(The House has adjourned and Boehner has threatened to "shut down the House" until they take up the Senate Intel bill. The GOP really is going to the mat to get Dick Cheney and the telecom crooks immunity. If you want to fight against the Bush Dogs trying to help them do it, you can do so here -- jh)

There is another potential FISA deal floating out today:

...Instead of blanket immunity, the tentative proposal would give the federal courts special authorization to hear classified evidence and decide whether the phone companies should be held liable. House Democrats have been working out the details of their proposal in the last few days, officials said, and expect to take it to the House floor for a vote on Thursday....

It would impose tougher restrictions on National Security Agency eavesdropping than the Senate version does by requiring court approval before the agency's wiretapping procedures, instead of approval after the fact. It would also reject retroactive immunity for the phone carriers.

Under the proposal, the courts would be given authority to hear classified evidence in the civil suits -- perhaps on an "ex parte" basis, with only one side in attendance -- to determine whether the companies are immune from liability. Officials said the proposal would most likely give that authority to a federal district court, but it is possible that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington could be given that authority instead....

The little bit of information that we know about the illegal domestic spying actions of the NSA and other agencies under Bush Administration direction comes from whistleblowers who were not content to sit by and watch them repeatedly break the law and conceal that action from Congress. Via Matt Browner-Hamlin:

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing interviews AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cindy Cohn. In the interview, Klein mentions that only Chris Dodd has presented his story before Congress, and according to Klein, “[Dodd] got run over by his own party leadership who seems determined to do the work of the NSA and pass immunity for the phone companies.”

It’s remarkable how angry and cynical Klein is in this interview. When I interviewed him last fall for the Dodd campaign, he was soft-spoken and even-keeled. In this interview, it’s clear that Klein is disillusioned at the political process and the Democrats who have done absolutely nothing with his case of blatantly illegal actions by the NSA and AT&T. Honestly, I can understand his outrage and it’s a testament to his patriotism. It is truly shameful that his story has not become a test case for rolling back the executive powers seized by the Bush administration and using this massive violation of the 4th amendment of almost every American as grounds for impeachment.

More on the interview from Wired. And thanks to Boing Boing for doing the interview with Klein. Matt has some further thoughts on the WSJ article from yesterday.

As I said yesterday, please contact your Senators and Representatives and telling them that they must reject telecom immunity and actively work to uphold the rule of law and protect the Fourth Amendment. Call your Senators and Representative today -- continued pressure on this is essential. E-mail them a copy of this interview. Write a letter to the editor to your hometown newspaper about these issues.

Stand up and be heard. And make sure it isn't just the NSA that's listening...

 UPDATE:  EFF has issued a statement on the House bill proposal:

"We applaud the House leadership for taking a courageous stand against the president and refusing to grant amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms. The House bill would represent a true compromise on the amnesty issue: customers whose privacy was violated would get their day in court, while the companies would be allowed to defend themselves despite the Administration's broad demands for secrecy," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Immunity proponents have been claiming on the Hill for months that these companies had a good faith belief that the NSA program was legal. Under this bill, the companies could do what they should have been able to do all along: tell that story to a judge."

There is more information at the link as well on particular segments.