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

[rwe]

So when in the rare instance a Cemocrat votes correctly and not goosestepping in the leftist controlling agendas they are accused of caving .Hufftards have to climbing their basement walls. The bad legislation of SCHIP has to be reworked , Rush has handed the idiot from Nevada his lunch and Reid is now trying to take credit, Stark is on his way out of office and the war in Iraq is more successful every day

[PoliticalPolyanna]

Thank you, Joe, for that riveting report from Bizzaro World. Now . . . back to reality.

[whomung]

Go Dodd

Fucking Dems are spineless....

[rwe]

I think they are finally growing one and their brain stems must be developing

[Grannysue]

Oh why the hell not, Bush has been given carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wanted to do from day one. Once these pieces of crap are gone were probably going to find photos of Americans in their showers, eating dinner, doint the deed, you name it. It's kind of like Hoover is back on the job, except he was keeping his files on the Politicians and the Mob, these guys are the mob.

[wm1066]

Rachel Maddow had on a spokesperson from Dodds campaign and he said Dodd was going to filibuster this!
And thats a great political move for Dodd.
It shows he willing to do something and not just say 'wait til I'm president THEN I'l get things done'. Hillary and Obama are Senators and they aren't doing anything now! We have to wait until they are president before they can do anything! I am sick of the do-nothing dems!

[whatsreallygoingonhere]

DITTO. All the more reason they should NOT be president.

[stargazer13]

I did not like supposedly new A.G.s answers about wire tapping and torture
seems the constitution is so vague as to not be able to understand the documents intent for this guy and all that hand wringing looks to me like he was trying to put some thing out there that we would buy as legit sorry try again Mr no buying what your selling

[SensibleAmerican]

Much ado about nothing! If you read the fine print AND see where the process is at, it is nowhere near as damaging as it is made out to be in a headline like this!!!

First, the main catch is "written request authorized by the President". What about the illegal datamining that has been going on without any check and balances? Secondly, this covers 9/11 and afterwards. What about the period before that when Quest, I think, started supplying information? Thirdly, the AG still has to be confirmed and Fourthly, the "bill" still needs to be vhetted by Patrick Leahy and Co. AND pass through the Senate and the House

The third and fourth points cover a long protracted prosess. On October 8th or 9th, the Dems introduced a Bill that builds more safeguards vis-a-vis FISA and Civil Liberties and the right to privacy

There is lot of frustration on the more left wing of the Democratic Party and justifiably so. Nevertheless, these "caving in" headlines are more a manifestation of that frustration than the realities on the ground ...

[freespeach]

SensibleAmerican you are the most direct and unapologetic of the DLC shills at huffpo. Your lies and manipulation of the truth would make Karl Rove blush.

First off, here is a link to a good short article to give you some perspective on FISA/Bush and the laws of the land.

http://searchwarp.com/swa87527.htm

The ACLU on behalf of librarians (or terrorists as Bush and DLC Democrats would have you believe) filed a law suit that would have resulted in more protection for ALL Americans.

This massive sellout by Democrats KILLS this lawsuit. Thanks DLC Democrats, thank you.

The vile SensibleAmerican with his staunch support of Hitlery, his complete rejection of impeachment, his Liebermanesque hatred of Iran, and his unwavering loyalty to DLC fascist enabling policy, and his utter contempt for progressives is the perfect example of what the DLC is all about.

The DLC have taken over the Democratic party and killed it. It lives on in name only, and lying weasels like SensibleAmerican hope you are all too stupid to notice. While this may be true of the CNN crowd, not so at huffpo.

Sell your treasonous DLC lies somewhere else SensibleAmerican.

So we have a difficult choice.

Stay with the Democrats who have been infiltrated with vermin like SensibleAmerican, and pretend that this new corrupted Democratic party will save the nation.

Build up a third party that does not talk peace while voting FOR fascism.
http://www.gp.org/

Reality sucks. But I support the third party option.

Peace.

[SensibleAmerican]

P.S.: I do not read opinions and articles like the link you provided. I look up actual Senate records and get my information from what is actually going on rather than what is puportedly going on ...

[fourex]

My Dem. Senator, Feinstein voted for Bush and the telecoms to continue breaking the law and spy on U.S. citizens.

Vote in the Primaries.

[cuthbertallgood]

Read up on Barbara's hubby, war, profit and money. As a Californian who left the state in disgust at the apathy there, I'd like to say it is about time that Boxer gets a good rethinking. Should have happened years ago.

[truthyguy]

WE NEED ANOTHER POLITICAL PARTY.
The democrats lack the guts to do what they should. They are useless. And the republicans are nothing but a bunch of lying thieves.

[Grunty1]

Wrong, we need to take our party back from the Republican-lite DLC.

[NYC07]

No we do need another political party the Dem's are nothing more then the Rep's with bad spokespeople and a bad PR machine. There is no longer anyone looking out for the interest of the People -Also there should be Term Limit and a way to recall elective officals who take a public be damned attitude !!!

[demsrnuts]

Republicans are focusing on an allegation in a recent book by two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters, which suggests Clinton listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents.

In their book about Clinton’s rise to power, Her Way, Don Van Natta Jr., an investigative reporter at The New York Times, and Jeff Gerth, who spent 30 years as an investigative reporter at the paper, wrote: “Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty. She received memos about the status of various press inquiries; she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.

“The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill,” Gerth and Van Natta wrote in reference to Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. “Bill’s supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions.”

A GOP official said, “Hillary Clinton’s campaign hypocrisy continues to know no bounds. It is rather unbelievable that Clinton would listen in to conversations being conducted by political opponents, but refuse to allow our intelligence agencies to listen in to conversations being conducted by terrorists as they plot and plan to kill us. Team Clinton can expect to see and hear this over and over again over the course of the next year.”

Gerth told The Hill that he learned of the incident in 2006 when he interviewed a former campaign aide present at the tape playing. He has not revealed the aide’s identity. Clinton’s campaign has not disputed any facts reported in the final version of his book, which became public this spring, he said.

“It hasn’t been challenged,” said Gerth. “There hasn’t been one fact in the book that’s been challenged.”

[Ramirez]

demrnuts:
That's really not a fair comparison. Clinton was protecting our nation by taping inappropriate phone conversations of political opponents, while Chimpy McFlightsuit Bu$hitler is taking away our rights by intercepting foreign communications from potential terrorist locations overseas.

[Grunty1]

You think Bush is actually trying to protect ANYONE other than himself? Man, talk about deluded.
How many times does the Decider have to purposely make the situation worse before his fanclub gets it?

[lochnessmonster]

Senate intelligence committee has passed its surveillance bill.

They don't seem so intelligent to me if they passed this bill!

[CommanderWhitehead]

Incidentally, the photo of Bush that you've placed atop this piece really illustrates the physical deterioration that Bush has undergone these past years doing "god's" work.

Either that or his particular combination of psychoactive medications are beginning to take their toll, as one might expect.

Compare that face to the "mission accomplished version.

He really is morphing into a sort of "clean shaven Gabby Hayes".

[Blutus]

Perfect!

Gabby Hayes! LMAO!

[ProfessorDuh]

Try the simple explanation. Bush is an alcoholic. Maybe he's just drunk most of the time.

[speakingtruth2power]

By the time November 2008 comes around we will know who hates US for our freedoms and we won't have to go half way around the world to fight them. We are being guided to swap another Clinton for another Bush, ultimately bringing America to JeeBush.

Hillary's second term scandals will give enough credence to the rights claims of sufficient votes to appoint JeeBush Supreme Commander of the Norte American Union. Polls will be as crooked as electronic voting and the MIC owned MS will perpetuate the myth that we still have a democracy.

[Meah]

Hey! This is not the kind of bipartisanship we were talking about! Incumbents beware!

[getoffmedz]

Meah - bingo! RETURN NO INCUMBENT!

[CommanderWhitehead]

No surprise here.

The other right wing of our one party system is so certain that they will gain (?) the White House in 2008, that the idea of having unlimited eavesdropping and wiretapping capabilities rather appeals to them.

Especially Hillary Clinton, our very own version of Attila the Hun.

Beware.

[MrBritesnide]

Take your convoluded, Hillary-hating, backwards, racist propaganda and wipe your ass with it.

[getoffmedz]

A Fake Republican -

1 - A Republican politician who votes 100% for the White House agenda.

2 - Any Democrat who votes for the Bush/Cheney agenda.

Why are they "FAKE?" Because the White House agenda is far from Republican or Democrat for that matter.

The Bush/Cheney agenda is anti-American and blatantly terrorist in nature. These assholes and their handlers treat our once great country as a tool in their insane and greedy quest for power and personal gain.

The sooner that ALL American citizens fully realize this obvious fact the better.

[rwe]

A despicable Democrat: Any who votes their conscience or intelligence and has come to the realization that Pres Bush and Vp Cheney are not the end of all evils they hoped ;they would be after 2000 and 2004.

[gappytoofcondi]

Wonder why my comments are not being posted? Is there any non supression left in this country?

I said another nail in the coffin of Democracy. All hail Aemrica, the new fascist republic.

Gee. George's teeth look like decayed baby teeth, as if he never got his second set. No need to wonder if his brain ever developed since childhood.

[PoliticalPolyanna]

They're down there gappy. Saw both of them.

[Grunty1]

Sometimes posts do not appear immediately since the lastest batch of changes. They do appear eventually.

[wm1066]

Some times they don't get posted. I have had some very tame comments on non contentious stories never show up.

[stargazer13]

mine too not being uploaded