Open Wide: FISA Cloture PASSED 76-10

Harry Reid announced Friday that he would introduce the SSCI version as the base bill of the FISA update in the Senate.  The SSCI versions provides TelCo amnesty and has limited oversight for Government spying activities.
This weekend, we learned that the Bush Administration sought spying devices to acquire communications of US Citizens before 9/11.  TelCo Amnesty and limited oversight are the last thing we need.

Because Chris Dodd has threatened to Filibuster, Reid announce a cloture vote at Noon today.  This tricky maneuver was done to use the weekend Press lull to limit coverage of the impending Amnesty vote, and minimize your ability to lobby your Senators against Amnesty.

Dodd needs 41 votes to prevent cloture.  All of the major Dem Presidential Candidates in the Senate have spoken against Amnesty.  Whether they will return from campaigning for this important vote is unclear.

60 votes for cloture will end the Dodd filibuster and will ensure Amnesty for TelCos.

This is because once the SSCI version is established as the base bill, the more reasonable SJC version (lacking amnesty) would require 60 votes to pass as an amendment to the SSCI bill.  There are unfortunately not 60 votes for Civil Liberties in the Senate.

Unfortunately, there may not even be 41 votes for Civil Liberties in the Senate.

Looking back at the August Protect America Act, there were only 28 votes opposed to its passage:

Dodd needs those 28 votes plus 13 more to guarantee blockage of cloture.  Unfortunately, Whitehouse and Rockefeller have already voted for the SSCI version when it was in the SSCI.  So in reality, Dodd may have only 26 filibuster votes to begin.  As Elwood Dowd points out below, the GOP needs 60 votes to pass cloture; If Lieberman or any GOP Senators or enough pro-cloture Dems are absent, then cloture will fail (until they show up).
Although this means a Dodd filibuster voter does not have to be present to block cloture, the facts of this cloture vote are that 10 Dems must join  Lieberman and the GOP to pass cloture.  Biden, Clinton and Obama have all spoken against Amnesty.  If 10 Dems join Lieberman and the GOP, and our esteemed candidates are too busy campaigning to come back and try to make a difference, then they have certainly hurt the cause of Civil Liberties.

So there are 15 senators who we need to pressure THIS MORNING to join Dodd, before the noon cloture vote (call them ALL).

If it does not happen, Amnesty will pass the Senate.  We must insist upon a stand here.  Considering that all of the Presidential Candidates signed a letter in support of the SJC version over the SSCI version, they must support the filibuster.  If they are unable to sway fellow Senate Democrats to abandon TelCo Amnesty and block cloture, then they are not fit to lead this country.

Our Constitution was written and amended to protect our Civil Liberties.  We must make our Government respect that fact.

Please call as many Senate Democrats as you can.  NOW.  Ask them to please stand with Chris Dodd in supporting Civil Liberties and vote against cloture on the SSCI FISA update bill.  

Telco Amnesty and limited surveillance oversight is about to be shoved down your throat.  You can open wide and take it, or you can open wide and use your voice to make phone calls.  For the time being, you are still the owner of your voice.  You might as well use it before you lose it.

Update #1
Sen. Russ Feingold at TPM:

   By choosing the Intelligence Committee bill over the Judiciary product, Senator Reid has made things much tougher for those of us who think the courts — not Congress — should decide whether the companies deserve immunity. He’s also made it an uphill struggle of those of us who want more court oversight of the broad new surveillance powers included in the bill.

   The first vote will come around noon, on the motion to invoke cloture (or limit debate) on the motion to proceed to (or consider) S. 2248. I expect to speak against the motion before the vote, and will post a link to my remarks after I make them.

   We have a big fight on our hands, and unfortunately, the deck is now stacked against us. Instead of being able to defend improvements that were made in the Judiciary Committee, we are going to have to start all over again to try to salvage the good work that was done to improve the bill. This includes adding tougher court oversight and greater protection for the privacy of innocent Americans, and by stripping out the retroactive immunity provision. A vote on the amendment to strike immunity, which Senator Dodd and I will offer, could come fairly soon. We will be pointing out that under current law, companies already get immunity for cooperating with government requests for information — as long as the requests follow requirements that are clearly laid out in the law. If companies didn’t follow this law, and cooperated with illegitimate requests for sensitive information, then we should not hand them a "get out of jail free" card after the fact. Judges should be the ones to make this determination — and to rule on the legality of the warrantless program.

Update #2
Now this is a little wrench in the mix.  Take a look at who signed the letter to invoke cloture:

Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, Ken Salazar, Daniel K. Inouye, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Frank R. Lautenberg, Debbie Stabenow, Richard J. Durbin, Tom Carper, John Kerry, E. Benjamin Nelson, Evan Bayh, Kent Conrad, Carl Levin, Mark Pryor, Charles Schumer, Jay Rockefeller, Sheldon Whitehouse, Bill Nelson.

All Dems....
I am wondering if these Dems are all going to go over to the Dark side and vote for cloture today?  But I can't help but wonder whether this cloture vote today is a set-up for political theater and a pre-determined cloture vote defeat so the SSCI version is withdrawn and the SJC version gets advanced next?  This is very much speculation, but oh what a happy day it would be if the Democrats showed some guile and spine....
Now back to reality- KEEP CALLING!!!!!

Update #3
See packerland progressive's spectacular diary and flow chart that demonstrates even if cloture succeeds today, there will be other opportunities to fight against Amnesty.
Notheless, today's vote is a critical opportunity to defeat the SSCI Amnesty bill, in that it requires only 41 votes to do so.

Update #4
1145 am central
Cloture Passed.
Only 10 Democrats Stood up with Dodd.
Now the Post cloture debate begins and 60 votes will be needed to strip amnesty from the bill.