Don’t know what this means? Read on.
Please add to this post if you have more information or a differing view.

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley sees a “very frightening bill” in a proposed “compromise,” currently in the House, that would update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to effectively grant immunity from civil lawsuits to telecommunications companies that agreed to spy on their customers as part of the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, starting shortly before the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. If the White House asked a phone company to spy with its assurance that it was legal, the measure says, that’s enough to dismiss a case.

The Bill is [below][1]. The link is really long find it at the end of this post.

What people are saying.
[below][2] and [below][3]

How it all started.
This [link below][4]is a great story about Mark Klein, the retired AT&T;engineer who stepped forward with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T;.

What you can do.
Obama fans, go [below][5] and join a group on Obama’s website that speaks to this issue directly.

Want to tell Nancy Pelosi that she should rethink a yes vote on this issue please call or write her.
District Office
450 Golden Gate Ave.
14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 556-4862

  [1]: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:9InAg7S3yCUJ:majorityleader.house.gov/docUploads/FISAINTRO_001_xml.pdf+fisa+bill+amendment&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
  [2]: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/17/hoyer/index.html
  [3]: http://firedoglake.com/2008/03/11/take-the-poll-what-bush-dogs-should-be-targeted-on-fisa/
  [4]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/att-whistleblow.html
  [5]: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SenatorObama-PleaseVoteAgainstFISA

Thanks for posting this. I’ve been raging about the FISA situation, and Obama’s failure of leadership ever since this situation developed.  The Democrats have been disastrous on this issue, and their leadership in particular have failed the nation at just about every turn.

You can tell Senator Obama and the Obama campaign how strongly you feel about this by calling or emailing the numbers and addresses below and telling your friends to do the same.

Call the Obama campaign at 312 819-2008.  Ask to speak to the following people. If they are not in, ask for their voicemail and leave a message.  Be sure to tell them (or anyone you speak with)  that you are an Obama campaign contributer:

David Plouffe - Campaign Manager
Steve Hildebrand - Deputy National Campaign Manager
Jon Carson - National Field Director
Juliana Smoot - Finance Director
Joe Rospars - Media Director
Robert Gibbs - Communications Director

Also call Senator Tom Daschle at 202 756-3156.

You can email the obama campaign staffers by copying this and sending:

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Here are the individual email addresses:

David Plouffe - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
David Axelrod - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Steve Hildebrand - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Jon Carson - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Juliana Smoot - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Joe Rospars - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Robert Gibbs - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Tom Daschle - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Mitch Stewart - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Paul Tewes - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Email Senator Obama by going to obama.senate.gov/contact/

Contact Senator Obama’s senate offices by phone at:

Washington, DC - 202 224-2854
Chicago - 312 886-3506
Springfield, IL - 217 492-5089
Marion, IL - 618 997-2402
Moline, IL - 309 736-1217

Tim, thanks for posting this.

To all:  Our Freedoms are at risk.  If we don’t defend them, they’ll be gone.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Our Representatives, our Senators, and our President swore an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  Those who support this “compromise” are violating their Oath of Office, and need to be held to account.

The FISA “compromise” effectively kills the Fourth Amendment.  It allows the U.S. Government (but really, whatever private contractors it chooses) to continue to record and view all of your email, internet site visits, financial transactions, cell phone & land line conversations—EVERYTHING.  Furthermore, it gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that engaged in this illegal wiretapping in the first place.

Let’s be clear—the existing FISA law allows anyone to be wiretapped, and the wiretapping can go on for 72 hrs without a warrant, as long as the warrant is issued retroactively.  Of all the tens of thousands of warrants that have been requested under FISA since 1978, only a handful have been denied.

The Cheney Administration’s push for warrantless wiretapping (i.e., Data Mining) isn’t about terrorism.  It’s about suppressing political dissent.

Unless we wake up and get these bastards out of office, we’re going to be like the proverbial frog that sat in the pan of hot water until it died, because the temperature went up so gradually, bit by bit, that it didn’t notice until it was too late.

It’s not just Cheney, Bush, and the Republicans, either.  Half of the Democrats in Congress—Jay Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and dozens of others (including, now, Barack Obama) are supporting this elimination of one of our most important freedoms.

Q:  “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

A:  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

—Answer by Benjamin Franklin, at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Let’s Keep It.

—Dan