Congressman Walberg, it's not that I don't want you to change your mind, but... what happened?

I think he knows his a** is being kicked in this district and that he'd better vote "yes" on something, for a change.
 

More likely scenario; Karl Rove called him and threatened to cut off CFG funding if he didn't vote for it.
 

Speaking of 9/11, I received an ACLU Action Alert today and called Walberg's Washington office regarding it. Here is some of the letter I received from the ACLU:

"As the tide turns against his Attorney General and his NSA wiretapping
program, the president has launched a 'fear offensive'
-- a desperate push to change the laws that govern spying. On
Saturday, President Bush told Congress that if it doesn't gut
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) this week, the
Democrats will be putting our nation at risk in a 'heightened
threat environment.'"

I researched this online some, and found it's being dubbed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Modernization. However, I also came upon a few webpages that indicated that that the Congressional number associated with this bill is actually itself classified!

When I inquired with Walberg's staff about whether it's true that the bill number is classified, the gentleman with whom I spoke had never even heard of the modification bill. So I asked him to mark me down as a "no" anyway.

Does anyone else know more about this FISA modernization/modification bill? Is the number classified and the actual text being hidden? Regardless of that, the bill sounds horrible. I read that it would increase from 9 to over 9,000 people who can certify application for a FISA warrant.

Here's just one site that comments on the bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=110-s20070511-9
 

michael,

I tried accessing your suggested link and this is what I came up with:

There was an error loading the page you requested.

An internal error occurred in this page.

If you believe this is in error, you may report this problem to errors@govtrack.us.

Otherwise, please visit GovTrack's homepage to find what you are looking for.
 

Anonymous,
Thanks for looking.

Hmmm . . . I just copy pasted right from there and it worked for me. Sometimes that site is inconsistent - the other day it was down totally. The page is Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) discussing the FISA modernization.

You can really just type "FISA modernization" or something similar "FISA modification" or spell out FISA into a search engine and you will find a lot about it but little that's specific. It looks like the bill is close to being passed in the House but with some compromises.
 

Here's a story the L.A. Times broke this morning suggesting that there's a lot more going on behind closed doors than at first realized regarding Gonzalez, the Admin in general, FISA, and the FISA Court. Apparently the FISA Court, a secret court, actually exercises judicial discretion (which is a surprise relief to me) and this makes the Admin angry. Poor babies.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spying2aug02,1,1851437.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true
 

Aw, shucks, Michael. I'm not an LATimes member so I couldn't access the story but is this the thing Randi Rhodes was talking about on Air America? She said it was a very important issue that California citizens don't seem to know much about and that the legislature will soon be voting on it. I don't remember who she was interviewing but it was determined by both Randi and the interviewee that this needs to have legs.
 

Anonymous,

Well here it is, it's all over (for six months anyway - at least there's a sunset in it) and the bad guys won, including Walberg and Rogers voting Yes (no shock there): http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_6543018
 

It looked like there was a significant drop in opposition, I'm sure the D's took out some parts that the Republicans didn't like (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1). Just like they rolled over with that FISA Bill they let the Republicans pass. Not sure who's controlling the agenda on the House floor...