Michelle Malkin » FISA on the floor; nutroots in a frenzy; Update: FISA reform passes, 69-28

FISA on the floor; nutroots in a frenzy; Update: FISA reform passes, 69-28

By Michelle Malkin • July 9, 2008 02:18 PM

The Senate held three votes on telecom immunity amendments this afternoon and a final vote on the FISA reform bill will take place later today. After all is said and done, the 9/10 Democrats will go along with the White House in protecting telecom companies from civil lawsuits related to their anti-terrorism cooperation with the feds–and FISA reform will at last be passed. Here are the roll call votes. Here’s wire coverage of the action on the Senate floor and a rundown from First Read on Barack Obama’s flip-flop. The heartbroken nutroots are foaming at the mouth.

Hoist, meet petard.

The “moneybomb” goes off on August 8.

***
Update 2:44pm Eastern. The cloture motion on the FISA bill passes, 72-26.

Update 3:07pm Eastern. FISA reform passes, 69-28. Obama votes yes. Hillary votes no.

***

Jeff Goldstein: You can’t spell “hopeyness” and “changitude” without “capitulation.”

Posted in: FISA

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#373380

On July 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am, YoungAndRestless said:

I agree with Lion’s comment in #42. This bill has way too many loopholes that go beyond “telecommunications immunity”. I don’t like the fact that any of my communications outside of the country could be monitored, especially with the lack of judicial oversight.

Arstechnica provided a decent analysis on this awhile back. Just think, this website is “communicating” outside the country any time a non-American connects, no? So couldn’t MM.com be monitored under FISA, given some type of blanket authority that says, “monitor all outgoing communication between AT&T points in Washington DC and foreign country”?

The article is here

For example, the government could not unilaterally “authorize” the “targeting” of a particular San Francisco resident’s international communications. However, it could “authorize” a dragnet surveillance program that intercepted the international communications of all San Francisco residents under the pretext that it was “targeting” any foreign terrorists who might happen to communicate with San Francisco residents.

This is particularly troubling when we remember that in 2002, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review held that FISA does not prohibit coordination between foreign intelligence gathering and domestic law enforcement. That suggests that the FBI could ask the NSA to tailor its filters to intercept evidence of Internet gambling, copyright infringement, or other ordinary crimes.