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Without Obama’s support this is doomed to fail but it is going on live right now. You can thank Barack Obama for the failure of this filibuster when the bill goes through and gives Bush everything he wants. I find it very interesting that there’s no media coverage of this to be found anywhere.

UPDATE: This was not a filibuster at all, just late-night lengthy speeches intended to (very slightly) stall the Senate process this week. Dodd and Feingold want to delay the vote until after the July 4th recess, but I think that Reid and Obama (by his intentional inaction) are going to shove it through before that.

He is of course correct. Congress has completely abdicated its responsibilities.

Which was more useful to understanding what is going on in this country, watching Tim Russert play games with a big time politician, or this??

This is a failure in leadership, an intentional accomodation of violations of the Constitution, and definitely a political mistake that will haunt Barack Obama, who has now begun the general election campaign under a cloud. It will be remembered that when caving in, he said this:

“Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over.” 

No it won’t. In fact, thanks to the actions of people like Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer, and now shamefully Obama, the program will continue, this will be proven to have happened, and he has greatly hurt his campaign, which will turn out to have been the top priority target of these illegal activities in the second half of 2008.

Even if Obama votes against telecom immunity today or tomorrow, he obviously has decided not to stop it, which he could do through public opposition, as the leader of the Democratic Party. The only suspense left I believe is whether he will actually vote in favor of the unconstitutional law about to be passed. No one can be retroactively forgiven through legislation for breaking the law, it’s unconstitutional and he knows it along with every other member of Congress.

from obama’s remarks on afghanistan.

…Now in their attempt to distort my position, Senator McCain’s campaign has said I want to pursue a law enforcement approach to terrorism. This is demonstrably false, since I have laid out a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy that includes military force, intelligence operations, financial sanctions and diplomatic action. But the fact that I want to abide by the United States Constitution, they say, shows that I have a “pre-9/11 mindset.”

Well I refuse to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States. The other side likes to use 9/11 as a political bludgeon. Well, let’s talk about 9/11.

The people who were responsible for murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11 have not been brought to justice. They are Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and their sponsors – the Taliban. They were in Afghanistan. And yet George Bush and John McCain decided in 2002 that we should take our eye off of Afghanistan so that we could invade and occupy a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The case for war in Iraq was so thin that George Bush and John McCain had to hype the threat of Saddam Hussein, and make false promises that we’d be greeted as liberators. They misled the American people, and took us into a misguided war.

Here are the results of their policy. Osama bin Laden and his top leadership – the people who murdered 3000 Americans – have a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That’s the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism.

We had al Qaeda and the Taliban on the run back in 2002. But then we diverted military, intelligence, financial, and diplomatic resources to Iraq. And yet Senator McCain has said as recently as this April that, “Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq.” I think that just shows a dangerous misjudgment of the facts, and a stubborn determination to ignore the need to finish the fight in Afghanistan….

And if you don’t stop him, Barack Obama will be a key player in making it happen. This is going down in the next 24 hours unless you stop it.

Call Barack Obama and urge him to make a public statement reiterating his opposition to telco amnesty. His opposition could kill this deal: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260Call Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal: Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300Call Nancy Pelosi and urge her to pull the bill from the House schedule: Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259Call your representative and tell them to vote against this bill.

This is the first test of Obama the Nominee, as opposed to Obama the primary candidate. If he isn’t given the message loud and clear that we don’t want this, he’ll understand that he can do whatever corporate America wants him to and we won’t mind. Is that what we want for the next 8 years?

This is a must read, Major General Antonio Taguba has gone public and directly made accusations of war crimes at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

National Press Club gives a platform to a known hoaxster and a liar. Will he be the “Swift Boats” frontman for 2008, or will the press destroy him today? Interestingly, it will take place during the Tim Russert memorial ceremony.  Oh, and this honored guest is a wanted felon.