Here’s a heads up. The battle over reauthorization of the Protect America Act (PAA) and retroactive immunity for the telecommunications corporations will probably begin anew tomorrow.
Cheney also said the administration “feels strongly that an updated FISA law should be made permanent, not merely extended again. … There is no sound reason to pass critical legislation like the Protect America Act and slap an expiration date on it.”
Reid plans to bring to the Senate floor on Thursday competing versions of the legislation.
If a bill is not approved then, Reid said he would require the Senate to work through the weekend to get a bill passed.
Here’s the good news. The blogosphere is already on this like white on rice. The first thing I want you to do is go to CREDO Action and send your emails to all the presidential candidates requesting that they take off from campaigning to return to Washington and support Sen. Christopher Dodd’s filibuster. Believe me, it’s well worth your time. So far, CREDO Action has sent out almost 70,000 emails, enough to crash Barack Obama’s email server. When you are done with that, please email the senators from your state.
The common wisdom on this is that the Democrats will find a way to grant telecom immunity after giving the appearance of a fight.
The bitterest point of contention for Democrats will be the same question that divided them last summer: immunity for telecom companies that complied with Bush Administration requests for access to American phone and e-mail traffic without warrants after 9/11. After news of the Bush program broke, civil liberties groups brought cases against the companies, and since then the telecoms have in some cases refused to help the U.S. intelligence community further. Bush has said he will veto any bill that doesn’t grant the telecoms immunity. The Democrats are split on the issue. Smart money bets the Democrats will cave again — the only question is how much they fight before doing so.
Are you tired of reading analysis like that? So am I. That’s why you should also call some of the senators that are on the record as supporting Dodd’s filibuster.
Fax/Phone
Feingold (202) 224-2725 (202) 224-5323
Dodd (202) 224-1083 (202) 224-2823
Obama (202) 228-4260 (202) 224-2854
Sanders (202) 228-0776 (202) 224-5141
Menendez (202) 228-2197 (202) 224-4744
Biden (202) 224-0139 (202) 224-5042
Brown (202) 228-6321 (202) 224-2315
Harkin (202) 224-9369 (202) 224-3254
Cardin (202) 224-1651 (202) 224-4524
Clinton (202) 228-0282 (202) 224-4451
Akaka (202) 224-2126 (202) 224-6361
Webb (202) 228-6363 (202) 224-4024
Kennedy (202) 224-2417 (202) 224-4543
Boxer (415) 956-6701 (202) 224-3553
Ask them to make sure they don’t forget their promises.
Now, firedoglake has already launched a major offensive to convince John Edwards to take a leadership position on this. The theory is that Edwards can shame Obama and Clinton off the campaign trail and into the filibuster fight. As Glenn Greenwald has said:
The only way for there to be any prospect of impeding Bush’s most extreme demands for vast warrantless eavesdropping powers and immunity for lawbreaking telecoms is for the presidential candidates — Obama, Edwards and Clinton — to demonstrate (rather than speak about) real “leadership” and take a stand in support of Chris Dodd and his imminent filibuster.
Perhaps Harry Reid knows that we are getting organized. We didn’t expect this FISA bill to come up until Monday, but it now appears that Reid will bring it up TOMORROW and then make the Senate work through the weekend, if necessary, TO PASS SOMETHING. We know that there is no way that we can pass something that doesn’t grant immunity to the telecommunications corporations, SO WE HAVE TO PREVENT THE PASSAGE OF ANYTHING. That’s what the filibuster is about. Please, I implore you, don’t just stand around and bitch. Take action now, while there is still time to pressure the Senate. No immunity for violating our fourth amendment rights!! The teleco corporations already have immunity for good-faith cooperation with the government. This is an attempted obstruction of justice. Only we can stop it. Go to CREDO Action and get started. Thanks.
Just popped over to CREDO and have also e-mailed Edwards.
This was a big reason why I supported Dodd, and it’s worth a call or e-mail to the presidential wanna-bes to tell them it matters and we’re paying attention.
One more reason my carrier is CREDO/Working Assets.
O/T & color me angry, but another act of REAL leadership would be to see a big chunk of the Stimulus Pkg get over to those vets sleeping under the fwy overpasses rather than the higher income brackets.
Chances are those vets would go buy something, like a sleeping bag and a bottle of Tylenol but that’s more than the disappearing act Bush’s friends did with his last check. Candidates are you listening???
thanks, and done!
will e/m edwards, call salazar…a waste of time frankly, but l truly enjoy fucking w/ his staff…damn you brendan…and will also contact reid and inform his office what l think about the situation.
no retroactive immunity, or no bill.
lTMF’sA
I am flattered to be damned, especially because it’s for inspiring you to fuck with Salazar’s office.
I just got off the phone with Reid’s office. i kept asking when he was going to make it official and run as a republican, since he seems to take their side on everything anyway.
they no like me vewy much at dat office.
a compliment, l assure you, as l needed little inspiration, your example has just modified my tone.
btw, l have to call, as my e/m has been blacklisted for sometime…they no likee me vewy much either.
lTMF’sA
Done and done. And I am so sick of my Senator Harry Reid. What a twerp. That man needs to lose his leadership position.
I already emailed Edwards, will get to work on the others.
Here’s what I sent. Feel free to borrow or steal outright, just get those messages sent!
Well, I did it. But there are more issues in FISA than just telcom immmunity and if we succeed with ONLY telcom immunity we have failed. Personally I think Telcom Immunity is the least of the problems.
The ACLU sent a letter to Harry Reid urging him to support the judiciary committee bill, not only for telcom immunity but because of the following:
I find the blogosphere’s emphasis on only Telcom Immunity short sighted. I hope it is only a means to an end – an easily explainable way to defeat the entire Intelligence Committee bill.
Tell me anyone who can look at the Reid/Leahy/McConnell dialogue transcribed by Greenwald and not be totally enraged.
Damn, if this doesn’t tell us where Harry Reid’s allegiances lie, then we’re dumb as a fence post.
When it is all said and done, people like Harry Reid must be made to pay for this with a resounding rejection of their worthiness to represent the American people. These people are traitors to the Constitution and to the principles of this country.
I often hear Reid’s actions excused by people because of the ultra-slim margin held in the Senate. Well, this is a time when he can stand with his party and defend the rule of law he has pledged to uphold. He doesn’t have the votes but he doesn’t need them. There is a solution and that is a filibuster and at worst an extension of the Protect America Act. It has become readily apparent that he just doesn’t care about this issue. He is in full support of the President’s view on supreme executive authority.
Damn him, anyway!!! A pox on all their houses.
please send your email, especially because of this disgrace.
I did, right before typing up my comment.
Damn, this whole thing just enrages me. And I think what makes me most angry is that virtually no one, hardly a damn soul, has an inkling about what is going down. There is ZERO public airing of this by the media. ABSOLUTELY F*$#cking ZERO.
It is a national disgrace.
“It has become readily apparent that he just doesn’t care about this issue. He is in full support of the President’s view on supreme executive authority.”
Absolutely true. Harry Reid is fucking worthless.
I am convinced he is a mole for the GOP. And the grudges that little man holds are insane: one of the reasons he fucks with Dodd is that Dodd nearly won the Majority leader position, and harry has never forgiven him. Reid is a petty little man who couldn’t lead a pots and pans parade out of the kitchen.
dodd ran against dashle.
i thought he also ran against Reid. WSeren’t they both vying for Daschle’s seat?
No.
I stand corrected.
From the article:
Reid signalled a willingness to work with Bush, but said Democrats will not be pushed around by Republicans who may interpret Bush’s re-election and GOP gains in Congress as a broad endorsement of their policies.
`He said four years ago he wanted to be a uniter,” Reid said of Bush. “It didn’t work well the first four years. We hope it works the second four years.”
“I would rather dance than fight,” the former boxer told reporters. “But I can fight.”
OH MY SIDES. I HAVEN’T LAUGHED THIS HARD SINCE THE DEMOCRATS WERE FORCED TO VOTE ON IMPEACHMENT.
Sent CREDO Action e-mail. Cheney really should keep his mouth shut his words enrage me. Stupid asshole.