The dominant color in the ad is "Matrix green," suggesting a shadowy, high tech issue that you probably wouldn't understand. Mr. Million Dollar Voice Guy tells us the House of Representatives went on vacation rather than renew Bush's FISA retooling and "new surveillance against terrorists is crippled." We're supposed to "tell the House of Representatives to do its job and pass 'the Senate's terrorist surveillance bill' and keep us all safe."
That's a new ad from Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (see the ad here). 2008 is an election year, which means the GOP are dusting off their favorite campaign slogan -- TERRORISTS ARE GOING TO KILL YOU IN YOUR BED!!
Of course, as propaganda so often is, the ad's a big steaming pile. Even the extremely right wing Washington Times tells us that the "expiration of certain temporary domestic wiretapping laws will have little effect on national security" and that the original FISA law, which is still in effect, "provides the necessary tools for the intelligence community to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists." In short, the ad's a lie. All the FISA retooling really does is provide amnesty to telecoms who've broken the law.
Under the current version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, you don't even need a warrant to begin a wiretap. You have 72 hours to get the warrant. The argument that feds can't listen in on anyone without the FISA retooling is another lie...
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