Accidental post

[solarbird]

...but since I posted it, it may as well stay up...

More on the Federal energy bill, or what might be left of it, if that's anything.

US Federal Judge Richard Posner calls for ending traditional safeguards of liberty and law and instituting secret trials in the US. I don't suppose anyone will want to impeach him, either. One of Sullivan's readers comments here.

Gordon Brown reveals "Fortress Britain" plan. Jesus.

Retroactive amnesty for telecom lawbreaking is moving forward in the Senate; Senator Feinstein will probably get the bill out of committee today. Democrats in California are trying to get the state party to censure her over this, but the state party is moving to crush that effort.

Oooooooh, this is neat: maybe securities owners can't foreclose. That should slow down a lot of foreclosure processes - at least until people can get the last several years' of completely absent paperwork back together. Tho' uncredited by the NYT, bloggers say this particular analysis actually originated here. (Actual court ruling is here.)

Comments

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

I just got e-mail from Chris Dodd's campaign and according to him the committee approved a version of the bill WITHOUT retroactive immunity. However, it will likely be brought back as an amendment. The relevant text:

1. Within the last hour, the Senate Judiciary Committee just reported out a FISA bill that DOES NOT include retroactive immunity for the telecom companies that helped the Bush Administration spy on Americans.
2. This means the Judiciary bill moves to the full Senate WITHOUT the dangerous language included.
3. Retroactive immunity will, however, surely be introduced as an amendment to the FISA bill.
4. If needed Senator Dodd will filibuster any amendment seeking to add retroactive immunity to the underlying bill. By filibustering, he will force the opposition to find 60 votes to pass the provision.

It will be a lot more difficult for those who would enable the erosion of our Constitution to find the 60 votes necessary to stop immunity on its own than it would be for us to find the 40 needed to sustain a filibuster of the bill as a whole if it included immunity.

[solarbird]

That's very surprising. It looks like they voted not to do anything regarding it, but specifically to send it to a floor fight, with two conflicting versions of the bill from two different committees. Neat. Senator Feinstein's backers must be incensed not to have this as a slam-dunk. Good, that's one step forward. Here's Greenwald's last comment (as of now):

UPDATE XI: Having just spoken with several people involved in today's morass, I have a lot more clarity about what happened. What I described in the prior update is accurate. Now, the next step will be focused on Sen. Reid. He has virtually unlimited discretion to decide what version of the bill to introduce to the full Senate. He could introduce the Intelligence Committee version (with amnesty), the Judiciary Committee version (without amnesty), the House version, or he could just introduce something entirely new altogether, something that gets negotiated between Rockefeller and Reid.

Regardless of what he moves forward, though, it'll be a question of a filibuster fight - a real one.