Senate commits to shielding telecoms from suits

[villager]

Senate commits to shielding telecoms from suits

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday affirmed its intention to protect from civil lawsuits telecom companies that helped the government wiretap Americans without court authorization after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It turned back three amendments that were offered during final debate on a bill that overhauls the rules on secret government eavesdropping.

The votes suggest the surveillance bill will pass by an easy margin later Wednesday, and signal an end to almost a year of wrangling between the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, and Congress and the White House over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.

The House approved the surveillance overhaul last month.

The long fight on Capitol Hill has centered on one question: whether to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_go_co/terrorist_surveillance

[Hydra]

1. So cheaply they sell us down the river...

"Who else will you vote for? It's us or the REALLY evil creeps! Now go vote like good little citizens."

[FiveGoodMen]

3. They are safe in doing so.

Witness all of the "No matter what you do, vote for a Dem...ANY Dem...They're all Good. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THEY SAY OR DO...THEY'RE ONE OF US!" threads.

[Hydra]

4. I know

And I'm really wishing for a viable 3rd party right now...except that since this is not a democracy, it wouldn't do any good.

[90-percent]

2. To all Veterans

To all Veterans alive or dead or wounded in all Wars since the Revolutionary War:

Sorry suckers! Too bad you all went off and died defending the principals your country had been based on! YOU ALL DIED IN VAIN!

Some Washington politicians decided that all that Constitutional stuff is secondary to the needs of TELECOMS GIANTS WHO BREAK THE LAW TO SERVE THE WHITE HOUSE' incessant need to spy on everybody, everywhere, anytime, for any reason at all!

All your lives and all your patriotism now stands for protecting corporations over the Constitutional Rights of ALL AMERICANS!

But, really, thanks for dying for us, anyway. Sorry it was not for the reasons you thought it was!

-90% Jimmy

[Hydra]

5. Your post really puts it in perspective

All of the people who died in the name of this country did so simply to expand it's borders and influence...no underlying principles involved.

Alexander Hamilton would be proud- this was his vision of America...and it SUCKS.

[barbtries]

6. the senate, the house, the WH, SCOTUS,

ALL of them full of fucking anti-american corporate fascist BASTARDS!

i'm so hurt.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Maybe it's time that we start viewing ourselves as something other

than the Americans we believed we once were. It's true, 9/11 changed everything. We are NeoMerkins.

[benld74]

8. Lets just outsource the Congress as well

[90-percent]

9. I want

I want every fucking bastard that voted for this treason to go off and "spend some time with their family" when their terms are up.

Our elected REPRESENTATIVES should not be allowed to dismantle our Constitution in front of the world's eyes!

They are turning our American Brand into Shit and we can no longer lay claim to being a beacon of freedom and hope for the rest of the World.

Better the beacon of freedom should be carried by Canada or the Netherlands or New Zealand or some other place that still has representatives who cherish and guard their freedoms. Our elected traitors are probably five years away from putting all us dissenters that still have illusions of Constitutional Rights into some internment Camp called Camp Reagan or something!

-90% Jimmy

[johnlal]

10. It's not like their approval ratings can go any lower...

You can do a lot of damage when you know you can't get any lower in approval ratings. An unpopular Congress has a certain freedom to screw America.

[Chulanowa]

11. I have two suggestions.

and

[spanone]

12. fuck them