After more than a year of heated political wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers after giving legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program.
The Senate rejected a series of amendments that would have restricted the government’s surveillance powers and eliminated immunity for the phone carriers, and it voted in convincing fashion — 69 to 29 — to end debate and bring the issue to a final vote. That vote on the overall billwas an almost identical 68 to 29.
The House has already rejected the idea of immunity for the phone companies, and Democratic leaders reacted angrily to the Senate vote. But Congressional officials said it appeared that the House would ultimately be forced to accept some sort of legal protection for the phone carriers in negotiations between the two chambers this week.
The Senate debate amounted to a proxy vote not only on the president’s warrantless wiretapping program, but also on a range of other issues that tested the president’s wartime authority, from secret detentions to wiretapping issues. The discussion in effect presaged the debate over national security that will play out this year in the presidential and congressional elections.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, who spoke on the Senate floor for more than 20 hours in an unsuccessful effort to stall the wiretapping bill, said the vote would be remembered by future generations as a test of whether the country heeds “the rule of law or the rule of men.”
But with Democrats defecting to the White House plan, he acknowledged that the national security issue had won the day in the Senate, even among many of his Democratic colleagues. “Unfortunately, those who are advocating this notion that you have to give up liberties to be more secure are apparently prevailing,” Mr. Dodd said. “They’re convincing people that we’re at risk either politically, or at risk as a nation.”
Q But were the telephone companies told that it was legal to wiretap six months before 9/11?
MS. PERINO: The telephone companies that were alleged to have helped their country after 9/11 did so because they are patriotic and they certainly helped us and they helped us save lives.
A US government attorney working for the Director of National Intelligence secretly discussed pending litigation with a telecommunications carrier, a top Intelligence official acknowledged this month. But much remains unknown about when the conversation took place or what advice the government attorney may have offered, as the Intelligence Director works to keep notes of the conversation classified.
In a filing released as part its ongoing lawsuit with a privacy watchdog, the government for the first time revealed the contents of a telephone message slip it previously withheld from a Freedom of Information Act response. A DNI administrative assistant took a message from a telecommunications company representative and gave the telco rep's name and number to a govenrment lawyer, who returned the phone call and took notes on the message slip, according to the filing.
Quote by BobR: Oh no she di'int!
Quote by will in chicago: Good morning, bloggers!
This vote is distressing, and I will say it: we need a change in the leadership of the House and Senate. Both Reid and Pelosi have been too accommodating to an administration which views civil liberies as optional and seems more interested in protecting its financial backers than in defending our rights.
The early edition of the UNN Daily Headlines are up.
Quote by velveeta jones: Anyway, yesterday my darling wife decided that our local Vetrans needed valentine's day cards, so she sat down and made 250 handmade cards to deliver to the troops. What a (crazy) woman!!!! She has arthritis fer cryin' out loud.
But I applaud her. Next year................we'll be asking for ya'lls help.
Quote by shelaghc:Quote by will in chicago: Good morning, bloggers!
This vote is distressing, and I will say it: we need a change in the leadership of the House and Senate. Both Reid and Pelosi have been too accommodating to an administration which views civil liberies as optional and seems more interested in protecting its financial backers than in defending our rights.
The early edition of the UNN Daily Headlines are up.
I agree we need new new leadership, but the way the system is set up, only the people who've been *in* the system for years and years can be the leaders.
It's a vicious cycle and I don't know how we lowly peons can break it.
Quote by Raine: Heya Will! how did the taping go?
Quote by Raine: I just went and double checked what faye was saying, and yes indeed, I see the FINAL vote AFTER the vote for cloture, yes, both did not vote at all. I am mixed about this. To me the big vote was to allow for the lawsuits, which Obama DID vote yay, where Hillary was a no show.
IT is friggin time to go BACK to the house and tell them NOT to cave in. Good f*cking god.
Quote by velveeta jones:Quote by BobR: Oh no she di'int!
Aw HELL no!!!!
Quote by Raine:Not to pick a scab at a huge controversy... But isn't Aretha the Queen of Soul?Quote by velveeta jones:Quote by BobR: Oh no she di'int!
Aw HELL no!!!!
Quote by starling310:Quote by Raine: I just went and double checked what faye was saying, and yes indeed, I see the FINAL vote AFTER the vote for cloture, yes, both did not vote at all. I am mixed about this. To me the big vote was to allow for the lawsuits, which Obama DID vote yay, where Hillary was a no show.
IT is friggin time to go BACK to the house and tell them NOT to cave in. Good f*cking god.
Morning!
I called BBOX yesterday. I said "She isn't my Senator, but I wanted to thank her for her vote today and for never letting me down." The girl who answered said "The Senator will be glad to hear that!"
I BBOX.
Quote by starling310: Ugh...I've had to talk to 4 people at work this morning already.
Quote by livingonli: It sounds like is encased in the salt this morning.
Quote by Raine: Not to pick a scab at a huge controversy... But isn't Aretha the Queen of Soul?
Quote by starling310:[Morning!
I called BBOX yesterday. I said "She isn't my Senator, but I wanted to thank her for her vote today and for never letting me down." The girl who answered said "The Senator will be glad to hear that!"
I BBOX.
Why can't BBOX be House Leader instead of Pelosi?
Quote by starling310: Valentine's Day.
Quote by starling310: Valentine's Day.
Quote by shelaghc:Quote by starling310:[Morning!
I called BBOX yesterday. I said "She isn't my Senator, but I wanted to thank her for her vote today and for never letting me down." The girl who answered said "The Senator will be glad to hear that!"
I BBOX.
Why can't BBOX be House Leader instead of Pelosi?
Because she's a Senator. She or Feingold could replace Reid though.
Quote by shelaghc:Quote by starling310:[Morning!
I called BBOX yesterday. I said "She isn't my Senator, but I wanted to thank her for her vote today and for never letting me down." The girl who answered said "The Senator will be glad to hear that!"
I BBOX.
Why can't BBOX be House Leader instead of Pelosi?
Seriously!
I always knew Harry Reid was a spineless wimp, but Nance really let me down BIGTIME!
Quote by livingonli:Quote by shelaghc:Quote by starling310:[Morning!
I called BBOX yesterday. I said "She isn't my Senator, but I wanted to thank her for her vote today and for never letting me down." The girl who answered said "The Senator will be glad to hear that!"
I BBOX.
Why can't BBOX be House Leader instead of Pelosi?
Because she's a Senator. She or Feingold could replace Reid though.
Quote by BobR:Quote by starling310: Valentine's Day.
Any excuse to eat chocolate works for me!
Quote by m-hadley: Valentine's Day - ugh ;)
I've tried to get my doggies to get it together to do something romantic for their mum, but so far have had no luck - they just look at me and beg for treats
Quote by Raine: I still call my formers senators, I mean, seriously, now that I have Isaakson and CHAMBLISS... What good does any of it really do?
I mean Saxby Chambliss Wants to date the pResident.
Quote by m-hadley:Quote by Raine: I still call my formers senators, I mean, seriously, now that I have Isaakson and CHAMBLISS... What good does any of it really do?
I mean Saxby Chambliss Wants to date the pResident.
That's how I feel here in Oklahoma with Coburn and Inhofe as the Senators - there is no reasoning with 'em
Quote by Raine: UNO the BEAGLE WON!!!!