Retroactive telecom immunity, warrantless spying on citizens

[solarbird]

Glenn Greenwald has the latest on Senators Rockefeller (D-W.VA) and Reid's plans to get retroactive immunity and warrantless surveillance of Americans through the Senate, as Chief Executive Bush demands. As in December, the version that requires 60 votes to strip out these evils will serve as the base bill, by a 60-36 margin:

The Motion to Table (i.e, kill) the Senate Judiciary Committee's bill -- which does not contain immunity and which does contain important safeguards on eavesdropping powers -- just passed 60-36. That means that the pro-immunity, pro-warrantless-eavesdropping Senate Intelligence Committee serves as the base bill. As usual, just enough Democrats -- roughly 12 -- voted in favor in order to ensure that the Motion passed while enabling Democrats generally to pretend that they opposed it. All GOP Senators voted in favor.

The pro-immunity, pro-warrantless eavesdropping Democrats: Rockefeller, Pryor, Inouye, McCaskill, Landrieu, Salazar, Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Mikulski, Carper, Bayh, and Johnson. Neither Clinton nor Obama bothered to show up for any of this.

There's more details on a GOP move to demand an immediate floor vote here. Apparently, there's a bit of an opening, because Senator Reid feels disrespected by the GOP maneuver, and that's enough to create a bit of a wedge that might could be exploited. (Gods forbid it be a matter of law, or constitution - but if Senator Reid's pendulous ego being pricked is the opportunity we have, then it's the opportunity we shall use.) There are action items and a list of Senators to contact here (scroll down to Update II), to support Senator Dodd's planned filibuster.

Here's a copy of the mail I sent to former Senator Edwards, Senator Clinton, and Senator Obama. Feel free to borrow from it, but do not copy it as-is. If you do, not only will your letter be worth less, mine will be nearly worthless as well, as identical (and nearly-identical) letters are discounted dramatically in value.

Dear Senator X -

I've been writing and faxing and calling people on this for months, but it's that time again. And at this point, it's very simple:

No candidate who fails to work, actively, against the Senate Democratic leadership's attempt to do the dirty work for Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and the telecommunications industry will receive my money or my vote. Since Congress refuses to do its investigative duty, and the Justice department has been politicized and refuses to investigate or prosecute in the case of clear violations of Federal law, there is only one path remaining to investigating the illegal spying of the Bush administration: private lawsuit actions against telecommunications companies for their separate and specific violations of the law. This path has already helped reveal the depth of the lawbreaking, and shown that this program began well before 9/11.

And yet, the contemptible swine which make up the Democratic leadership in the Senate are doing everything they can to shut this down, to protect their friends in the GOP, and their friends in the Republican administration, and their friends in the telecommunications industry who give them so very, very much money.

I have no words for this criminality. But I do have words for you, and Senator Y, and former Senator Z: fail to work actively against this travesty of justice, and you will receive neither money nor vote from me, and from tens if not hundreds of thousands of people like me. That's all there is to it. Convince us that you're actually better, by actual deeds, or stop pretending to be an opposition party, and stop wasting our time.

Sincerely,


solarbird

Last stand, folks. Go and do.

ETA: Word-o corrected

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

as of today, kucinich is withdrawing from the presidential election to focus on congress. i'd suggest he deserves a letter of support too.

[wrog]

he's in the House so he can't do jack about this -- the House has already passed a good FISA bill (...at least to the extent that any FISA bill is actually good, but at least it had no telecom immunity -- in theory, even if immunity passes the senate, there ought to be another chance to strip it out in the conference committee, but given the way things have gone thus far I can't be particularly optimistic about that...).

I suspect the real reason he's withdrawing now is the primary challenger(s) back in Cleveland for his house seat.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

John Edwards has already released a strong statement vigorously supporting Senator Dodd. It was the first news item released by his campaign yesterday:

http://www.johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20080124-fisa/

"In Washington today, telecom lobbyists have launched a full-court press to win retroactive immunity for their illegal eavesdropping on American citizens. Granting retroactive immunity will let corporate law-breakers off the hook and hamstring efforts to learn the truth about Bush's illegal spying program.

"It's time for Senate Democrats to show a little backbone and stand up to George W. Bush and the corporate lobbyists. They should do everything in their power -- including joining Senator Dodd's efforts to filibuster this legislation -- to stop retroactive immunity. The Constitution should not be for sale at any price."

He deserves credit for this stand. Because he's not a current Senator, there's not much else he can do. He can't vote. He doesn't have any favors to trade or leverage to use in arm-twisting. He can only issue a strong condemnation when it matters, and he has.

I met John Edwards in person and asked him about FISA immunity point blank, while looking him in the eyes, and he agreed it was important to hold the telecoms accountable. I can take him at his word, and trust that his progressive campaign for president is genuine, or I can give up, convinced that he doesn't mean it.

I think he means it, and that's a major reason I'm voting for him in the February 9th, caucuses. I'll also say that his publicly announced positions on civil liberties (http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/civil-liberties/) issues are the best of anyone but Kucinich, and he's out of the race now.

Dodd is one of the good guys

[pope-guilty-xix.livejournal.com]

> Glenn Greenwald has the latest on Senators Rockefeller (D-W.VA) and Dodd's plans to get retroactive immunity and warrantless surveillance of Americans through the Senate...

Er, Dodd and Feingold have been leaders in opposing immunity. (I'm sure this is a typo on your part.)

I mailed Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Reid, Murray, and Cantwell about this on Tuesday.

Somedays I feel like a complete crank for caring about this stuff.

Re: Dodd is one of the good guys

[solarbird]

Yes, I know; I'm on Senator Dodd's donor list for that specific reason, hung out some on his campaign forums, and have talked about it here many times. It was a word-o in this post. That's like a typo, but the entire word. I do that sometimes. Anyway, corrected.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

I should add that I went to Clinton and Obama's websites to look for their positions on civil liberties. As far as I can tell, they don't have any. They have sections on civil rights and government accountability and all the usual foreign policy, healthcare, economy, etc. But civil liberties? Not worth a mention.

Edwards is the real deal, and he doesn't deserve to be lumped in with Clinton and Obama. As a Democrat, I prefer any of the three to any Republican, not voting, or any third party. But Edwards is the only one running a progressive campaign.

Re: Dodd is one of the good guys

[solarbird]

Sorry if I seem cranky - it's 'cause I am! And very tired of losing all these fights, and very disgusted, and all that. And we're certainly treated like cranks for it at this point, as are the 10-13 or so Senators left who still oppose the idea of a limited government and law-bound president.

Link color

[pope-guilty-xix.livejournal.com]

On your homepage (http://solarbird.livejournal.com, the one with the yellow background), the unread link color is so dark that it's almost indistinguishable from regular text. Please tweak.

[solarbird]

He deserves credit for this stand. Because he's not a current Senator, there's not much else he can do. He can't vote. He doesn't have any favors to trade or leverage to use in arm-twisting. He can only issue a strong condemnation when it matters, and he has.
There are many - dozens, I'm led to believe - of former Senators and Representatives now working for lobbying firms who, I think, demonstrate that there's quite a bit more that you can do with currently-elected Senators and Representatives than issue a strongly-worded letter, tho' I will give credit for that strongly-worded letter as more than either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama have done.