Feingold won't try to stop spy bill vote

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

WASHINGTON - Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold will not filibuster a compromise version of an electronic surveillance program although he thinks it will infringe on U.S. citizens' civil liberties.
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Feingold said he and other Senate opponents won't try to stop the vote, but they "won't allow it to pass quickly."

Instead, Feingold, D-Wis., told an audience at the New America Foundation that he plans to highlight the bill's flaws in floor speeches. There may be several procedural votes before final passage, he added. Feingold said he and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., met with Senate leader Harry Reid last week to discuss their objections.

Feingold made his comments today in a question-and-answer session that followed his address on gaps in U.S. intelligence collection.

Read more: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/GPG0101/80623141/1978/GPGnews

[babylonsister]

1. I wonder why? He's been so vocal, and nothing? nt

[appal_jack]

2. oooh! speeches and procedural votes!1!111!

I am so inspired by this valiant resistance to impending fascism...

:sarcasm:


Good thing Dem's are still keeping their powder dry. :eyes:


-app

[Mojambo]

3. Slow it down. What the fuck good does that do us?

He admits it infringes on our civili liberties but he won't use the tools he has available to stop it.

What the fuck good are you then, Senator?

What the hell does Harry Reid have against filibustering anyway?

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. Perhaps they simply don't have the 41 voted necessary for a filibuster

[spotbird]

33. Why not filibuster anyway?

What harm could come from a final stand? History will respect the effort.

[Changenow]

31. It's supposed to make you think

they care. I feel better already.

[Atman]

4. That's our man! Speeches and procedural moves! Maybe he'll hold his breath, too!

:eyes:

Or, gosh, Russ...MAYBE YOU COULD FUCKING DO SOMETHING!

Yeah...right.

.

[Tutonic]

18. Great idea! I'd like to seem him hold his breath for a while.

And maybe he can get Harry to read the speech that he (Harry) edited for Russ.

[villager]

5. And Feingold is supposed to be one of the best we've got? Disgusting, the lot of them.

n/t

[atreides1]

6. To paraphrase Caesar on the Ides

Et Tu Russ?

[Oceansaway]

8. perhaps they spied on him too

and got the 'goods' on him....whodathunkit.....

[peacetalksforall]

9. If Feingold won't/can't do anything, something is very, very wrong.

I think the prisons are coming. Not tomorrow. But coming.

We have to come up with a new name for caving. I'm not saying he caved, I can't.
But something very sick and devestating is going on.

I am beginning to also despise the word bargaining. There are no bargains when our most precious possessions are tossed out.

[stillcool]

13. yeah really...

I don't get it. I could understand the more conservative Democratic members..of which there are plenty..coming out to say they were voting for this..but to have Russ Feingold for God's sake..surely he does not have to vote for this. I would think it could easily pass without his support.

[elocs]

10. As I recall, Feingold was the one and only vote against the original Patriot Act.

Where were the rest of the Senators then?

So he's not jumping through the DU hoops the way everybody seems to think he should. Maybe he should just stop thinking for himself and simply make his decisions based upon a DU poll? Isn't this the place where any Democratic representative, great or small, will get flamed for not toeing the DU line? The sole repository of what is constitutionally good, and noble and pure.

If you ain't got Feingold, lots of luck. Let the weeping and gnashing of teeth begin as our Constitution get declared null and void here as well as the country. Nope, nothing at DU is ever over the top.

[tekisui]

11. Damn, things look pretty hopeless.

The Dems are running scared.

[Zachstar]

46. And the swiftboat types are rubbing their hands in anticipation...

If he folds they got us. Plain and simple. If Republicans dont win just have Limpballs preach hate about so called "liberal" democrats while behind doors the game they continue the merge.

If he folds and this thing gets signed into law I simply give up. If no resistance is given why care? Someone tell me why I need to to slow things down? Why endure a slow ember charring documents of freedom while burning into the phonelines?

[MasonJar]

12. No one is judging Feingold; he is indeed the top. There is something

very strange coming down here. Reid needs to go along with Pelosi. He is useless.

[Freddie Stubbs]

30. Perhaps it is simply the lack of 41 votes willing to filibuster

Feingold can yell and scream and stomp his feet, but at the end of the day this thing will pass if 60 Senators do not want a filibuster.

[Zachstar]

45. Its the meaning that counts.

Damnit we need some resistance here! Even if afterwords they quickly shut down the filibuster atleast we will go on knowing we fought them a little. The we can fucking politically rip their reelection campaigns apart in the primaries.

That wont happen if nothing happens.

[Larkspur]

14. I wonder if one of the civil lawsuit lawyers will challenge the Constitutionality of this bill?

All it takes is 1 lawyer to try.

[global1]

15. That Was Exactly My Thought - Maybe They Know That Something In The Bill Is

unconstitutional and that even if it passes it will be junked by the courts.

[Jakes Progress]

16. You mean the SC that is two seats more conservative

than the one that enthroned george? Not likely.

[Jakes Progress]

17. Here in our town we had a dreadful

school superintendent. He had the school board buffaloed. One woman ran on a platform of getting rid of the jerk. She was very vocal for the first year, telling the newspaper what was going on, making speeches, and holding up bad policies. As her term went on she got tired of being ostracized by the rest of the board. The walked out to get something to eat when she spoke. No one seconded her motions. She began going along to try to get some support. Then she ended up thinking that she could cooperate with a few so that they would support her. Never happened. Eventually she didn't run for reelection and dropped off. The supt. eventually retired with several hundred thousand a year for life after bankrupting the district and ruining its education program.

Sorry for the tale. Just wonder if Russ is getting tired of getting the shit end of the stick for everything and being made to sit at a table in the Senate dining room by himself.

I have no respect for our Senators, Democratic or republican (and especially not for the asshole Lieberman who is neither, but a curious abomination mixture of the two.)

[bertman]

19. I hate to say this, but I'm starting to admire that old son-of-a-bitch Jesse Helms.

He was a sorry-ass racist but he never let an opportunity pass to filibuster when he found a cause he detested. And it didn't matter who screamed, yelled or tried to use procedural means to end it.

I think the game in the Senate is somewhat different now. STILL, SOME BRAVE SENATOR SHOULD AT LEAST STAND UP AND TRY TO FILIBUSTER THIS THING.

GODDAM YOU HARRY REID AND NANCY PELOSI!! YOU ARE DESPICABLE EXCUSES FOR HUMAN BEINGS.

[pattmarty]

20. What about Bernie Sanders??????

[L. Coyote]

21. Did someone in Germany say, "We don't have the 41 votes to stop the ovens?"

Whatever happened to the U. S. Constitution and political principles?

Where will a line finally be drawn? Murdering innocents by torture, spying on the whole nation...... illegally.
How many murders does it take before someone tries to stop these criminals?

[Zachstar]

44. Who or What is going to stop them.

Is it quite apparant that if they can't use bribes they have found an effective system of blackmail that shudders even the strong to babies. If that is the case we are fucked.

What is this "hero" going to face?

They have quick deploy pain rays that are just the front of the so called humane systems.

They have long range tasers with god knows what behind the curtain.

They have sensors that can likely find even well hidden people. (Just not showing it Obviously as it would threaten their riot control measures)

So if what I said is true and if they want this damn planet so bad then fine take it. The climate is falling apart so fast their dumb asses likely will be unable to reverse the damage before it is too fucking late. Till that point is proven tho I am still having a small bit of hope.

However, Watching some of the last barriers fold like that scares me greatly like they have found the perfect political weapon against "Obamas"

[skyounkin]

22. Fuck they are worthless- the lot of them.

[bdamomma]

36. they are just worried about their own a$$es.

and they are hoping we would just adapt.

[raystorm7]

23. Practically puts all his past tough talk in the shitter if he won't even face this one on his own =/

[11cents]

24. Does he have the 41 votes of not?

If he doesn't, he can't start a filibuster. Simple as that, no matter how much we try to outdo each other in over-the-top abusive language.

I think he doesn't have the 41 votes. That's why it was so maddening when Obama said that he'd "try" to stop the immunity provision; he knew they didn't have the votes to do that either and it was just ass-covering verbiage. Feh.

[AZ Criminal JD]

25. You are dead wrong

All it takes in the Senate is one person to filibuster. The 41 votes are needed to prevent a closure vote on the bill. Wayne Morse, Senator from Oregon filibustered many military bills in the Senate during the Vietnam War all by himself.

[11cents]

26. And a cloture vote ends the filibuster, yes?

How many bills did Morse actually prevent from passing?

[11cents]

27. If your point is that Feingold should mount a symbolic filibuster in any case...

...then I agree. But my reference to 41 votes specifically had to do with cloture.

[eyeontheprize]

32. They don't want a record of who

supported the filibuster, so they can't do it this time. It could be that there are enough who would vote for a filibuster if they were forced on the record, which would block the bill, so it can't happen.

[iconicgnom]

28. they "won't allow it to pass quickly." I guess, kinda like a "secret fart".

And that's the very best the Dems can do?

Oh yah, over in C&L I see that Waxman is once again outraged by, haha, Bush once again citing executive privilege to block his, heh, "investigations". Waxman's outraged, I say! But, y'know, impeachment just isn't on the table... so... hehehe. He's outraged!

[guyton]

29. Vichy Democrats

Isn't giving despots a green-light for further abuses enough to remove Pelosi?

collaborators.

[slipslidingaway]

34. Video link to Feingold answering questions...

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

[slipslidingaway]

35. I just called Senator Feingold's office in DC, he has NOT made

a decision on whether or not to filibuster and they will check on this story.

[daggahead]

37. Our neighbor to the north is looking better all the time.

[midnight]

38. Why isnt' the man who is running for President screaming

fillibuster??????

[Zachstar]

43. Because he is a coward.

[Kingofalldems]

39. Filibuster going on right now

So I guess this thread came up empty.

[WilyWondr]

40. The filibuster has not even begun

http://www.c-span.org/

CSPAN 1 http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan1v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx
CSPAN 2 http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan2v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx
CSPAN 3 http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan3v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx

[Zachstar]

42. That was a false alarm.

[Zachstar]

41. We are fucked..

Feingold was one of the last. And now it looks like he too has been compromised.

Ya think there will be time for me to play that new "Spore" game before the internet is shut down? I would really like to grow my own civilization of Bird like dinosaur things.