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It is time for the Democrats to show us that they want to protect us! Protecting either Corporations or the Government from illegal activities is not in the voters best interests. We elected them as a change from the Republicans who only protected one segment of society. We need to be shown they are a party of change!
Telecom Immunity Bill Vote Is Delayed
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12/18/07 -- Posted by Catherine Morgan 
Late Monday the Senate decided to delay a vote on a bill that would have given the telecom industry immunity for providing private customer information to the government. However, this is just one part of a much more complicated and troubling bill. It's actually a new government eavesdropping bill that has more than a dozen amendments. This new surveillance bill is meant to replace a temporary law that Congress hastily passed back in August. The law expands the government's authority to listen in on American communications, [and this is the most troubling part] without a court order. So, if this law is passed (and it has only been delayed until January), it will give our government the right to eavesdrop on any American citizen, without first getting a warrant to do so from a judge. Does that bother you at all? When it comes to the issue of immunity for the telecommunications companies...The Bush administration contends, if the telecom companies do not receive immunity, civil lawsuits that have been filed would compromise national security (of course they said that), and bankrupt the companies. "For the last six years, our largest telecom companies have been spying on their own American customers", said Sen. Christopher Dodd. He spoke for several hours and even threatened a filibuster to prevent this bill from passing. After the bill was pulled, he issued a statement saying, "Today we have scored a victory for American civil liberties and sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy." The White House is threatening to veto any bill that does not include retroactive immunity to the telecom companies. It seems to me that if the government wants to grant immunity to the telecom companies, it should only do so if they will allow civil suits against the government agencies who did not obtain proper warrants from the court to eavesdrop. And they should definitely make it mandatory that in the future, proper authorization will be required through the already established emergency court system. Since there is already a means for the American people to be protected from unlawful invasions of their privacy, it seems the easiest thing to do is to start using it. This is from the statement by Sen. Russell Feingold... The Senate should be taking this opportunity to fix its mistakes and pass a new bill that gives the government all the tools it needs to spy on suspected terrorists but also protects Americans’ basic freedoms. This time around, the Senate should stand up to an Administration that time and again has employed fear-mongering and misleading statements to intimidate Congress. Is it really in the best interest of the American people to have their civil liberties eroded to this extreme? And with little or no oversight, could this become a Pandora's box? Using this eavesdropping law in conjunction with the Patriot Act (and the virtual elimination of Habeas Corpus), it's a little scary to think about the government possibly taking words you may say on the phone, and use them to arrest you under the new laws of the Patriot Act. Separately these laws are an invasion of our civil rights, together they are a dangerous tool that could make this country look more like the Soviet Union than the United States. |
Tuesday December 18, 2007, 5:10 PM