call your congress people - S. 3931 - outrageous

[pberq]

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/

One way we can still make a difference on civil liberties in this Congress is by helping to stop legislation that would permit currently-illegal domestic spying. Majority Leader Bill Frist is pushing a bill with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney (S. 3931) that would attempt to establish massive loopholes in the FISA Act and the 4th Amendment of the nation’s Constitution, seeking to grant the Executive Branch incredible powers to spy, without oversight, on you and me. Under the legislation, even most federal courts would be stripped of their right to review the President’s actions.

I urge you to call right now and make the following three points:

1.Do not pass the Cheney-Frist S. 3931 or anything else that would violate the FISA Act and shred our 4th Amendment protections.

2.Do not allow S. 3931 or similar legislation to be attached to legislation on detainees; these bills affect our core constitutional protections and deserve separate, deliberative debate and votes.

3.Any vote to strip Habeas Corpus rights from American law will not be forgotten.

[sam sarrha]

1. .. cant do much in a Decidership.. newspeak for Dictatorship

they are locking things up to stop the election process and take over

[babylonsister]

2. This was posted yesterday, maybe some hope?

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/15613307.h...

Congress unlikely to pass wiretapping
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Congress is unlikely to approve a bill giving President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program legal status and new restrictions before the November midterm elections, dealing a significant blow to one of the White House's top wartime priorities.

House and Senate versions of the legislation differ too much to bridge the gap by week's end, when Congress recesses until after the Nov. 7 elections, according to two GOP leadership aides who demanded anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday that his chamber would bring up a bill by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. Asked whether that version could be reconciled with the Senate's White House-approved bill, Boehner replied:

"We'd like to, but I think that might be a stretch."

The Senate bill, struck by an agreement between Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and the White House, is being reviewed by the Intelligence Committee and unlikely to receive a floor vote this week, the aides said.

[pberq]

3. Is this part of the same bill that also strips habeus?

[babylonsister]

4. I honestly don't know. It's very confusing imo. nt

[pberq]

5. Pat Leahy on floor of Senate now - this bill suspends habeus corpus

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/26/showdown_over_habeas.php

. . .Going forward, the bill departs even more radically from our most fundamental values. It would permit the president to detain indefinitely—even for life—any alien, whether in the United States or abroad, whether a foreign resident or a lawful permanent resident, without any meaningful opportunity for the alien to challenge his detention. The administration would not even need to assert, much less prove, that the alien was an enemy combatant; it would suffice that the alien was "awaiting determination" on that issue. In other words, the bill would tell the millions of legal immigrants living in America, participating in American families, working for American businesses, and paying American taxes, that our government may at any minute pick them up and detain them indefinitely without charge, and without any access to the courts or even to military tribunals, unless and until the government determines that they are not enemy combatants.