Once again, Majority Leader Harry Reid demonstrates why he deserved to be the first recipient of the prestigious Hero of the Bush Revolution medal.
He proves his worthiness today when the FISA bill
comes up for a vote in the Senate. Our Leader and Deputy Leader really like the bill that came out of the Intelligence Committee, because it gives them the ability to spy on people who might be disloyal to the party without any oversight.They don't like the Judiciary Committee bill, because it requires a justification to spy.
Hero Reid said he will allow votes on both bills, and offered helpful advice to the Republicans, telling them they should consider tabling the Judiciary Committee Bill in order to kill it.
He is also fiddling with the 60 vote super majority policy he's used so effectively to help the Republican's avoid undergoing the embarrassment of actually being forced to filibuster against things like troop withdrawals and Iraq funding. It requires a bill to have at least 60 votes lined up before it comes to a vote. The 60 votes make the vote filibuster-proof.
He's doing away with the 60 vote policy for the initial votes. A simple majority will be all it takes to kill the Judiciary Bill and move the Intelligence Committee Bill forward. It's a smart move. It's in keeping with his policy of preventing the Republicans from facing the possibility of having to filibuster. Because the Republicans want the Intelligence Committee Bill to pass, it will be the Democrats who will be forced to filibuster, instead. It should provide a bunch of great "Like all Democrats, Sen. XXX is soft on terrorism" quotes in the upcoming election.
Hero Reid will then reinstate the 60 vote policy for the bill amendment process. This is good because one of the amendments will strip the retroactive immunity for telecoms provision from the bill. A simple majority won't be enough to do it. It will require a super majority.
It needs to stay in the bill because if it is stripped, companies like AT&T could be sued for spying on us. You see, back when Our Leader instituted his wiretapping program, agents of the State Security Apparatus approached the telecoms and asked them to install the wiretapping equipment. Companies like Sprint and Qwest said 'no, that's unconstitutional.' Other companies like AT&T said "Hey, this is a good opportunity to get more contracts from Our Leader's government, fuck the constitution, let's do it!" and installed the equipment as quickly as possible. Now they are being sued.
If the retroactive immunity amendment passes, companies like AT&T will be less likely to violate the constitution. We can't have that. It;d be like giving the terrorists a green light to begin raping our grandpas. Thank God we have Hero Reid there to stop it.
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