(Update) Steny Hoyer is Bought and Paid For; You Can Pay to Pay Him Back
By Mona
[Addendum: After the blogs started asking for contributions, the amount at the link in last graf has hit $105K $110K $120K+ in just a few hours 130K+ 138K+ as I go to bed at 12:40 a.m. EST. If poor moi can send a small bit, so can most of you.]
.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is working eagerly with a Democratic-controlled Congress to grant George Bush all the power Bush wants to intercept Americans’ telephone calls and emails without warrants, and to retroactively grant immunity from civil or criminal sanction to the telecoms that have been assisting with Bush’s illegal eavesdropping for years — telecoms that heavily contribute to congresspeople of both parties, and which are in the middle of lawsuits they’d dearly love to see rendered moot by Hoyer’s efforts.
.
The telecoms violated multiple federal statutes by joining with the Bush Administration to eavesdrop on us without warrants, without any judicial oversight. That was and is illegal; a violation of a criminal statute called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, among other laws.
.
You and I go to prison if we are caught with enough of a controlled substance to — in the state’s view — establish intent to distribute. But then, we don’t have a huge lobbying apparatus and can’t make large campaign contributions. So, we go off to the cage, but Steny Hoyer is working hard to make sure no criminal conduct committed by a telecom big wig results in unpleasantness.
.
To fully understand how sickening and outrageous this all is (and tell me, why did I vote a straight Dem ticket in ‘06 again?), read Greenwald. (Brief ad click-through.) I can’t do better than he does, as he has been working on this issue feverishly and my re-explaining it could only be a paraphrase of his posts. Then, contribute to this fund to put heat on Hoyer and the other Democrats who are acting like good little authoritarian GOP-bots.
************
Update: Among those whom Greenwald and others are working with in a broad coalition — as Greenwald announces in above link — is the libertarian, Ron Paul-supporting site, Break the Matrix. They want you to donate, too! (But they identify Greenwald as a Democrat and as being “on the left”; he’s never, ever so self-identified. And his actions show he doesn’t give a rat’s @ss who is shredding civil liberties — he’ll oppose them.)
Comment by Thoreau —
June 17, 2008 @ 5:28 pm
I’m sure it will all be better once the Democrats control the entire government rather than just part of it.
That’s generally how it works, right? You get more power and then you become more vigilant about abuses of power?
Comment by Bruce Baugh —
June 17, 2008 @ 6:14 pm
There is this about the Democrats: they have a voter base willing to donate large sums of money to dump and pressure the bums. If the Republicans did, this would be a more interesting election season.
Comment by Mona —
June 17, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
No group of humans is comprised solely of angels, but so far I am impressed with the liberals/Democrats around the Intertubes who are willing to turn hard on Dems who — on the important issues — may as well be Republican authoritarians and/or neocons.
Comment by Dan —
June 17, 2008 @ 6:44 pm
Hi Mona – I gave the FISA donation link its own blogroll on my site and donated to the campaign as well. Every little bit helps. I think this all may go down pretty quickly too.
Comment by Mona —
June 17, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
Good on you Dan. I hate to seem the starry-eyed naif, but this is liberty-minded individuals in action — the effort involves liberals,the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Ron Paul apparatus, and lots of folks who may disagree about a gazillion other things, but not these essential core issues of our constitutional republic.
Comment by Bruce Baugh —
June 18, 2008 @ 4:16 am
Just to be clear, I meant to be praising the pushers more than the party being pushed.
I strongly endorse the tactic of giving to groups mounting useful challenges. They’ll be the crucial force in the next administration.
Comment by Paul Sunstone —
June 18, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Thanks for a well written piece, Mona! It interests me how bloggers appear to be trying to take back the Republic from the special interests, etc. More power to them!