Basics: Why You Should Worry About the FISA Amendments ActThis week, Republican Party operatives and lobbyists for giant telecommunications companies are pushing Democratic members of the US House of Representatives to vote for a harsher version of the FISA Amendments Act. They're saying that it's a matter of Homeland Security. The truth is something much darker. The truth about the FISA Amendments Act is that it gives top government officials under President George W. Bush the power to read your emails, listen to your telephone calls and follow you wherever you go on the Internet, and to do it all without giving any explanation or any evidence that you, an American citizen, are suspected of any connection to any crime at all. The FISA Amendments Act that George W. Bush is pushing for transforms the American President into Big Brother, with the power to spy against anybody who is using an electronic form of communication anywhere. They could even get a record of what television shows you watch. But, it's even worse than that. The FISA Amendments Act gives the government the power to send spies to search your home or office while you are gone, without any search warrant, without any judicial approval at all, and never tell you that they were there. Again, if the FISA Amendments Act becomes law you won't have to even be suspected of a crime. The government will be able to search your home for no reason at all, or for political reasons, or because you're gay, or because you're African-American, or because you're not a member of the right religion, or just because somewhere in the government there is somebody who doesn't like you. That's why you should care about the FISA Amendments Act, and it's why you must pick up your telephone and call your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives and urge a vote against the FISA Amendments Act. Do it today, before it's too late. The FISA Amendments Act could become law within a matter of days. Call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative's nearest home district office. |
 Show your liberal pride with this Proud Liberal button in patriotic and principled colors. (proud liberal metal pinback button)  Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor... Revive this welcoming sentiment of Liberty (pack of 10 Greeting Cards)  This car gets 40 miles per gallon. So who's the Patriot? Getcher Homeland Security T-Shirts right here, you betcha. I'm a Proud Liberal. Are you? Show it! |
 Part of our peace menagerie, this Colobus monkey sits in a tree holding a peace sign. |  If you're a liberal, stand up for what you believe in. Nobody else will do it for you. Wear this button of eight liberal values with pride to show that values are not Republican territory any more! |  Republican politicians spied on my family!!!! ... and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Great kid-style slouchy subversive protest. |