Reid capitulating on FISA, Dodd pressured

Keep you eyes open as Harry Reid brings the FISA bill, complete with telecom immunity to the floor of the Senate for a vote within the first few weeks of the Senate's return to Washington.

Once again Glenn Greenwald explicates the complicated turns of Reid's parliamentary maneuverings, the pressure being brought on important players, the fickle nature of the Democratic caucus, and the treatment of Connecticut's Chris Dodd as a renegade.

Chris Dodd could use our support, because it appears as if he'll get precious little from his colleagues.

Dodd keeps hammering, no Republicans nailed so far

On the floor of the Senate, Chris Dodd continues to speak against retroactive immunity for telecoms in the FISA bill.

Just one problem, the entire FISA bill is problematic, allowing spying on US citizens. It's not merely retroactive immunity that's the problem. It's the simple fact of giving more power to a power-mad administration.

Props to Dodd, but he's got to step it up. Needless to say, his timorous colleagues need to follow his example, particularly one Hillary Clinton. How is she ahead in the polls.

Obama's now a telecom 'buster

Barack Obama had declared he'll join a filibuster to prevent retroactive immunity for telecoms.

Then there was one, Hillary.

Whip it

Chris Dodd just wrote a bunch of us an email with practical suggestions for preventing telecom immunity in the FISA bill. I prefer to stop the FISA bill in its tracks, but here's what Chris has to say:

Let's get right to it and talk about how we stop retroactive telecommunications immunity from becoming law. The way I see it, there are three ways to get this provision stripped from the final bill:

1.)The first step would be to make sure the idea doesn't make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- where it will be considered shortly. If we can get it stripped there, it will have to be offered as an amendment to the overall bill where it will be a lot easier to get 41 votes against retroactive immunity than 41 to sustain my filibuster if necessary.

Take a moment and call up members of the committee, let me know what they said, and join others in tracking our progress in stopping the provision right there.

http://chrisdodd.com/immunity

The other two ways: 2.) If retroactive immunity does make it out of committee, Senate leadership can honor the hold I've placed on any legislation that includes retroactive immunity. 3.) If leadership does not honor my hold, I remain committed to filibustering, and working to get the 41 votes necessary to maintain it.

This has the potential to be a long fight -- so let's build a solid foundation for our effort today by asking members of the Judiciary Committee to vote against any FISA bill that includes retroactive amnesty.

http://chrisdodd.com/immunity

I'd like to see a little more spine, frankly, on these issues. People tell us they want to lead, but a little leadership right now would certainly be welcomed on these questions. I don't want to, but I'm not afraid to do this alone. Chris

The links will take you to the phone numbers of Judiciary committee members who can vote to strip FISA of retroactive immunity. The chart at the bottom of this blog will indicate, over the next few weeks, how successful we were.

Let us now praise a CEO

It's a rare moment for me to be praising a CEO of a telecommunications company, especially one who's been convicted of insider trading.

But now it appears that the CEO of Qwest may have been set up by the NSA for refusing to participate in illegal eavesdropping on US citizens.

Punished for doing his patriotic duty of respecting the liberties outlined in the Constitution?

Think of what he's asking; think of whom he's protecting

President Bush wants a new FISA bill on his desk as soon as possible, and he's strong arming Congress to pass one quickly. FISA allows the federal government to spy on you, and in its current form, with very little in the way of checks or balances. That would spoil the whole sense of secrecy of which the Bush administration is very fond.

Congress seems to be resisting, but only ever so slightly. It's clear they don't want to be labelled "soft on terrorism," and it's clear they want to give the intelligence agencies what they need to "protect" us. It's not so clear anymore that they want to assure the tenets of civil liberties as outlined in that hoary old document the Constitution.

But Bush wants something more. He wants the bill to contain language which will protect telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for helping the Feds spy on folks like you and me. Maybe more me than you. Bush is afraid that these lawsuits will bankrupt the telecommunications companies. But think about what he's saying:

1. The Federal government knowingly asked these companies to break the law
2. These companies, for the most part, went along with the Feds and broke the law
3. The feds, and the telecommunications companies, tried to keep these crimes (and that's what they are) secret
4. Now that we all know what the telecommunications companies did, some of us might be upset and sue them
5. Bush obviously feels that without immunity, the telecommunications companies don't stand a chance of winning those lawsuits because, well, they broke the law
6. Not surprisingly, Bush, once again, is standing up for the big corporations and abandoning the little guy, and the liberties of the little guy

Now Bush is trying to convince Congress that the telecommunications companies were only trying to do their patriotic duty. Just like the Generals in charge of Abu Ghraib.

You would think that a big corporation with staffs of brilliant lawyers would know better. You would think that they would tell anyone who asked, "We're not going to wipe our expensive Italian shoes on the Constitution." But, AT&T, Sprint and MCI, and others, apparently all went along. Only, little Qwest communications told Bush, the FBI and the NSA to shove it. Thanks Qwest.

I don't have much hope that Congress will resist. It hasn't happened yet. But next time a state trooper tries to hand you a speeding ticket, try telling him, "I'm a warrior in the Global War Against Terror, trying to keep my country safe after the attacks of 9/11," and see how far it gets you.