Say Bye Bye To Di?

The latest from Democracy For America...

My name is Chris Finnie and I've been a California DFA member since the Dean campaign. I need your help on an urgent Senate vote.

In California, we have a law -- commonly called the three-strikes law. And, like all laws, I think it ought to apply to everybody -- including my Senator, Diane Feinstein.

Too many times Senator Feinstein has failed to represent the people of California. Now she has announced that this Thursday she will support President Bush for the third time in two months. And it all comes down to Senator Feinstein's role on the Judiciary Committee.

Strike One: A Bush nominee for the federal bench, Leslie Southwick has a long history of rulings in lower courts that violate equality laws. Feinstein cast a deciding vote to give him a lifetime seat.

Strike Two: Michael Mukasey, nominated for Attorney General, refused to say he would oppose torture. But Feinstein voted to send his confirmation to the Senate floor anyway.

Now she's poised for her third bad vote in a row, on a rework of the FISA Act -- the law that's supposed to protect us all against illegal wiretapping.

When the Bush administration didn't want to follow this law, they asked major telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon to help. Several phone companies broke the law to help Dick Cheney read our emails and listen to our phone calls.

They knew it was illegal. But they didn't expect to get caught.

Now that they did, the Bush administration is trying to protect AT&T and others from lawsuits by granting retroactive immunity for breaking the law. The Senate Judiciary Committee can kill this bill if all ten Democrats vote against it.

Strike Three: Senator Feinstein is the only Democrat who says she'll vote for it.

Please call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid right now and demand he remove Senator Feinstein from the committee and replace her with a Democrat who will stand up to President Bush's abuse of power.

Senator Harry Reid
202-224-3542

Please report your call and let us know how it went (here).

Our elected officials are supposed to represent the will of their constituents when they vote. In a state the size of California, almost nobody could represent everybody all the time. But too often, Diane Feinstein votes against the people of California.

One of our Senators is a true representitive. In 2004, there were questions about the fairness of the presidential vote in Ohio. A lot of DFA members asked our other Senator, Barbara Boxer, to oppose accepting the results in the Senate. She told her staff if enough Californians asked her to, she would. Well, enough of us did and Senator Boxer protested that vote on the floor of the Senate.

But, before the Iraq invasion, many people contacted Senator Feinstein and asked her to vote against authorization. I did. And I got an email back saying, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Feinstein felt she had access to information I didn't. So, despite communications from "tens of thousands of Californians" asking her to vote against it, she was going to ignore us. It was more polite than that. But it was still a blatant refusal to represent Californians and we all know how it turned out.

The first vote on retroactive immunity for phone companies is Thursday. Please take action today. Senator Feinstein won't vote with Democrats against the Bush administration's abuse of power. Ask Senator Reid to replace her with someone who will.

Senator Harry Reid
202-224-3542

Please report your call and let us know how it went (here).

Thank you,

Chris

Chris Finnie
California DFA Member

Amen brother (sister?)...to learn more, click here.