Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 07/09/2008 1:05:04 PM PDT by shrinkermd
WASHINGTON — More than two and a half years after the disclosure of President’s Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program set off a furious national debate, the Senate gave final approval on Wednesday afternoon to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program.
The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders to stand firm against the White House after a months-long impasse.
“I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill,” Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in closing arguments.
But Senator Christopher S. Bond, the Missouri Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there was nothing to fear in the bill “unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial.”
Supporters of the plan, which revised the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said that the final vote reflected both political reality and legal practicality. Wiretapping orders approved by a secret court under the previous version of the surveillance law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted, and many Democrats were wary of going into their political convention in Denver next month with the issue hanging over them—handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.
So instead, Congress approved what amounted to the biggest restructuring
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I bet Obama did not even bother to vote.
I don’t trust the government. While I certainly have nothing to hide, it’s a slippery slope. We can only hope that the precident doesn’t allow some future president to justify more overt spying techniques.
>>>>>>the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program.
Pointless to correct this again, but it wasn’t a “wiretapping” program, it was a trap-and-trace and pen-register program.
There’s a huge world of technical and legal difference among those terms.
He was there. How he voted I am not sure. Said he would vote for it. But you know an empty suit is just that!
He voted yes. Hillary voted no.
LOL! Bush just got the war funded... AGAIN!
Actually, I read on FR that he voted in favor of this. I could be wrong.
Well I was wrong. Obama did end up voting. He voted yes like he indicated in his recent flip-flop announcement. McCain however did not bother to vote, probably hurting his chance to capitolize on this issue.
The DUmmies and KOSnuts heads’ must be exploding this afternoon!
"The issue put Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in a particularly precarious spot. After long opposing the idea of immunity for the phone companies in the wiretapping operation, he voted for the plan on Wednesday. His reversal last month angered many of his most ardent supporters, who organized an unsuccessful drive to get him to reverse his position once again. And it came to symbolize what civil liberties advocates saw as “capitulation” by Democratic leaders to political pressure from the White House in an election year."
Can't wait to hear his nuanced explanation.
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
What’s hillarious about this is that
THE
point of contention was the ability for tort lawyers to enrich themselves suing the telecom companies for helping the feds protect us from terrorist attacks shortly after 9/11.
unfrickinbelievable.
If it weren’t so close to elections, I wouldn’t be so afraid of who or how the bill is used in the future.
Other than the Columbian free trade deal, I can't think of a single defeat Bush has suffered in congress in the two years the Rats have controlled it.
Obama: This is not the FISA I know... so I vote for it.
well, giving up liberty for security is a proud American tradition. /s
Obviously, they haven't been paying attention. The Republicans/Bush have been kicking their butts all over the place.
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
and 'Independent Democrat' Lieberman (ID-CT)
The kids are having a fit.
Those who give up a liberty for a little temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.
Benjamin was a smart guy. I don’t trust the government to stop at this. Once the government gives itself power, it rarely gives it back.
The ACLU is only $10 away from having this ruled unconstitutional.
Soon he will placing himself right of McCain, advocating a flag burning amendment and saying David Duke is a friend of his.
Barack Hussein Obama thinks he will be Mr President Obama in January. If you were a power-hungry stealth-communist on the cusp of assuming the highest office in the nation, with grand visions for remaking America, which way would you vote?
Put aside what she thinks about the merits of the bill, and put aside her liberal ideology for a minute. The vote won't make a difference in terms of her next Senate run, and will be long forgotten by 2012. By voting yes instead of no today, she would have decreased the left-wing heat on Obama (not much, but a little). Instead, she opted to draw a contrast between him and her with the vote. It's almost as if she's still in the running to be the Dem's nominee this year.
Hehehe, I was just going to post the same list, I see you got it from the same place I did... :-)
“I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill,” Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in closing arguments.
Why would Feingold be worried about the rule of law? McCain-Feingold violates the 1st Amendment and he doesn’t seem concerned about that at all.
How did McCain vote?
You are correct....... Her NAY vote was a great big “neener neener, I told you so” to the left.
Do you have a link to the full vote rundown? Thanks.
I’ll add that it was textbook Clintonomics for her to vote that way. We all know darn well she could care less about FISA and she voted NAY to stick it to Hussein and his followers. Just like all her votes and everything she says and does ~ strictly politics for her advantage.
Welcome to 1984. It’s telling that not a single Republican senator voted against this.
>>>>Obama promised to filibuster it but now has just thrown all his “civil liberties” base under the bus.<<<<<<
They got him the nomination.... he don’t need them anymore.
Now he has to concentrate on Joe Sixpack in the center.
Yes very telling, TROLL.
Telling that they want to protect your sorry ass even though you hate them.
So hypocritical, because if this same bill was introduced by a Democratic president all the fake conservatives would be screaming about how it is unconstitutional, but because it’s Bush’s bill we should all be assured that the government will only use this to protect us.
What you say is redundant because no democrat is going to put forth a bill to protect us from terrorists.
OH, I forgot, terrorists don’t really exist, right?
Ever more reason why your and our informed votes are so precious, aren’t they?
But then I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if your city or family were decimated by terrorists, as long as no government agency had, God forbid, listened into their plotting before hand.
It’s already been posted here but it bears repeating: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”
When the Dems declare pro-lifers, NRA members or conservative blog posters “domestic terrorists” maybe then you will wake up. Until then , enjoy your police state.
BYE idiot troll.
It really is a sad day in America when so called conservatives cheer for a bill that is not conservative at all. No wonder the GOP is in such a sad state, you all have forgotten the basic principles that the party was founded on.
I am calling my aunt when I get home to get her apple pie recipe.
I feel really bad because now Bush (with his super secret ear-phones) is going to listen in and the secret recipe will be out.
So you honestly feel that it’s good that the government can listen to your phone conversations? You trust the government that much? The founding fathers certainly didn’t that’s why they put so many restraints on the government.
Why? Obama isn’t going to attack him for not voting on it, and his vote wasn’t needed.
What I don’t understand is why Obama voted. It was bad enough for him that he promised to filibuster and then didn’t, but to actually vote FOR something he vowed to stop 7 months ago is pretty brazen.
Of course she’s still running. It ain’t over yet. I’m not counting her out.
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