Here’s a heads up. The battle over reauthorization of the Protect America Act (PAA) and retroactive immunity for the telecommunications corporations will probably begin anew tomorrow.
Cheney also said the administration “feels strongly that an updated FISA law should be made permanent, not merely extended again. … There is no sound reason to pass critical legislation like the Protect America Act and slap an expiration date on it.”
Reid plans to bring to the Senate floor on Thursday competing versions of the legislation.
If a bill is not approved then, Reid said he would require the Senate to work through the weekend to get a bill passed.
Here’s the good news. The blogosphere is already on this like white on rice. The first thing I want you to do is go to CREDO Action and send your emails to all the presidential candidates requesting that they take off from campaigning to return to Washington and support Sen. Christopher Dodd’s filibuster. Believe me, it’s well worth your time. So far, CREDO Action has sent out almost 70,000 emails, enough to crash Barack Obama’s email server. When you are done with that, please email the senators from your state.
The common wisdom on this is that the Democrats will find a way to grant telecom immunity after giving the appearance of a fight.
The bitterest point of contention for Democrats will be the same question that divided them last summer: immunity for telecom companies that complied with Bush Administration requests for access to American phone and e-mail traffic without warrants after 9/11. After news of the Bush program broke, civil liberties groups brought cases against the companies, and since then the telecoms have in some cases refused to help the U.S. intelligence community further. Bush has said he will veto any bill that doesn’t grant the telecoms immunity. The Democrats are split on the issue. Smart money bets the Democrats will cave again — the only question is how much they fight before doing so.
Are you tired of reading analysis like that? So am I. That’s why you should also call some of the senators that are on the record as supporting Dodd’s filibuster.
Fax/Phone
Feingold (202) 224-2725 (202) 224-5323
Dodd (202) 224-1083 (202) 224-2823
Obama (202) 228-4260 (202) 224-2854
Sanders (202) 228-0776 (202) 224-5141
Menendez (202) 228-2197 (202) 224-4744
Biden (202) 224-0139 (202) 224-5042
Brown (202) 228-6321 (202) 224-2315
Harkin (202) 224-9369 (202) 224-3254
Cardin (202) 224-1651 (202) 224-4524
Clinton (202) 228-0282 (202) 224-4451
Akaka (202) 224-2126 (202) 224-6361
Webb (202) 228-6363 (202) 224-4024
Kennedy (202) 224-2417 (202) 224-4543
Boxer (415) 956-6701 (202) 224-3553
Ask them to make sure they don’t forget their promises.
Now, firedoglake has already launched a major offensive to convince John Edwards to take a leadership position on this. The theory is that Edwards can shame Obama and Clinton off the campaign trail and into the filibuster fight. As Glenn Greenwald has said:
The only way for there to be any prospect of impeding Bush’s most extreme demands for vast warrantless eavesdropping powers and immunity for lawbreaking telecoms is for the presidential candidates — Obama, Edwards and Clinton — to demonstrate (rather than speak about) real “leadership” and take a stand in support of Chris Dodd and his imminent filibuster.
Perhaps Harry Reid knows that we are getting organized. We didn’t expect this FISA bill to come up until Monday, but it now appears that Reid will bring it up TOMORROW and then make the Senate work through the weekend, if necessary, TO PASS SOMETHING. We know that there is no way that we can pass something that doesn’t grant immunity to the telecommunications corporations, SO WE HAVE TO PREVENT THE PASSAGE OF ANYTHING. That’s what the filibuster is about. Please, I implore you, don’t just stand around and bitch. Take action now, while there is still time to pressure the Senate. No immunity for violating our fourth amendment rights!! The teleco corporations already have immunity for good-faith cooperation with the government. This is an attempted obstruction of justice. Only we can stop it. Go to CREDO Action and get started. Thanks.