Call Your Representative

When Congressional Democrats look to "compromise" with the White House, what they mean is "give them everything they want."

There is no middle ground here. Bush is insisting that any company that has illegally spied on you at the government's request must get retroactive immunity from any law suits. The "compromise" is that the bill will be split in two, so that representatives that don't like the idea that laws can be broken and then we can say it's ok later can vote against that, but the bill will still pass and give Bush everything he wants.

This is just, well it's awful. Let's be clear about one thing: this is NOT about whether the government can listen in on Al Queda. This bill is completely unnecessary for that. This is about preventing you from knowing how much your government has been spying on you. Without this immunity, the Telecom companies will have to obey judicial orders to turn over records of who they have been monitoring, and for how long; records that will be very VERY embarrassing for the government (and possibly put a number of people in jail). That's what the retroactive immunity provisions of the Protect America Act (Orwell alert) are for.

Please call your representative and urge them to stop this. Not just "please vote against it" but "actively protest in your caucus, persuade people, anything to STOP it."

For more background see my previous post here, or this or this from Glenn Greenwald.

In addition, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer could use some phone calls. Even if you are not a direct constituent, you can let them know that you expect them to act in the best interests of the country and their party. They have a great deal of power over what comes to the floor of the House and in what form.

Nancy Pelosi can be emailed here. Her phone number in Washington is (202) 225-4965, and (415) 556-4862 in San Francisco.

Steny Hoyer's email is here (annoyingly, he tries to filter it to only get email from his constituents; you must enter 20770 in the zip code). His phone number in Washington is (202) 225-4131 and 301-474-0119 in Maryland.

Update:
A list of "blue dog" dems that are supporting retroactive immunity can be found here.