Letters to the Editor

• How It's Done

  [Read the article: Comcast's efforts to protect members of Congress who, in turn, protect Comcast]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  An "Emergency Meeting" of the powerful House Rules Committee was called today for 4:25 p.m. EDT - as announced some time between 2:15 p.m. EDT and 4:30 p.m. EDT - to start the ball rolling - not on FISA, but on the continuation of our occupation of Iraq [torture? what torture?] for the fiscal year (supposedly) "ending September 30, 2008":

  Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 4:45 P.M.

  H. Res. 1281

  Waiving a requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII with respect to the consideration of certain resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules

  The Committee granted, by a non-record vote, a rule waiving a requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII with respect to consideration of certain resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules.

  The rule provides that the requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII for a two-thirds vote to consider a report from the Committee on Rules on the same day it is presented to the House is waived with respect to any rule reported on the legislative day of June 19, 2008, providing for consideration or disposition of a measure making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008.

  http://www.rules.house.gov/SpecialRules_details.aspx?NewsID=3969

  Thus, tomorrow, the Rules Committee can call another "emergency meeting" to adopt a rule for governing floor debate on the Iraq funding bill - which can then be passed by a simple majority of the House the same day, in order to shove the funding vote through without the need for two-thirds approval that would otherwise be required to suspend the rules (because the Rules Committee rule vote will be held the same day as the floor vote on the measure at issue).

  Note, in particular, with regard to FISA, that such a Rules "waiver" was not deemed - by the House leadership, which controls the Rules Committee - necessary to ensure simple majority passage of the House version of the Protect America Act last August. Instead, the House leadership enforced a two-thirds vote for passage of the House PAA, by not adopting such a Rules waiver. [Or, in the alternative, by not scheduling the Rules Committee rule vote a day in advance to avoid the necessity for a two-thirds majority, which it did do for the Cheney version of the PAA that it then passed on a Saturday, because the House version of PAA had "failed" to pass (with a two-thirds majority).]

  So now we read this carefully-planted PR in the government-mouthpiece media - anonymously reminding the peons that resistance is futile; the game is up; our orders have come down from on high:

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. phone companies would be shielded from potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits under an anti-terror spy measure that appears headed toward approval, congressional sources said on Wednesday.

  .

  House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, a lead negotiator on the bill, said, "We're very close to having an agreement," and a House vote could come as early as Friday.

  Democratic and Republican aides and a lobbyist familiar with negotiations said the House would likely approve the measure overwhelmingly. Despite opposition from its top two Democrats, the Senate would then likely give it final approval, clearing the way for President George W. Bush to sign it into law.

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080618/pl_nm/usa_surveillance_dc

  In order for a House vote - on a FISA-excused conspiracy to silence the Judicial Branch with regard to our Fourth Amendment rights - to come "as early as Friday" the House Rules Committee will either have to vote tomorrow for a FISA bill rule, or again, a Rules "waiver" will have to be adopted tomorrow by the committee in order to allow both adoption of a FISA bill rule from the committee on Friday and a simple majority vote by the House on a FISA sellout the same day.

  The Rules Committee has nothing on its agenda at the moment with regard to FISA. Louise Slaughter of New York is its Chairwoman.

  http://rules.house.gov/

  Note to Reuters: The behavior of the "top two democrats" in the Senate is not dispositive of FISA's passage in that body. Unless, that is, every single Senator decides to pretend that they are merely a Representative of the House, and silently, willingly takes their marching orders from the likes of the autocrat Jay Rockefeller, instead of from the United States Constitution (which cannot "support" itself).

  Permalink Wednesday, June 18, 2008 03:34 PM