House Democrats today stuck to their guns and rejected telecom immunity for warrantless wiretapping in abscence of a FISA court order :

Locked in a standoff with the White House, House Democrats on Tuesday maintained their refusal to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without a secret court's permission.

But they offered the companies an olive branch: the chance to use classified government documents to defend themselves in court.

The ACLU says the compromise is an improvement but there are still concerns.

The Chicago Tribune today reports that more states are considering lowering the drinking age to 18 or 19. Discussions have been taking place in Vermont, New Hampshire, Missouri, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Here's a graphic of where the states stood in 1984 before the feds passed a law requiring the age to be 21.

When I turned 18 (in New York)the drinking age was 18. It seemed ridiculous to me that the states raised it. Here's more. What do you think? Take our poll below.

A FISA compromise is in the works. At a meeting yesterday, sponsored by the American Bar Association, Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, pointed out something that hasn't gotten wide attention: Foreign to foreign doesn't really mean that when it comes to e-mail.

At the breakfast yesterday, Wainstein highlighted a different problem with the current FISA law than other administration officials have emphasized. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, for example, has repeatedly said FISA should be changed so no warrant is needed to tap a communication that took place entirely outside the United States but happened to pass through the United States.

But in response to a question at the meeting by David Kris, a former federal prosecutor and a FISA expert, Wainstein said FISA's current strictures did not cover strictly foreign wire and radio communications, even if acquired in the United States. The real concern, he said, is primarily e-mail, because "essentially you don't know where the recipient is going to be" and so you would not know in advance whether the communication is entirely outside the United States.

Corrente Wire has more. And Raw Story reports the FBI wants the telecoms to get immunity even if they acted in bad faith.

If passing a FISA fix is "an urgent priority," as the president insisted today, one wonders why he won't agree to sign a temporary extension of the last fix that he thought was so "urgently" needed. As Harry Reid noted today, the president's refusal to sign any law that doesn't immunize telephone companies from their allegedly illegal behavior demonstrates the president's true priority ... and it isn't national security, as much as he tries to spin it that way.

If the final legislation does not include protection for the companies, a wave of lawsuits could reveal how the United States conducts surveillance “and give Al Qaeda and others a road map as to how to avoid surveillance,” Mr. Bush said.

Lawsuits might reveal that the administration conducted surveillance illegally, but that information is more harmful to the administration than it is helpful to Al Qaeda. As for a "road map," the president doesn't explain why classified information would miraculously become public simply because a lawsuit proceeds. Surely courts are positioned to balance the need to protect legitimate national secrets against the need to remedy violations of the law.

The president's back-up argument is that lawsuits are "unfair" to telcoms that were told by "government leaders" that "their assistance was legal and vital to national security." If such assurances were actually given (by whom exactly, we might wonder), and if telcoms had reason to believe the administration's interpretation of the law was reasonable, perhaps the telcoms would have a gripe. In the absence of litigation, however, none of those facts are established. And if the telcoms indeed acted legally, they have no need for immunity, a point stressed today by Senator Kennedy:

It's not often that the Rocky Mountain News editorial board takes President Bush to task.

Today it does just that, over his complaints about the House of Representatives' balking at the extension of his warrantless wiretapping program and his threat to veto any bill that does not include retroactive immunity for telecoms who cooperated with the National Security Agency.

The Rocky does not mince words:

Earlier this week, President Bush actually suggested that al-Qaida operatives are watching the calendar, poised to plot new attacks freely with Congress absent - and U.S. intelligence officials will be largely powerless to stop them.

Don't insult the American public, Mr. President. You'll still have the ability to wiretap suspected terrorists - and the warrantless surveillance powers in the bill are valid until August.

It also opines that we need the lawsuits against the telecoms to go forward so the public can see whether privacy rights were trampled. [More...]

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton missed the final FISA vote today -- they were the only Senators, along with Sen. Graham, to miss it. It occurred between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. The vote was 68 to 29, so it wouldn't have mattered had they been there. Both were present to vote with Sen. Dodd against cloture a few weeks ago and Obama was present this morning to vote on the Amendment.

Hillary Clinton released this statement on the FISA vote today:

"I believe we need to modernize our surveillance laws and give our nation’s intelligence professionals the tools they need to fight terrorism and to make our country more secure. At the same time, smart, balanced reform must also protect the rights and civil liberties of Americans. In my opinion, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 falls short of these goals, and for that reason, I oppose the bill.

More...

Bump and Update (TL): The Senate passed the FISA bill with telecom immunity today. Firedoglake has been providing great coverage all day. It's up to the House now, where pressure will be strong to adopt the Senate bill. Sign the petition to tell them not to cave like the Senate did.

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FISA: Dodd Amendment Fails
By Big Tent Democrat

This is your Democratic Party in action:

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mcjoan at daily kos brings us this good news:

The Senate leadership has reached agreement with Republicans on how to proceed with the surveillance bill, and they held tough. According to leadership sources, these key Democratic amendments will get a simple majority vote: . . . more

Update: Cloture vote fails, 48-45. They are now going on to a vote on the 30 day extension. The President has said he would veto a bill with an extension. The Republicans ask for a vote against cloture on the 30 day extension. Harry Reid is arguing for a 30 day extension. Cloture vote fails.

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The Senate is voting on limiting debate and amendments to a substitute FISA bill. The Intelligence Committee bill provides for retroactive telecom immunity. They are voting now. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted "No."

Firedoglake has been live-blogging the hearing all afternoon.

President Bush cares more about the Telecoms than protecting the country from terrorists. Glenn Greenwald explains:

As a result of these GOP-caused delays, Congressional Democrats are seeking a 30-day extension of the PAA to give them time to pass a new law in a calm and deliberate manner. But after claiming that the PAA is oh-so-vital to our ability to remain alive, the President this weekend threatened that he would veto any such extension, thus allowing this Extremely Critical Law to expire, as reported by The Politico's Mike Allen:

The White House told Democratic congressional leaders Saturday that President Bush opposes a 30-day extension of an expiring eavesdropping law and instead wants an expanded version to be passed by Friday. "The president would veto a 30-day extension," a senior administration official said.

Here is a chance for the Democratic Presidential candidates to show their mettle. Not just by showing up to vote against cloture today on the FISA bill. But by calling President Bush OUT and stating what is obviously true - President Bush will put the security of the Nation at risk (according to his own construct) rather than work with the Congress to fashion an acceptable FISA bill. Immunity for the telecoms matters more to Bush and the Republicans than protecting the Nation. Will our candidates say this? Not holding my breath.

Via Christy at Firedoglake:

Hillary Clinton will be in the Senate tomorrow to vote "no" on cloture on the Intel version of the FISA bill. The vote is scheduled to take place at 4:30 pm tomorrow.

Will Obama show? Christy is waiting to hear from his campaign -- He has a 4:00 pm fundraiser scheduled in D.C.

Update from Jane at FDL: The Obama campaign confirms that Senator Obama will also be in the Senate tomorrow to vote "no" on cloture. I've added his name to the title of this post.

I think Congress has better things to do, but it is not often I get to link to ESPN. The hearings are being streamed there. This is an Open Thread.

Update (TL): See Grits for Breakfast, Sentencing Law and Policy and Slate on how the Justice Department "misplayed the steroids investigation."