Senators Cave On FISA: New Bill Gives AG Power Over Telecoms

TPM Muckraker:

It took until early this morning, but, as expected, the Senate intelligence committee has passed its surveillance bill. Also as expected, retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies complying with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program is part of the bill. Not exactly as expected: it won't be the FISA Court that determines who complied with the program. It will be the attorney general:

The Senate bill would direct civil courts to dismiss lawsuits against telecommunications companies if the attorney general certifies that the company rendered assistance between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 17, 2007, in response to a written request authorized by the president, to help detect or prevent an attack on the United States.

Suits also would be dismissed if the attorney general certifies that a company named in the case provided no assistance to the government. The public record would not reflect which certification was given to the court.

Read the whole story: TPM Muckraker

Comments

[Nonamnesiac]

I hope Dodd sticks to his hold and to a filibuster. He should force the Dems to vote to invoke cloture. The Dems have 49 Senators and Bernie Sanders. If they can't get 41 Senators to stick with them, it makes a mockery of the argument we need to elect more of them so they can do something. I want to see how many of them defect.

[Independent voter]

Thanks to Senator Dodd for actually caring about the liberties of the American people.

Dirty Harry is a weak kneed sniveling litle pussy and will not fight for us.

[WigWamWag]

A Dodd/Edwards or even an Edwards/Dodd ticket sound better day by day. What can be done with the massive problems associated with Billery and O-Bomb-a? They will not easily step aside.

[poopdeck]

Meanwhile Senator Biden has announced that he will support Senator Dodd. Senators Clinton and Obama are in hiding under Pelosi's skirts. Will they emerge? Tune in tomorrow.

[PollM]

Please tell me it isn't so. Dems do it again.

Our liberties are getting screwed.

Would you vote for a presidential candidate that votes to grant legal immunity to telecoms that participated in the illegal surveillance of Americans?
---> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=740.

[Pdubya]

http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.3835:


write your representatives and get this bill passed!

blue dog dem atheist for Ron Paul

[NoFactsJustTruth]

The democrap CONgress has ALREADY folded up shop, and is now helping the republiscums to eliminate the relevancy of The Constitution and CONgress itself.

They have apparently been sufficiently campaign donated to that they've chosen to invest ALL of OUR country's power in the new office of dictator-e­mperor-dec­iderer and his minons, in an effort to ensure the American citizens NEVER have to think for themselves again.

Oh yes, and they're ALL hereby ex-post-facto pardoned 'for all time' for anything they may have done, are doing, or might eventually do.



NOW,...are WE safe yet...??..­.

[leftLibertarian]

DemoRats bow before Der Fuhrer Bush!

[doinaheckofajob]

Once again the republicons want to turn this great country into a gulag run by religous fanatics and right wing assholes. Life, liberty and the persuit of happiness is a Democratic value, not a reich wing republicon attribute. Unfortunately the bushit republicons have turned the US into a mutant form of China, where the rich and powerful rule over the rest of the folks. Hate the republicons for taking a shit on America.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

So is EVERY democrapper that rubber-stamps the republiscum shitting, and that includes Hillary - THE dem in this Presidential race MOST like the current administration.

[Sanjong Thapa]

AQ + NJ = FISA

Homeland Security: As Nancy Pelosi tries to weaken terror surveillance, the FBI has disrupted several al-Qaida plots in New Jersey, thanks to easier phone and e-mail monitoring.

Yes, that's New Jersey, which federal investigators recently revealed is an active al-Qaida hotbed inside America.

The FBI field office in Newark has foiled terror plots by al-Qaida agents operating in the northern part of the Garden State and communicating with al-Qaida leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan. They say easier FISA monitoring is critical to disrupting plots and ferreting out the bad guys living among us.

"There are people in your county who are affiliated with known al-Qaida members overseas," Jack Jupin, the FBI agent heading the counterterror squad for Bergen County, N.J., told a reporter for The Record newspaper. And they've been communicating with them by phone and e-mail.

"There are definitely facilitators in this state," said Kevin Cruise, the FBI official heading Newark's 100-member terrorism task force of FBI and CIA agents as well as state and local police.

Hear that, Nancy? Of course not. You're too busy making it harder for agents to listen to phone and Internet traffic from North Jersey to known operatives for al-Qaida and other terror groups.

http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=277686266237567

[doinaheckofajob]

You and the other Nazis who are turning the US into a third world gulag can go fuck yourself. Hear that GW Hitler asswipe?

[stargazer13]

sanjong

get a grip we are not about to let the gov breaks laws. we can,t we are not aloud excuses and neither
are they I don,t care if there are 300 million ex-stream est living in the country you just don,t get it do you let me help you out it,s called rule of law remember because there will be a test later on Monday so study for it because it looks to me your a little behind the others here in class

[kellygrrrl]

I'm all for wiretapping
as long as it works both ways
We the employers of all public employees (all politicians) should be given the right to listen in to their conversations.

[stargazer13]

I agree kellygrrrl lets listen in bet that would not go over to well but we the people have every right to know what our employees are doing and saying be hind closed doors now were getting some where

[swift goat pet for truth]

I wish the next Dem president either zaps this power or uses it on the GOP in every imaginable fashion.

[Pdubya]

lol...a decent logic...bu­t, er, I don't want to listen in on Senator Craig's cooings, or how Hillary's dildo is short on lube.

Privacy is too golden.

[ContraEgoiste]

IS IT STARTING TO BECOME CLEAR NOW? Do you see how important it is to become ACTIVE and take over the Democratic Party?

Sorry, but simply posting on-line doesn't do the trick. WE MUST BECOME ACTIVE!! We have to take back the party. We have to take back our power or sit back and continue to see your rights continue to disappear. Real acts out there in the real world is what will make changes.

There are some that say they will take arms and start another revolution to get our country back. I find this disingenuous and somewhat hypocritical if these very same people are not even willing to spare a couple of hours a week to DO actual work to affect change. We can bitch all we want but that it's not going to change a damn thing.

I propose that those few who are ACTIVELY involved in the sometime tedious, definitely unglamorous and at times frustrating work are today's real revolutionaries and heroes. Those who will say I'm willing to give some of my time for the future of my children, my country, and our way of life are the only ones who really care, these are the real heroes.

If you think things will change on their own, or that just electing your favorite politician will do the trick, then expect to continue to see the above headlines. If you are not willing to get actively involved in the very system that governs your life other than once every four years, then you have already given up control of YOUR life.

In the end, we will get the government we WORKED for. We will get the government we deserve.


http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/index.html

[civilbehavior]

Dear ContraEgoiste,

It's already past the time of saving this country.

Work on selling everything you have and get out.

Lots and lots of the more intelligent folks are doing the same.


I've been ACTIVE for years against the Bush regime and I can tell you from pressing flesh with the masses it's not going to make a damn bit of difference.


People do not care. They are too absorbed in their own.

Forget it. It'a a lost cause. If you've done as much visibility as I have you know the truth. UNLESS people mass in the streets in the millions NOTHING will change.

And you and I both know that will never happen.

[stargazer13]

oh ye of little faith

[whomung]

Civil....

I'm lucky, my wife has triple citizen ship (Brazil, French (European Common Market) and US) and we're leaving...

My suggestion­... head north.... buy guns

[Marichu]

Reid and the democratic leadership cannot continue this submissive pose whenever Bush challenges them. By their nonassertive behavior, the democrats have alienated many loyal democratic voters. Those that voted the democrats into office expected results not a continuation of the status quo.
The duty of Congress is to balance the power of the president, protect individual liberties and pass laws that adhere to the tenet of the Constitution. That Bush has such unprecedented power is the fault of Congress. Take the gloves off and fight for the principles of democracy and for us.

[GhostintheMachine]

On the Senate floor Friday, Reid claimed that he and Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays had decided the letter ‘would probably not bring a great deal of money’. Throughout the rest of his diatribe and attempts to restore himself from his blatant use of governmental power in the effort to intimidate a private citizen, he continued to use the term “we”—as if he and Mays had the auction in mind all of the time. He also appears to be hoping against hope that the American people will buy it. As Rep. Forney “Pete” Stark (D-CA) smears the troops, Reid smears private citizens. And the Democrat leadership says nothing. Are these the faces of the new Democrat Party? I wish that I could honestly say “No,” but, they appear to be. Sen. Reid has effected a patent abuse of power and then, after observing how popular the targeted cause was, decided to see if he could place his own spin on it and join in on the festivities. If left unchecked, it will bring about further degradations of our First Amendment’s freedom of speech with tyranny as the ultimate outcome. No one in a US governmental power position has either the right or legal authority to commit these types of abuse— irrespective of the fact that he or she may eventually run from the original decision to do so. Despite political party affiliation, these people must be driven from office—and quickly if our Republic is to survive. Besides, they’re embarrassments to us all.

[GhostintheMachine]

In a striking display of cheekiness—or abject chutzpah—Harry Reid has decided to take credit for Rush Limbaugh’s auctioning off the now-infamous Reid letter. The false-premise letter—which exceeded $2MM on eBay—was written by Reid, signed by 40 Democrat senators and sent to Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays in an attempt to silence conservative Limbaugh; something Democrat leaders have been attempting for decades.

Reid and his colleagues falsely claimed that Limbaugh had refereed to soldiers who disagree with the Iraq war as “phony soldiers”. Not so. In fact, Limbaugh referred to soldiers who were and are phony soldiers and have been prosecuted for their pretense. Senate Majority leader Reid (D-NV) thought that he could switch the outrage over MoveOn.org’s attempt to portray General Petraeus as a traitor over to Limbaugh. It didn’t work. Instead, Limbaugh took the 4-page letter and offered it up as an historical document and testimony to Democrats using Stalinistic and smear tactics in their attempt to silence one of their most listened to and vocal critics. On Friday, the original letter sold for $2,100,100­.00 US—a figure that Limbaugh will match—for the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Note: Reid has not said he will give anything to the foundation but, he is now attempting to claim some credit for the auction idea.

[Moshe]

The GOP, DEMS, and mega-rich Telecoms agree to screw the people (again), by denying them any remedy or meaningful means of detering future illegal conduct, after already screwing them through illegally wire-tapping.

Then Congress gives the lawbreakers retroactive immunity, THAT should certainly serve to deter similar illegal conduct in the future. WTF!

These people don't give a rat's a$% about this Nation, it's people, their oath to uphold our laws, our Constitution, or the Rule of Law itself. They are too busy building their own personal fortunes in anticipation of bugging out to greener pastures after they have fully gutted this Nation and turned it into yet another banana-republic police state sh&thole.

I would love to just shrug my shoulders and forget about it, but the reality is that these people are destroying the Rule of Law in this Nation, and the void left by this is always filled with massive corruption and abuse of power. Unless we stop this trend, we are facing a very dark future in this Nation, and what happens in the U.S. will affect the World.

Here is a timely quote (even though its from 1928) from Justice Brandeis (who is now no doubt spinning in his grave, along with most of our Founders and every American Patriot since):

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means--to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal--would bring terrible retributio­n."