2008 Voting. Spying. And Torture.
posted by on February 13 at 9:23 AM
If you’re a little unclear on what FISA is or what happened in the U.S. Senate yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation—the group that’s actually suing AT&T over their complicity in working with the government to circumvent the 4th Amendment—has a comprehensive roundup.
Yesterday, I noted that Sens. Cantwell and Murray voted against cloture on the bill (meaning they attempted to filibuster the spying bill).
They also deserve credit for—earlier in the day—voting for Sen. Dodd’s amendment to strip the AT&T immunity provision out of the bill. And what’s more, at the end of the day, sticking by their principles and voting against the final bill.
Sen. McCain voted against Dodd’s amendment, for cloture, and for the bill.
Obama voted for Dodd’s amendment, against cloture, and he didn’t vote on the final bill.
Clinton didn’t vote on any of it.
I’m glad Obama made his position clear by voting for Dodd’s amendment and against cloture. Sometimes in our endorsements, we shy away from the wonky stuff. But in last week’s Obama endorsement for the caucus we highlighted some issues that were important to the SECB, and we wrote:
“… he voted against giving immunity to gun manufacturers, against the anti-labor Central American Free Trade Agreement, and for restoring habeas corpus. He’s also against giving retroactive immunity to telecom companies who have spied for the White House.”
Another referendum on the Bush era is hitting the Senate today—a Sen. Diane Feinstein bill to outlaw waterboarding. It will be interesting to see how Sen. McCain votes.
Additionally, I’m curious to see how Rep. Reichert goes on FISA as the battle goes to the House.
Wait, wasn't Feinstein one of the two or three Dem senators that *prevented* a bill to restore habeas corpus last year?
Hehehe, you said "voated."
I see this waterboarding bill as a big lose-lose for McCain. He's gonna piss off a lot of people either way.
Nothing wonky here...
More subjects of substance, what/how our representatives are actually voting is encouraged.
Any idea why the NY Times wrongly reported Obama didn't vote on the bill?
I cannot believe that Hillary is so ethically bankrupt that she would rather not vote than have to defend her vote in the general election. That really says a lot about her change and leadership platform. I'd like to see ECB's defense of Hillary on this one.
I can't believe Hillary didn't vote. Especially on a day when she was IN DC (at least, according to CNN).
Did I imagine the moment in the MLK Day debate where she criticized Obama for missing "important" votes? I'm pretty sure that actually happened, but I supposed it's possible I'm hallucinating it because I already think she's a bit of a hypocrite.
@5
they werent wrong. josh just said he didnt vote on the final bill, and thats what the NYTIMES was covering, yesterday's vote and senator obama did not vote, but voted for important amendments earlier.
i pointed that out to jonathan in his earlier post.
One of the most important votes if not THE most important vote in the past year.
Obama was there and did his part to take care of our rights.
Hillary was somewhere else, presumably taking care of herself.
This is a beautiful illustration of why I support Obama.
Rah rah woman president rah rah we miss Bill. Boo, she didn't show up.
She threw mud at Obama for voting "present" on bad bills in the IL state senate. How can she defend that attack when she couldn't even do that much on the FISA immunity vote?
No sexist comments here. Just straight reality as to why Hillary is not the progressive warrior that she likes to shout that she is.
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