Update [2008-3-14 14:36:17 by dada]:

house passes fisa without retroactive immunity, 213-197.

11 dems crossed over and voted nay.

via tpm

keep the pressure on until the senate gets onboard.

the chimperor keeps lying and threatening to veto the bill unless he gets everything he wants, and what he wants is carte blanche to continue his illegal spying and the RATpublican faithful blindly follow along behind by refusing to participate in the process until the 11th hour, where they have pulled a procedural ploy and requested a rare closed [secret] session to debate the fisa legislation. the same opportunity that they derided back in february when it was proposed by a group of liberal democrats led by Intelligence Comm. member Rush Holt (D-NJ):

Boehner’s spokesman, Kevin Smith, derided the secret session proposal as a stalling tactic.

“There are clear rules and procedures for how Congress handles classified information,” Smith said. “This nonsense is nothing more than another stalling tactic from a bunch of liberals who don’t want to give our intelligence officials all the tools they need to keep America safe.”

the request was granted by speaker pelosi, and a 1 hour debate will be held in secret session tonight, with the vote scheduled for tomorrow morning. this closed session is something that happens very rarely in the house:

Secret sessions are fairly rare, according to the House Historian’s Office. Since 1830, the House has met behind doors only three times; 1979, 1980 and 1983.

so far, the democratic leadership has continued to offer the RATs one opportunity after another to participate in an open and bipartisan <gag> manner, and have received nothing in return.

more below…
this latest attempt to stall what appears to be a pending defeat of the fear mongering is being met with a large dose of skepticism from supporters of the house bill.

judicary committee chair john conyers via [TPM::

“The more my colleagues know, the less they believe this Administration’s rhetoric. As someone who has chaired classified hearings and reviewed classified materials on this subject, I believe the more information Members receive about this Administration’s actions in the area of warrantless surveillance, the more likely they are to reject the Administration’s scare tactics and threats. My colleagues who joined me in the hearings and reviewed the Administration’s documents have walked away with an inescapable conclusion: the Administration has not made the case for unprecedented spying powers and blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies.
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“Whether this is a worthwhile exercise or mere grandstanding depends on whether Republicans have groundbreaking new information that would affect the legislative process. There must be a very high bar to urge the House into a secret session for the first time in 25 years. I eagerly await their presentation to see if it clears this threshold. As someone who has seen and heard an enormous amount of information already, I have my doubts.”

and joining him rush holt:

“I believe in the use of secret sessions in the House when they are intended to truly educate members on the issues and provide them with valuable classified information. Secret sessions should not be used as a cynical, delaying tactic to block the House from voting on critical legislation that would strengthen our intelligence collection efforts and protect the American people from warrantless surveillance. I will be interested to see if Mr. Boehner truly has new classified information on this program to share with members of the House, and I will seek the opportunity to inform my colleagues of what I have learned about this program and the President’s actions in this matter.”

by now, everyone knows the drill, contact your representative(S) and encourage them, and speaker pelosi…who you might consider urging to be a bit more blunt than she was this morning:

and while you’re in a full contact mode, a few senators, including harry reid who could use an encouraging boot to their butts.