The Latest On FISA

  DailyKos

by mcjoan

The latest from House Republicans:

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) announced Thursday that he will try to attach a measure updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as an amendment to the war supplemental bill....

"It’s time for the Democratic leaders to put our national security ahead of the desires of trial lawyers and pass the FISA bill that was passed by the Senate," the lawmaker said. "This Congress should make this legislation one of its top priorities until the intelligence gap is closed."

Meet Rep. Jerry Lewis:

Congratulations to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) lawyers! They've surpassed $1 million in legal fees from the lawmaker....

Since June of 2006, Lewis has paid just over $1 million in campaign funds to some heavy-hitters at the law firm Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher, according to campaign disclosures. A $62,000 payment on December 12th last year put him over the top.

It's hard to be a better friend to trial lawyers than that.

Technorati Tags: FISA,telecom amnesty,illegal wiretaps,Jerry Lewis

America's Human Rights Problem

  Sometimes I often wonder what the rest of the world thinks of our United States of America and just recently I discovered the foreigners take on America when it comes to certain subjects.

  Here's one point of view from China.

   From Watching America

By Liao Qin
"Currently the U.S., while “concerned in every possible way” with other countries’ human rights conditions, is committing a misdeed towards healing its very own human rights violations."
Translated By Aaron Creller
March 14th, 2008
China - Jie Fang Daily News - Original Article (Chinese)
The United States, “Defender of Human Rights,” often wants to point its finger at other countries’ human rights conditions, giving directions and petulantly faultfinding. This year is no different. The other day, Washington issued a statement on another country’s human rights, as usual putting on display that country’s faults while using the same old clichés: A.) the country’s human rights are a mess, B.) the country time and time again infringes on human rights; if they continue like this then they will be put on the black list, where the infringements on human rights are ranked into the 10 most serious offending countries, and so on.
But those with foresight can perceive an amusing occurrence. Currently the U.S., while “concerned in every possible way” with other countries’ human rights conditions, is committing a misdeed towards healing its very own human rights violations – all of this while they inspect themselves but see nothing, or speak only words and commit no actions.
Is the United States really without a human rights problem? Definitely not. For instance, from the fiscal year 2001 to to the fiscal year 2007, infringing on civil rights cases increased 25% as the U.S. law enforcement and U.S. Justice Department both abused their authority. Another example: as of last year, people killed in the U.S. initiated Iraq War have already reached 660,000 plus, among which Iraq civilians counted for 90%. In addition, the United States’ secret overseas mistreatment of prisoners has not diminished, to that extent the U.S. seems to have become the symbol of “secret prisons” and “mistreatment of prisoners.”
It is clear that on the problem of human rights, Americans on the one hand imposingly issue reports that criticize others, while at the same time leaving out their own name. These two faces really seem sufficiently rude and ridiculous. Without a doubt, if any progress forward can be made, then there are still a few other things that must be looked at.
In the guiding document issued during the French Revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the sentence “In respect to human rights, people are born and also remain free and equal” has unknowingly encouraged how much strife for people? Certainly much time has been spent and sacrosanct “human rights,” “democracy,” “freedom” alike often perish due to interference from domestic governments, which implement their own strategies under the pretenses and with the tools that are available. No wonder Madame Roland said, “Freedom, freedom, how much evil is committed in your name!” In fact, whether or not the United States mobilized the Iraq War, Washington still recently supported Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, supposedly under the lofty banner of democracy, freedom, human rights and so on. But behind their back they are dealing with complicated games and considerations. To some extent, in these matters, it appears to be a fully hegemonic mentality. Interestingly, there’s also many times, on the face of “inducements,” the United States’ human rights banner can also turn dark and fade, tolerating nothing. For example, in their treatment of the problem of common wealth of independent states, it is not surprising that there are political analysts who go back on their word. The United States’ big human rights cudgel still has four large enemies: oil, natural gas, the war on terrorism, and geo-political considerations…
Returning to the real story, no matter how it is said, the treatment of the sacred human rights problem involves two features that are easy to see. Though warm inner feelings may help some people “give directions” to other people, everyone must manage themselves first.

Technorati Tags: America,human rights,democracy,freedom