A F.I.S.A. Primer

By Carol Gee

The new FISA - The current FISA bill's Orwellian title is "Improving Foreign Intelligence Surveillance to Defend the Nation and the Constitution Act of 2007." The text of the new FISA legislation itself is available from the Talking Points Memo Document Collection.

The "caving senators" - "Julie" writes a community blog at The Democratic Party. Here is (my abbreviated) list of the 16 Democratic senators voting for the new FISA bill, according to Julie. She included some rather inflammatory Wikipedia biographical information, so take that part with a grain of salt.
Julie's "Roll of Shame:"

Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA); Evan Bayh (D-IN); Thomas Carper (D-DE); Kent Conrad (D-ND); Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Daniel Inouye (D-HI); Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Mary Landrieu (D-LA); Blanche Lincoln (D-AR); Claire McCaskill (D-MO); Bill Nelson (D-FL); Ben Nelson (D-NE); Mark Pryor (D-AR); Ken Salazar (D-CO); Jim Web (D-VA).

The trembling Representatives - Speeple News has the list of 41 House Democrats who "trembled before the mighty Bush." This post is also an excellent analysis of the bill that is now the law of the land. To quote the intro:

Of the 41 House Democrats who voted today to roll over on the eavesdropping amendment that the White House demanded be added to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 26 30 were Blue Dogs. The bill, Orwellianly named the Protect America Act, passed 227-183, with 181 Democrats and two Republicans opposed.

These are the Dems who ... failed us. Who failed our country.

The References:

1. Reference links page: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
2. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 - Wikipedia
3. Thanks to Dan Fejes for leads on this story.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today at Good Second Mondays is a new poem about broken boundaries called "Fence Mending."