Also for Sale: Steny Hoyer
Steny Hoyer sold out our Fourth Amendment Rights today. And boy oh boy, did he take his opportunity to screw the American public but good:
It’s even worse than expected. When you read it, it’s actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program with the “Protect America Act,” so it shouldn’t be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is:
The provision granting amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, Title VIII, has the exact Orwellian title it should have: “Protection of Persons Assisting the Government.” Section 802(a) provides:
[A] civil action may not lie or be maintained in a Federal or State court against any person for providing assistance to an element of the intelligence community, and shall be properly dismissed, if the Attorney General certifies to the district court of the United States in which such action is pending that . . . (4) the assistance alleged to have been provided . . . was –
(A) in connection with intelligence activity involving communications that was (i) authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007 and (ii) designed to prevent or detect a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation of a terrorist attack, against the United States” and
(B) the subject of a written request or directive . . . indicating that the activity was (i) authorized by the President; and (ii) determined to be lawful.
So all the Attorney General has to do is recite those magic words — the President requested this eavesdropping and did it in order to save us from the Terrorists — and the minute he utters those words, the courts are required to dismiss the lawsuits against the telecoms, no matter how illegal their behavior was.
That’s the “compromise” Steny Hoyer negotiated and which he is now — according to very credible reports — pressuring every member of the Democratic caucus to support. It’s full-scale, unconditional amnesty with no inquiry into whether anyone broke the law. In the U.S. now, thanks to the Democratic Congress, we’ll have a new law based on the premise that the President has the power to order private actors to break the law, and when he issues such an order, the private actors will be protected from liability of any kind on the ground that the Leader told them to do it — the very theory that the Nuremberg Trial rejected.
You can also call Stainy Whore at his congressional office: 202-225-4131. They don’t like getting calls there either.
When you call, let them know that we’ve raised over $200,000 through actblue specifically for the purpose of torpedoing not only Steny’s re-election, but the re-election of ANYONE who supports this deal, so call your representative too. When speaking to your rep, remember, they may not care about the Constitution as much as you do (that’s why they’re politicians), so get to the heart of the matter and talk about what REALLY matter to them: their own ass. Here’s an example, which you can tweak to make as friendly or antagonistic as you’d lile (I recommend a friendly approach at first, kind of like when the mobster says “nice store you have here. Sure would be a pity if somethign happened to it…”):
“we have raised $200,000 in less than 48 hours to run ads against anyone who supports amnesty for AT&T. We are already running one in Chris Carney’s district in PA. Steny Hoyer is next as is John Barrow. If you want to avoid being targeted, you would do well to vote NO on the FISA Amendment Act.
Also, the Ron Paul money-bomb people are on-board. They raised $6 million dollars for Ron Paul in 24 hours, and now they are helping us. So tell Rep. XX to vote NO on Steny’s FISA Bill, or I guarantee you we’ll make sure your boss’s political career is OVER.
kthanksbye”
Call Stainy Whore, and tell them Brendan Skwire told you to call. They fucking hate my guts right now, and it just drives the knife in deeper.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] thrown yet, because I am seeing more mainstream sources (including some Democrats like Harry Reid, Stainy Whore, and Chuckles Schumer) throwing floating this balloon. So let me put the kibosh on [...]