Get ready for the government to be in your shorts

As Ian Walsh reports over at Firedoglake,

the real FISA vote took place yesterday when the Senate voted overwhelmingly to proceed with FISA cloture, meaning debate will be limited to 30 hours, before a vote is taken. Filibuster is now impossible.

Only 15 members of the Senate vote against cloture. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain were absent.

And lest you believe otherwise, this vote can be pinned entirely on Harry Reid, who had the ability to procedurally disable the bill.

Shame on Barack Obama.

And Glenn Greenwald reports how even Keith Olbermann has changed his stripes of FISA.

Must remember: it's not the Democratic party or the Republican party, it's the incumbent party

The whole FISA compromise is a puzzle to me, in which the only satisfactory answer is that someone is on the take. Maybe many someones. Constitutional scholars have pointed out that the FISA amendment flies in the face of that venerable document. Democrats have pointed out that it's antithetical to the principles of their party. Party leaders have vowed to stop it, and haven't. To be sure, Harry Reid can kill the whole bloody mess by keeping it off the agenda with a parliamentary manuver. Chris Dodd once vowed a Mr. Smith-style filibuster, now he's written a letter. Barack Obama said he was against it, before he said he was for it. And many observers have demonstrated that this vaunted "compromise" is not a compromise at all (though Democratic leaders are working hard to convince voters, and themselves, that they've reached a good deal)>

A betrayal to freedom, liberty, the American people, and one more victory for corporate America

In a shameful capitulation to a disastrous executive administration, the House of Representatives led by the shameful house majority leader Steny Hoyer (who joins Reid and Pelosi as land-dwelling invertebrates), has produced a "compromise" FISA bill to be voted on by the house today and sent back to the Senate for approval.

A coalition of forces, organized on the internet, is working today to convince lawmakers to table the bill.

companies who broke the law when the President asked them to. This is the kind of The big problem, of course, is that it's no compromise. It delivers immunity to telecomfascism which will ensnare the rights of the individual in America.

The New York Times suggested that this bill be left for the next Congress and the next president, and that seems like a good idea. With a large majority of poll respondents opposing corporate immunity, lawmakers ought to think twice about what they'll say while stumping for votes in October.

Loss of vertebrae

Just when Congressional Democrats ought to be standing up straight in defiance of the faltering Bush administration, they appear to be ready to cave on telecom immunity.

It's up to us to remind our representatives that we're still watching.

Spy vs. Spy

John McCain has spent a lot of time and effort lately trying to distance himself from the current resident of the White House, but this morning's New York Times indicates otherwise in an arena which is important to those who cherish freedom, privacy and the Constitution.

It appears that McCain thinks it's A-OK for the government to tap your phone with impunity. This is, of course, the opposite of what he's said before.

It seems the candidate from Arizona isn't aware that the internets have a better memory than he apparently does.

Fool me twice, shame on me

I admit to a certain amount of idealistic political naivete, but I don't understand for a minute how Congress can consider even a compromise update of FISA.

I know that Representatives and Senators quake at the idea that the administration would portray them as soft on terror, but this is an administration, may I remind them, which has no respect with the majority of Americans. What's to worry about.

Worse still, this is an administration which as late as yesterday, in a letter from the Attorney General, admitted to using "confusing" language in testimony about secret programs to Congress. Confusing as in misleading.

This is the administration, which in the same Attorney General's testimony, it became obvious that the President was actually keeping more secrets than previously admitted.

This is the administration which has abused it's power at every turn, which has invoked executive privilege whenever it would have to admit wrongdoing, which has used fear as a tool to get its way. There is no need to compromise with this administration.

Where is the lesson learned with the passage of the Patriot Act - rushed through unread by most who passed it - when the administration is pushing to pass important legislation in the rushed final days before an August break.

Don't let Congress do it. Call your representatives and tell them to take their extended vacation without doing more damage to our civil liberties.

Next day note: Nice to see the Times feels the same.

Bugged by the Democratic reaction

Say all you want about the tough talk of Congressional Democrats, when it comes to protecting their perceived image, they fold like like the cover of a tawdry paperback book.

The White House wants the ability to expand it's wiretapping powers. This is the same White House which has abused every extension of power it's been granted, and then scoffed at the Congress which dare to ask questions about any of it.

And the Democrats are worried that they'll be portrayed as soft of terrorism.

Time to call Bush out. He's the coward who continues to send American men and women into danger to protect his legacy. He's the Christian who's willing to maim and murder hundreds of thousands of Iraqui men, women and children in his quest to "protect us from terrorists." He's the commander-in-chief who took his eye off Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to launch an immoral war against Saddam Hussein. In his wrongheaded policy of "stay the course" he's been the biggest recruiter of terrorists in the world.

For pete's sake show some backbone. Tell him "no." Tell him he won't get any cooperation until he shows some cooperation in return. It's an effective way to teach a three year old about social contract. It may work with Bush.