(10:00AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
Call, fax or email. It’s too late now to send a postcard to stop this heinous capitulating “cave-in to be” but it’s not too late to start letting them know that gutting our fourth amendment is not cool.
Why is it necessary, why is it politically expedient, to set in stone and make yet another law that falsely legitimizes the crimes of the Executive, of Congress, of the Department of Justice and the telecom industry? In light of the FACTS that Bush Committed 30 Felonies and did not do so alone, did not act without support and protection from Congress — what makes it so important that this must be passed today? There are ongoing cases that this would shut down — more reason, not less, to send this disgraceful veil of faux legitimacy to an early and ignoble grave.
Elections have Consequences, don’t they?
EVERY DAY we see more evidence of outright illegal activity by the Bush Administration, committed with the assistance of the Department of Justice and the protected by a toothless, inept Congress.
Almost WEEKLY now we hear that a court has struck down yet another cornerstone on this malAdministration’s “War on Terror” justification for illegal wiretapping, unConstitutional behavior and bastardization of human principles through their justification of kangaroo court tribunals and torture.
Ladies and gentlement of Congress, it matters not one whit if this particular FISA bill is better or worse than any previous one — not one — if this FISA bill also constitutes an attempt to legitimize the very kind of activity that the Congress, the President and the LAW are supposed to be protecting us FROM.
To those in Congress who still honor their oaths of office — filibuster. Fart loudly. Take snapshots of anyone attempting to vote to pass this mockery of our Constitutional foundation and post them on the walls and halls of every public restroom you can find.
_____
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.— Dylan Thomas
_____
Fill the Mall
Anyone out in DC — can a flash mob be organized to fill the Mall with hundreds of thousand of irate protesters, armed with signs railing against this abominable piece of legislation?
This must not pass. It must not pass with the tacit and unholy blessing of the majority party. It is wholly unacceptable to reduce it to terms of a compromise — it is no such thing.
This is a major test of our will to survive as a country, and to remain a nation of laws, not men…and certainly not men of such miniscule stature and questionable integrity that the laws should ever be changed to serve, protect and defend their paucity of spirit and embodiment of corruption, incompetence and contempt for the law.
Ours in a nation in Crisis; ours is a Constitution in crisis. The crisis started a long while ago, but today — this day, this impending vote — we are about to hear the screaming that preceeds the death knell of one of our founding Constitutional principles and most basic tenets.
It’s time for one last push, one final Surge — call, fax or show up on the Mall or as close to the halls of Congress as you can get. Print out a copy of the images at the top and bottom and of this diary and hold them high if you can get close enough; if you can’t, then plaster the news vans with them.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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DailyKos, ePluribus Media, Below Boston, Docudharma
the only consequence of elections will be to preserve the status quo.
If you would connect to those movements that are trying to put people into the streets, please see these websites:
Iraq Moratorium
The National Assembly
National Strike
If you want to contact your senator about the FISA bill, go here and ask for the following:
The Democrats have amply demonstrated that they have no intention of challenging the power elite, inasmuch as they are part of it.
I started out looking for the wording of one particular quote from Frederick Douglass, but found several that are appropriate to this time — and any other time:
write/call/fax the “critters” and remind them to be sure that all their confidential campaign strategies and conversations should only be made over secure communications…oh yeah– well, maybe only in face to face meetings on a park bench, with only pigeons nearby…
I am bunched up in such a tight knot I am physically ill over this horse shit.
So, now the Obama administration is free to listen in on the Congressional opposition leadership? Is that what they want?
This country was, at one time, a country of laws. A country that based governmental decisions on ethics, first asking not what is best for ME, but what is best for the citizenry at large.
What happened? This isn’t something that can be laid at the feet of George W. It began long before… this is simply a culmination of corruption that has come to a head in this new millennium.
Can we hold our elected officials accountable, or are we simply impotent buffoons poking fingers in the air and shouting “there oughta be a law!”
Is vigilantism all we have left? Do I have to grab a torch and a pitchfork and storm the doors at the Capitol?
What is it going to take? Replacing corrupt republicans with corrupt democrats gives us nothing but more corruption.
My political awareness began the morning after election day and lo and behold Al Gore was NOT my president as I had been told before nodding off here on the east coast. Since then I’ve experienced nothing but impotent rage at this administration, and then finally, after 8 years, a glimmer of an eloquent man that gave me the audacity to hope.
SHIT.
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
I’ve lost hope, and hope was all I had.
There’s nothing ambiguous or confusing here.
Our constitution, and thus our very liberty, is being hidden in plain site, like Poe’s purloined letter. Next the trap door will open and we’ll find ourselves without even the guise of liberty.
This is a clarion call.
all you want, and call your Senator and Representative until you’re blue in the face.
It won’t do any good, because the Hollow Men can’t hear you….
Sorry to be so cynical, but I just can’t believe this is happening today.
While the debates go on over FISA, and the votes are being tallied for different versions of spying on citizens- Domestic Spying Quietly Goes on: (emphasis mine)
Sadly, FISA and the issues of warrants for wiretaps address only the tip of the iceberg. Even if there was a tight control on wiretapping, and prosecution of telecoms-there would still be ongoing wholesale data mining on every aspect of American life going on. Pieces of each life that could be pieced together to be misused against almost every citizen-if the individual “data miner” or their agency/ agencies so chose, or were directed to do:
Canada has recognized the potential for abuse and misuse of this “data” and has at least taken the action of appointing a cabinet level advocate for the people and their privacy:
…Post SubversiveNess on the InterMess Day…
should be abundantly clear to anyone paying attention. This is hardly the first time we’ve been misled by these vile thespians. We should expect more to come in the future. Does anyone see reasons to be optimistic? I’ve been a cynic for more than 30 years and more often than not my worst fears have come to pass.
Looking back a few months at a thread here done after we had been had, where resistance to Bush strangely evaporated in an earlier example of betrayal, shows that the writing was on the wall.