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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) -- passed in the wake of domestic surveillance scandals revealed during the Watergate hearings -- affirmed the basic constitutional standard of privacy that most Americans still expect: that law enforcement agencies can only wiretap your conversations pursuant to a specific court order.

Then in 2005, it was revealed that the Bush administration had been engaged in widespread violations of the FISA law, which they argued were somehow authorized by either the president's "inherent powers" or the resolution allowing the president to use military foce aginst the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. Those arguments don't hold much weight, and Congress has now issued subpoenas to get to the bottom of the matter.

However, this August, Congress shamefully and inexplicably caved in to the Bush administration and passed the "Protect America Act" -- which allows for massive, untargeted collection of international communications without respect to U.S. citizens' privacy rights or any meaningful oversight by either Congress or the courts.

Now, the Bush administration is coming back to Congress with a new proposal to permanently codify these new administration powers, and retroactively grant full immunity to telecommunications companies (such as AT&T) that cooperated with the administration in illegally wiretapping American citizens. These companies would like nothing more than to escape legal responsibility for their actions.

It's time for Congress to stop caving in, and start standing up to the Bush administration. Send a message to your senators and representative that you want them to hold the administration and the telecom companies liable for their actions, not grant them sweeping new powers to invade our privacy.