Daily News Roundup, 12/18/07: Dodd (Fili)Busts It

President Bush has been pushing pretty hard lately for telecom immunity in the warrantless wiretapping ordeal, and it looked like he might get what he wanted in new FISA legislation until Senator Chris Dodd threatened a filibuster.

The bill doesn't just revolve around the telecom immunity — it also provides some discretion to the secret FISA courts on surveillance approval and expands the ability of the US to monitor people that are in other countries. But the immunity for telecoms was what prompted Dodd's potential filibuster and convinced Majority Leader Harry Reid to put it all on hold until after the break.

This isn't the end of it, obviously, and Bush will continue to push for what he wants, wielding whatever support he can muster among the GOP Senators. Dodd appears committed to making sure that telecoms don't get a blanket absolution for breaking the law in conjunction with forking over tons of personal data to the federal government.

Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq are currently under attack by Turkey, as planes and bombs and soldiers from Turkey crossed the border over the last few weeks. In light of the Bush administration's admonitions and warnings to Turkey to cool it and to work something else out a few weeks ago, you may be surprised to know that US forces are providing 'real-time intelligence' to Turkey.

The United States is "essentially handing them their targets," one U.S. military official said. The Turkish military then decides whether to act on the information and notifies the United States, the official said.

"They said, 'We want to do something.' We said, 'Okay, it's your decision,' " the official said yesterday, although he denied that the United States had explicitly approved the strikes.

I feel like if the US is providing intelligence at this level, that aid amounts to approval whether it is explicit or not. Since the Kurds make up plenty of the rest of Iraq (not to mention several seats in the government) our support for Turkey's run into northern Iraq is likely to further complicate governmental relations that are already a mess.

In other news of the politically weird, consider that Iran is now receiving, from Russia, shipments of nuclear fuel. The short-sighted strategic logic flowed from President Bush when he asserted that now Iran doesn't need to enrich uranium anymore, since they're getting the goods from Russia, and I guess you could make that argument. But I wonder what the relationship between Iran and Russia will turn into from here. I'm not being alarmist or anything, but between them they control an awful lot of oil and natural gas.

Rejoice, fans of democracy and special elections: early voting totals were way up from in the last few days in the state rep and city council races in Tarrant County, even though the vote totals ran below the totals for the test on November 6 that resulted in today's runoffs.

Being just a tad more than two weeks away from the Iowa caucus communicated an imperative to some candidates, or at least that's how it seems with Fred Thompson: he decided to begin his bus tour in Iowa last night. He says he wants to prove that he's committed to campaigning in Iowa, but I would think that in order to properly send that message you'd have to get started a little earlier than at the last possible moment.

If you're wondering what Ron Paul is going to do with all his gobs of cash, the New York Times tells us he plans on staffing up and building a ground operation for February 5th. I don't think I can accurately convey my shock at how much money he's managed to raise. The projections are that he'll win the money race for this quarter, which is not nothing. Don't get excited — he still has no chance — but that kind of money could swing the race for another candidate in his field one way or another.

Lastly, if you like stories about legislation that pays for just about everything all at once, you will be glad to hear news of the omnibus spending bill, which will head off a West Wing-style budget shutdown. Brace yourself for fiscal details.