Senate passes FISA bill, no changes, no filibusters
Posted on July 9th, 2008 by bile Tags: Arlen Specter, Barak Obama, Charles Schumer, Christopher Dodd, Frank Lautenberg, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John McCain, Joseph Biden, Joseph Lieberman, New Jersey, Robert Menendez, Russell Feingold, Senate, telecommunications, United States, White Househttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25605640/
Bowing to President Bush’s demands, the Senate approved and sent the White House a bill Wednesday to overhaul bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.
The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president’s warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The House passed the same bill last month, and Bush said he would sign it soon.
How completely not surprising that the Democrats would hand Bush and friends more dictatorial powers.
All the amendments were defeated. McCain didn’t bother to vote, Obama, Specter, Lieberman voted for it. Feingold, who had said “This president broke the law,” voted against it. As did Biden, Clinton, Schumer, Kerry and Dodd. Glad to see the NJ senators, Lautenberg and Menendez, voted Nay.
You can find the full list of how they all voted at GovTrack.us
They have legalized a major crime and transfered a huge amount of power, which they don’t have, to the executive branch. They don’t even fully know what they are giving immunities to. The information is highly classified. Just sad.
