By:
John Amato on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 9:45 AM - PDT
Their amendment went down. I believe the final vote was 32-66…
Specter’s was rejected too.
Here’s some voting information. It’s just coming out now.
Please Donate here to help fight back against these actions. Blue America has been leading the way to fight for our rights and to elect new candidates that will uphold
UPDATE: (Logan) The only two Senators not to vote on FISA today? One with a brain tumor and McCain. Priorities.
No Trackbacks To “Feingold & Dodd Amendment fails on FISA“
158 Responses for “Feingold & Dodd Amendment fails on FISA”
Just wondering why spying on Americans is a partisan issue. What’s so conservative about that? Obama voted yea, but too many people have some ’splainin to do.
I’m disillusioned, disheartened and ashamed of Barack Obama’s stance on this FISA bill. That he is compromising principle in order to pass uncessary legislation that gives telecoms immunity for possible crimes is unconscionable to me. What in the world is he thinking? Why would a Constitutional law professor support immunity for possible violations of Constitutional law? His explanation for supporting this cover-up enabling bill makes my stomach turn. The current FISA law is still in effect. Any modifications needed can be made without including telecom immunity or when Obama is the president. The claim that our security is threatened if this bill isn’t passed now is absolute BS!
Gas Pump Blogging:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.....gging.html
(Warning, this one’s a bit graphic)
osage @ 2:
Details and nuance don’t make news (with the exception of CSPAN).
I don’t get it. Why would Webb and Feinstein vote against this? IT makes no sense.
WTF is going on?! Our country is in some serious trouble.
B
Here is Glenn Greenwald on the Bingaman which has failed 42-56.
Take what little victories you can as they come.
Harry Reid’s statement that the warrantless wiretapping program was illegal, along with the ruling of Judge Vaughn Walker described here leave little room for anything but the understanding that George Bush is felon.
The Senate FISA vote and the amendments is all theater.
We have a criminal government.
Who is surprised?
The USA is a one party state with two labels just to fool the sheep. Get used to it or form new parties, but gawd, please stop whining about why your beloved Dems and Obama keep selling you out. You were sold out since birth.
Doesn’t matter who gets elected. We’re all going to die at the hands of the next president. :(
Alice X (Chomsky Nader) @ 5:
Yup, and they voted he is above the law. They violated their oath and both parties should be disbanded.
IMPEACH CONGRESS
what was Obama’s reasoning? Has he ever addressed it?
sorry to break in and be ot but this has to be seen to be believed.
Think about it… When Obama becomes president, the Neo-cons and Conservatives will be foaming at the mouth to reset the legislation so that the President couldn’t spy on anyone he wants.
And if Obama, as president, advocates legislation that lifts immunity from the telecoms and does put the FISA court into the 21st century, then either way we’ll win in the long run.
At least now, FOX News and the Republican Party can’t say: “Obama doesn’t want to protect America.”
I’m just hugely disappointed that the Arkansas delegation voted nay on the Dodd Amendment. What a couple of wankers.
Breaking News:::
Cave in In Senate Chambers.
A Huge Sinkhole develops under the floor of the Senate, The entire Senate Caved in (probably by the added weight of Telco Money).
Along with most members of the Senate The American Rule of Law and a large part of the Constitution also slid into the giant hole.
There will be no services due to the large numbers of people watching NASCAR.
relax everybody, rieds just seeing the hand writeing on the wall, obama has allready said hes going to do nothing about the repigs stealing the national treasure, getting americans killed just so he can make jokes about it at the whitehouse news dinners, its going to be buisness as useual for the next four yrs! and that change you been promissed will be handed to you in nickle rolls!
Well if we can fight gun rights and abortion
lets take FISA to Supreme Court for violation of the constitution
What is with Webb and McCaskill that they vote down the Dodd Feingold and then turn around and vote yes for the Spectre republican one??? And is “Conrad” the one that is the friend of Obama who also voted no to Dodd but yes to the republcan one as well?
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
It appears that McCain is AWOL on these votes as well. He’s even lazier than Fred Thompson was. Or he just doesn’t think his present job is very important.
Get your John McCain NOPE T-Shirts & Stickers today!
SWAMPFOX = TYREE?
[Deleted. Off topic. Please take it to an Open Thread. Thank you. Site Monitor]
The “Pay Off” is in and the sheeple “Rubber Stamp” voting in full mod . . . this is our Congress today. I am so totally disillusioned. The few truly good Senators who have worked so hard to educate the rest of Congress in order to protect our Constitution are to be commended .
To the rest, there are no words I can use here to show my pure disgust.
i think obama failed to demonstrate any leadership on the FISA issue, and has hurt his main campaign theme–a different kind of politics–by failing to stand up for what he knows is an affront to the fourth amendment.
the obama campaign shouldn’t have tried to “play” this issue, or try to triangulate, or hedge. they should have done what they knew was right and refused to budge. george lakoff has done some writing on how this is not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing.
it is a very sad day.
Dr. Acula @ 18:
dr acla batman?
sorry acula!typo
I think I’m having an Orwellian overdose right now.
This has shattered a lot of my hopes. Why are our Senators bending over backwards to undo any culpability Bush may have regarding these telecoms illegally spying on us? It’s such a bad precedent to set!
Dr. Acula @ 18:
Shh!
He is under cover!
orangehairboy @ 24:
I have several theories. The reason’s are not as important as the result. After they pass this bill today it will be time to repeal it.
Screw this $hit.
Where’s Ron Paul?
xoites defends Constitution @ 25:
nah i could never be as good as tyree was at telling it like it is! heckys tyree could spot a phoney from two computers away
I see that both Obama and my sometimes Democratic Senator, Feinstein, voted FOR all three amendments. Maybe they knew all three were headed for defeat, so a “Yea” vote was meaningless, but it’s nice that they at least went as far as they did.
My always Democratic Senator, Boxer, of course voted yea on all three.
America is D E A D. get used to it.
Scy @ 30:
No, sorry.
Anyone know where I can find a full disclosure of how much money Brownback & Roberts have taken from the telecom companies?
I spent most of my lunch yesterday arguing with some ass-clown in Senator Pat Roberts’ office.
I called to express my distaste for Sen. Roberts pending vote to pardon the illegal activity of the major telecom corporations and the illegal request to do so by Governor George W. Bush.
He basically told me (repeatedly and with growing animosity) that I didn’t understand what I was talking about and that Senator Roberts was not putting the interests of his corporate bank rollers ahead of the people of Kansas.
I challenged him several times to show me where I was wrong and his words were, “Just trust me, you don’t understand the complexities of it.”
Keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em shit, huh Mr. Roberts?
It ain’t too complex, you tool.
You, sir, are a corporate whore.
The other spineless weasel from Kansas, Senator Brownback, didn’t even direct his staff on how to address the issue with his constituents.
They are both traitors and cowards.
This really sucks. I wonder what our Founding fathers would think of the apathetic and weak syncophants that willingly compromise the rights that they fought so hard for. They’d probably go start somebody else’s country rather than trust the imbeciles of today.
It is well past time to stop pandering to political ease and convenience and take the courageous and principled road by protecting our sacred constitutional liberties first and foremost. Good thing JFK did not write Profiles in Courage about our current elected officials, it would fit on the back of a stamp.
Jeff @ 29:
Feinstein didn’t. Maybe she talked to her husband.
Sen. Smith from Oregon voted against all three amendments. His ass will be booted in November.
Jeff @ 29:
Sorry to tell you but I think Feinstein voted against the Dodd Feingold and Specter versions but yes for the Bingaman one if I am reading the vote tallies correctly.
Yohance @ 10:
He has addressed it. His only slightly redeeming point is that the new legislation establishes an office of the inspector general for FISA - or brings it under some other inspector general. Other than that its just bullshit, “we need to compromise; this bill is better than the Protect America Act; I oppose retroactive immunity at least; blah, blah, blah”
No, we don’t need new legislators. We don’t need a new party. We need a new government, from the ground up.
The folks on the right are celebrating their loss of freedom today.
Too bad, they are too stupid to realize all the great Americans who fought and died for our freedom, died in vain.
Disband both parties.
Good critique of Obama’s stance (or lack thereof) on FISA here.
Any chance that Feingold or Dodd could filibuster this POS?
A slap in the face. A cold hard slap in the face to the American people. Let’s see what blind immunity the fascist right (which is the official political values of the GOP now) comes up with next. I bet retroactive immunity from criminal prosecutions of Gitmo guards who tortured.
I really don’t think I can Suport a candidate that would vote for FISA.
After all the money and time I have spent for Obama this is how he re-pays us?
WTF? Do I really have to vote Nader or am I missing something?
xoites defends Constitution @ 31:
Sad but true. It is. Civil liberties are dead, the country is run by corporations and we torture for fun. D E A D. Too late to fix it. Time to overthrow it all or move on.
getalife @ 39:
VERY well said.
Spineless, cowardly, bought and paid for, unAmerican, liars, power hungry, crooks, fascists…and that’s just the Democrats who voted for this travesty.
Yes, I’m talking about YOU, Salazar.
I have officially fallen off the Obama band wagon. I will still vote for him in November as he is better than McCain but for all his talk of hope and change, and supporting this bill, it’s clear he’s just another politician. All I hope for now is for the electorate to continue waking up to the bullshit. This country needs an anema.
These are the traitor Democratic Senators that need to lose their seats:
Bayh
Carper
Conrad
Feinstein
Inouye
Johnson
Kohl
Landrieu
Lincoln
McCaskill
Mikulski
Nelson
Nelson
Pryor
Rockefeller
Salazar
Webb
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 48:
Agreed
honuman @ 47:
Just under a third of the Senate, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, supported an amendment proposed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., that would have stripped immunity from the bill. It was defeated on a 32-66 vote. Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain did not vote.
Specter proposed an amendment to require a district court judge to assess the legality of warrantless wiretapping before granting immunity. It failed on a 37-61 vote.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., proposed that immunity be delayed until after a yearlong government investigation into warrantless wiretapping is completed. His amendment failed on a vote of 42-56.
Both Clinton and Obama voted Yea on all three amendments as did the two Senators from Michigan.
This is a charade.
Here who tells it exactly like it is.
If even only one Senator really WANTED to stop this, there are ways, promise a filibuster at every turn. Promise a filibuster with every bill that comes up in the session.
The majority can then not even bring it to the floor.
This has just been for show.