Telecom amnesty passes in the Senate
by Chris 8 comments Leave a comment February 14th, 2008
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill that would both expand the government’s spying power and give retro-active immunity to telecommunication companies that aided in spying on their customers. Joy.
Nineteen Democrats and all of the Senate Republicans voted for the bill, a very clear reminder that many Democrats are only rhetorically opposed to the excesses of the Bush administration. In a telling maneuver, Hillary Clinton did not vote for or against the bill, despite being in the area. That’s what I call leadership.
The entire affair is a disgrace to supposed American notions of freedom, privacy and the rule of law. It seems like each day we inch closer and closer to the Soviet model police state.
Glenn Greenwald sums it up well:
[...] in 1973, The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for its work in uncovering the Watergate abuses, and that led to what would have been the imminent bipartisan impeachment of the President until he was forced to resign in disgrace. By stark and depressing contrast, in 2006, Jim Risen, Eric Lichtblau and the NYT won Pulitzer Prizes for their work in uncovering illegal spying on Americans at the highest levels of the Government, and that led to bipartisan legislation to legalize the illegal spying programs and provide full-scale retroactive amnesty for the lawbreakers. That’s the difference between a country operating under the rule of law and one that is governed by lawlessness and lawbreaking license for the politically powerful and well-connected.
It’s odd to think Washington was less corrupt during the Nixon era, but I don’t think it’s hyperbole to make that case. As I said in my last post on this issue “Congressional proponents of retroactive immunity, like Democrat Jay Rockefeller, are recipients of large campaign contributions from telecommunications companies. AT&T and Verizon are, for all intents and purposes, buying their way out of our legal system.”
All hope is not lost yet, the House and Senate versions of the bill still have to be reconciled in negotiations between the two chambers. The House’s version does not contain immunity, but their capitulation is likely. There’s not much we can do at this point. But Firedoglake and Glenn Greenwald are sponsoring a petition asking the House to reject retroactive immunity in their negotiations with the Senate. You can sign the petition here.
I think my girlfriend put it best, “If you are going to have these kinds of underhanded facist type things in your government, fine. Just don’t call yourself a democracy and own up to the fact that you restrict freedoms.”
This is a serious problem, I don’t think it’s okay to just say “fine” and let our government do this stuff.
That’s not the point of what I said. The point is, don’t go around in the world acting like the keeper of true freedom when its all really a lie. If you are going to do this crooked bullshit, then be honest and say, “We aren’t a free society.”
Well there is some hope still. The House intentionally left out telecom amnesty in their version of the bill and didn’t make any changes before a 2 week recess that starts today. The Senate seems to think they can convince the House to put it in, but maybe they can’t.
“The point is, don’t go around in the world acting like the keeper of true freedom when its all really a lie.”
I think the two go hand in hand. Oppressive regimes seem to generally tout their dedication to freedom.
“The House intentionally left out telecom amnesty in their version of the bill and didn’t make any changes before a 2 week recess that starts today.”
Anything is possible… I’m not getting my hopes up though.
““The point is, don’t go around in the world acting like the keeper of true freedom when its all really a lie.”
I think the two go hand in hand. Oppressive regimes seem to generally tout their dedication to freedom.”
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. If the American people could straight up honestly admit to themselves that this isn’t a free society, then they would either be pissed about it and do something, or they would submit. But government propaganda and the stupid notion of national pride make people unwilling to question it.
Well, if you’re talking about how the people view the government, that’s a different thing altogether. I was referring to how the government talks about itself.
If governmental abuses become more commonplace, eventually people will wake up. I’m not sure the national pride will ever go away though. People in Soviet Russia understood that their government was lying to them, but they still loved their country. It’s odd.
[...] This scandal doesn’t warrant more attention than the issue of warrantless wiretaps or any of the thousand other Bush scandals. The same goes for the sex scandals involving Republican [...]