Senate Passes FISA Bill, Gives Telecoms Immunity

Bowing to President Bush's demands, the Senate sent the White House a bill Wednesday overhauling bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shielding telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president's warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The House passed the same bill last month, and Bush said he would sign it soon.

Opponents assailed the eavesdropping program, asserting that it imperiled citizens' rights of privacy from government intrusion. But Bush said the legislation protects those rights as well as Americans' security.

"This bill will help our intelligence professionals learn who the terrorists are talking to, what they're saying and what they're planing," he said in a brief White House appearance after the Senate vote.

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The LA Times reported in late June that only 23 percent of registered voters approved of the job the President is doing:

Seven months before the end of his term, President Bush's approval rating is at an all-time low.

In the just-released Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll, the president won approval from 23% of all registered voters -- including 3% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans. Those numbers are down from February, when he had an approval rating of 35%. His high mark, according to the poll, was in November 2001, just after the 9/11 terror attacks, when the president's popularity rating among registered voters was at 85%.

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Sen. Barack Obama voted for the compromise while Sen. Hillary Clinton voted against it.

Watch a video about the money trail surrounding the bill from the American News Project. Read more about the bill here.

Comments

[itsafreakingame]

McCain took one out of Obama’s play book by not voting on the FISA bill while Obama took one out of the republicans play book by voting for immunity. I guess McCain really is smarter then Obama!

[lindaisaiah]

That's not happening, even if there's were a thousand mcsames he can never touch Obama's intelligence. It seems many of you did not understand the FISA bill and clearly do not understand how the strategy of this vote needed to be. If you'd stop waiting for the "I gotcha" opportunity to turn on Obama you can hear clearly if you do your research why Obama took this direction. Do not underestimate this man, he's truly brilliant in what he does and knows. He will be able to do somethings as POTUS that we have never seen before or expected could happen in our country or even in our life time. Sit back and relax you will see that if you can hold on and stop putting your foot in your mouth, after he wins the election and the ball gets into position and starts to move forward, we will see and have the greatest leadership we have ever had in American!

Let Truth Be Told!
Obama for President 08

[Drjimmy72296]

Are you serious? I like Obama. I really, really liked him up until about two weeks ago when he went from centrist to Republican.

But greatest leadership ever? Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, both Roosevelts. ...

I mean read a book once in awhile.

[song]

we dont need a president that will sacrifice the principles this country is based on and that countless have died for just so he can get elected. Once someone does that he has lost all his credibility and is only trying to get elected for the sake of power and fame

[HappinessHacker]

"If you want your telephone, cellphone and email connections to work, vote for FISA.

Campaign contributions are a side issue.

[itsafreakingame]

If you want justice turn off your cellphone, and telephones.

[NoBo08]

that sounds like a 1st amendment issue.

[pigsatthetrough]

What Obama and the rest of the Dems have shown you here, is Bush is right. Vote for everything he wants, and all will be ok. So give up on the change BS and vote for McCain. The repugnants have figured out how they are going to win, so don't waste a vote on the Obama led flip floppers, cowards and liars! As an aside it was nice to see Hillary do the right thing and vote no, even though she knew it would not change anything. Politics have become so damn boring, everything is so predictable. McCain is right, a nation of whiners, ha ha ha.

[TellitLikeItIs]

More like a nation of morons as opposed to whiners. Maybe we could have real leadership, instead of what we actually have--- pandering to the bottom 30 % of the class.

[Ramirez]

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression

Acceptance

[uhappytoo]

Now you're merely repeating yourself. Is that just arrogance? Or narcissism? Or both?

[Ramirez]

Maybe both. But when I write, people remember.

[RobertFarrior]

People,
Your so-called leaders in both parties, on every level of government--federal, state, local, possess no principles. They prove it time and time again; yet, you people continue to support them. No principles, that is, except what I call their Unholy Commandments, of which commandment #1 is: Attain and maintain power at all cost, for themselves, their wretched parties, and all their partners, allies and contributors.
Your two standard bearers, that you so admire(d), Obama and Clinton, demonstrated their dearth of conviction and standard empty-suit politician modus operandi early on in the primary campaign, when they were asked if they thought homosexuality is immoral, following the statement by General Pace that it is. They both refused to answer. Clinton said, "Well, I'm going to leave that to others to conclude." And Obama evaded with, "I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman has restricted his comments to military matters. That's probably a good tradition to follow," and another complete non-answer. The next day, after consulting with their legions of advisers, they issued statements declaring that it is not. Now, whether they believe it to be immoral or whether it is is irrelevant here; what is relevant is the demonstration of their values, at the apex of which sits their personal quest for power.
Now, as for freedom and privacy...(Continued)

[nirek]

maybe we need to impeach Pelosi fist then bush/cheney , how do you feel about that?

[lthuedk 1]

Got a printer? Free use is there for you, citizens, as long as money is not made using my imagery.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/deep_patriot_act.html

If you need a larger image, let me know.

[Ramirez]

I don't get it.

[lthuedk 1]

How would patriotic congressmen like to begin working on a Constitutional Convention?

We've been pushed and shoved far enough. It is time to reformat the hard drive.

[JeanPaulSatire]

Disgraceful, disgusting, infuriating.

Only 28% of the Senators lived up to their oaths of office. The rest either are playing politics with the Constitution (Obama, it saddens me to say, for example) or were too cowardly to vote (McAint, for example).

[mtrav]

Isn't the title "OBAMAS Bows to BUSH" and the hell with the rest of us?

[uhappytoo]

Barack Obama voted for this outrageous grab of executive power. After telling us and the whole world he would never do that. So what does that make him? Nobody really knows any more. But it certainly tells us he has only been posturing as a change candidate. Why should we trust anything he says now?

[PierreLeClerke]

Communications surveillance program priority list;

1. Acquire actionable commercial data on pending transactions presently being negotiated or consummated by non aligned counter-parties for the purpose of intervention for commercial gain.

2. Acquire actionable personal data and political affiliations on any and all political opposition for the purpose of insuring conformance with ruling party policies, via intimidation and or blackmail.

3. Acquire and survail all enforcement agencies presently investigating corruption into associates and partners of the ruling party for the purpose of obstructing and controlling subject agencies and investigations.

4. Acquire actionable intelligence on possible terrorist organizations to determine whether future operations in the planning stages are commercially beneficial to the ruling party and their partners and affiliates should observed operations be allowed to be executed and to disrupt any operations deemed not in line with the goals and strategies of the ruling party it's partners associates and affiliates.

ARE WE CLEAR ON THE REALITY OF THIS PROGRAM YET FOLKS

ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!

[uhappytoo]

I think I read all that in Orwell's 1984. Seems he was sufficiently prescient, but just a little pessimistic on Big Brother's actual arrival.

[111]

I reread Naomi Wolf's description of the 10 steps to fascism and a closed society and yesterday completed all 10 steps.

[NoBo08]

Why would anyone read Naomi Wolf?

[Ramirez]

Are you more afraid today than you were yesterday?

[VitriolAndAngst]

Yeah -- I wonder why more businesses don't see this.

Verizon and AT&T did BushCo's bidding, and are being handed a defacto monopoly. Those who are not in on all the spoils are going to pay more. There have got to be more companies that will not win with this internal spying than will win -- when are THEY going to wake up and smell the fascism?

[chrisbee]

This fisa bull is ridiculous and I am pissed that Obama supported this "compromise" but he wont lose my money or my vote.
Who do I want controlling this program? NOT McCain.

[111]

I think them message yesterday was that it doesn't matter who is sitting in the chair and it doesn't matter which political party either. It is the corporations who determine what is and isn't done.

[itsafreakingame]

Obama is just another republican running on the democratic ticket. His vote to pass immunity for the telecomms is just one shining example. Obama has helped to give Bush and his gang of thieves a get out of jail free pass!

[Zi]

I agree entirely. This is just unforgivable. Obama's only response is to say he'll "take a hit on this one". This issue is just far too important to disreguard so calmly. He lost my vote and I would suspect a great many others. I think he has shown what we can expect from him being president.

[CC1]

Damn, Obama! And I was just starting to respect this guy recently. It seems my original suspicions were right, corporate America controls more than we give them credit for.