I live in CT, and I've been bombarded with those *#@% Defense of Democracies ads for both Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney. And, quite frankly, I've had enough of it.
I was actually planning to write a LTE about the hypocrisy of McCain, but I figure that, given the airtime this ad is getting--an average of once every half-hour, if not more--that it might be a good idea to send this one first.
I have the letter below the fold. Any advice you can give on improving this, I'd greatly appreciate it.
If you've watched Connecticut TV stations, you've undoubtedly seen ads warning that the law allowing wiretapping has expired, "crippling" intelligence gathering, and that Americans are now more in danger because of that lapse. Quite simply, these statements are blatant lies.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the fundamental law governing government wiretapping, remains in effect, as do the provisions that allow the government to begin wiretapping for up to 72 hours before applying for a warrant; in addition, all current wiretapping can continue. Even the White House has admitted that no data has been lost as a result of this supposed "crippling."
Moreover, this misleading ad ignores the fact that the reason the House refused to vote is that House Democrats correctly refused to pass a law legitimizing the illegal warrantless wiretapping practiced by the Bush administration with the aid of some telecommunications companies. (The fig leaf about "protecting" those companies is just that, as they are already required to comply with legal requests.) The House version of the bill provides the government the tools it needs for intelligence gathering, without condoning the illegal actions of telecommunications companies as the Senate version does. So, one might wonder, why does this "Defense of Democracies" group find giving amnesty to companies so important?
The ad urges you to contact Congressmen Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney to urge them to pass the Senate version of H.R. 3773. But, if like most Americans, you believe that the government should not be illegally spying on its own citizens, then your time would be better spent calling them and thanking Murphy and Courtney for standing up for the rights of all Americans.
I know, <150 words is best, but my local paper allows letters up to 300 words (and does publish letters that long), so I'd prefer to keep it as informative as possible.</p>
Of course, if you want to adapt this for your own uses, please feel free to do so.