FRIST AND ROVE COMBINE SPYING AND TRIBUNALS BILLS

[cyberpj]

Fight Frist's Combined Spying, Tribunals Bill

The battle over illegal spying and military tribunals is no longer two separate fights. This week, the White House will try to ram a far-reaching and dangerous “anti-terror” bill through Congress. Karl Rove and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist laid out the game plan, starting in the Senate.

Your active involvement fighting these abuses of power is making a real impact, but the fight isn’t over yet and Congress will make critical decisions this week. Even if you’ve called before about warrantless wiretapping or military commissions, we need you to call again. There is simply too much at stake not to act at this crucial moment.

Please contact your senators today.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Frist’s frightening “Big Brother” proposal would combine two bills: the Cheney-Specter Bill to allow warrantless spying on Americans AND the administration’s military tribunals legislation that guts the Geneva Conventions and allows secret evidence to be used to convict detainees held in Guantanamo. Combining these controversial issues is a partisan ploy to intimidate legislators and squelch a full and thorough debate about what these far-reaching proposals would mean for the future of our freedoms and our nation.

Call your senators right now and urge them to oppose legislation to ratify both the NSA spying program and President Bush’s illegal military commissions.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

We must stop this Rovian plan to divide and conquer. With high-ranking members of Bush’s own party in open rebellion on torture and detention issues -- and the Democrats and several brave Republicans joining forces in opposition to legislation that would rubber-stamp illegal spying programs -- pushing one omnibus “Big Brother” bill is a cynical effort to force Senators to swallow the entire bill. The threat: if your senators don’t support these radical changes, they will be smeared as voting against “keeping us safe,” in an election year.
((Posters note: which they've already started via Frist yesterday - on all Dems.))

Tell your senators that some things are more important than election year politics.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

With this bill, the Bush administration is stripping away the American values of freedom and due process. But with your help, we will defeat this and win the national debate.

Thank you for standing with us and for taking action today.

Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union

[grizmaster]

1. your links go to the Maine Rep and Senate version

do you have the generic link that precedes that one?

[cyberpj]

2. Fixed to include Senate contact info. nt

[cyberpj]

4. For now use this link - I guess they don't have it up on ACLU site yet.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

[VP505]

3. This needs more attention

because Frist is trying to pull a fast on on us. Here is a little more about what he is trying to do: Senator Frist’s bill, the "Terrorist Tracking, Identification, and Prosecution Act of 2006, (S. 3886)would combine the Cheney-Specter Bill to allow warrantless spying on Americans with legislation that would gut the Geneva Conventions and allow the use of secret evidence to convict detainees. It would even allow the death penalty based on evidence detainees cannot see and from evidence obtained as the result of water boarding, threats of death, and other horrific forms of abuse. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which this bill would needlessly weaken, already gives the government all the tools it needs to protect us from terrorists. It even allows the government to start spying on suspected terrorists without a warrant as long as it seeks one after the fact.

[annabanana]

5. Dr. Fristenstein has built a MONSTER!!

His combo-creature will gut the Geneva Convention AND allow warantless (illegal) wiretapping!!

We got to get out the torches & pitchforks on this one!

[bvar22]

6. The Democrats need to use EVERY POSSIBLE...

..device and strategy available to SLOW this down until AFTER the November elections.

[trogdor]

8. The session ends October 6th.

I doubt the members want to still be dicking around with this instead of campaigning when they're getting their asses kicked at home.

[alfredo]

7. Maybe Frist should get a taste of water boarding to see

what he is unleashing on the world. He probably saw a video and determined that it does no harm.

[dapper]

9. I contacted my reps in IN

K&R

[mmonk]

10. The time is getting late for our country. Now or never

is being delivered.

[shanti]

11. they are SHAMELESS!!!!

:grr: :mad:

[cyberpj]

12. Although I received this information in an ACLU email, I do not yet see it

anywhere on the web or in the news.

Either Ms. Fredrickson emailed too early or she has an awfully good behind-the-scenes source, or, Frist and Rove may have backed off of submitting the combined bill.

I just don't know. Did anyone else get this email? Or hear about this from another source?

I sent a reply email asking for more information and validation but no answer yet.

I thought posting an action request email from the ACLU would be perfectly safe but I'm starting to wonder now.

:shrug: pj

[slipslidingaway]

15. Same here, rec'd the email but could not open the link at

bottom where it says "P.S. To read more before taking action or get a link to the text of the bill, go here."

???

[VP505]

18. That link

just gives more background information, it's not a wait for this or that kind of thing.

[slipslidingaway]

23. Thanks, I was able to access the page on another computer. n/t

[cyberpj]

20. And, I've not received an answer to the 2 emails I sent asking about this.

I have a feeling someone at ACLU sent this out too early.
Or else they were given false info.
We'll just have to wait and see now I guess.

[slipslidingaway]

24. Look at S3886, both the FISA and tribunal issues are listed.

http://thomas.loc.gov/

snip>>

Beginning
September 11, 2006

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

TITLE I--MILITARY COMMISSIONS


snip>>

TITLE II--FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE

[cyberpj]

25. kick.nt

[texpatriot2004]

13. So much for Republican's Small Government nm

[EFerrari]

14. Kick

[proud patriot]

16. last ditch effort by a bunch of criminals

IMHO

[volstork]

17. Well, unfortunately,

Frist IS my senator. What a piss-poor example of a human being. He is NOT well- liked in the medical community here in Nashville.

[ninkasi]

19. This is insane

I feel like I'm living in a nightmare, so surreal have things become. The president of the United States very publicly demands the right to torture people. He claims that anybody can be put in prison just on his say-so. There, he can be subjected to torture, which can then be used against him. He will have no right to see the evidence against him, and may not even have the right to be present at his own trial.

Bush is kicking aside 800 years of a principle first put in the Magna Carta, and then to become the basis for our own Constitution. The protections that Bush wants to brush aside so cavalierly are protections that our Founding Fathers insisted be written into the Constitution because of the high-handed and despotic actions of King George.

The men who crafted our Constitution were men far wiser, and more intelligent than George Bush. After being willing to risk death by standing up to the British army, they were going to be very sure that our liberties were not infringed upon.

Tragically for us and the rest of the world, we have another George, who is the least qualified man in our history to hold the high office of the President. Another danger of suffering Bush in power, is that men who usurp power, as he is doing, are also the least qualified to lead. Time is growing short for us, because winning control of one, and preferably both, houses of Congress might be the last chance we'll have to undo even a fraction of the harm caused by the president and his greedy, corrupt cronies.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Republican voters would be insane to vote for anyone who approves

these bills.

[cyberpj]

22. Here it is: S.3886 - Terrorist Tracking, ID, & Prosecution Act of 2006:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2188804&mesg_id=2188804

[fat dad]

26. Time to fillibuster.

Are Dems worried that a fillibuster could be twisted to say that they are soft on terror? Surely this could bring Bush's crimes out into the light of public debate?

WTF is going on in this country? I am more and more ashamed to be an American every day lately.