Event: Health Care Town Hall with Cong. Hoyer
"Health care for people; don't bail out insurers!"
What: Club/Group Meeting
Host: Healthcare-Now of Maryland
Start Time: Monday, April 20 at 5:00pm
End Time: Monday, April 20 at 6:30pm
Where: Bowie State University - Florian Hall

From the Facebook page of Maryland Single Payer.

Yet another attempt is being made to pass a FISA revision bill that will provide immunity for the telecoms against lawsuits for their part in illegal spying on American citizens. The cabal planning this maneuver expects to take their plot to both the House and Senate next week, where coalitions of Republicans and BlueDog Democrats could provide enough votes for passage.

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Update 3: NYT article and a blogger talks to Hoyer’s office

Update: More on the new FISA deal from The Hill and Glenn Greenwald. Text is down at the bottom.

Update 2: Congressional contact information list

Congress Daily:

House and Senate leaders will attempt to negotiate a final deal to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week, but their success is far from guaranteed.

For weeks, House Majority Leader Hoyer has said he hoped to strike a compromise on FISA legislation before the recess. But he has faced major obstacles in bridging a divide in his Caucus.

Liberal lawmakers want greater controls on how the government conducts electronic surveillance and they do not support giving blanket retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the Bush administration conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens without warrants.

 Read more…

I don’t like Steny Hoyer. There’s just no way around it. Now he’s conspiring with Jay Rockefeller to force retroactive telecom immunity through Congress, so George Bush and his criminal conspiracy won’t have to answer any questions about violating the Constitution by spying on American citizens without warrants.

Again.

Did I mention I don’t like Steny Hoyer?

The House, to its great credit, passed a FISA reform bill that doesn't eviscerate the rule of law by granting the telcos retroactive immunity, and doesn't completely gut the Fourth Amendment*. That's good news, and if we get lucky, the whole abomination might just get deep-sixed, at which point we would return to the status quo ante legally, while much strengthened politically. Kudos, I freely grant, to Nancy Pelosi** and the rest of the House leadership, including -- lambert blushes modestly for calling this one, against all odds -- Steny Hoyer. That said, let's do the classic blogospheric media critique thing on WaPo's not totally fucked coverage. Jonathan Weisman reports:

[Welcome, Eschatonians, and thanks to Lord Atrios for the link. I called up Hoyer's office, and courteously informed the young staffer about the link. And you know what? They didn't know who Atrios was. So, this is a teachable moment_{MR SUBLIMINAL And be polite, dammit!} to show Hoyer that (a) restoring Constitutional government is good politics, and (b) it's good to have the blogosphere with you. Why not call his office and do some teaching? (202) 225-4131. Did I mention that you should be polite?*]

Here's a very interesting speech that Representative Hoyer gave yesterday over at Georgetown Law School.** (I'm not clued into Village mores enough to know if the location is significant, but I'm guessing it is. Heck, it's the Beltway's own law school...). Here's the text of the speech, and some of what he had to say; I'm leaving out the terra-terra-terra ass-covering boilerplate to focus on what's new:

We also swear an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, and to honor the values and principles that are contained therein for example, the Fourth Amendment right that Americans be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth Amendment right to due process of law.

Honoring the system of checks and balances carefully established by the Framers of our Constitution will make us more, not less, safe. This was the conclusion of those men in 1789 who had just fought a war, and who faced a very uncertain and dangerous future.

[Here follows a long list of abuses and usurpations; essentially, the same critique we've been developing on torture, surveillance, the rule of law, abuse of power, et cetera, et cetera.]

Nor have we helped our cause by dispensing with centuries-old legal concepts such as habeas corpus. And, the Administration s penchant for presidential signing statements that assert a right of the President to effectively ignore all or part of the laws he signs must give all of us pause.

It is long past time for effective Congressional oversight and Judicial review of this Administration's actions.

And now comes something I personally find amazing: