Boy, lameduck CDP Chair Art Torres sure looks like shit. All that smoke he blew up the asses of the E-Board about how DiFi listens to him and so she shouldn’t be censured — well it was all crap. He stuck his neck out to vouch for DiFi on an issue as simple as upholding her oath of office and by doing so made an ass of himself and made himself look irrelevant at the same time. Didn’t think it could get any worse than the scandal over the $4 million payola to Fabian Nunez, but Torres sure out did himself on this one.
Also not surprising, Senator Barbara Boxer fought to defend the Constitution against domestic enemies like Senator Dianne Feinstein. And fortunately for her, she’s putting together a strong re-election campaign that won’t rely upon the worthless CDP during the time we are recovering from the Torres dynasty.
The great statement by Senator Barbara Boxer on how those who vote for retroactive immunity, “are perpetuating a cover-up” is good news for everyone who defends the Constitution. While Sen. Boxer has yet to vow to join the Feingold/Dodd filibuster, the thinking by many seems to be that Boxer will fight hard for what she believes in so many activists I’ve talked to are excited by anticipated aggressive maneuvering by Boxer to stop retroactive immunity.
As for the other senator…there is a great deal of concern that Senator Dianne Feinstein will capitulate. While defending Senator Feinstein against the push to have her formally censured by the California Democratic Party, Chair Art Torres said:
I said I think it’s important that you hear this from me because there’s also concern about the telecom immunity issue which will come before the senate judiciary committee. Don’t believe me, ask my friend Senator Dodd, who will tell you that she led the effort along with him to make sure that that wasn’t in the FISA bill that emerged from the senate judiciary committee. That bill as you know does not include the telecom immunity issue, which was a very important issue for me, and I’m proud that she listened, because she does.
Does she? (202) 224-3841
If not, she is likely to again face a censure push by CDP activists seeking to hold her to account.
We are writing with great concern regarding reports the Democratic leadership has struck a deal which will further erode civil liberties by circumventing the original FISA laws, and we ask that you not only oppose this new FISA bill but that you filibuster its advancement in the Senate.
We are deeply disappointed in our Party and its leadership for capitulating to the Bush administration with this utterly unnecessary legislation–but you are our Senator, from the great and progressive state of California, and as your constituents we have a right to expect better leadership from you.
We wish to note that in an official statement regarding a previous FISA bill, you defended the telecom industry, stating they had no choice but to break the law–but in this you were incorrect: They did have a choice, proven by the fact Qwest chose to obey the Constitution rather than wiretap without proper FISA warrants. We would also remind you the telecoms’ illegal activity began well before the attacks of 9/11.
We need better answers and better representation from our senior Senator. It was with great pain that, last year, we moved several California Democratic Party caucuses to censure you for your approval of an Attorney General who condoned torture, and for your previous support for telecom immunity. We would prefer not to censure you again, but to instead applaud you for doing what is right and protecting our Constitution rather than protecting corporations and the Bush administration. We ask you to stand with the vast bulk of your constituents who side with the rule of law.
Thank you,
Yours,
Michael Jay, Delegate, California Democratic Party, 42nd Assembly District
Ricco Ross, California Democratic Party, 42nd Assembly District
Co-Chairs, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Linda Sutton, CDP Delegate, 41st AD, Vice Chair of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Last time, the push for censure united an amazing array of organizations in less than a week, including:
Endorsed by the Courage Campaign, MoveOn.org Political Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, Women’s Caucus of the California Democratic Party, Irish-American Caucus of the California Democratic Party, Steering Committee of the East Bay for Democracy Democratic Club, Sonoma County Democratic Central Committee, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, the Coordinating Committee of SoCal Grassroots, San Diego Democracy for America, the Steering Committee of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, Sacramento for Democracy, DFA-Orange County, Santa Cruz County for Democracy, Trinity County Democratic Central Committee, Diablo Valley Democratic Club, Ventura County Committee to Stop the War, Progressive Democrats Sonoma County, the Inyo County Democratic Central Committee, the Torrance Democratic Club, San Mateo County Democracy for America, Castro Valley Progressives, the Whittier Area Peace & Justice Coalition, Santa Barbara Impeach Cheney & Bush Meetup Group, Democracy for America – Marin (DFA-Marin), Valley Democrats United, the Executive Board of the West LA Democratic Club, Progressive Democrats – San Francisco, Greenwood Earth Alliance, Hammering the Issues, Westchester Democratic Club Executive Board, Young Democrats of UCI, the North (San Fernando) Valley Democratic Club, Lassen Progressives, Castro Valley Democratic Club Executive Board, Progressive Democrats of Marin, Progressive Democrats of America – Metro San Diego Chapter, Sonoma County Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats of America Orange County, and Progressive Democrats of America Ventura County.
And Rick Jacobs made the teevee (I do so work for Courage Campaign):
As the focus intensifies over this bill, here are some of the emails I’ve received as of late.
The House passed a version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) last week that included retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that conspired in Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. And now, as the bill heads to the Senate, it looks like we have one last chance to stop this massive erosion of the rule of law.
Thankfully, we have a few champions, like Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, who look poised to fight this to the very end, but they can’t do it alone. They need both strong support from progressive senators and the vote of those senators currently sitting on the fence. This is where you come in.
Sen. Feinstein could be the deciding voice and vote on stopping retroactive immunity. Please take a minute right now to give her a call and ask her to strip the retroactive immunity provision of FISA.
Senator Feingold effectively summed up the insanity of retroactive immunity yesterday by saying, “It doesn’t simply have the impact of potentially allowing telephone companies to break the law. It may prevent us from ever getting to the core issue…which is the president ran an illegal program that could’ve been an impeachable offense.”
I hope that you’ll join me and do what you can to help prevent this from happening.
Over the last 8 months, you and I have stopped Congress from granting retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies who illegally spied on Americans for the Bush administration — at least three times.
On Friday, Democratic Leadership in the House of Representatives decided to stand with President Bush instead of with America. They voted for a so-called “compromise” to let AT&T, Verizon and the entire Bush administration off the hook for lying to America and illegally tapping our phone calls.
If this bill passes the Senate, then Americans will never be able to hold President Bush accountable for warrantless wiretapping.
We need to take action to stop this horrible bill. Last time immunity came up for a Senate vote, Senators Dodd, Feingold and Obama each said they would filibuster to stop it from passing. They will need 60 votes to keep a filibuster going and stop the Senate from caving to pressure to support this fake “compromise”.
Call your Senators right now and demand they support a filibuster of any Senate bill that will ultimately grant retroactive immunity to telecoms who spied on innocent Americans.
Barbara Boxer
(202) 224-3553
Dianne Feinstein
(202) 224-3841
Suggested Text:
“I calling to demand Senator (Boxer or Feinstein) support a filibuster of any bill that will ultimately grant immunity to telecommunications companies who spied on innocent Americans. Can I count on the Senator to stand up to President Bush and his fear mongering?”
Let’s call a spade a spade. This bill is a complete capitulation to Bush and the telecom lobby. We need all the support we can get in this fight to uphold the constitution.
The vote is scheduled to happen this week. We need to act today. Please make your call right now.
No Immunity for Telecoms that Illegally Spy on US!
Last Friday, the House of Representatives granted de facto amnesty to the phone companies who cooperated with the Bush administration’s illegal spying on American citizens. Our final opportunity to prevent this from becoming law lies with the Senate. We must stop the Senate from making the same terrible decision, a decision that chips away at one of our most fundamental and progressive values-the right to privacy.
Please call your senators right now and tell them to vote against any bill that lets the Bush administration and these telecom companies off the hook for shredding the constitution.
We cannot let the Senate give the phone companies and the Bush administration a free ride for past and future violations of our basic civil liberties. If we join together and ask our Senators to stop this bill by supporting a filibuster and voting NO against a bill that gives the phone companies amnesty, we can protect our privacy rights from this assault by conservative forces in Congress.
Call Your Senators Today.
The Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121 (see below for a list of direct numbers). Tell them your state and ask them to connect you to your senator. Be sure to speak with both senators from your state. When you complete your calls, let us know what happened using this report form.
In addition to giving phone companies a free pass, this bill fails to restore adequate judicial review for future surveillance, which will continue to put our privacy rights at risk. Protecting our privacy rights is a core progressive value. Don’t let them slip away. Take action by calling your senator today. And don’t forget to report back to us.
Thanks,
Alan and the CAPAF advocacy team
P.S. We are excited to tell you that we will soon be launching our new advocacy website, IAmProgress.org. IAmProgress.org will be the home to all future CAPAF advocacy campaigns. So look out for the announcement and help us make IAmProgress.org a success.
Direct Phone Numbers to Senators (Listed by State)
[…]
California
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) (202) 224-3553; (202)228-2382
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) (202) 224-3841; 228-3954
On Friday, House Democrats caved to the Bush administration and passed a bill giving a get-out-of-jail-free card to phone companies that helped Bush illegally spy on innocent Americans.1
This Monday, the fight moves to the Senate. Senator Russ Feingold says the “deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation.”2 Barack Obama announced his partial support for the bill, but said, “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.”3
Last year, after phone calls from MoveOn members and others, Obama went so far as to vow to “support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”4 We need him to honor that promise.
Can you call Senator Obama today and tell him you’re counting on him to keep his word? Ask him to block any compromise that includes immunity for phone companies that helped Bush break the law.
Obama’s presidential campaign: (866) 675-2008
Then, help us track our progress by clicking here:
These companies helped the Bush Administration illegally spy on the emails and phone calls of innocent Americans. By giving “immunity” to these companies, all lawsuits brought against them by civil liberties groups would be thrown out of court. That means we may never find out how far Bush went in breaking the law. And once it’s done, it can’t be undone. That’s why we need Obama to promise to block any bill that has immunity.
Supporters of the House bill say it doesn’t guarantee immunity-it just kicks the issue to a court to decide. But that’s deceptive. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) points out:
“It gives [Bush’s] attorney general the power to decide if cases against telecommunications companies will proceed. The AG only has to certify to the FISA court that the company didn’t spy or did so with a permission slip from the president. A note from the president is not a legal defense. Allowing phone companies to avoid litigation by simply presenting a ‘permission slip’ from the president is not court review.”5
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group working with the ACLU to hold these companies accountable, adds, “whatever gloss might be put on it, the so-called ‘compromise’ on immunity for phone companies that broke the law is anything but a compromise…no matter how they spin it, this is still immunity, period.”6
President Bush and the phone companies know that the facts are against them. A judge appointed by President Bush’s father already wrote one opinion finding that “AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal.”7
But we’ll never know how far their illegal actions went unless we fight back now. Can you tell Barack Obama you’re counting on him to keep his word and block any compromise that gives immunity to lawbreaking phone companies?
Obama’s presidential campaign: (866) 675-2008
Then, help us track our progress by clicking here:
Despite the outrage coming from a broad coalition of concerned citizens, by tomorrow night the House of Representatives will vote on whether or not to gut the Constitution and give immunity to phone companies who broke the law and spied on Americans.
We have to act now. Even if you’ve emailed, called or visited your members of Congress about FISA, we need you to contact them again today.
Congress is moving so fast and so secretively that we only got a copy of this bill this morning. I can tell you it’s horrible. It contains vacuum cleaner style surveillance that sweeps up the phone calls and emails of Americans. And it’s blatantly unconstitutional.
The bottom line is that this is legislation that benefits a few of our country’s largest corporations while taking away basic rights from the rest of us. And it is unacceptable.
I’m going to spend the rest of the day on the phone calling Capitol Hill trying to stop this bill. I hope you will spend whatever time you can to make the voice of freedom heard in Congress — make calls, ask your friends and family to call — please do whatever you can.
Put Congress on notice that the American people don’t want a “compromise” that sells out our rights. Act now. We’re hearing the vote is tomorrow, so we could have less than 24 hours.
Believe me, no matter what happens, the ACLU will continue fighting this — if necessary, in the courts.
Thank you for all you have done through this fight. Your dedication has truly inspired me and all of us at the ACLU. Now, let’s hit the phones!
The fallout from Gov. Schwarzenegger’s demeaning comments about small-town Californians continue to reverberate. Chairman Torres weighed in, and noted that rural Californians don’t exactly use a horse and buggy to get around, and some of them even have the teevee and the Internets!
“The Governor’s comments are insulting,” Torres told PolitickerCA.com today. “California does not have villages. This is not Austria, this is California. Voters in Central California and others from small towns have more on the ball than Arnie!”
State Senator Dean Florez, from the small Central Valley town of Shaffer, went a step further, introducing a resolution to have the Governor take the high school exit exam.
Like every other kid around the state, small town students take the same graduation tests as big city kids to show competency. Rural kids can make the grade. Given the Governor’s distasteful comments, what’s unanswered is whether he can make the grade.
That’s why, today, I’m introducing a senate resolution asking the Governor to take the high school exit exam. If the Governor fails the test, then we certainly have a capable Lt. Governor who can assume his duties until the Governor successfully passes the exam.
I hope that he accepts this challenge and that he doesn’t cower behind some excuse. This is a serious effort to bring attention to the divisiveness of placing labels on people based on who they are, how they live or where they come from — or even how well they do on a test.
If it is a good enough test for our twelfth graders, then certainly it is a good enough test for the Governor to demonstrate his competency.
And after he takes the exam, maybe he’ll think twice about the massive cuts to education funding he’s proposing — he just may have to return to school to brush up for the test.”
I would pay money to sit in while Arnold fills in the bubbles on the Scan-Tron sheet. Can we get this on television? It’d be the first time local news covered state politics all year!
CDP Chair Art Torres has not one superdelegate vote, but 6. That’s because he gets to choose five unpledged delegates for the DNC Convention in August. From the Chronicle:
Consider Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party. He remains uncommitted, yet he could be the most powerful superdelegate of all. Torres gets to name five additional superdelegates, giving him control over six votes at the national convention this summer.
“I am the super of supers!” Torres proclaims with a laugh.
He and other state party chairmen will appoint most of the additional 76, known in Democratic ranks as “unpledged add-ons.”
[UPDATE] by Julia: Anybody have any suggestions of who would make a great super delegate? What about qualities in the people you would like Torres to pick? Personally I think he should shoot for young and of color to better reflect California than your average super delegate.
Whoops had I bothered to read the full article before I posted I would have seen this from Torres, which is great.
In California, Torres has come up with a diplomatic way to select his five delegates. He said he plans to award them in proportion to the vote in California’s Democratic primary. Clinton received about 52 percent of the vote, so she gets three; Obama got 43 percent of the vote, so he gets two.
Torres said he will also use the slots to help meet the state’s affirmative action goals.
“I want to take a delegation to the convention that reflects the diversity of California,” Torres said.
Torres is speaking now, waxing poetic about the proper behavior for a spirited primary- no personal attacks, etc. etc. But in the process mentioned that Michigan and Florida delegates should be seated at the DNC convention. Not exactly sure where all this is coming from, but there it is.
And now we’re on to McCain and the S&L scandal. (Update: As Dave mentioned next to me, Torres clearly has the full oppo research on McCain. It would be nice if this was the beginning of a larger movement to target McCain- anyone want to lay odds?)
Didn’t anyone pass him the memo that this year’s convention is ONLY about Leno/Midgen? 🙂
“Oh god, another speech from John Kerry.” Those words came from the mouth of Art Torres describing the difference between the level of excitement between this year and 2004. Art continued on to say that the superdelegates should ratify the pledged delegate leader. This is a national convention, not a state or local convention. The national convention should nominate a national candidate. More over the flip.
Several months ago, at a time where Dianne Feinstein was facing censure for a series of votes siding with the Bush Administration over Democratic values or the Constitution, Art Torres assured us all, in a highly emotional speech, that he discussed telecom immunity, a forthcoming issue, with her, and that “thanks to her” immunity was stripped from the bill.
“Don’t believe me, ask my friend Senator Dodd, who will tell you that she led the effort along with him to make sure that [immunity] wasn’t in the official bill that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
That wasn’t true then, of course; Patrick Leahy’s ju-jitsu by putting immunity in Title II of the bill and then dropping it was what did the trick. But of course, that wasn’t enough. The Intelligence Committee bill, the one with amnesty for the phone companies, was what made it to the floor. Feinstein offered some amendments. Her “exclusivity” amendment to make FISA the exclusive means under which government spying takes place “failed” because only 57 Senators voted for it; under the unanimous consent agreement, that particular amendment needed 60 votes to pass because it had too much support. This essentially invalidates all laws passed by the Congress, since in the absence of exclusivity, what is implied is that the President has the ability to go outside whatever law is passed.
So in that environment, there was a vote to strip telecom immunity from the bill. This is something the President alone can’t dictate to the courts. This is the only opportunity to find the truth about how our government spied on us. And Dianne Feinstein, hoping that we weren’t paying attention, voted against stripping it out.
It was a few months away from any pressure on her, so she felt OK with allowing the President to break American laws. Here’s what’s happening today:
The Senate today — led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus — will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration’s years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate — led by former Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick — are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment.
Every single Senator, all of whom committed to a unanimous consent agreement that precluded any possibility to amend the bill, is responsible. But everyone in the world knew Dianne Feinstein would sell us out and give the phone companies what they wanted for violating civil liberties. Everyone, that is, except for Art Torres.
I’d like a personal apology, thanks. So should everyone who was in that room in Anaheim.
[UPDATE]: In case anyone was wondering, DiFi’s “good faith” amendment fell to defeat, 41-57. Chris Dodd rightly voted against it, because it was an idiotic compromise.
Several months ago, at a time where Dianne Feinstein was facing censure for a series of votes siding with the Bush Administration over Democratic values or the Constitution, Art Torres assured us all, in a highly emotional speech, that he discussed telecom immunity, a forthcoming issue, with her, and that “thanks to her” immunity was stripped from the bill.
“Don’t believe me, ask my friend Senator Dodd, who will tell you that she led the effort along with him to make sure that [immunity] wasn’t in the official bill that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
That wasn’t true then, of course; Patrick Leahy’s ju-jitsu by putting immunity in Title II of the bill and then dropping it was what did the trick. But of course, that wasn’t enough. The Intelligence Committee bill, the one with amnesty for the phone companies, was what made it to the floor. Feinstein offered some amendments. Her “exclusivity” amendment to make FISA the exclusive means under which government spying takes place “failed” because only 57 Senators voted for it; under the unanimous consent agreement, that particular amendment needed 60 votes to pass because it had too much support. This essentially invalidates all laws passed by the Congress, since in the absence of exclusivity, what is implied is that the President has the ability to go outside whatever law is passed.
So in that environment, there was a vote to strip telecom immunity from the bill. This is something the President alone can’t dictate to the courts. This is the only opportunity to find the truth about how our government spied on us. And Dianne Feinstein, hoping that we weren’t paying attention, voted against stripping it out.
It was a few months away from any pressure on her, so she felt OK with allowing the President to break American laws. Here’s what’s happening today:
The Senate today — led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus — will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration’s years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans. The long, hard efforts by AT&T, Verizon and their all-star, bipartisan cast of lobbyists to grease the wheels of the Senate — led by former Bush 41 Attorney General William Barr and former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick — are about to pay huge dividends, as such noble efforts invariably do with our political establishment.
Every single Senator, all of whom committed to a unanimous consent agreement that precluded any possibility to amend the bill, is responsible. But everyone in the world knew Dianne Feinstein would sell us out and give the phone companies what they wanted for violating civil liberties. Everyone, that is, except for Art Torres.
I’d like a personal apology, thanks. So should everyone who was in that room in Anaheim.
Dodd was just on C-SPAN saying that the Senate is moving on to other issues beyond the FISA bill. He just yielded the floor. He said he was prepared to spend his full 30 hours speaking on the bill but “that will no longer be necessary.” Sen. Reid just pulled the bill until January.
Reid was taking a lot of heat for this, and in the end perhaps felt that he couldn’t hold out any longer. I’m guessing that he’ll push for allowing the full Senate to view those legal opinions on warrantless wiretapping as a condition for moving forward on the bill.
This is one of the first good days in a long time, but keep in mind that Reid may have simply reasoned that he wouldn’t have had time to finish all the other crap legislation he has coming down the pike, including giving a no-strings $70 billion in war funding to Bush. Keep in mind that there are some good shifting of budget priorities in that omnibus bill, including slashing abstinence-only education funding, raising the Consumer Product Safety Commission budget by 28%, and saving a host of social services from the chopping block. But I guess Reid made the determination that funding Bush’s war was more important than giving telecoms a free pass.
What have we learned? Filibusters are powerful tools because one Senator can make life a living hell. The progressive movement has enough allies and enough power to at least slow down this rush to a national surveillance state. And now Dianne Feinstein’s cards are on the table. Let’s be clear: she said to the full Senate today that she voted for telecom immunity in her various committees. This is 100% counter to Art Torres’ contention that she helped “stop” immunity in the Judiciary Committee. And we saw her “split the baby” compromise to keep any determination of telecom immunity secret.
UPDATE: I should mention that this is just a round, not the whole battle. The bill will come back up in January, and there will be just as much pressure to immunize the telcos then. So keep calling those Senators and tell them that you believe in the rule of law.
Ok, so the attempt to censure Senator Feinstein failed, but it sure changed the conversation. Everyone from the New York Times editorial board to Fox News chimed in. Over 35,000 people and over 40 grassroots groups, clubs and organizations joined in. It really hit a nerve and catalyzed a new discussion about what it means to be a Democrat.
Now it is time to do something positive and continue the conversation.
Next week the Senate will again take up the re-authorization of FISA. Immunity for telecom companies will be a major battle within the larger re-authorization bill. Senator Dodd has promised to put a hold and filibuster the bill to prevent the attempt to let the telecommunications companies off the hook for following Bush’s orders to break the law and spy on Americans without a warrant. Heck, the bill as written would not even let us even look into what exactly they did and who they spied on. Senator Feinstein has indicated that he will join this effort. CDP Chair Art Torres said that this issue was “very important” to him and one that he discussed with Senator Feinstein. Two Senators does not a sustainable filibuster make. They need some friends. We must hold the line together.
So today the Courage Campaign sent out an email to our members (available below the fold) asking people to sign on to a letter to Chairman Torres requesting that he convey the message to Senator Feinstein to stand strong in opposing retroactive immunity for telecom companies. Will you join us?
Over 1,000 of you have sent the Courage Campaign your passionate responses to this vital question, continuing the conversation catalyzed by your grassroots movement to censure Senator Dianne Feinstein for her regrettable Judiciary Committee votes supporting Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Judge Leslie Southwick.
While the California Democratic Party used parliamentary procedure to prevent a discussion or vote on the censure resolution, your 35,031 signatures succeeded in fundamentally changing the conversation inside the party.
The mainstream media is also taking notice of this unique grassroots and netroots movement for accountability, as exemplified by the editorial board of the New York Times:
“The censure motion may have failed, but Feinstein’s critics say they are not going away. Rick Jacobs, the founder of the Courage Campaign, vowed that if Ms. Feinstein continues to vote the wrong way, as his group sees it, ‘we’ll be back.'”
Senator Feinstein failed us all by not standing strong against the condoning of torture, homophobia and racism. To hold her accountable, we rallied the California progressive community in support of a censure resolution authored by Mal Burnstein, Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, and subsequently supported by 40 other Democratic Clubs and progressive organizations, including MoveOn and Progressive Democrats of America.
Now, we are concerned that Senator Feinstein will fail us all again on one of the most important issues currently facing the Senate — a likely floor vote next week on an Intelligence Committee bill re-authorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This Intelligence Committee bill includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies guilty of wiretapping Americans without a warrant, a violation of our fundamental constitutional rights.
Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Russ Feingold and several other Senators have recently said they will filibuster any legislation that contains retroactive telecom immunity.
However, to date, Senator Feinstein has failed to indicate that she will support such a courageous stand in defense of our Constitution.
Fortunately, California Democrats have a potential friend in California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres. He may not agree with us on censuring the Senator but he does agree with us on retroactive immunity for telecom companies. In a passionate speech defending Senator Feinstein at the CDP Executive Board meeting last week, the Chairman expressed his sincere opposition to censure and reported a conversation he had with the Senator about granting telecom companies retroactive immunity, indicating that it is an issue that is “very important” to him.
As Chairman Torres said in his speech, “if we don’t have transparency in our rules, if we don’t have open discussions, and if we don’t argue with each other, we’re not the Democratic Party. We’re the Republicans.”
He’s absolutely right. And that’s exactly what many of you said last week when we asked you: “What does it mean to be a Democrat?” Over 1,000 of you responded with heartfelt, passionate statements expressing your core values as Democrats, progressives and Americans, including John W., who said:
“I don’t even want to talk about what it means to be a Democrat; I want to talk about what it means to be a good American who supports the Constitution and wants our country to act with integrity…”
The New York Times isn’t the only media outlet taking notice of your activism in collaboration with the Courage Campaign. From the Los Angeles Daily News and Fox News to the Huffington Post and community blogs like Calitics and Daily Kos, your movement to hold the Senator accountable has fundamentally changed the conversation.
But we can’t be satisfied with just changing the conversation. We also need to change the direction of California and our country. That means standing up for core American values that keep our nation strong, starting with the Constitution itself.
Please encourage the Chairman and the Senator to stand up for our Constitution and stand strong against telecom immunity today.
Thank you for taking action to keep America free and safe.
Rick Jacobs
Chair
P.S. The Courage Campaign does more than just hold our elected representatives accountable. From working to block Blackwater’s plans to build a mercenary base on the California border to our “NoDirtyTricks.com” campaign to stop the Republicans from stealing the White House, we are fighting for you on multiple fronts.
