DownsizeDC.org is joining with a host of other organizations to bombard the Senate Judiciary Committee with phone calls. Purpose? Stop the Cheney-Specter bill that would gut 4th Amendment protections against Presidential surveillance of your phone calls without a warrant.
Our day to make phone calls is today!
You probably already know that the President has an easy, rubber-stamp exception to the 4th Amendment called the FISA Courts. But even this easy approach was considered too difficult by the President.
Bush and Cheney are advocates of something called the “unitary executive” in a time of war. This doctrine ignores all Constitutional limits and protections in the name of national security. Bush and Cheney have tested how far they can go with this doctrine in a number of ways. Ignoring the FISA courts and doing phone surveillance without a warrant is one of them.
The Courts have ruled that the Bush administration ignored the law, and must use the FISA process. But the Courts left open the door for Congress to propose some other exception to the 4th Amendment that President Bush might like better. Vice President Cheney and Senator Arlen Specter have crafted just such an alternative.
Never mind that all of this represents massive lawlessness on the part of all three branches of government, blatantly ignoring or changing Constitutional law without undergoing the burden of amending the Constitution. It also hands a victory to terrorism. If we can destroy our own system in the name of fighting terrorism, then the terrorists win a major victory.
We must not destroy our country to save our country.
If you agree, please call the Senate Judiciary Committee today. YOU WILL NOT BE ALONE. Many other people from other organizations will also be calling today. The Senate Judiciary Committee is very small, and we have the power to put a “fear of the people” into them. There is a list of names and phone numbers below. If your Senator is on the list, make sure he or she gets a call. But call as many others on the list as you can. You can make a difference, and today is the day to do it.
Tell them you oppose Senator Specter’s S.2453, Senator DeWine’s S.2455, and Representative Wilson’s H.R.5825. Tell them you oppose any legislation that would give the Executive Branch new surveillance powers that are immune to oversight by the courts and Congress.
Please do it right now, and call as many Senators as you can. Here’s the list . . .
Arlen Specter (R)- CHAIRMAN, PENNSYLVANIA - 202-224-4254
Orrin G. Hatch (R)- UTAH - 202-224-5251
Patrick J. Leahy (D)- VERMONT - 202-224-4242
Charles E. Grassley (R)- IOWA - 202-224-3744
Edward M. Kennedy (D)- MASSACHUSETTS - 202-224-4543
Jon Kyl - ARIZONA (R)- 202-224-4521
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D)- DELAWARE - 202-224-5042
Mike DeWine (R)- OHIO - 202-224-2315
Herbert Kohl (D)- WISCONSIN - 202-224-5653
Jeff Sessions (R)- ALABAMA - 202-224-4124
Dianne Feinstein (D)- CALIFORNIA - 202-224-3841
Lindsey Graham (R)- SOUTH CAROLINA - 202-224-5972
Russell D. Feingold (D)- WISCONSIN - 202-224-5323
John Cornyn (R)- TEXAS - 202-224-2934
Charles E. Schumer (D)- NEW YORK - 202-224-6542
Sam Brownback (R)- KANSAS - 202-224-6521
Richard J. Durbin (D)- ILLINOIS - 202-224-2152
Tom Coburn (R)- OKLAHOMA - 202-224-5754
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.
Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.