No Immunity For Telcos (Nor For Bushco) Yet

The Bushies have been wiretapping every single packet on the internet, not to mention all other forms of electronic communication, since on or thereabouts 27 February 2001, over 8 months before the WTC 9/11 attacks, and they've been doing this spying w/o warrants as well, contrary to FISA at the time and contrary to the 4^th amendment as well. That's not an opinion, that is a fact and if you disagree, you simply haven't been paying attention. Last August just prior to the traditional August congressional recess the Democratic majority was railroaded into passing the Protect America Act of 2007 (don'cha just love those Bush euphemisms?) which legalized what the Bushies had been doing all along & progressives like myself were once again disgusted that the new Democratic majority would cave once again so easily to fear mongering and other garbage. (Ohh, those scary Moooooslims are gonna kill us all!). Fortunately the bill that was passed and signed was 1) only for a 6-month extension and 2) did not include retroactive immunity for the telcos meaning civil lawsuits against the telcos could proceed. The reason these civil suits are important has nothing to do with financial damages per se, their importance is that in light of all the presidential stonewalling (executive privilege, state secrets), these lawsuits are the only way any information about these illegal & unconstitutional spying programs will come to light.

Bush has been demanding a permanent extension to these wiretapping/spying rules and retroactive amnesty for the telcos as well. This of course would throw out any and all lawsuits against these the telcos meaning the plaintiffs would automatically lose any and all rights of discovery as well, meaning Bush, Cheney & all their minions would escape any liability as well for their illegal spying as all information would be hidden. The Democrats were expected to cave again on another extension + retroactive amnesty for the telcos but apparently Mitch McConnell pushed a little too hard and today, the Democrats in the Senate stood up to the Republican's filibuster tactics and refused to vote for cloture which in effect scuttled the retroactive amnesty for the telcos along with the PAA extension. Furthermore McConnell managed to scuttle any PAA extension at all, at least for now, meaning Bush's warrantless spying will once again be illegal as of 01 February 2008. 44 Dems and 1 Rethug, Spector, voted against cloture. TPM has a brief summary of what happened plus lots of other articles (please search their site) about FISA. No, the issue is not over, but dollars to doughnuts, tonight in GW's SOTU address, we'll hear a line about how Democrats are freedom-hating terrorist-lovers who want a new terrorist attack against America. Also, McConnell blocked any short-term extension at this time to the PAA law, meaning FISA reverts to the existing rules as of 01 February 2008.

Wow, 44 Democrats (& 1 Republican, Spector) stood up for the Constitution. Please note the 4 "Democrats" who did not:

Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

these sorry-ass folks need another job!