Political Bloviation

Senate caves, votes to give telecoms retroactive immunity
In an all to common display of craven gutlessness the Senate once again rolled over and gave the White House what it wanted like a prison punk ass bitch. The only hope is that the House finds it’s balls in that other pair of pant in the laundry [...]

Christy over at FDL seems to like it (somewhat):
Firedoglake - Firedoglake weblog » FISA: GOP Blinks (Somewhat)…Let’s Get To Work
The go to guy on all things FISA, Glenn Greenwald isn’t a fan of it:
 The whole agreement seems designed to ensure that the GOP gets everything they want — that they are able to defeat all [...]

TPMmuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Mukasey Tongue-Tied on Administration Law Breaking
MUKASEY: Torture, as you know, is now unlawful under American law. I can’t contemplate any situation in which this president would assert Article II authority to do something that the law forbids.
SPECTER: Well, he did just that in violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [...]

Can’t he just say something like, “It’s wrong, illegal and diametrically opposed to American values” and be done with it?
Mukasey Demurs on Waterboarding - New York Times
“Given that waterboarding is not part of the current program and may never be added to the current program, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to [...]

There’s a good round up of what happened over at C&L:
Crooks and Liars » Jay Rockefeller on FISA: Bush is committing Political terrorism: Cloture vote fails
Short story is that the GOP fell well short of their pathological attempt to play a national security issue for political advantage. The cloture vote in the Senate failed, so [...]

 Could it be? Is it possible? Did a member of the democratic leadership show some evidence of a spine? I’ll steal the graphic AmericaBlog used. I want to believe…
Reid Issues Ultimatum: More Time Or No Wiretaps - Politics on The Huffington Post
At a State of the Union preview speech today at the National Press Club, [...]

Negotiating Our Future in Iraq | The American Prospect
Bush would like to negotiate a long term agreement with Iraq, including security and training assurances without going to the Senate for ratification of a formal treaty between the nations. Why would he want to do that (other than a long standing hatred of anything that smells [...]

First we have this by way of Poltico.com:
Rockefeller predicts win in FISA fight over telecom immunity - The Crypt’s Blog - Politico.com
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is predicting the Senate will grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies as Congress takes up reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and [...]

Firedoglake - Firedoglake weblog » Sunday Late Nite: Thank You, Harry Reid
Or at least spine-like. Maybe he can be upgraded from chordate to vertebrate. After being repeatedly burned congressional democrats finally learn the simple truth, that much like a 6 year old with a pack of matches Mr. Bush simply cannot be trusted. The [...]