After reading an article at cqpolitics It seemed like we might have a ray of hope on the FISA bill after all.
The title itself gives me a little optimism - "Surveillance Showdown Promised." Yeah, there are a lot of diaries on the FISA capitulation. With good reason, it's the whole ball of yarn in my opinion - the Constitution, the 4th Amendment, Bush's disregard for the law, etc.
But hear me out - our best bet at the moment is to not only encourage our senators to strip immunity from the bill, but also support some of the amendments that will be introduced this week.
Join me below the fold and I'll explain more...
It looks like our old Friends Senator Dodd and Feingold are going to do what they can to preserve the 4th amendment:
However, there is no agreement yet on how the Senate will proceed after Wednesday’s cloture vote, and two liberal senators don’t intend to make it easy for the legislation to advance.
"We’ll be requiring key procedural votes, and also taking some time on the floor this week, to indicate the problems of this legislation," Russ Feingold , D-Wis., said Monday of himself and Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., speaking at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. "We’re not just going to let it quickly pass."
So there's some time that they can buy us as we do our part. There are amendments that Senators are offering:
It is also unclear whether the immunity-stripping amendment Reid favors is the only one that will be allowed. Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter , the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he planned to offer an amendment that would require a federal district court to review "whether what has been done with the telephone companies is constitutional."
OK, I know it's Specter who has a good talk, but tends to wilt in the sun (see War Commissions Act and the Roberts/ Alito hearings). That said, this seems like a reasonable amendment that most Dems could support. Hey maybe Arlen can convince a few Repubs as well?
It's worth a shot, after all, it's all we have at this point. Seriously, the truth is on our side. We just need to give EFF, the lawyers in the trial, a chance to expose it, they'll take it from there. C'mon, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor! Who's with me?