Sadly, Obama "listened" to us but chose to ignore us.

But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court.

We don't need a new exclusivity provision - the current one is already sufficient, as a Bush 41 judge just affirmed.

The Senate will vote this week on two disastrous bills: $163B for the continued occupation of Iraq and immunity for George Bush and the telecoms who are illegally wiretapping our calls and emails.

On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) launched a filibuster against the "Warrantless Wiretapping Immunity Act" with an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. Dodd is supported by Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Unfortunately it takes 41 votes for a successful filibuster, and we can only count on 30, based on a similar vote on 2/12/08. These Democrats voted wrong. Call them and tell them to join the Dodd Filibuster against telecom immunity.

I cannot for the life of me understand why any Democrat would vote for warrantless wiretapping.

I can easily understand why every Republican would. Republicans fully support the Bush Dictatorship in every way, including imperialism, torture, corruption, and warrantless wiretapping. If George Bush took the completely opposite positions (as he did before the 2000 election), they would support him too. They don't think and have no principles, they blindly follow their Fuhrer Leader.

But why would any Democrat - including our party leaders?

At the Presidential polling blog FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver analyzed 31 vulnerable House Democrats in conservative-leaning seats, and found 23 voted for warrantless wiretapping, while 8 voted against. Nate observes,

I called Mr. Blumenauer this morning and spoke to someone on the other line. He will vote no, she said after I asked him to do so. That is vote no. I am honestly frightened of the precedent we set if in fact our national legislatures are allowed to grant large over-arching organizations retroactive immunity for illegal actions. What happened to illegal actions being.....illegal?

Update Friday 1 pm: We lost 293-129. Only 128 Democrats voted against Big Brother. The BushDemocrats must be defeated, starting with John Barrow (GA12) who has a primary challenge on July 15 from progressive Regina Thomas. Please contribute to Regina Thomas today. 

Please pick up your phone again and call your Representative right now to demand a NO vote on warrantless wiretapping. The vote will be Friday around noon, but please call no matter what time you get this. (The Congressional switchboard is open 24x7x365 and each office has voicemail.)

Over at Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald is mobilizing blogs to block House "Democratic" leader Steny Hoyer's corrupt deal with George Bush and the Telecoms for warrantless wiretapping immunity. Democrats.com is proud to join the effort, which is called TheStrangeBedfellows because it includes progressive blogs like ours and Ron Paul-supporting libertarian blogs. The money raised will be used for hard-hitting ads against Hoyer and two key Bush Democrats, Chris Carney (PA-10) and John Barrow (GA-12). What makes the anti-Barrow campaign especially potent is that he faces a strong primary challenge from progressive State Sen. Regina Thomas, who also happens to be black - in a district where 70% of primary voters are black.

Let's flood Congress with 100,000 petitions for Wiretapping: Impeachment not Immunity
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/141 

House "Majority" Leader Steny Hoyer doesn't understand the meaning of NO.

In December 2005, when the New York Times reported George Bush was spying on millions of Americans without a warrant - after a year's delay in publication that allowed Bush to steal a second term - the American people demanded that it stop.

But even after voters put Democrats in charge of Congress to end Bush's abuses, Steny Hoyer spat on all of us and pushed the Orwellian "Protect America Act" through Congress in August 2007 to increase Bush's wiretapping powers.

Thanks to your emails (over 58,000!) and calls, House Democrats once again stood up to Bush! 

House Democrats stood up to endless televised rants by Bush, lying TV ads against key freshmen, and bullshit news articles and editorials throughout the Corporate Media.

Instead, Democrats carefully wrote a bill that will let telecom giants try to defend themselves against lawsuits by giving judges the power to review White House secrets.

I have no sympathy for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the hot-shot prosecutor of call-girl operations who was hoist on his own petard, as it were. I mean, what a jerk! And aside from the hypocrisy, what a fine message he was sending to his three teenage daughters about the role of women.

Having said that, Spitzer's bust should give pause to those in Congress who are ready to hand President Bush a free pass to continue his six-year campaign of warrantless spying on Americans.

By Dave Lindorff

With a viral campaign underway via email, right-wing radio, and on the street suggesting that Barack Obama is a black “Manchurian Candidate,” secretly trained as a Muslim fanatic who will insinuate himself into the White House, thence to undermine all that we hold dear, perhaps it is time to look at the Manchurian Candidate we already have in the White House, who, together with his handler over in Blair House, has pretty much done all the damage already.

George Bush came to office in 2001 promising a new era of integrity, civility and “compassionate conservatism,” an era of humble American foreign policy, and a bi-partisan approach to government.

What did we actually get?