Fighting for our Constitution

A call went out for the Dem presidential candidates to stand up against telcom immunity and support Senator Dod in his fight to keep FISA legislation constitutional. It seems that Obama and Clinton will be present to vote against cloture this afternoon. We need to encourage every senator to thwart the administration's efforts to protect lawlessness and hide their own criminal activities.

Check out some background the Economist blog "Democracy in America":

The clear hope of Republicans is to retain control of the tempo of the FISA fight. Their strongest weapon is the ability to paint opponents as recklessly allowing vital intelligence powers to lapse, supposedly leaving America blind in the fight against terror—an argument that the vice president pressed earlier this week in remarks at the Heritage Foundation, backed by the president in a later written statement. Any extension of the stopgap legislation currently in effect would ease that pressure. Similarly, Republicans do not wish to be in the position of filibustering individual FISA amendments, which would put the shoe on the other foot and allow Democrats to claim it is they who are holding up the process over this or that minor item. Civil liberties groups now begin a scramble to win over enough senators to block cloture on Monday.

Jane Hamsher and the crew at Firedoglake have striven mightily to marshal support for constitutional government and rule of law on this issue. They have encouraged calls and faxes. Last night they posted news that Clinton and Obama would show up to vote. Today they have a statement from Senator Clinton.

Do you know where your senators stand? Can you influence that?

Thanks to Grandmère Mimi for posting on this and rallying the troops.
--the BB