What I Did on My Vacation: Nothing – Nancy Pelosi By Pam Meister
The Bear on Mar 15 2008 at 8:30 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
In August of 2007, the Protect America Act (PAA) was signed into law after passing high majority votes in both the House and Senate. What exactly did the PAA do? It allowed the government to monitor phone calls and e-mails originating overseas to (or from) a person suspected of having ties to terror organizations and/or al Qaeda for up to one year without a warrant. The PAA included a 180 day sunset provision.
Then, in January of this year, President Bush signed a 15-day extension of the PAA as requested by Congress – presumably so that Congress could get its act together and vote to make the PAA provisions permanent. After all, why wouldn’t we want to know what potential terrorists are planning and plotting against us? Forewarned is forearmed and all that stuff.
The Senate was up to the task, as they voted to pass the FISA Amendments Act of 2007, which covered most of the provisions of the PAA indefinitely, as well as providing immunity for telecommunications companies that complied with government requests to assist the National Security Agency in monitoring calls and e-mail communications as per an executive order from President Bush after 9/11.
Unfortunately, the House – led by Supergrandma Nancy Pelosi – was not up to the challenge. Pelosi, in her infinite wisdom, decided to call a 12-day vacation for her minions without bothering to vote on the FISA Amendments Act passed by the Senate just two days earlier. And two days after the House adjourned, the PAA expired.
According to Jed Babbin of Human Events, Pelosi did all of this “despite a letter she received from most of the ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats telling her they’d vote for the Senate bill. Added to Republican numbers, the Blue Dogs’ votes would have enabled Pelosi to pass the bill on a simple majority vote.”
Nice going, Granny.
No matter which poll you look at, the job approval rating of Congress in general is in the toilet. (It’s lower than the president’s, but we won’t talk about that.) And a large percentage of Americans are annoyed with Pelosi’s decision to call a recess without dealing with FISA and, by extension, the PAA. According to a new survey by American Solutions, 71% of those Americans surveyed “find it unacceptable that the U.S. House went on a 12 day recess without renewing the Protect America Act — legislation that permits the government to monitor the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.
The survey also shows that 74% of Americans believe that telecommunications companies who help the government track down terrorists should be granted immunity from lawsuits relating to their assistance.”
When you look at the breakdown of the survey, even a majority of Democrats polled disapprove of the vacation gambit. When your own party members aren’t backing you, perhaps it’s time to sit back and evaluate your strategy.
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FISA Fix For Lawyers
National Security: Wiretap law is supposed to protect the U.S. by discovering and foiling terrorist operations. Congressional Democrats seem to think its purpose is to line the pockets of their trial lawyer supporters.
House Democrats want to enact a terrorist surveillance law that puts lawyers’ fees before the safety of Americans. It’s a bill so skewed that its passage on a vote scheduled for Thursday was questionable even to Democrats in the majority.
At issue is the help given by telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon in monitoring the telephone and Internet communications of suspected terrorists with contacts within the U.S.
Those heroic firms have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives with their cooperation in helping to obtain information that allowed law enforcement to prevent post-9/11 attacks.
Congressional Democrats steadfastly refuse to protect those firms from lawsuits backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Their message to those patriotic companies seems to be:
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Protect America Act, terror organizations, al Qaeda, President Bush, terrorists, 9/11, Nancy Pelosi, FISA Amendments, rating of Congress, National Security, Wiretap law, Congressional Democrats, terrorist surveillance law
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