Countdown to Productivity: 9 Days Left in Session
Frist and White House allies are threatening a filibuster over the McCain/Warner/Graham interrogation bill:

Frist’s chief of staff, Eric M. Ueland, called the dissidents’ bill “dead.”
I wonder….

Nah.

This is totally MADDNESS!! If someone finds the America I know and love please let me know!! …

The art in this analysis is to simply the points, rather than complicate. With all due respect to your obvious knowledge of some of the detail, I think the stunned silence that has greeted your posts is just confusion.

Hats off to Bryan for a great vent and continuing to seek some clarification of a complicated bill from Wilson’s office. I was stunned by their initial forthrightness, and maybe they were too, if you know what I mean…

PS

This is very good, (unless you are an ACLU traitor, or honora)

Heh.

Analysis II Electronic surveillance authorization without court order Sec. 102 (1802) currently reads:

“(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that—
(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—
(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or
(ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title;
(B) there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party…”

HR 5825 version:
” …(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—
(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications of a foreign power, as defined in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 101(a), or an agent of a foreign power, as defined in section 101(b)(1); or
(ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2) of this title;

Now, this will change the certification required by the AG from “the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers” to “the acquisition of the contents of communications of a foreign power, as defined in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 101(a), or an agent of a foreign power, as defined in section 101(b)(1).” Now, an agent of a foreign power is sufficient (all terrorists in the US or elsewhere). Further, and importantly, paragraph (B) is deleted completely, which prohibited certification by the AG for communications where a US person is a party.

This is very good, (unless you are an ACLU traitor, or honora), because now the AG can authorize warantless surveillance without a court order where the communication is of a foreign power or agent of a foreign power. So, the president and AG will actually have more power before an attack, not less as asserted by CNN. I expect the author of the legislation is not in a hurry to correct CNN for obvious reasons.

FISA, prohibits “electronic surveillance” except as authorized by statutory law. The current version of FISA defines electronic surveillance as:
“(1) the acquisition by an electronic, mechanical, or other surveillance device of the contents of any wire or radio communication sent by or intended to be received by a particular, known United States person who is in the United States, if the contents are acquired by intentionally targeting that United States person, under circumstances in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and a warrant would be required for law enforcement purposes;
(2) the acquisition by an electronic, mechanical, or other surveillance device of the contents of any wire communication to or from a person in the United States, without the consent of any party thereto, if such acquisition occurs in the United States. . . .”

HR 5825 would define it as follows:
`”(1) the installation or use of a surveillance device for the intentional collection of information relating to a person who is reasonably believed to be in the United States by intentionally targeting that person, under circumstances in which the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and a warrant would be required for law enforcement purposes; or

`(2) the intentional acquisition of the contents of any communication, without the consent of a party to the communication, under circumstances in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and a warrant would be required for law enforcement purposes, if both the sender and all intended recipients are located within the United States.”

Notice that the “sent by or intended to be received by a particular, known United States person” language of (1) is gone and replaced by “relating to a person who is reasonably believed to be in the United States”. I would like to see the legislative history to interpret what is meant by “relating to a person”, but the change evidences a desire to not necessarily include information “intended to be received by…”. The new language though will need interpretation beyond the scope of this post.

(2) was changed from “to or from a person in the United States, without the consent of any party thereto, if such acquisition occurs in the United States”, which includes information gathered in the US if it is from or to a person in the US, to “if both the sender and all intended recipients are located within the United States.” Big change, now this provision would exclude only information where both parties are in the US instead of one party in US and info acquired in US.

Say Anything runs down the Damnable Eight, which includes Heather Wilson, who just proposed a very soft-on-terror “security bill” which Bryan Preston calls the dumbest pro-terrorist law yet. Bush’s surveillance plan faces a difficult fight in Congre…

Update: Bryan at Hotair.com
The WSJ says the Wilson bill would give the administration 60 days after an attack to open up surveillance. So it agrees with CNN: No surveillance until after an attack without FISA’s say-so, which on the whole means there…

Powell, Vessey issue statements supporting McCain et al in their position vis a vis the Geneva Convention, military tribunals.

Criticize the current regime all you want. It is 1000 times better then the alternative. Course thats my opinion. Maybe if Kerry had won the election the world would be at peace, and we would all be riding unicorns to work. If Gore had won we would no longer need oil, everything would run off of magic fairy farts. I seriously doubt that though. The real world is a bit more complicated then fairy farts, or the simplistic world view offered to us by the democrats.

Wyrd on September 13, 2006 at 7:18 PM

LOL. You know, you could do the Dems some good, you have a sounder alternate agenda than they seem to be able to muster!

Her site has a description of what the bill will accomplish but not what it will require, other than:

requiring that more information be provided to the courts and each member of the House and Senate Intelligence committees

What a bunch of BS though. Look at all this damn crap being thrown on W and the rest of those trying to protect this country. Damn. If we get hit, there’s gonna be some hangins’

I demanded to speak to someone more senior to her and quite frankly she gave a doofus named Marcus I think it was and he didn’t even know about the damn thing!!!!!
After I explained it to him and made him go to the AP story where it quoted dipshits ammendment he said he would turn it over to someone else. That bitch has got to be crazy. WTF is she or others doing tieing up all the under tons of bullshit law????????????? The frgin 9-11 commission all but outed Gorelic and all the other Clintonistas for the crap job they had done and burying our security in mounds of beauracracy. Get them the hell off the Hill.

My priority as your advocate in Washington is to work for legislation which will benefit you and your family and the people of New Mexico. Sometimes that means I write and introduce bills myself, and sometimes I work with other members of Congress who share my goals by co- sponsoring bills they have written. Writing amendments to bills and winning support for them is another way I work on solving problems for New Mexico

Missing are the list of issues you normally find on a Congressman’s site. I always check the list to see what they leave out.

Bills sponsored are mostly banal:

> Providing for acceptance of a statue of Po’Pay
> establishment of a Bipartisan Commission on Medicaid.
> tax credit for teachers and principals who work in certain low income schools
>direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish, promote, and support a comprehensive prevention, research, and medical management referral program for hepatitis C
>development of comprehensive State water plans
>make available additional funds to increase access to the art

etc, including

>To update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978

cosponsors include Hoekstra, Sensenbrenner

Bills Co-Sponsored:
>Honoring the life and contributions of Yogi Bhajan
>a commemorative postage stamp should be issued to promote public awareness of Down syndrome
>Conveying the sympathy of Congress to the families of the young women murdered in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, and encouraging increased United States involvement in bringing an end to these crimes
>Expressing the need for enhanced public awareness of traumatic brain injury
> Supporting the goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015
>Raising awareness and encouraging prevention of stalking by establishing January 2006 as “National Stalking Awareness Month
>To congratulate the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the 25th anniversary
>Supporting the goals and ideals of the National Arbor Day
>Recognizing the contributions of the United States Marine Corps
>Recognizing the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Jonas Salk
>Recognizing America’s Blood Centers
>Supporting the goals and ideals of National Hepatitis B Awareness Week.
>Supporting efforts to increase childhood cancer awareness
>Supporting the goals and ideals of Cambodian-American Freedom Day.
>Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
>To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965

etc

Long lists but they show she is a fluff to be sponsoring this FISA legislation. Compare to bills sponsored by Sensenbrenner, which include repeal of the 22nd amendment and Hoekstra

I wonder if she was chosen for her invisibility? Hard to tell in the aisles of devious known as Congress.

Congress is working on bills that would square the Terrorist Surveillance program with FISA Court Rules. However, one bill sponsored by Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico would require that we be hit with a terrorist attack before we…