Feingold: 'Farce' Wiretap Deal Could Be Hiding 'Impeachable Offense' ("An Astonishing Giveaway")

[slipslidingaway]

Another reason people were upset about the cave in on the FISA bill.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3364258

"The battle to protect Americans from warrantless wiretaps and hold telecommunications companies accountable is all but lost, Sen. Russ Feingold, a leading critic of President Bush’s likely illegal surveillance programs, said Monday. The “farce” of a surveillance law deal heralded by House Democratic leaders last week could permanently hide evidence of an “impeachable offense” on the part of President Bush, the Wisconsin Democrat said.

Feingold spoke at the New America Foundation in Washington about the nation’s intelligence needs. He panned an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that quickly passed in the House last week. The Senate is expected to follow suit this year, officially putting the Democratic-controlled Congress’s seal of approval on an administration backed gambit to essentially legalize Bush’s warrantless surveillance program while at the same time letting off the hook phone companies that critics say facilitated the contravention of current law.

“I do think this is a total farce with regard to the immunity (for telecommunications companies). It basically guarantees the immunity,” Feingold said. “It doesn’t simply have the impact of potentially allowing telephone companies to break the law. It may prevent us from ever getting to the core issue … which is the president ran an illegal program that could’ve been an impeachable offense.”

House Democratic leaders heralded the bill as a “bipartisan compromise” because instead of giving blanket retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the president’s warrantless wiretapping program, it would route the grants of immunity through a district court. As long as the companies could demonstrate to a judge that they were instructed to spy on Americans by the Bush administration they would be spared the trouble of litigating more than 40 pending lawsuits , even though they initiated the surveillance without legally required warrants.

“This is an astonishing giveaway,” Feingold said."

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. How many Democrats allowed this to pass?

And are we still gagged by DU rules from condemning these traitors to the nation?

[slipslidingaway]

4. The trend is definitely in favor of what the administration

wants, madfloridian had a thread on the subject.

Most recent House vote

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll437.xml

[slipslidingaway]

2. Feingold is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee

and would therefore have more knowledge of the wiretapping program.

[AuntPatsy]

3. I believe him which is why to me this issue is very important...they cannot

be allowed to pass this bill, it just cannot be allowed.

[slipslidingaway]

5. I too would take his word on this issue, but even Feingold

said it is all but lost :(

"The battle to protect Americans from warrantless wiretaps and hold telecommunications companies accountable is all but lost, Sen. Russ Feingold, a leading critic of President Bush’s likely illegal surveillance programs, said Monday."


Here is what I've been saying for some time now...

67 senators voted NO on removing the immunity clause back in February and that was when the fight to defeat this should have begun.

And as I've said over the past few days, and to a lesser degree back in February, if our party really wanted to defeat this bill, or strip the immunity clause, they could have rallied support from the American people in their travels across the country and interviews in the media.

:shrug:

[AuntPatsy]

7. That's so true...they barely make mention of it as if it's not all that important? This is a game of

domino's and I am afraid that just might be the one dropping that allows everything else to fall into place...its my biggest fear, something has to be done before the vote, it has to..

[slipslidingaway]

9. I guess we'll never know which domino makes the others fall, but

agree that we should try and keep that from happening.

Thinking back to Naomi Wolf and the idea that the 'window shuts suddenly'

Here is one her talks, but it is 47 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

[slipslidingaway]

6. Deputy Attorney General James Comey...

There was a thread in GD about this the other day

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/05/15/comey/

"...Today, Comey testified before the Committee and it became clear exactly what they could "add to the discussion," and it became equally clear why Gonzales sought to suppress their testimony:

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey detailed the desperate late night efforts by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew Card to get the Justice Department to approve a secret program -- the warrantless wiretapping program..."

[slipslidingaway]

8. IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped (Let's give immunity to the telecoms!)

This may not have been under the program in question, but it still something to think about.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3507236

[BadgerKid]

10. Whatever is driving the GOP

must be really bad if they're willing to risk an Obama administration wiretapping GOP conversations. Unless, of course, certain people have "ideas" for how to prevent an Obama adminstration from ever coming to power in the first place. :(

[slipslidingaway]

14. Maybe they'll introduce Articles of Impeachment at the first

sign of him straying out of bounds??? Just like we did :(

[SaveAmerica]

11. Do you think they have recorded conversations that they're blackmailing them with?

Do they have something that would hurt Obama's campaign if it got out? I've always felt that's why Bush and friends wanted to spy without permission from the beginning.

[slipslidingaway]

15. If that is the case, it is not a position we want for our nominee or

any of our elected officials and I would hope they would step aside.

[dailykoff]

12. Just like torture

If it isn't legal when they do it, they can always count on Congress to help them out of a jam later. :mad:

[slipslidingaway]

16. I do not no how they can let that pass without calling it a crime :( nt

[Marie26]

13. Thank you, Feingold

He's one of the only politicians I actually trust.

[slipslidingaway]

17. Me too n/t

[TexanDem]

18. Question: Isn't vote in Senate this week? >>

I thought it was reported that it would be this week. This article says,
"The Senate is expected to follow suit this year..." ??

(2nd pgh, 3rd line)

edited -- yes, it's this week as per further down in the article.

[slipslidingaway]

19. Video link of Feingold answering questions...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x150878