Telecom's Ready to Enjoy Amnesty For Criminal Acts: There Will Be No Filibuster By Chris Dodd

    Time for a little update on the FISA bill and amnesty for criminals who gave our personal records ( calls, emails,ect. ) to the Bush Crime Syndicate ( NSA ).

    As we all know, the vote on this junk FISA bill is tomorrow and this is looking as if the Democrats in the Senate ( Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, and others ) are going to get on their collective knees and suck Bush's dick once again and give him and the telecom's the amnesty that he needs to avoid possible prosecution for felony acts of lawbreaking for spying on United States citizens.

   Glenn Greenwald on what will happen in the Senate tomorrow.

What the Senate is about to do tomorrow is very simple: it will (a) vest vast new powers in the President to spy on the calls and emails of American citizens, inside the U.S., with no warrants, and (b) grant amnesty to telecoms that broke multiple federal laws. In sum, it will legalize the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" that the President ordered for years in violation of the law -- a program aimed at eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, inside the U.S.

   So what about Chris Dodd's threat of a filibuster?

     Contrary to the emphatic promise Dodd repeatedly made during his presidential campaign to lead a filibuster on the floor of the Senate to stop any bill that has telecom immunity in it (a promise which, incidentally, led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being donated to his campaign), there isn't going to be any actual filibuster tomorrow. Under the Unanimous Consent framework agreed to by all Senators (including Dodd), there will be a 60-vote requirement to invoke cloture on the FISA bill and for ultimate passage, followed by an allotted 4 hours of post-cloture "debate," but there will not be any real filibuster to prevent cloture. When Leahy says that he will "join" Dodd's filibuster, what he means is that he will merely cast a vote against cloture.

Dodd's efforts against this bill have been quite commendable, and the UC Agreement isn't completely worthless. It means that Democrats do not need 60 votes, or even 50 votes, to stop this bill. Rather, they only need 41 Senators willing to oppose cloture (which everyone knows they're not going to get).

Still, Dodd is not, after all, going to lead an actual filibuster on the floor of the Senate to stop the bill. Worse, the Republicans are going to be permitted to impose 60-vote requirements on key Democratic amendments without actually having to filibuster at all -- exactly the situation which Harry Reid vowed just two weeks ago he would not permit.    Salon

   So once again, bend-over Harry is going to kiss George Bush's ass to score what he thinks are brownie points for later on. Is this man to old to handle his job or is he just totally dumb, stupid, and ignorant? I guess that he could be all of them. Either way, he needs to either find himself a nice quiet place to retire to, or fired from his position in government.

   One question? Do We The People even have any real Democrats in the Senate?

Technorati Tags: FISA, telecom amnesty, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Unanimous Consent, George Bush, filibuster, Democrats, cloture vote

FISA And The Filibuster

  Back to the important matters, FISA being one of them.

  First off, Sen. Patrick Leahy has said that he will support Chris Dodd, Russ Feingold, and the others in opposing the Senate version of the FISA bill. One more joining the good guys for a change. Senator Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee so this means a lot as he can now look over at Jay Rockefeller, another chairman, to let him know what a piece of shit that he is in supporting amnesty for the telecoms.

  Sen.  Leahy's Office:

Tuesday is a critical day in our fight to stand up for American values and preserve our freedoms while protecting our national security.

Tomorrow the Senate will vote on amendments to FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing the use of wiretaps and other means to conduct surveillance of foreign threats.

Unfortunately, the new FISA bill we'll be voting on Tuesday still has many problems.  I will do everything in my power -- including joining my colleague Chris Dodd in a filibuster against this legislation -- to fix it. 

Now I need your help to encourage more of our House and Senate colleagues to stand with us. 

Tell Congress that any new FISA bill must both protect our national security and preserve our civil liberties. Please email your home state Senators and Member of Congress now!

I strongly support surveillance targeting foreign threats and terrorists who wish to do us harm -- but we must take care to protect Americans' liberties in the process.  That's what the FISA amendments we passed through the Judiciary Committee would have done. 

Our Judiciary Committee amendments also would have given the existing FISA Court a more meaningful role in overseeing law enforcement's expanded surveillance activities, providing a crucial independent check on potential government excess.  We must not forget that earlier abuses of power are the reason FISA was enacted in the first place.

Unfortunately, the Bush-Cheney Administration and its allies oppose these safeguards.  They are voting in lockstep to kill all of our efforts to improve the new FISA bill, basically telling Senate Democrats to "take it or leave it."

Here's what they need to know: Passing legislation through the U.S. Senate isn't a "take it or leave it" enterprise.  Not when they want to park Americans' civil liberties in a blind trust.  They lost their credibility on "just trust us" long ago.  Will you help convince Senators and Members of Congress to agree to our common-sense changes to improve this bill and protect the rights of all Americans?

In addition, the Bush-Cheney Administration is trying to avoid any and all accountability for conducting illegal, warrantless surveillance for the past 5 years.  They are insisting on granting blanket retroactive immunity to phone companies for their warrantless surveillance activities beginning in 2001, activities which explicitly violated existing FISA law and violated the privacy rights of Americans.

Clearly, the Bush-Cheney Administration does not want their law-breaking to be exposed.  Retroactive immunity would assure that they get their wish.

When the public found out that the Bush-Cheney Administration was violating FISA and spying illegally on Americans without warrants, the Administration and phone companies were sued by citizens whose privacy rights were violated.  These lawsuits may be the only way that the Bush-Cheney Administration is truly held accountable for its flagrant disrespect for the rule of law.

Well, no one -- no citizen, no company, no Senator, and no President -- is above the law.  By offering blanket immunity to telecom companies, the Administration is trying to avoid accountability -- and that is unacceptable.

Tell Congress that any new FISA bill cannot grant blanket retroactive immunity to phone companies. Please email your home state Senators and Member of Congress now!

I'm going to do everything I can to fix the FISA bill on Tuesday -- but I need your help to do it.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator

       All of you know what to do, so go to those phones and emails and let's get to it. This is an important bill and the amnesty for BUSH and the rest of his Crime Syndicate needs to be stopped! NOW!

Technorati Tags: FISA, Senate, Patrick Leahy, Chris Dodd, telecom amnesty, George Bush, ATT, Verizon, filibuster