all of this? What is their goal?
Class action lawsuits? Unable to use information collected in court (likely already nullified)? Blood? CEO Heads on a stick? New, clearer, specific laws that prohibit future intrusions -- the proverbial line in the sand (Yeah, I know)? Jail Time for 120 employees of the corps? While egregious, is there demonstrable harm to anyone? Fines? What?
Then there is the power of the pocketbook, you could simply stop doing business with the offenders. Oh, that's right, where would you go -- they are nearly homogenous.
Great Ad - good to see there's still truth in advertising.
RE: Above query.
Don't assume that I'm pro-immunity. Hell, I stopped using their services years ago -- I hate telephones. There are so many places, and so many people in the chain who can tap a phone call these days, I abandoned the illusion of privacy years ago; especially in light of Choicepoint/DBT/Diebold et al. building up their data mining stores. I'm just curious of the general consensus. Hello?
I am saddened beyond belief at what has happened to this Country. When I became a Citizen - it was the proudest day of my life. I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States and yet it is being shredded day by day and most people don't care. No Democrat who votes for this will get my vote.
Dr. Know @ 23:
I will assume you are an alien, it will be easy, you have given every indication.
I will put it even more strongly, you have given every indication that you are a Telecom troll.
What the American people should want is the continuance of the rule of law.
It has been said coherently that the Telecoms acted illegally. Why would they need immunity if they had acted legally.
If they acted illegally then there is a basis for a lawsuit.
The first thing to find out is what they, the Telecoms, did.
That would happen through discovery.
I know why they did it. The surveillance contracts were lucrative.
The government used our money to pay them to spy on us.
If you believe in the rule of law, as I do, you can only feel that the lawsuits should go forward.
The value of the judgement will be determined by the loss of plaintiffs, the facts and the circumstances.
27 Alice X (Chomsky Nader) Says:
I will put it even more strongly, you have given every indication that you are a Telecom troll.
LOL. My, paranoid aren't we. That's OK, I've had collusive elements work against me for 20 years as well, so I know the feeling. But I believe many people here know I'm certainly not a Telcom troll (Amato, Rosenburg, Xoites, LAConfidential, nonnymouse; a little help, please?). Just a serious, honest question. Are we to have 180 million plaintiffs suing AT&T, Comcast, et al. Is this to be a class action suit? What are the plaintiffs going to get, $10 each? The only demonstrable damages at this point would be punative. The only winners in this scenario are lawyers -- we get to foot the bill for the costs of 5 years of trial time, while they skate off with 35+% of the total judgment. (Not a fan of most lawyers.) Better to write a rebate clause into the bill if that is the case.
Again, what punishment do the American people want to see applied against the Telcoms for breaking the law. Is that better?
And to get the ball rolling, I'll suggest a rebate for all moneys that may have been collected in the execution of the lawless executive order.
Dr. Know @ 33:
If they have all of my business communications, my passwords, my intellectual property descriptions, banking transactions, credit card numbers (encrypted until when) and I know not what else, I want to know about it, I want to know who has them. I want an accounting.
Here Amy Goodman interviews Mark Klein the ATT technician turned whistleblower.
Our corrupt congress never saw fit to interview him, to call any hearings or to do any investigation.
And yet they are contemplating retroactive immunity, the bill which was crafted by the Telecoms themselves.
This is not a small trifling matter.
It is not just a matter of theory.
Hmm.. dead air.
Well, I suppose the American Bar Association would love the en masse civil lawsuits aspect...
My assertion is that if you spoke it or typed it, they've got it.
An individual accounting will likely never happen. Assume the worst.
As for Congress, and the government in general, they're opportunistic asshats for the most part. But the public costs for the Judiciary to handle 180 million civil suits would be overwhelming. They are drowning already. Leaving a class action suit as the only realistic remedy, and the subsequent losses to the Bar as substantial. Not a good bargain for the public at large.
I would suggest changing your passwords, BTW. ;-)
yes I can see it. But I do have CSS (Can't See Shit), so reading it-eh not so much...
Mr. Obama , please do the right thing for America vote NO.
Senate Democrats, please do the right thing for America and vote no.
We are watching!
I guess if we lose on FISA it might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Maybe this might turn out to be a great tool to have handy for investigating the corrupt republican crime machine once Obama is in office.
No warrants, no worries.
Now they can listen in and collect evidence to investigate without those pesky rights getting in the way since all those presidential powers now held by Bush will be held by a liberal.
\Posted on the wrong thread earlier.
Actually, We do NOT celebrate the rule of law on July 4th. We celebrate independence and the the right of people to govern themselves. If it was about rule of law, then we would have obeyed the laws of Great Britain, and remained a colony.
Maybe it's because I live in Maine, where a pair of hard right wingers in Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are naively thought of by moveon.org and bloggers as somehow moderate and therefore open to influence by citizen phone calls, letters, emails, etc. Let me just tell you all - nah gah happen.
However, I'm trying very hard to think of a single instance in which an outpouring of netroots-inspired activism (the phone calls, emails, etc) have had the slightest effect on action in the senate. These people, in my estimation (dem and gop) could not care less what you and I think. We're not the ones they're on the phone with seeking campaign money. We're not the ones hosting the fundraisers.
Dirt gathered by this wiretapping system has to be the reason these senators are voting for this bill . . . add the fact that the telecoms have paid them well for their vote and you've got your answer of "why"? This present government is so totally disgusting and corrupt. What ever happened to "honor"?
Senator Durbin marched in our local July 4th parade. As I directed my very loud chant of, "Vote NO on FISA" to him, while he was waving to the other side of the street, he turned and looked at me with a big grin and acknowledged that he was going to vote no. I am so disappointed that the junior senator from my state (Obama) is voting yes. I can not encapsulate a politician's entire tenure in a single vote, but this vote is so critical to the constitution, I feel that any future support I may have for Obama is riding on this vote. I have decided that I will vote for him for President, but if he loses and runs again for Senate, I will not vote for him because he neglected his duty to defend the Constitution.
Dr. Know @ 33:
First of all, I agree that the punitive damages should be a rebate, but there is nothing paranoid about watching the Fourth Amendment being gutted and getting angry and concerned about it. When we have a Justice Department that is not a party functionary but rather a defender of the United States Laws, that is when we would see our government do what it is supposed to do; defend the Constitution.
Well, piss on it. I think it is time that we all just decide that civil laws are not meant for us and go our merry way and do what we like. Moral laws - we can stick to those even though the powers that be seem to have no morals but why would I obey any law that is supposed to orchestrate my behavior? What an outrageous betrayal. Oh, a deer just went through my yard - run and be free!!!
And about those federal taxes - not constitutional!! Do you like what they do with your money?
What was that called? Um....was it...civil disobedience..what were those names?....mlk or mg..Civil disobedience...that might involve not obeying laws. Also, the reason we have the 2nd amendment is so that when government has broken our contract with it, and to such an egregious level that we are forced to come together, bringing our individual arms to defend our freedoms via militias. Is it possible for a well regulated militia to mean...men who are proficient in the use of their arms come together and bring their arms to defend their freedoms? Regulators Mount Up. It would seem pointless to allow the government to have the final say so in how we defend ourselves against anything including and especially the government. Most gun owners are ordinary decent people. I trust my friends and neighbors, not George Bush, Or Barack Obama, or John McCain.
And you know what else...we can choose not to use phones, TVs, banks. We could learn to grow our own food. I guess that wouldn't be convenient. Oh well...
Isn't it really the Federal Reserve’s money? Since the treasury "gives" it to them after printing up, and then gets it back via loan from that same private entity. Where do I sign up for that deal?
Follow the money and who control's it.
What is the process of constitutional amendment process? Could the income tax amendment been a lie, from the backers of the idea, who coincedently enough will profit from said tax system via the federal reserve.
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