What's happening tomorrow.
Harry Reid is going to bring to the floor of the Senate a bill that would grant retroactive immunity to telecoms for spying on Americans without warrants since 2001 -- before 9-11.
The Honorable Senator Christopher Dodd is going to filibuster that bill. Kennedy and Feingold are on board, (they can ask questions up to twenty minutes long so Dodd can get breaks). Senators Clinton, Obama, and Biden have all promised to "support" this filibuster, but Clinton and Obama both have campaign stops listed tomorrow, and there's no indication yet that Biden will be there... which means they plan to talk the talk, but not when and where it actually matters.
You can call or email them, Reid, any of the others who signed a letter supporting a bill without immunity, or your own Senator here. Even if you don't think your Senator will join the filibuster, tell them not to vote for cloture. (Sixty votes for cloture would end Dodd's filibuster.)
Glenn Greenwald explains what we've already lost, and what's at stake.
All of this -- the complete suppression of any investigation or accountability for this lawbreaking and the ongoing strengthening of this lawless surveillance state -- is about to happen with Democrats nominally in "control" of both houses of Congress, none of the presidential candidates (other than Chris Dodd and Ron Paul) demonstrating the slightest concern over any of it, and all as a result of telecom lobbyists -- led by Mike McConnell -- controlling how our government functions, what laws we have, and most amazingly, what laws we allow corporations to break with impunity. It's the same process that led our political class to decide astoundingly that it would do nothing upon learning that the President also broke the law for years in how he ordered spying on American citizens....
Ultimately, what is most significant about all of this is how the most consequential steps our government takes -- such as endless expansion of its domestic spying programs with literally no oversight and constraints of law -- occur with virtually no public debate or awareness. By contrast, the pettiest of matters -- every sneeze of a campaign aide and every trite, catty gossip item from our moronic travelling press corps -- receives endless, mindless herd-like attention....
Which is why, even though I groaned at learning Dodd had asked Don Imus for support, right now I have a lot more respect for him than any of the other current Senators running for President. (Sorry, Luna.) This matters.
Greenwald:
The very nature of our country and our government fundamentally transforms step by step, with little opposition. We all were inculcated with the notion that what distinguished our free country from those horrendous authoritarian tyrannies, both right and left, of the Soviet bloc, Latin America and the Middle East were things like executive detentions, torture, secret prisons, spying on their own citizens, unprovoked invasions of sovereign countries, and exemptions from the law for the most powerful -- precisely the abuses which increasingly characterize our government and shape our political values. ...
This doesn't mean there is a complete erosion of freedom equal to all of those societies. Free speech still basically thrives; we elect our leaders; and individuals retain a fair amount of autonomy in their personal choices. But it is simply undeniable that many of the political attributes that were always used to define the oppressive societies against which we were supposedly fighting are now explicitly vested in our own government. By itself, the scope and breadth of domestic spying is just staggering, and much of it is illegal.
Dodd's staff is reading comments on this Firedoglake post, and Dodd will be reading some of them on the Senate floor. If you have something to say about this, or want to suggest reading material for him (the Constitution, the Fourth Amendment, and 1984 have all come up), go add it.
ETA: Fax your Senators (pdf) and tell them no immunity, and no basket warrants. No cloture. I'm going to fax a thank you to Senator Kennedy tomorrow... and a request to step up to Senator Kerry.
The Honorable Senator Christopher Dodd is going to filibuster that bill. Kennedy and Feingold are on board, (they can ask questions up to twenty minutes long so Dodd can get breaks). Senators Clinton, Obama, and Biden have all promised to "support" this filibuster, but Clinton and Obama both have campaign stops listed tomorrow, and there's no indication yet that Biden will be there... which means they plan to talk the talk, but not when and where it actually matters.
You can call or email them, Reid, any of the others who signed a letter supporting a bill without immunity, or your own Senator here. Even if you don't think your Senator will join the filibuster, tell them not to vote for cloture. (Sixty votes for cloture would end Dodd's filibuster.)
Glenn Greenwald explains what we've already lost, and what's at stake.
All of this -- the complete suppression of any investigation or accountability for this lawbreaking and the ongoing strengthening of this lawless surveillance state -- is about to happen with Democrats nominally in "control" of both houses of Congress, none of the presidential candidates (other than Chris Dodd and Ron Paul) demonstrating the slightest concern over any of it, and all as a result of telecom lobbyists -- led by Mike McConnell -- controlling how our government functions, what laws we have, and most amazingly, what laws we allow corporations to break with impunity. It's the same process that led our political class to decide astoundingly that it would do nothing upon learning that the President also broke the law for years in how he ordered spying on American citizens....
Ultimately, what is most significant about all of this is how the most consequential steps our government takes -- such as endless expansion of its domestic spying programs with literally no oversight and constraints of law -- occur with virtually no public debate or awareness. By contrast, the pettiest of matters -- every sneeze of a campaign aide and every trite, catty gossip item from our moronic travelling press corps -- receives endless, mindless herd-like attention....
Which is why, even though I groaned at learning Dodd had asked Don Imus for support, right now I have a lot more respect for him than any of the other current Senators running for President. (Sorry, Luna.) This matters.
Greenwald:
The very nature of our country and our government fundamentally transforms step by step, with little opposition. We all were inculcated with the notion that what distinguished our free country from those horrendous authoritarian tyrannies, both right and left, of the Soviet bloc, Latin America and the Middle East were things like executive detentions, torture, secret prisons, spying on their own citizens, unprovoked invasions of sovereign countries, and exemptions from the law for the most powerful -- precisely the abuses which increasingly characterize our government and shape our political values. ...
This doesn't mean there is a complete erosion of freedom equal to all of those societies. Free speech still basically thrives; we elect our leaders; and individuals retain a fair amount of autonomy in their personal choices. But it is simply undeniable that many of the political attributes that were always used to define the oppressive societies against which we were supposedly fighting are now explicitly vested in our own government. By itself, the scope and breadth of domestic spying is just staggering, and much of it is illegal.
Dodd's staff is reading comments on this Firedoglake post, and Dodd will be reading some of them on the Senate floor. If you have something to say about this, or want to suggest reading material for him (the Constitution, the Fourth Amendment, and 1984 have all come up), go add it.
ETA: Fax your Senators (pdf) and tell them no immunity, and no basket warrants. No cloture. I'm going to fax a thank you to Senator Kennedy tomorrow... and a request to step up to Senator Kerry.