This is awesome. Through a lot of tricky maneuvering the House of Representatives did not give the telecoms retroactive immunity in their new FISA bill.
Amazing. Progressive bloggers put A LOT of pressure on Democrats who wanted to go along with Bush. 21 conservative Democrats wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi a few weeks back telling her they should all just go along and give immunity - THIRTEEN of those Democrats ended up doing the right thing and voted the right way today. That is huge.
We are gaining power; baby steps, baby steps.
Glenn Greenwald, as always, has an excellent round up:
As impressive as the House vote itself was, more impressive still was the floor debate which preceded it. I can't recall ever watching a debate on the floor of either House of Congress that I found even remotely impressive -- until today. One Democrat after the next -- of all stripes -- delivered impassioned, defiant speeches in defense of the rule of law, oversight on presidential eavesdropping, and safeguards on government spying. They swatted away the GOP's fear-mongering claims with the dismissive contempt such tactics deserve, rejecting the principle that has predominated political debate in this country since 9/11: that the threat of the Terrorists means we must live under the rule of an omnipotent President and a dismantled constitutional framework.
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