[Active-l] (ACTION ITEM) Senator Reid ignores hold, moves retroactive wiretapping amnesty forward

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

Okay, a quick refresher course: the new FISA bill, regarding  
telephone and internet surveillance, has been a big deal for the last  
few months for a lot of reasons, not least because various versions  
of it have contained _retroactive amnesty_ for telecommunications  
companies which have acted in direct and separate violation of the  
law in aiding and abetting illegal warrantless wiretapping and  
communications monitoring by the Chief Executive in the United States.

(see:
	http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/09/ 
BA13T97BN.DTL
	http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/what_the_heck_is_the_nsa_doing_here
	)

This retroactive amnesty is important because the Justice Department  
has refused to investigate these crimes, the Democratic Party- 
controled congress is an absolute, active part of the problem (see  
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/10-days-left-to-stop-the- 
_b_65884.html ) and similarly refuses to take any action other than  
enabling. The _only_ course of investigation left open are lawsuits  
by individuals and civil rights groups such as the EFF against the  
telecom companies. That's all we've got.

Retroactive amnesty is designed, from top to bottom, to end this line  
of investigation by making it moot. If this bill passes, the court  
cases are over. The investigations end.

The Democratic leadership has been vital in getting this amnesty  
moved forward. I rather suspect at this point it's because they don't  
want to get implicated in this either (see http:// 
solarbird.livejournal.com/581055.html ), and are about as guilty.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is up to bat for the  
enablers today. There were two versions of the FISA bill in the  
Senate, as reported out of two committees. One contained amnesty and  
extremely weak oversight - tantamount to no oversight - of the  
wiretapping FISA authorises. The other contained no amnesty, and did  
contain at least some oversight. Senator Dodd announced plans to  
fight this (see: http://chrisdodd.com/immunity ), via two steps: 1) a  
"Hold" on the "amnesty" version of the bill, which, if honoured - as  
is traditional and by Senate rules - stops it dead in its tracks, and  
2) a threat of filibuster. This outraged Senate Democratic  
leadership, as it hurts their efforts to stop investigation into the  
massive violations of law and Constitution via warrantless  
surveillance of Americans. It also slowed them down for a couple of  
months.

Senator Reid - who has honoured literally dozens of GOP "hold"s on  
bills, including one placed by GOP Senator Tom Coburn to reopen and  
investigate a slate of Civil Rights Era murders ( http:// 
www.sptimes.com/2007/12/09/Worldandnation/ 
Bill_is_on_hold_for_l.shtml ), is _ignoring this hold_. That's legal;  
he can do that. However, I do flash back to the Days of Horror when  
the GOP was going to ignore cloture rules if the Democrats didn't  
fold on judicial appointment after judicial appointment, and how  
scandalous it was to threaten to violate Senate tradition and rules.  
What a load of crap that was. (For the record: it was. But here we  
see that was never the point for the Democratic Party.)

Senator Reid is bringing the FISA bill with retroactive amnesty to  
the floor. It will require 60 votes to remove retroactive amnesty;  
that won't happen. 49 GOP votes + 10 or so from the Democratic  
leadership (including Senator Lieberman) to continue this obstruction  
of justice will insure that never happens. Accordingly, the last  
remaining option is a filibuster, presumably to be led by Senator Dodd.

As a side note, Senator Reid, in a stunning display of bullshit, is  
trying to blame Senator Dodd for his own refusal to recognise Senator  
Dodd's hold. It is genuinely appalling.

Regardless, two things need to happen:

1: All the Democratic presidential candidates need not just to  
endorse Senator Dodd's filibuster against his own party, but  
_actively work to support it_. They need to be in DC, they need to be  
doing the work. If they're not in the Senate, they should be telling  
at people who are. Lip service - all the Democrats ever seem to have  
- Does Not Count. At all. It counts for zero. No; it counts for  
_negative_ points. Your local Senators should be doing the same  
thing. +There will reportedly be a cloture vote early on Monday+, as  
Senator Reid has scheduled debate over a weekend to insure as little  
coverage as possible. From the count above, it is clear that they  
will be very close to getting cloture of the retroactive-amnesty- 
inclusive bill. _This must be prevented_.

(Clinton: contact form ( http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/ 
webform.cfm?subj=issue ), fax: 212.688.7444, vox: 212.688.6262
  Obama: contact form ( http://obama.senate.gov/contact/ ), fax:  
202.228.4260, vox: 202.224.2854
  Biden: contact form ( http://biden.senate.gov/contact/ 
emailjoe.cfm ), fax: 202.224.0139, vox: 202.224.5042
  Edwards: contact form ( http://johnedwards.com/about/contact/ 
form/ ), fax: 919.967.3644, vox: 919.636.3131
  Gravel: contact form ( http://www.gravel2008.us/contact ), fax:  
703.349.2958, vox: 703.652.4698
  Kucinich: contact form ( http://www.dennis4president.com/ 
contact/ ), vox: (877) 41-DENNIS)

(Added later on the LJ version, included with original here) Senator  
Dodd calls Clinton, Obama, Biden on their support pledges, saying  
he's heading back to DC - asks, are they're coming? Details:
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/ 
dodd_demands_hillary_and_obama_make_good_on_promise_to_support_his_fisa_ 
filibuster.php

2: Senator Reid could still change his mind and choose to honour the  
bill. Senator Reid's voice phone (202.224.3542) needs to _melt_ with  
complaints. His inbox ( http://reid.senate.gov/contact/ 
email_form.cfm ) needs to overflow with email and faxes  
(202.224.7327), all of which need to say NO AMNESTY.

This all needs to happen <em>now</em>. Go. Do.

(Material from Christy Hardin Smith ( http://firedoglake.com/ 
2007/12/14/latest-tricks-fisa-the-courts-the-petulant-unilateral- 
executive-and-you/ ), Glenn Greenwald ( http://www.salon.com/opinion/ 
greenwald/2007/12/14/reid/index.html ), others.)