Qtec
06-26-2008, 04:21 AM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Chris Dodd went to the Senate floor last night to speak against the FISA bill and delivered one of the most compelling and inspired speeches by a prominent politician that I’ve heard in quite some time. He tied the core corruption of the FISA bill’s telecom amnesty and warrantless eavesdropping provisions into the whole litany of the Bush administration’s lawless and destructive behavior over the last seven years — from torture and rendition to the abuse of secrecy instruments and Guantanamo mock trials — with a focus on the way in which telecom amnesty further demolishes the rule of law among our political class.</div></div>
link (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/25/senator-chris-dodd-constitutional-champion/)
Where are the Dems?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">(4) Beyond the FISA bill's evisceration of the rule of law, the Fourth Amendment and surveillance safeguards, what has always been so striking with this controversy has been how transparently sleazy and corrupt it reveals the Congress to be. Right out in the open, telecoms have just led Congressional supporters of telecom immunity around like little puppets. It's just amazing -- though extremely common -- that while negotiations over the bill occurred in total secrecy, with civil liberties groups and the public at large being completely excluded, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer "negotiated" directly with the telecoms over how the telecoms' amnesty bill should be written.
Telecoms broke our surveillance laws, and then our Democratic Congressional leaders ran to them to take instructions on how to write the special law to protect them, and they didn't even really bother to hide that. Politico reported last month that "telecom companies have presented congressional Democrats with a set of proposals on how to provide immunity." And the Pelosi-glorifying article in Time this week revealed that it was the telecoms themselves -- as key participants in the secret negotiations -- which fed Pelosi the bill's current amnesty provisions:
In negotiations with Pelosi's office, the telecoms offered a compromise: Let a judge decide if the letters they received from the Administration asking for their help show that the government was really after terrorist suspects and not innocent Americans.
If you break the law, you're going to be hauled into court and prosecuted. But if telecoms break the law, Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, and Steny Hoyer will go to them and "negotiate" over what's acceptable to the lawbreaking telecoms in terms of how they'll receive amnesty. </div></div> link (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/25/dodd/index.html)
Q
link (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/25/senator-chris-dodd-constitutional-champion/)
Where are the Dems?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">(4) Beyond the FISA bill's evisceration of the rule of law, the Fourth Amendment and surveillance safeguards, what has always been so striking with this controversy has been how transparently sleazy and corrupt it reveals the Congress to be. Right out in the open, telecoms have just led Congressional supporters of telecom immunity around like little puppets. It's just amazing -- though extremely common -- that while negotiations over the bill occurred in total secrecy, with civil liberties groups and the public at large being completely excluded, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer "negotiated" directly with the telecoms over how the telecoms' amnesty bill should be written.
Telecoms broke our surveillance laws, and then our Democratic Congressional leaders ran to them to take instructions on how to write the special law to protect them, and they didn't even really bother to hide that. Politico reported last month that "telecom companies have presented congressional Democrats with a set of proposals on how to provide immunity." And the Pelosi-glorifying article in Time this week revealed that it was the telecoms themselves -- as key participants in the secret negotiations -- which fed Pelosi the bill's current amnesty provisions:
In negotiations with Pelosi's office, the telecoms offered a compromise: Let a judge decide if the letters they received from the Administration asking for their help show that the government was really after terrorist suspects and not innocent Americans.
If you break the law, you're going to be hauled into court and prosecuted. But if telecoms break the law, Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, and Steny Hoyer will go to them and "negotiate" over what's acceptable to the lawbreaking telecoms in terms of how they'll receive amnesty. </div></div> link (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/25/dodd/index.html)
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