Reid to co-sponsor effort to strip retroactive immunity from FISA bill. (Updated)»

Reid to co-sponsor effort to strip retroactive immunity from FISA bill. (Updated)»

thinkprogress.org

Earlier today, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) promised to do everything they can to strip retroactive immunity from “compromise” wiretapping legislation, including a filibuster. In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office says he will co-sponsor and support their efforts

(visit the link for the full news article)

Sen. Reid remains opposed to retroactive immunity, which undermines efforts to hold the Bush Administration accountable for violating the law. Thus, he will cosponsor the amendment offered by Senators Dodd and Feingold to strip out the immunity provision, and support their efforts to strip immunity on the floor.

I am happy to see this, the democrats really need to begin to put up a strong front against the republican party. Nothing will bring them down in the elections faster than airing out the dirty laundry that piled up over the last 8 years. Still we will have to wait and see how 'real' these statements are.

thinkprogress.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Have they, Dick Cheney and Bush, blackmailed Pelosi into agreeing with Cheney and Bush on evey issue?

I mean she sighned the bill into law and then announced some weird reason on how this was a "win" for democrats?!?!?! Just weird?!

And now they are stripping, or trying to strip the FISA bill of retroactive immunity?

What the heck is going on? Is their a secret war going on between the Dems? Does Pelosi now know something about wiretapps in which they have uncovered a plot? Or does she secretely agree with the Republicans on all of these issues? Very puzzling....even if you try and watch Cspan it still very confusing....( i am speaking in reference to N. Pelosi)

In summary it seems that Congress and the Senate all do as Bush wants and their seems to be little differences between Dems and Rep.

I am glad that someform of effort is underway to try and correct this bill.
One LONE republican was a NAY on the FISA bill. Guess who?!



[edit on 24-6-2008 by whiteraven]

Star and Flag this thread. Tell your friends. This is important.

We need to be vocal about the fact that people can't abuse laws and then re-write them to escape accountability.

reply to post by Animal


Here is an example of N. Pelosi contradicting herself again over this bill...

At a breakfast with reporters this morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said it would be “healthy and wholesome” if the Senate filibustered the House-passed bill

thinkprogress.org...

But for now, the veto power of a Republican president and the vote calculus on Capitol Hill forced many compromises that the speaker says she would rather not have made.

features.csmonitor.com...

So the question after reading the CS article is what in the heck is Pelosi doing? She seems to be blackballed into doing what Bush wants her to do!

I think we need to look past Pelosi guys, she has proven time and time again that she is NOT a leader. We need to look to the other members of the Congress and Senate and support them when they takes steps such as the one noted in the OP.

In response to one of the posters, I think that Bushco used FISA to spy on congress/sentate and has a bunch of dirt on people. That is what we see Pelosi and Reid cave so very often.

Again, this is a big deal. This will not only allow for prosecution of telecoms who broke the law it will also allow for the prosecution of Bush and his friends for breaking the law. As Memory Shock already said, tell your friends, call your Senate representatives. Do anything you can to help this push to strip immunity from the bill.

Find your Representatives Here!

Now, what I'm about to say might be radically misunderstood but,

A very powerful and important lobbying group has strong connections to the foreign company Comverse, who provide the telecomms with the technology to actually carry out the wire tapping and data mining capabilities.

This company, and it's lobbyist connections in Washington, seem to have played a large role in legislative influence regarding the placement of retroactive immunity in the bill.

I suppose it should be mentioned that the company, COMVERSE is an Israeli-owned company and it's lobbyist ally is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Comverse has a variety of pseudonyms, Comverse, Comverse Infosys, and, Verint. They have sold their spying 'software' to literally hundreds of telecomms.

Of course, there's no point in debating whether action will be taken to determine whether the inclusion of a foreign company in the national security mechanism is, in fact, acceptable to the American people, nor that they haven't been taking advantage of their access to provide Israel with intelligence regarding American citizens.

Just food for thought!