FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that is up for renewal.  Everyone agrees that it should be renewed and it makes provisions for when you can and can't monitor domestic conversations.  The White House and the Senate have added an amendment to the bill that gives immunity to all telecoms that ever broke the law and let the government spy without warrants.

Last year a whistle blower came forward and showed that AT&T shunts all communications to a Government run room inside of AT&T's offices in San Fransisco.  It is assumed that other telecoms have similar rooms and The White House has promised these telecoms that they will not be prosecuted.

The House had vetoed the bill, but claims they are close to allowing it to go through do to White House pressure.  President Bush has appeared on T.V. and radio twice condemning the House and admitting he made promises to the Telecoms that they were not breaking the law.

I don't mean to make this political, but this matters for the future of the internet.  We want an open internet where innovation is fostered.  If the gatekeepers of the large routers and switches can start monitoring all of our traffic with immunity, than it gives them an unfair advantage against start-ups.  Also if the government is encouraging and financing it this brings up privacy issues.  WIthout sounding like a conspiracy, the next step will be filtering objectionable content like Comcast is currently doing to P2P users (but that is another political football for another day).

Call you House Rep and let them know where you stand.  RIGHT NOW !