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It is being reported that at least 5 of the Democratic amendments to the FISA Bill will get a chance to be voted on. So, the Democrats did not cave in to Republicans in the Senate, thus far. Will wonders never cease?
The 5 amendments:
- Striking Immunity (Feingold/Dodd): Strips the provision providing for telco amnesty from the current bill.
- Sequestration (Feingold): Prohibits the use of illegally obtained information.
- Bulk collection (Feingold): Requires the government to certify to the FISA Court that it is collecting communications of targets for whom there is a foreign intelligence interest.
- Reverse targeting (Feingold): Prohibits warrantless reverse targeting by requiring a FISA Court order for surveillance of a foreign person where the "significant purpose" of the collection is to target a U.S. person located in the United States.
- Substitution (Whitehouse-Specter): Substitutes the government for telcos being sued for their participation in the warrantless wiretapping program, but only if the company is first determined by the FISA Court to have cooperated with the Bush Administration reasonably and in good faith.
The amendments that would require a 60 vote majority are:
- Minimization (Whitehouse-Rockefeller-Leahy-Schumer): Minimization is the process of weeding out data obtained about U.S. persons and destroying it. This amendment would grant the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the discretionary authority to not only approve minimization rules but to review their implementation.
- Sunset Provision (Cardin): Shortens the sunset of the FISA Amendments bill from six years to four years. Source
Dick Cheney was on Rush Limbaugh's Rush Limbaugh’s radio show yesterday, spouting off his idiot ideas on telecom amnesty. Here is a piece of it.
V.P. Cheney: People who don’t want to — I guess want to leave open the possibility that the trial lawyers can go after a big company that may have helped. Those companies helped specifically at our request, and they’ve done yeoman duty for the country, and this is the so-called terrorist surveillance program, one of the things it was called earlier. It’s just absolutely essential to know who in the United States is talking to Al-Qaeda. It’s a program that’s been very well managed. We haven’t violated anybody’s civil liberties. It’s in fact a good piece of legislation.
Keep hounding those Senators folks. We need to keep their asses in line on this. If you Senator is a Republican, call him/her anyway and let them know what you think.
