Clipmarks | Fisa Clips

No More Unlawful Government Spying: Pass the Justice Act Now!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:44:37 GMT

clipped by: sincitykitty
clipper's remarks: Sen. Russ Feingold and others have introduced the JUSTICE Act, which reforms our surveillance laws, including the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

No More Unlawful Government Spying: Pass the Justice Act Now!

Sen. Russ Feingold and others have introduced the JUSTICE Act, which reforms our surveillance laws, including the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

Senator Russ Feingold and nine other senators have introduced S. 1686, the JUSTICE Act, which reforms our surveillance laws, including the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The bill reins in the government's spying powers by:

Protecting the privacy of records.

Protecting the privacy of communications.

Protecting the privacy of homes and businesses.

Protecting First Amendment rights.

Targeting terror prosecutions on those who intend to help terrorists.

Holding companies responsible for conspiring with the government to break the law.

US - Justice Act aims to restore civil liberties.

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:56:53 GMT

clipped by: beanz

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

No More Unlawful Government Spying: Pass the Justice Act Now!

Protecting the privacy of records.

Protecting the privacy of communications.

Protecting the privacy of homes and businesses.

Protecting First Amendment rights.

Targeting terror prosecutions on those who intend to help terrorists.

Holding companies responsible for conspiring with the government to break the law.

The JUSTICE Act will reverse last year's congressional grant of immunity to telecommunications companies that unlawfully turned over Americans' private communications to the government without a warrant compelling them do so. Consumers will be able to seek redress in the courts to prevent this from happening in the future.

Tags: us, justice

Support the JUSTICE Act to Amend PATRIOT ACT Abuses

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:35:29 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: This is about the Constitution and freedom for Americans from government intrusion. Read this and consider contacting your Congressmen immediately.

This is a non-partisan issue. If conservative republicans in particular really support the Constitution they need to man-up and support this to really "defend freedom", instead of paying lip service to our liberties! What do you think 1776 was all about anyway? It was about restraining government from tyranny, in particular from the more conservative Tories under King George! Obama wants to continue the same Bush provisions...is that good....to sacrifice your precious liberties for "security"? You ought to know better than that:

Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty for Security Deserve Neither
-- Ben Franklin

"In short, the JUSTICE Act would give government agents powerful tools to spy on suspected terrorists, while preventing them from spying on YOU."

Clip Source: www.downsizedc.org

NEW CAMPAIGN: Roll Back the Patriot Act

Following 9/11, Congress passed the gargantuan USA PATRIOT Act, without reading it. The PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act were written to protect Americans from terrorism, but they've left people unprotected from their own government.

The Patriot Act authorized "sneak and peak" warrants

It also authorized National Security Letters (NSLs). NSLs allow federal agents to seize your personal records without a warrant, even when there's no suspicion of wrongdoing. The FBI can also prohibit you from telling anyone that you've been searched

Under the FISA Amendments Act, government can engage in wiretapping without a warrant

JUSTICE Act (S. 1686) on September 17, Constitution Day. JUSTICE stands for the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts.

Go to our new campaign "Roll Back the Patriot Act" and send your letter to Congress

Tags: justice act, patriot act, constitution, republicans, 4th amendment, privacy, surveillance, terrorism

Obama Administration Seeks Renewal of Three Key Parts of PATRIOT Act

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:50:00 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Obama Administration Seeks Renewal of Three Key Parts of PATRIOT Act

LISA GRAVES:

The three powers up for renewal are, first, the Section 215 powers that allow the government to obtain literally any tangible thing held by a third party about you with a secret court order, and that court order does not have to be based on any wrongdoing on your part or any suspicion that you’ve done anything wrong. The other provision, number two, is Section 206 of the PATRIOT Act, which relates to John Doe roving wiretaps, which allows the FISA court to issue a secret order to follow people’s cell phones, from cell phone to cell phone, if they’re suspected of being involved in terrorism. And the third provision is known as the lone wolf provision, which allows a full array of searches to be issued by the court secretly, if someone is believed to be a saboteur, but without any connection to al-Qaeda.

Obama Embraces Patriot Act; As Senator He Was Skeptical

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:17:58 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: I would like to hear the speech that explains this "embrace" of the Patriot Act.

[The Investigative Data Warehouse] which collects and stores records on thousands of Americans; what the data includes is unclear; how many Americans are part of the database is unclear; the safeguards in place to prevent abuse is also unclear.

Clip Source: politics.theatlantic.com

Obama administration wants Congress to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the 2001 USA Patriot Act scheduled to expire later this year, but said in a letter to two senators that it is open to adding (unspecified) civil liberties safeguards

administration supports the so-called "roving wiretap" provision

wants Congress to reauthorize the provision extending the ability of the FBI to request detailed business records under a FISA warrant

wants Congress to keep the so-called "lone wolf" provision in place

senator, Obama co-signed a letter (sdaasd.pdf) supporting broad reforms of the Patriot Act

Carl Levin, point to news that the FBI repeatedly misused the National Security Letter power

questions about whether the Justice Department continues to support Bush-era signing statements that seemed to go around Congress's intent in narrowing the categories of people who could be targeted by the new law

Another big concern: the Investigative Data Warehouse maintained by the FBI

The difference between "legal" and "illegal"

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:42:56 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The surveillance controversy is not and never has been over whether the Government should be able to intercept the communications of Terrorist suspects. The law (FISA) has always allowed such interception since its inception and virtually nobody opposes that. Nor was there controversy about whether the NSA could intercept foreign-to-foreign communications, as they did here. The controversy was and is whether they should be able to engage in surveillance of American citizens in violation of the law -- i.e., without judicial oversight and/or beyond the parameters the law allows.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

In 2006, when the British police -- using (among other things) electronic surveillance conducted by both the U.S. and British Governments -- thwarted a Terrorist plot to blow up transcontinental airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean, right-wing polemicists everywhere claimed that this was vindication for the Bush/Cheney warrantless eavesdropping program. But there was one rather enormous problem with that claim: namely, the surveillance in question was entirely legal, conducted by obtaining warrants under the supervision of the FISA court where required by law. The disruption of that Terrorist plot thus proved exactly the opposite of what was widely claimed: namely, the extremely broad parameters of FISA easily allowed surveillance of dangerous Terrorists, and there was therefore no need to break the law as Bush officials did.

Tags: constitution, legal, illgeal, surviellance, wiretapping, terrorism, courts

Report: Bush program extended beyond wiretapping

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:12:35 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The report also questions the legal advice used by President Bush to set up the program, pinpointing omissions and questionable legal memos written by Yoo at the Justice Department.

The report suggests Yoo ignored an explicit provision in the FISA law designed to restrict the government's authority to conduct electronic surveillance during wartime. And it said flaws in Yoo's memos later presented "a serious impediment" to recertifying the program.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

AP – Former President George W. Bush addresses a Fourth of July crowd at the Let Freedom Ring 2009 festival …

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration authorized secret surveillance activities that still have not been made public, according to a new government report that questions the legal basis for the unprecedented anti-terrorism program.

he report describes the program as unprecedented and raises questions about the legal grounding used for its creation. It also says the intelligence agencies' continued retention and use of the information collected under the program should be carefully monitored.

The IG report said an unnamed White House official inserted a paragraph into the first threat assessment prepared by the CIA after the Sept. 11 attacks, which was used to justify the extraordinary intelligence measures.

Obama Gets What He Wished For

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:18:37 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Well look who's squirming now. Once again, and now under a Democrat President, Democrats find themselves in a panic over being seen as weak on terrorism.

In the environment created by President Obama's hasty decisions, selective release of documents from his predecessor's administration, and constant droning on about the miserable legacy he inherited, Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to cover up her own participation in the Congressional-Executive consultations on terrorist interrogation -- and then attempted to deflect evidence to the contrary by dismissing the US intelligence community as serial liars. Not a single, credible observer believes her account, she was rebuked by her own party's CIA Director, and her number two in the House leadership openly discussed the need for a independent review of her comments.

Clip Source: www.weeklystandard.com

From a series of reckless positions on national security while serving as a United States Senator -- including efforts to cut off funding for soldiers fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, setting an arbitrary deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq, fighting to stop the surge, opposing the incarceration of terrorist suspects and enemy combatants without providing them with the full liberties and rights guaranteed to American citizens under our Constitution, opposing domestic intelligence gathering against terrorists through measures such as wiretapping, and failing to speak out in any manner in the face of scurrilous personal attacks on General David Patreaus, President Obama now has the opportunity to match his rhetoric with his responsibilities as President of the United States.

Liberal commentators and White House spokesmen have smugly dismissed Vice President Cheney as yesterday's news, and his visibility as a further sign of Republican collapse.

Tags: obama, cut funding for troops, iraq surge, arbitrary withdrawal deadline, guarantee terrorists constitutional rights, fisa rules, national security

Rowing Books

Sun, 10 May 2009 03:08:47 GMT

clipped by: klirwin

Clip Source: www.arcrsa.blogspot.com

Recommended Books - Rowing Specific

Rowing - Secher & Volianitis, Blackwell Publishing
"Be A Coach": The FISA Development Program Handbook
Rowing Faster - Nolte, Human Kinetics
Sculling: Training, Technique and Performance - Thompson, Crowood Press
Rowing: Training, Fitness, Leisure - Fritsch, Meyer & Meyer
Rudern: The GDR Textbook of Oarsmanship - Herberger, Sport Books Publishers
Rowing and Sculling: The Complete Manual - Sayer, Robert Hale Ltd
High Performance Rowing - McArthur, Crowood Press
Skillful Rowing - McNeely, Meyer & Meyer
Steven Redgrave's Complete Book Of Rowing - Redgrave, Partridge Press

Tags: resources

The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:50:35 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article:

When you cheer on a Surveillance State, you have no grounds to complain when it turns its eyes on you. If you create a massive and wildly empowered domestic surveillance apparatus, it's going to monitor and investigate domestic political activity. That's its nature. I'd love to know how many of the participants in today's right-wing self-victim orgy uttered a peep of protest about any of this, from 2005:

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Right-wing polemicists today are shrieking in self-pitying protest over a new report from the Department of Homeland Security sent to local police forces which warns of growing "right-wing extremist activity." The report (.pdf) identifies attributes of these right-wing extremists, warning that a growing domestic threat of violence and terrorism "may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration" and "groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority."

All of the enabling legislation underlying this Surveillance State -- from the Patriot Act to the Military Commissions Act, from the various FISA "reforms" to massive increases in domestic "counter-Terrorism" programs -- are the spawns of the very right-wing movement that today is petrified that this is all being directed at them.

Tags: hypocrisy, tables, turned, oh, now, you, complain

Obama, the ICRC Report and Ongoing Suppression

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:04:56 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Obama, the ICRC Report and Ongoing Suppression

Published on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Salon.com

by Glenn Greenwald

Following up on the latest extremist Cheney/Addington/Yoo arguments advanced by the Obama DOJ in order to shield Bush lawbreaking from disclosure and judicial review -- an episode I wrote about in detail yesterday, here -- it's worthwhile to underscore the implications of Barack Obama's conduct. When Obama sought to placate his angry supporters after he voted for the Bush/Cheney FISA-telecom immunity bill last June (after vowing the prior December to support a filibuster of any such legislation), this is what he said (h/t notavailable):

[The FISA bill] also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses.

Gitmo is not so bad, after all

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:06:54 GMT

clipped by: infidel70
clipper's remarks: And of course, a Democrat could never, ever have anything to do with economic disaster. And Bush and his administration never warned congress about Fannie and Freddie and this sort of stuff, or asked for some revisions to a ruinous policy.

You believe that, right? Of course you do.
Such disorientation.

Everything “unacceptable” about the last 8 years is now “acceptable.” Except, of course, the “wiser countries” led by tyrants and despots are our new friends, and our old friends are either being sacrificed or left to precede us to implosion.

Oh, and human rights - an issue for which Bush’s commitment was never much discussed in his own country Ah, well, these days human rights are less important than money, honey.

Up is down.
War is Peace.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Such disorientation.

Clip Source: theanchoressonline.com

Seems increasingly like all the “Fascist Bush” caterwauling was the usual fake, dishonest theater meant as a means to an end - the end being to destroy the hated “election stealer” and his legacy, and not much more.

But you know, for someone who “did everything wrong,” his policies suddenly seem wise and right to some surprising people.

It’s easy to campaign and criticize. It’s much more difficult to govern, especially knowing that if you don’t keep the country safe, you don’t get re-elected.

So, the FISA stays, Gitmo (despite all the righteous-sounding rhetoric) is not so bad, after all. Terrorist-suspected detainees do not enjoy constitutional rights, after all. Patriot Act, stays. Whether succeeding presidents will abuse the powers Bush put in place to protect us is rather less a question than a surety. Not an “if” but a “when.” And that is troubling, oh yes.

But at least we had the courage to elect an “elegant man” as president.

Tags: hypocrisy

Fox News "war games" the coming civil war

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:57:25 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article:

They're the same people who believed that Bill Clinton's use of the FISA court to obtain warrants to eavesdrop on Americans was a grave threat to liberty, but believed that George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in violation of the law was a profound defense of freedom. In sum, they dressed up in warrior clothing to fight against Bill Clinton's supposed tyranny, and then underwent a major costume change on January 20, 2001, thereafter dressing up in cheerleader costumes to glorify George Bush's far more extreme acquisitions of federal power.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Bill Clinton's election in 1992 gave rise to the American "militia movement": hordes of overwhelmingly white, middle-aged men from suburban and rural areas who convinced themselves they were defending the American way of life from the "liberals" and "leftists" running the country by dressing up in military costumes on weekends, wobbling around together with guns, and play-acting the role of patriot-warriors

Even as Bush seized and used all of the powers which that movement claimed in the 1990s to find so tyrannical and unconstitutional -- limitless, unchecked surveillance activities, detention powers with no oversight, expanding federal police powers, secret prison camps, even massively exploding and debt-financed domestic spending -- they meekly submitted to all of it, even enthusiastically cheered it all on.

Tags: fox, news, propaganda, fear, anger, hatred, suffering

The Left Turns on Obama as the Right Breaks Out the Popcorn

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:42:15 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Third were the inflated lectures on historic foreign policy to be made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ .

Fourth was the campaign rhetoric of Bush shredding the Constitution—FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, renditions, etc.—followed by “all that for now stays the same”.

Fifth, Gibbs as press secretary is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won’t go away. Blaming Fox News for Obama’s calamities is McClellan to the core and doesn’t work.

Six, Biden is being Biden. Already, he’s ridiculed the chief justice, trashed the former VP, bragged on himself ad nauseam in Bidenesque weird ways, and it’s only been two weeks.

At home, Obama is becoming laughable and laying the groundwork for the greatest conservative populist reaction since the Reagan Revolution.

Clip Source: tehresistance.wordpress.com

VDH on NRO:

The Impending Obama Meltdown”

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion… brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

First were the sermons on ethics, belied by the appointments of tax dodgers, crass lobbyists, and wheeler-dealers like Richardson—with the relish of the Blago tapes still to come.

Second was the “stimulus”that was simply a way to go into debt for a generation to shower Democratic constinuencies with cash.

He leaves out my favorite moment so far… Obama reading ‘My Pet Goat’ while thousands freeze in Kentucky and Missouri.

I have been saying since before the election that the Obama presidency would be a parade of corruption and incompetence, but never in my wildest dreams did I foresee this rich pageant of greed and idiocy in just the first two weeks.

Don't look at me, you elected this idiot.

Tags: obama, biden, al-arabiya tv, fisa patriot act renditions etc "stays for now", press secretary gibbs :), kentucky & missouri in state of emergency

The Impending Obama Meltdown

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:25:53 GMT

clipped by: jatfla
clipper's remarks: Also FTA: "there was the campaign rhetoric of Bush shredding the Constitution—FISA, Guantánamo, the Patriot Act, Iraq, renditions, etc.—followed by "all that for now stays the same"

Clip Source: corner.nationalreview.com

The Impending Obama Meltdown

Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary. And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny.

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion

there were the sermons on ethics, belied by the appointments of tax dodgers, crass lobbyists, and wheeler-dealers like Richardson—with the relish of the Blago tapes still to come. (And why does Richardson/Daschle go, but not Geithner?).

Second, was the "stimulus" (the euphemism for "borrow/print money") that was simply a way to go into debt for a generation to shower Democratic constituencies with cash.

Biden is being Biden. Already, he's ridiculed the chief justice, trashed the former VP, bragged on himself ad nauseam in Bidenesque weird ways, and it's only been two weeks.