A Huge Victory

[aggiesal]

Source: DFA E-mail from Jim Dean

We just had a huge victory. Grassroots action forced the Senate to stop telecom immunity from passing.

Earlier today, DFA members made over 1,000 calls an hour to our Senators. And they heard our voices loud and clear.

Tonight I'll be watching President Bush give his final State of the Union. As usual, he will be fear-mongering and pushing his radical agenda on the American people.

Thanks to your work today, we flipped the vote and forced Senate Democrats to have a backbone.

Jim

Read more: www.DemocracyforAmerica.com

---

Can anyone else find a link to this story.
This is huge, if Sen. Dodd's filibuster is holding
on the FISA immunity.

Thank you Senators, especially Sen. Dodd.

[yourout]

1. The sad part is...it should not take thousands of phone calls to get the Dems to do the...

right thing.

[gateley]

2. But the GOOD part is that there are more of us actually paying attention and

making those phone calls, AND that they're beginning to listen!

[yourout]

4. With that ......I agree.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Yeah. It's called civic responsibility.

Better that it was exercised when the initial votes(for the politician) were happening but hey!, we'll take it.

I agree that it's a good sign that the same old bullshit doesn't fly like it used to. It still flies pretty high, though.

[gateley]

3. Yes, I want to add my thanks to the Senators and especially to Dodd. If he

hadn't brought this to the forefront, we it might have slipped by most of us.

[MeDeMax]

5. links is here

The increasingly tangled debate over federal surveillance powers reached a new milestone today when a Republican cloture motion failed to pass after receiving only 48 of the required 60 votes. If the cloture motion had passed, it would have blocked all further attempts to remove controversial telecom immunity provisions from a Senate intelligence committee surveillance bill by forcing an immediate vote on the bill itself. As it stands, the issue of retroactive immunity for telecoms who helped the NSA spy on Americans can now come to the floor for a full debate. A second cloture motion—filed by Congressional Democrats in an effort to force immediate vote on a 30 day extension to the Protect America Act—also failed to pass.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080128-senate-blocks-vote-on-surveillance-bill-that-would-grant-telecom-immunity.html

[Political Heretic]

6. OMG I just got home and this is AMAZING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, yes it shouldn't be amazing, we should have been able to count on our party, but I don't care -- I care that it was STOPPED!!

[sloppyjoe25s]

8. GREAT WORK DFA!!

This is truly Great Work - Congratulations to ALL!!

THANK YOU!!!


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[On the Road]

9. Outstanding!

No way that should go down the memory hole without consequences.

[ToughLuck]

10. I am thrilled to hear this!!!!

Way to go FINALLY.

[sellitman]

11. At least I have one good Senator from my State

Thank you Senator Dodd.

[Canuckistanian]

12. If this holds, then time for celebration!

This was just a defeat for cloture vote, wasn't it?

Still, a great psychological victory!

Thanks, DFA!

[mike_c]

13. excellent news!

Awesome!

[sinkingfeeling]

14. The best news of the day!!

[Stuart G]

15. The Vote:

Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---48
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)



NAYs ---45
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)


Not Voting - 7
Coburn (R-OK)
Dole (R-NC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Harkin (D-IA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCain (R-AZ)

[Kaleko]

16. Feinstein voted nay? ...Yayyy!!! I'll take a sliver of credit for that since I've been

pestering her gilded ass with sharp reminders of her duty to uphold the Constitution.

High fives all around, we did it!

[aggiesal]

18. 4 Dem's voted YEA, ...

Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)

They need to be reminded that this vote will be put in the
memory bank, to be brought out during re-election.

1 Rep, voted NAY.
Specter (R-PA)
I'm surprised that Sphincter caucused with the Dems.

And to the 7 that didn't vote at all,
Just turn in your Senator cards, and kindly retire from
public office. You don't deserve to be Senators.

[caseycoon]

17. K&R WONDERFUL NEWS! n/t