GOP pushes discharge petition to force FISA vote

[maddezmom]

Source: The Hill

Posted: 04/23/08 03:45 PM
House Republicans Wednesday began circulating a discharge petition to force a vote on the Senate version of a bill seeking changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

GOP leaders hope that enough Democrats will support the effort to get the vote.

“We have no choice but to take this step to force House leaders to bring this bipartisan anti-terror bill to the floor for a vote,” said Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), one of the leaders of the effort.

To force a vote on the Senate bill, which passed with bipartisan support earlier this year, 218 lawmakers need to sign on to the discharge petition.



Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-pushes-discharge-petition-to-force-fisa-vote-2008-04-23.html

---

Republicans push for phone company immunity
Posted by Anne Broache | 4 comments Republican politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives failed last month to persuade Democratic leaders to back a spy law rewrite that would immunize telecommunications companies that cooperated with allegedly illegal government spying. Now they're trying to force the issue.

On Wednesday, a number of Republican leaders, including Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.), began circulating what's known as a "discharge" petition, which they characterized as a "rare step." If they obtain 218 signatures from their colleagues, they say the Democratic leadership will be forced to schedule a vote on a version of the bill passed by the U.S. Senate in February that would likely wipe out pending lawsuits against AT&T and other phone companies accused of illegal cooperation with the National Security Agency.

"More than 66 days have passed since House Democrats allowed a key piece of terrorist surveillance legislation to expire--not because they had concerns with the bill, but because they were seemingly more concerned that not enough trial lawyers would be able to file enough expensive and frivolous lawsuits against U.S. telecom firms," Republican whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in a statement.

Blunt was referring to the House's decision to let a temporary expansion of the spy law known as the Protect America Act, which Congress passed hurriedly last summer, lapse. The House did, however, go on to narrowly approve a rewrite of electronic surveillance law last month that lacked controversial legal protections for telecommunications companies that cooperated with allegedly illegal government spying.

more:http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9927141-7.html?tag=newsmap

House Republicans Face Tough Sell On FISA Petition
By Daniel W. Reilly

(The Politico) House Republicans introduced a discharge petition on controversial electronic surveillance legislation Wednesday, hoping to lure enough Democrats to the petition to force the House to take up a Senate-passed version of the bill.

Republican Rep. Vito Fossella of New York and others began circulating the petition, hoping to get the 218 signatures necessary to force the House to take up the bill. Fossella's bill is virtually identical to the Senate version of an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

With the overwhelming majority of the 191 House Republicans expected to sign on to the discharge petition, GOP leaders have been targeting conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, after 21 of them sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a letter in January urging her to pass a FISA update, even if it meant voting on the Senate bill.

However, an informal survey of Blue Dogs indicated the discharge petition would be a tough sell.

"I am not going to sign it," said Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) a member of the Blue Dogs. "I just don't think it is necessary."
more:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/23/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4039689.shtml

[annabanana]

1. 218 signatures... Can they do it?

Can we stop them?

[frogcycle]

2. Missouri sure produces some losers

Ashcroft and Roy Blunt. What a pair. You folks down there in the "show me" state should start chanting "blow me."

[williesgirl]

3. The Repukes sure won't let this die. Any Dem voting for it should be voted out of office. rec'd

[Dr.Phool]

4. Any Dem who signs the disharge petition should be voted out.

Whether it comes to a vote or not.

[mac2]

5. Any member of Congress who disobeys the Constitution and

Bill of Rights should be removed. We are not at war nor do we have a disaster/emergency on our shores to warrant an action of this type. It's just for a police state. We went through two world wars and many mini-ones without it. It isn't a different war but a different type of politician in DC (a Fascist).

[guyanakoolaid]

10. Agreed. Enough compromising with these people, they are a small minority.

A crazy minority, but a minority still

[NBachers]

6. Vito Fossella's on Thin Ice in New York City

He's extremely vulnerable, and his opponent, Democrat Steve Harrison, is poised to knock Fossella out of the ballpark.

Fossella is NYC's only House Republican. Even though I'm a San Francisco resident, I made contributions to Harrison's campaign against Fossella in '06. During the campaign, I enjoyed reading about Vito Fossella's antics and atrocities. Harrison came close. This year he looks even stronger.

You can visit Steve Harrison's web page at: http://www.steveharrisonforcongress.com/

Harrison could use some support. He almost beat Fossella in '06 with no help from the big kids.

Contribute via ActBlue at:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18417

A little off topic, but the post is ample reason why we should give Vito Fossella a big case of electoral hemorrhoids. (Hemorrhoid: a mass of dilated veins in swollen tissue at the margin of the anus or nearby within the rectum -- usually used in plural -- called also piles)

[SlingBlade]

7. Tell em to go to hell !

[slipslidingaway]

8. I fear that the administration will get what they want again...

also I just posted this article in another thread and it may be worth repeating here.

Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/12/amnesty_day/

"The Senate today -- led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus -- will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration's years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans...

It's worth taking a step back and recalling that all of this is the result of the December, 2005 story by the New York Times which first reported that the Bush administration was illegally spying on Americans for many years without warrants of any kind. All sorts of "controversy" erupted from that story. Democrats everywhere expressed dramatic, unbridled outrage, vowing that this would not stand. James Risen and Eric Lichtblau were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for exposing this serious lawbreaking. All sorts of Committees were formed, papers written, speeches given, conferences convened, and editorials published to denounce this extreme abuse of presidential power. This was illegality and corruption at the highest level of government, on the grandest scale, and of the most transparent strain..."

[snot]

9. K&R'd -- this is impt., thanks!

[tavalon]

11. It really, really pains me to watch the Republicans school us on how to mount an effective minority

I hate that my side is so incompetent as to be useless as a minority and now a majority. We really suck at this. The only thing that keeps me on this side is that, at least on paper, we're the good guys. The good guys who don't know how not to get the sand kicked in our faces on a regular basis, granted.

Oh, for lack of a spine, the congress was lost.............

Jesus Christ on a Trailer Hitch!!!!

[Supersedeas]

12. Telecom Immunity - prioritiy #1 for Republicronies