Jane!

Good morning. Today is huge.

This is really hard to take.

F*ck Leahy, Reid. F*ck all of them, except Dodd.

Obama and McCain are there. I don’t have the ability to watch, has anyone seen Clinton?

This is why I don’t want Dodd to take a position in any WH, Dem or Gooper *ever*. CT needs one sane senator, and the country needs a fighter for the constitution, because this battle will go on.

Note to the NSA;
Try to keep up today boy’s, it’s gonna be busy.

This is killing me. Is there any chance that this will get stalled in the house?

Grrr. Lot’s D no votes. I heard Nelson Fl, Feinstein, Rockefeller, Bayh and several others. We don’t have a chance here.

I haven’t. I just sent her yet another email asking her to please start doing her job. FWIW.

Jane:

You have email… (My my you’re so busy…Hope you’re also taking care of yourself…)

She is in Texas apparently.

Hi Folks

I believe Clinton is not there today from all accounts….

This is tragic….Dodd is my hero…

I called Salazar a few minutes ago (as I posted downstairs). He “doesn’t know how he’ll vote” on immunity. But I just remembered something interesting that his staffer told me: A lot of calls that his office is receiving in support of immunity are coming from banks. Does that mean the government is stealing my financial information without a warrant also? Are we going to see a retroactive banking immunity bill sometime soon if this one passes?

Just cash your tax rebate check and they will be happy.
Move along, nothing to see here.

At least Obama voted Aye. He earned a lot of respect from me today.

digg Dodd! :D

The Democrats have conspired to give Bush everything he wants.

yep. even more than the republican senate was willing to give him (and that was when bush was actually still popular).

imo, the last chance small chance to try to stop this was on jan 31. someone could have objected to the UC and forced the republicans to filibuster (a real one) in order to force the requirement for 60 votes to pass difi’s amendment (and all other amendments). while the Rs were filibustering the Ds could have ripped them for weakness on national security.

that the attempt was not made, speaks volumes for how low we have sunk.

At a recent ACLU event I attended, a comment was made that a lot of businesses are keeping close tabs on this, because there is likely a lot more illegal activity going on and the telecoms are just the tip of the iceberg. So yes, I would guess banks are worried, as well as presumably contractors engaged in all manner of nefarious conduct up to and including torture.

Could we take solace if there are 40 “Ayes” that those same Senators will vote against cloture later?

They can always get what they want - our only hope is if we can’t pay their bill.

Not with a bang, but a whimper. Curious how they bury the votes on primary days, no?

yes.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

How many ways does this suck big time????? Too many to count.

Coming soon to a Congress near you:

The Rule of Law. Mocked.

The will of the people. Subverted.

Democracy. Sold to the highest bidder.

That is interesting. I started reading up on that Infragard thing…apparently businesses have been given the “right” to give Homeland Security information on employees, etc., and maybe clients too, and have been told that they will not be legally vulnerable….sounds similar to the Telco thing, which makes me wonder about the wording of the FISA amendment…it protects ALL companies from assisting Bushco…Right now, Infragard is pretty much under the radar, but it is in all states and was set up by the FBI in the 1990’s; but since Bushco, it seems to have taken a different tack, i.e., they are spying on us too. JMHO

Shit shit shit…. oh good morning Jane…hope all is well with you…

Nobody should pretend to be a hero here.

Except Dodd.

At least Obama voted Aye.

Which vote was that?

It’s all kabuki anyway. Solace? not.

She is in Texas today. She won’t even be in Virginia.

I actually wondered about that too…

Not too long ago I did a credit check and noticed the bank I was using indicated at one of the credit monitoring institutions that I had initiated a possible loan application which left a flag on my credit history. That “flag” would notify the bank any intention of any future loan applications from anywhere…

I never approached that bank of any intention of a loan application.

The Democrats have conspired to give Bush everything he wants. We’re going to get screwed. Nobody should pretend to be a hero here.

To think of the way I felt about the Dem leadership in the Senate/on committees a year ago, & the way I feel now…

Escaping to drive in to work & (hopefully) get away from that feeling for a while.
Read you all later.

You’re right. We only got 31 votes here. Probably less when the cloture vote comes up.
Say goodbye to the Constitution.

Feinstein amendment, not sure after that.

It seems counterintuitive to perceive Dodd as a hero beyond this issue. That has not been his track up till now. Strange bedfellow, indeed.

Nobody should pretend to be a hero here.

Except Dodd.

not even dodd was willing to live up to his promise to fillibuster.

that said, he’s done more than anyone else and for that i am grateful and i don’t regret the $ i sent his campaign.

jeezus, we are loosing every single fight, what the frig is going on?

I want to move

The great sell-outer from West Virgina rises to address the chamber…

Go to hell, Rockefeller.

how sickening it is to see one (supposed) Democrat, Jello Jay, rise, along with Kit Bombed, to urge the defeat the amendment of Sen. Feingold…

Get a load of Jello Jay on C-span 2. Oh now Kit Bond. Oh now roll call?

Coming soon to a Congress near you:

The Rule of Law. Mocked.

The will of the people. Subverted.

Democracy. Sold to the highest bidder.

We already have our edition. Where are you Mars? *g*

Sadly, I don’t think Dodd can do much now. It seems that even half of the Democratic caucus would rather take a crap on the Constitution. Why should they care if Bush doesn’t. Did you see Bush the other day. He apparently thinks he is in charge of defending America, not protecting the Constitution.

Er. . . . Feingold (and ammendment), good. Feinstein, not so good.

Well said.

It’s important that you meet and greet the Senators who don’t give a rat’s ass for your Constitutional Rights. These are people who jump when Cheney says jump, who used to be Democrats who have evolved into Bush Republicans when they vote on FISA:

Voting Against the Dodd Amendment (my unofficial preliminary list but everyone I listed is accurate–I tried not to miss anyone). These are people who don’t give a rat’s ass for your constitutional rights including former U.S. Attorneys Claire Mccaskill and Sheldon Whitehouse who have heard of the Constitution but forgotten how to support it:

Amendment 3907
Dodd’s Amendment Total: 31 Yes 67 No

Feinstein, Nelson, Rockerfeller, Mccaskill, Hillary Clinton Supporter Mikulski, Landrieu, Lincoln, Salazar,Tom Carper, Webb, Whitehouse Leiberman former Democrat now Republican in fact Independent in Name.

why is it that the Repub’s have become so much more powerful and effective, now that they’re the “Minority” party?

he could have objected to the UC on 1/31/08.

now, i agree, there isn’t much he could do to force the issue.

his speech last night was great, but that was an appeal to the conscience of our senators - people who, for the most part, apparently have no conscience and in any event weren’t there to hear it.

Because they can blame it on the Dem majority now.

Sad to see Webb cave to the Telecoms. Verizon/MCI has a lot of money and data centers in VA. I thought he was better than that.

I called Nelson’s (FL) office earlier this morning. I was told that he supported Dodd. He votes NO. I called back and the staff person said he didn’t understand the vote.

I can’t believe Lieberman is still allowed to stand on the floor when he’s so clearly insane trotting after McCain like he does. Now if we CT citizens had a real US attorney. . .

The only answer I can come with on that one that makes sense is blackmail…

“he didn’t understand the vote”?!? What the fuck does that mean?

pretty sure I just heard the clerk read that Evan Bayh voted both “aye” and “no”.

Nice trick…

Because the Dems never fundamentally disagreed with them to begin with. It was all for show. Now we see what the Dems really stand for and it sure isn’t the rule of law, the Constitution, or representative Democracy. Maybe we should save some time and just refer to Congress as the Politburo.

traitors and clueless idiots.
may a cartload of hay rot in each one of their beds (old hungarian curse).

whadda we do now, Jane?

There is a remedy for that…

didn’t understand the vote.

aargh! we are governed by morons.

Dodd speech was as good as Churchill’s. Any of them.

Politburo.

works for me.

What can you expect from the same cabal that complied with Bush and ushered in the Iraq War?

Not to mention Justices Thomas, Alito and Roberts.

-G

I just saw Obama on the Senate floor—-yeah!

Now we see what the Dems really stand for and it sure isn’t the rule of law, the Constitution, or representative Democracy

It is all about the fu**ing money. Look at the stock market now that the telecoms are off the bloody hook

I *almost* feel sorry for Mary Landrieu. She shows up, votes incorrectly every time, then leaves. And nobody ever even acknowledges her existence.

As it should be, I guess…

Clinton better not accuse Obama of not being there for important votes…

i never heard churchill, but dodd was very good. really put head and heart in to that speech, and one could tell he was exhausted by the end.

i’m going to try to get some more clips of it up today. too many people missed it (including phred and matt).

I’m just going to say that this is utterly dishonest and encourages pie throwing in a way that I’m not going to put up with.

You’ve been warned.

The only way she ever gets any money is by supporting the Pukes. She’s in Ted Steven’s pocket.

Working with Glenn G to put together a petition to House members telling them to stand by the RESTORE act.

i just told my wife that. There is coersion being used…Blackmail is just the tip of the iceburg.WTF?

I thought (Webb) was better than that.

Not me. Not after he voted twice for more money for troop killing on the 2007 war supplementals.

He and many other Dems are in way over their heads. Or in the wrong party.

How can Mary Landrieu vote with the Bushies when they have left New Orleans to rot? She is disgusting!

He didn’t know why Nelson voted NO, when he supposedly was in support of Dodd.

It is all about the fu**ing money. Look at the stock market now that the telecoms are off the bloody hook

Whither goes Wall Street, so goes the Politburo.

Just remember us little people are supposed to be positively delirious that the markets are up because that means the economy doesn’t suck! Woo Hoo! I sure feel better, don’t you? (/massive snark)

Of course, if HoJoe were kicked out of the caucus and stripped of his chairmanship, the Dems would likely end up in the minority, or power-sharing, on a 50-50+Dick vote.

And this would change the fact that Bush and Miss McConnell get everything they want, not a jot.

Senator Barack Obama is on the floor voting. He is supporting Dodd and Feingold in every vote, standing up for your Constitution as he will soon as your President.

Senator Hillary Clinton is Out and About Shoppin or planning with Bubbah Jefferson Clinton and Maggie Williams on how to use Super Delegates to Steal the Election as she proceeds to loose 3 more elections today. She does not care about your constitutional rights obviously.

Senator John McCain McBush is on the floor voting against your Constitution.

Here’s an old Jewish curse: May they lose all their teeth except one so they can get a toothache.

all I can say is that I sure as hell don’t understand it either…

seriously, what do we do? Is there any hope when they reconcile the bill with the House? I don’t understand why Dodd voted on the UC and gave up the right to filibuster?

Working with Glenn G to put together a petition to House members telling them to stand by the RESTORE act.

Thanks Jane! I can’t believe the Senate doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution, even with all the forewarning, I find myself incredulous watching these votes come down.

Thanks Selise the late night appreciate that you have been doing that. Someday I would hope that Dodd’s speech yesterday would be required watching for high school kids taking government classes… it would do them a lot of good to see a true patriot in action defending our constitution!!

I think the remainder of that curse is and then get Titanium Screws and implants isn’t it?

When is Nelson’s seat up for ‘auction.’ I want another Senator!!!!

Debbie Stabenow voted no on Dodd

I thought I read this am that she’s in Texas, plotting.

Good Morning Jane and Pups.

And a sad one. The definition of “too much at stake” is changing before our eyes. Dang.

A question, please: Has anyone noticed how Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio voted?
I thought he seemed to be standing strongly with Dodd last time this came up. Not just voting, but speechifying.

It was clear for quite a while the Democratic leadership favored retroactive immunity, which considering the enormity of other problems, is fairly small potatoes. Obama’s vote is a big plus for him and should give progressives who favor Hillary because she is a woman reason to switch sides. As for Hillary’s changing staff, to get to the root of her problems she has only to look in the mirror.

We seek leaders and heros when it is apparent we have been left to our own devices. What exactly those are remains to be seen.

It is the sad effect of confusing political and economic systems. Capitalism is not a political system and this is what you get when it is treated like one.

well, just because i don’t expect good things from our house dem leadership, that doesn’t mean i’m content to watch the train wreck without trying to stop it.

if this ends in the senate as we expect, the next step is the house. it’s not impossible that the progressive caucus and friends could hold together again (as they did to force the house leadership to make changes in the RESTORE ACT) and we could put the spotlight on the house leadership so that they would be too ashamed to join with the Rs to pass the senate bill.

Is Kit Bond Rockefellers *new best friend*? Just asking.

According to TPM, Webb and McCaskill voted with the GOPers. Can we quit considering them for VP now?

WooHoo…they just stopped the proliferation of WMDs!

That would be nice. I don’t want to accept these results.

I don’t understand why Dodd voted on the UC and gave up the right to filibuster?

I don’t know, but I suspect that as we saw with Dodd-Feingold, Dodd couldn’t get the votes to support a filibuster. That meant he could not prevent passage. That coupled with the expiration date, meant that the best he could do is delay long enough to make it impossible for the House to oppose immunity, forcing them as happened in August to capitulate from a false sense of urgency. Ironically, by not filibustering Dodd may have given us one last gasp at putting a stop to this in the House.

Working with Glenn G to put together a petition to House members telling them to stand by the RESTORE act.

excellent! thank you!

I read a piece this weekend while doing updated searches on the cable repairs and came across a piece on US intelligence/ military games. A former military intelligence strategists was hired out of retirement to stage military games recently. He took down a US special ops group in the staged game/op using “old” on foot strategies. He knew the military would be using every telecom tool outatheirarse…He stayed below the wire…

His point: our intel gathering has become poor beyond words as we focus on the “latest telecom based” intel gathering. He said FISA does nothing to protect our country…

I’ll have to find it and post it…

Debbie Stabenow voted no on Dodd

She also voted FOR the Military Commissions Act. Just another Rethug in Dem clothing.

I want to emphasize who voted against your Constitutional rights and that Senator Obama was present voting for these amendments, and Senator Clinton was absent.

There is no retroactive immunity in the Senate Bill, and they will have to hash this out with the house, and according to Cboldt there is no conference committee–bills will be passed back and forth.

Amend 3907 Dodd

31 Yes 67 No

These people voted against your constitutional rights:

Feinstein, Nelson, Rockerfeller, Claire Mccaskill Hillary Clinton Supporter Mikulski, Landrieu, Lincoln, Salazar,Tom Carper, Webb,Whitehouse Leiberman former Democrat now Republican in fact Independent in Name.

Amendment Amendment 3912 Feingold Reverse Targeting:

These people voted against your Constitutional Rights and more may be on the list but they are accurate:

Voting No: Bayh, Carper, Mikulski, Nelson Florida, McCain was there and voted No, Landrieu, Lincoln, Inouye, Webb, Pryor.

This is what happens when money rules. It buys the congress people who let corporations have their way.

It’s all about profit and getting your tax dollars spent on stuff which doesn’t help the people.

Our government is now of, for and by corporations.

We only pay taxes and slave away and die for them on their battlefields.

Communism lost… capitalism won. You are seeing the results today.

Jane are you going to use the same e-mail blast as last time around to inform us of the petition?? If not where can we sign up to get on any such petition?/

i still think that forcing the Rs to filibuster was the way to go, if one really wanted a chance to defeat this bill. not saying it would have worked, but it was a slim chance - and the only one i could see.

To me, Landrieu has appeared to be begging piteously for handouts for a long long time now. It’s beyond sad. You’d think it would eventually occur to her that continuously caving to the power brokers is NOT going to save her state. I wish she would just get out, and let someone more powerful try their hand, if there is anyone else with enough gusto to make a difference. Poor poor Louisianans have been so badly abused by so many.

Yes — hmmm…now it becomes clear why the American Dental Association is now the official sponsor of the curse.

we could put the spotlight on the house leadership

Yep. And ALL of them come up for reelection in November.

again the dems are leaving sen dodd out to dry…. how much bushco ass can they kiss - this is awful…. i’m not sure who i feel more sorry for - sen dodd or the country!!

A related take on this can be found here: FISA: Fascism Is Stalking America.

I’m not too suprised by this, the Dems have been kindly swallowing anything the GOP offers to ram down their throat since 9/11. The American public should NOT tolerate this, as we have the power to change it. Democracy requires eternal vigilance, and our vigilance as a society has been lacking. We have to take a stand before it’s too late.

Happy Corporate Sovereignty Month.

How long before Blackwater gets the same retroactive “blessing”?

And how much longer before prospective immunity is up for a vote auction?

If Short Ride left/was kicked out of the Dem caucus, it would not really affect the current Senate make-up. Reid as Majority Leader and the various committee chairs are designated by name in the Organizing Resolution. If Short Ride flipped, all the Ds would have to do is stand together in a filibuster, which they would do as it is their power in question, and it would stop any re-Org movement cold.

People switching phone providers could be the only item that sends the right message….

Working with Glenn G to put together a petition to House members telling them to stand by the RESTORE act.

Thank you Jane, for this and all that you are doing. You give us hope in these dark hours. God bless you (and that’s from an atheist :-) ).

I just hope tnat President Obama orders the NSA to post on-line all those Bush White House e-mails they intercepted without a warrant.

Anyone want to buy a nice silk purse? Go ask my friend over there, the pig with one ear.

I am so disgusted. This is not why I worked my ass off for the Democratic Party all these years. :-(

if there was a phone provider we knew was protecting our privacy - maybe by employing hard core encryption technology?

OH! I SO would have, but as it turns out Qwest is our only option down here. Which is good, but I’d have loved to make that move!

Thanks Jane.

Sad for America, but we will soldier on.

I PRAY President Obama utilizes the many tallents of Senator Whitehouse in his administration! VP would be very cool with me.

Here is a list of what is being voted on today:

Order of Senate Amendment Votes Today Matt Hamlin’s Blog

They are voting on the Specter-Whitehouse bill now which would ridiculously substitute the government as defendent in the civil suits against the Telcos.

Here is what was defeated just now (thanks to Cboldt’s blog):

Dodd Amendment No. 3907, to strike the provisions providing immunity from civil liability to electronic communication service providers for certain assistance provided to the Government.

Feingold/Dodd Amendment No. 3912, to modify the requirements for certifications made prior to the initiation of certain acquisitions.

I’d be more surprised if they’d done the right thing. These guys have been bought, blackmailed, or gotten threats aimed at them or their nearest-and-dearest. It makes me wonder what’s in their closets that they can’t afford to have come out in public - or what they think we won’t tolerate.

In better news, CNN.com’s current poll results:
Who do you like best for president?
John McCain 24% 20938
Mike Huckabee 12% 10849
Hillary Clinton 24% 21114
Barack Obama 41% 36119

This could not have happened without the Democratic leadership. Don’t be fooled by the idea that this was the result of a few senators. It was a finely orchestrated, well financed campaign by some of the most well-placed corporations in the country.
Where was Obama’s leadership??? Where was Clinton’s??? Neither stepped up and neither deserve our support. The entire Party is corrupt to the core.

If someone does want to pick on the sacrificial lambs of the Democratic Party i.e. those that could politically “afford” to publicly side with the telecom giants, here they are (but have no doubt this could not have happened without the leadership and collusion of the entire Party.
Note: since this dragged out a bit, don’t you wonder how many campaign contributions were wrangled from the telecoms… must have cost them a fortune!
Among the Dems crossing the aisle (you probably will notice some Kos supported “Dems” among them):
Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV),
Evan Bayh (D-IA),
Daniel Inouye (D-HI),
Tim Johnson (D-ND),
Herb Kohl (D-WI),
Mary Landrieu (D-LA),
Claire McCaskill (D-MO),
Mark Pryor (D-AR),
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR),
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
Ken Salazar (D-CO),
Tom Carper (D-DE),
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD),
Jim Webb (D-VA).

Don’t be so quick to jump - remember that Qwest was the one Telco that said no to the illegal spying.