If the Master of the Senate, LBJ, were alive today, and got a glimpse of the way Reid handles things, he would be sickened.

where are the ron paul supporters? these are supposed to be inspired by the message of freedom. lets see if they have the steam to make the difference on this bill.

where are the ron paul supporters? these are supposed to be inspired by the message of freedom. lets see if they have the steam to make the difference on this bill.

Keep delaying the bill Harry, give Dennis that moment of opportunity Monday when the starts will align perfectly.

I'll call BS on this, procedural and otherwise. Can't these Democrats do anything correct, in concert, without tip-toeing warily? It is way past time for constituents to keep humoring these miscreant elected pols as "representatives". Upholding the rule of law, the Constitution, their oaths? Tell me again why there is a difference between the political parties?

This is Reid's fault. He shouldn't have brought the intel committee's bill to the floor. And he clearly has no ability to put the fear of God into his own caucus. What the hell were TWELVE Democrats doing supporting the intel committee bill? How the hell did the Republicans block votes on any of the amendments to the judiciary committee bill?

Next year, Reid needs to be replaced. Dodd for Senate Majority Leader!!!!

Why is it that when Republicans are in the minority they are able to easily and successfully block anything they don't want or like and yet the Dems appear unable to accomplish anything of importance whether they are in the minority or majority?

Why?

I have stated long ago, that the Democrats will stop every investigation of the Bush administration as soon as they are in office. It appears they have already started that even before getting into office.

You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

There is a simple way to rectify this. Vote on no bill. Period.

I really respect the Republicans for fighting hard for what they believe in. Good for them. They're fighting in a vacuum, of course--Democrats won't fight for anything---but still, at least they have character.

Reid Must Go.

I still want to know exactly what the telecom companies did at the bidding of the White House. It's gonna come out, and I want to know that the administration decided while it was trolling for terrorists it would just sneak a peek at Democrats and people who post comments on left-wing blogs. I think we know where that's headed, and it's gonna come out. Someone is gonna lead it.

What is really sickening is knowing the Dems could have pulled similar stunts when they were thy minority. Why didn't they?

Tim:

Good to see that I'm not the only one.... I'm thinking we need to Lamont our "esteemed" junior Senator Salazar and get a progressive Democrat to run against him in the 2010 primary.

No one cares what the "media narrative" is anymore. The media is even more unpopular than lawyers and Bush. It's the one things conservatives and liberals agree on. If the Democrats had any guts (ha), they'd take the "media narrative" and ram it up their buttholes.

As the IBM tv ad 'says' "Stop talking,start doing'.Below is my letter(feel free to plagarize,etc.) that I have faxed to the following:
Feinstein fax (202) 228-3954
boxer - 415-956-6701 fax
reid Fax: 202-224-7327
Pelosi Fax # (202) 225-8259
Davis Fax: (202) 225-2948
hagel Fax: (202) 224-5213
snowe Fax: (202) 224-1946
dodd | Fax: (202) 224-1083
feingold Fax (202) 224-2725
obama (202) 228-4260 fax
Clinton Fax: (202) 228-0282
Edwards Fax: (919) 967-3644
Rockefeller 202 224-7665
Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer and Representative Davis;

I am writing to you, again, as your constituent regarding S2248 (FISA, amendments). I am copying Senator Reid and Representative Pelosi as they are the Congressional leaders of the respective houses and think they should be aware of my writing. And I’m copying Senator Dodd and Senator Feingold as they are the leaders on the issue of ‘no immunity’ for the telecommunication companies. And I’m copying Senators Hagel and Snowe as they are Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and perhaps are more reasonable than Senators Bond, Kyl, and McConnell. And Senator Rockefeller as he keeps insisting that the telecommunication companies acted properly when they didn’t. The copies to Senator’s Obama and Clinton are to urge them to attend this coming Monday’s session and lend their ‘gravitas’ to the issue; and to let them know that if they don’t, no matter which of them is the Democratic nominee for President, they won’t get my vote as a registered independent voter.

I write this as a white, 61 year old, unemployed computer professional who watched the entire day of Senate coverage on this issue on CSPAN. Simply stated, I was disgusted with the disinformation put forth by Senator Bond and the intransigence of the Republican leadership to allow even voting on amendments. And Senator McConnell was mistaken when he said those watching were confused by the parliamentary maneuvers during the day. And Senator Durbin was exactly correct when he said the Republican approach was ‘my way or the highway’. Especially when Democrats are willing to extend the atrocious Protect America Act of 2007 throughout the term of the Bush Administration.

Simply stated, if Qwest Communications was concerned enough to refuse to co-operate based on the letter(s) from the Bush Administration for this illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizen’s, then there is ABSOLUTELY no rationale, as Senator Rockefeller and Republican’s keep bringing up, for the other telecommunication companies to have acceded to the request from the Bush Administration.

Senator Rockefeller is quoted as saying “"They relied on the legal conclusion of this nation's most senior law enforcement official and they provided assistance because they wanted to help stop terrorist attacks"; then that was the mistake of those telecommunication companies that ‘relied’ on someone who has since left the office of Attorney General in disgrace and they should pay for not listening to their internal legal staff or relying on existing law that has been on the ‘books’ for the last 30 years. Additionally, the mantra of ‘self responsibility’ would seem as applicable to companies as it is to individuals. And the idea that such companies would hesitate to assist the government when a properly served warrant has been issued is disingenuous at best, ludicrous in logic at it’s worst.

As Senator Feingold has pointed out “Granting this kind of amnesty is totally unjustified since these companies already receive immunity if they follow the law. And it’s not as if these companies don’t have lawyers to tell them what’s legal and what’s not – especially when these laws have been on the books for 30 years. It is particularly outrageous that companies think they deserve immunity for allegedly participating in an illegal program when we found out last week from the DOJ Inspector General that telecom carriers are perfectly willing to shut off wiretaps – including a foreign intelligence wiretap – when the FBI doesn’t make its payments on time.”

Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, is quoted as saying "At the end of the day we have to have the cooperation of the telecommunications companies, and they should not have the threat of a spurious lawsuits hanging over their heads." This is such fallacious logic that it’s disingenuous at best, ludicrous and dishonest at it’s worst. These telecommunication companies have very skilled lawyers and, given the example of Qwest rejecting such ‘assistance’, knew that such actions were against the law (or should have, given their expertise).

One begins to wonder whether contributions from these companies are more important to certain Senators than the rights of U.S. citizen’s.

I read where “The White House is trying to force a political confrontation this week over the terrorist surveillance issue — threatening to label congressional Democrats as soft on national security unless they quickly approve a new bill that would gave the U.S. intelligence community vastly enhanced spying powers”; I say let the liars that are the Bush Administration –945 lies and continually increasing- say what they want; American’s AREN’T buying it !! The Bush Administration has NO credibility and for Democrats to act as though the Bush Administration can still intimidate them is disgraceful.

If the logic is that the Democrat’s legislation needs Bush’s signature to be enacted and therefore there is a need to ‘co-operate’ and be ‘bi-partisan’, I would say forget the legislation and take up the needed impeachment.
What point is there to legislation if the result is the regular issuance of signing statements like this for the PATRIOT USA Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 : “The executive branch shall construe the provisions of H.R. 3199 that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch, such as sections 106A and 119, in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.” ??

And despite Senator Feinstein’s clarity and specificity in her floor speech and reasonable amendment regarding ‘exclusivity’, it was objected to and if attached to the Intelligence Committee version of S.2248, the probabilities are extremely high that the legislation will have a signing statement attached that ignores such ‘exclusivity’.

It is now been reported that the Bush Administration started the processes by which all communications in the United States would be monitored –regardless of status or citizenship- just two weeks after taking office in 2000. This ‘should’ tell you all you need to know of the real intent in pushing for legal immunity within the changes to the FISA. How many times does the Congress need to be lied to before you ‘get it’?

And for the Republican’s to think that ‘terrorists’ are not aware of the technical prowess of the United States to monitor communications simply ignores reality.

The ongoing assault by the Bush Administration on the U.S. Constitution’s system of checks and balances in the name of the “Unitary Executive Theory” MUST be stopped and it is Congress’ failure to combat this flawed theory that is part of the reason why citizens hold Congress in such low regard.

It would appear as though Republican Senator’s and the Democrat Senators (Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Ken Salazar (D-CO)), who voted against the Judiciary Committee version of S.2248 have forgotten the preamble to the U.S. Constitution that states, ‘WE THE PEOPLE’.

They do so at their own risk. The citizenry of the United States have ‘awoken’ and, paraphrasing the character in the movie ‘Network’, “We are mad as hell, and aren’t going to take this anymore!"

The ‘message’ that is currently being presented to the citizenry of the United States is that, if immunity is granted, then, once again, Congress has failed in it’s responsibility to the citizenry in favor of corporate donors and a desire to avoid addressing the lawlessness that the Bush Administration has consistently engaged in. AND NO AMOUNT OR TYPE OF AMENDMENTS WILL OVERCOME THAT IDEA.

If Bush wants to veto such legislation and Republican’s won’t join in a bi-partisan manner to override such a veto, then it is the Bush Administration and Republican Senators and Representatives who are to blame for not acting in a manner that supports ‘national security’. And the Democratic Party needs to be VOCIFEROUS on that point AND NOT let the arguments related to ‘national security’ be framed by a corrupt Executive Branch that calls the U.S. Constitution ‘a piece of paper’.

It’s time to stop making a mockery of the words ‘land of the free and home of the brave’.

In closing, I implore you to NOT provide any immunity to the telecommunications companies (don’t they have enough help from the FCC already?) and PUT THE ONUS on the Bush Administration and Republican’s of both Houses for not passing legislation said to be ESSENTIAL for ‘national security’.

I would also ask that this missive be read on the floor of the House’s, shared with those Democrats that voted against the Judiciary version of S.2248, and entered into the respective Congressional Record(s).

Sincerely,

"As the Republicans have demonstrated, the Senate's rules make it easy for the minority to make trouble."

I don`t get it.If this were true then the Dems are definitely in league with the Repubs.
Why didn`t they use the senate rules to their advantage to stop the Military Commissions Act,you know the one that cancels Habeas Corpus?There should be no way immunity for criminals is included in FISA.
Why not make Bush pardon them?

Just sent my letter to Jay on his website:

Qwest wants to know if its too late to get in on the telecom immunity PAC. In seeing the love that VZ and AT&T is getting with you on this, they're feeling left out. So much so they're willing to recant and fess up that they too were unable to withstand the will of the executive branch and ended up performing illegal wiretaps to their great distress. Or withstanding that, make claim that they were at least beguiled and indeed tempted by the Manly Power and essence of Bush and Cheney themselves. In any case, isn't there a way they can still do a deal with you on this?

Send our love to the GOP!

It's the bush dog democrats(the republic arm of the democratic party)that helps keep the obstruction alive.
They need to be excommunated some how

If the House would begin impeachment hearings, we'd be figuring out a lot sooner who was and was not squeezable in the Senate...

what is the surprise? there is only one party

if you think there are two, you are owned