Democrats Dianne Feinstein, Sheldon Whitehouse and Herb Kohl approve telecom amnesty.

Been hard to keep up with this FISA vote....this is the latest I have heard. From Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

Important day for FISA and amnesty



Looks to me like the telecoms will get what they want in the long run.

Seems like all our calls and letters mean little or nothing anymore.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I heard amnesty was stripped, but this does not sound that way?

Confused.

And from the Usual Supsects, too. Color me unsurprised. :eyes:

Thank goodness they are Democrats; I would hate to think of Republicans casting such votes.

"UPDATE VIII: The vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feingold's amendment to strip out amnesty was actually 12-7, not 11-8 (Leahy misspoke). All Republicans -- and Feinstein, Whitehouse and Kohl -- voted for amnesty. Now it will go to the Senate floor, where it is difficult to see Dodd's filibuster being sustained. They would almost certainly have 60 votes in the Senate to override Dodd and pass the bill with amnesty in it.

That means (assuming that the House votes in favor of its version tonight) that the FISA bill will be sent to a Conference Committee, where the House and the Senate will reconcile their various versions and agree on one bill. Real mischief can occur there, since that all takes place behind the scenes, with little public debate or media coverage. That process often results in an in-the-dark agreement that quickly gets sent to both houses for a fast vote before they recess and scamper out of town. Obviously, vigilance will be required."

http://salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/15/amnesty_fisa/index.html

Had to be more than just those 3...to make 12.

:(

"UPDATE III: This is good news (He drew a line through these words)

UPDATE IV: The Raw Story report I linked to in Update III was completely inaccurate (it originally indicated the House bill had been passed; that story has been corrected now). The House thus far only voted on a Rules motion which essentially allowed the vote on the bill itself to be scheduled for this afternoon. The vote on the bill itself has not occurred yet and will only take place after the House finishes debating a bill on sub-prime mortgages. My understanding is that the FISA vote will take place today, but -- contrary to that Raw Story report -- it has not yet taken place. The House proceedings can be viewed on C-SPAN here."

I have not had TV on, so going by bloggers.

No wonder they slip things through...is amnesty in or out of the bill that passed out of SJC?

that FeinSlime just can't afford to have anything interfere with hubby's warmongering profiteering, now, don't you? I mean, how else are they gonna keep up their lavish, fuck-my-constituents lifestyle! C'mon, have some tea and sympathy here!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :banghead: :banghead:

"UPDATE IX: Even among people who closely follow Congressional procedures, there is a great deal of confusion, and very little clarity, over what actually happened in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. It does seem that Feingold's amendement -- to strip out amnesty -- failed, as I reported. Nonetheless, some (such as Wired's Ryan Singel, TPM and the ACLU) are repoting that the bill is being somehow sent to the floor without amnesty included in it. Singel describes it as "a stunningly unexpected win," while TMP's Greg Sargent says "it looks like a big victory for opponents of telecom immunity." I'll post more about this once it's clear".

I would like to know for sure, as I have about 15 minutes to delete this.

Greenwald is usually right on the button about stuff.

"Late Update: Here's a bit more detail on what happened on the Judiciary Committee today. Sources say Senator Russ Feingold offered an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill, but it was defeated. Then Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking GOPer on the committee, offered a "compromise" amendment saying that in these lawsuits the Federal government, and not the telecoms, would be the defendants.

But because of a procedural difficulty Specter's amendment wasn't voted on -- and Senator Patrick Leahy, the chair of the committee, essentially went around Specter's amendment and moved to have a vote to report the bill out of committee without any telecom immunity in it. That passed along strictly party lines. And that's where we are."

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/11/sources_latest_senate_fisa_bill_does_not_contain_telecom_immunity.php

My head is spinning.

http://mydd.com/

"The Senate Judiciary Committee punted on Thursday over whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly helping the government eavesdrop on Americans.

That decision -- the main sticking point in a rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- will be left to the full Senate."

Doesn't appear to be a victory yet at all. More from Greenwald.

UPDATE X: Matters are a bit clearer, and I think some of these claims of a great victory are looking a bit overstated. It's not as bad as it could have been (i.e, the bill sent to the full Senate with amnesty), but it's not a victory either (the Committee did not strip the bill of amnesty). Instead, once Feingold's amendment failed, they basically agreed not to decide at all on amnesty and leave it to the full Senate. As this AP article states, "the Senate Judiciary Committee punted on Thursday over whether to shield telecommunications companies."

Similarly, this statement from Sen. Leahy says that "the Feingold amendment . . . did not prevail in the committee" and that "The full Senate will yet need to resolve the immunity issue." And a statement from Sen. Feingold (via email) says that "I hope that, when the full Senate considers this issue, the Majority Leader brings up the Senate Judiciary Committee bill instead of the badly flawed Intelligence Committee alternative."

Apparently, the Committee agreed (by a 10-9 party line vote) to do nothing on amnesty -- neither leave it in nor strip it out -- and instead left it to a floor fight to determine if amnesty will end up in the bill passed by the Senate. That's preferable to having the bill sent to the floor with amnesty (because now, it will need 60 votes to overcome Dodd's filibuster and to support an amnesty-specific amendment to put it back into the bill), but it's not as clear of a statement as the Committee's having stripped it out.

UPDATE XI: Having just spoken with several people involved in today's morass, I have a lot more clarity about what happened. What I described in the prior update is accurate. Now, the next step will be focused on Sen. Reid. He has virtually unlimited discretion to decide what version of the bill to introduce to the full Senate. He could introduce the Intelligence Committee version (with amnesty), the Judiciary Committee version (without amnesty), the House version, or he could just introduce something entirely new altogether, something that gets negotiated between Rockefeller and Reid. "

http://salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/15/amnesty_fisa/index.html