Senate and House leaders agreed on surveillance legislation that would provide telecom amnesty and even greater eavesdropping power than is already out there, in horse trading White House agreement to Dem's demands in a war spending bill. Bismark was right. It's like watching sausage being made.
Hello? This vests Bush with vast new warrantless wiretapping powers and vests lawbreaking telecoms like AT&T and Verizon Communications with retroactive immunity.
What is being hailed as a legislative victory is a Faustian bargain--oh, sorry, "compromise"--that is nothing more than a transparent grant of telecom immunity and expanded eavesdropping. Wake up people! Do you realize that this can be used to authorize dragnet surveillance of your communications? I know that's hard to appreciate if your phone has never been tapped and your computer has never been seized without a warrant. But take it from me, it will turn you into a flaming civil libertarian and fast scholar of the Fourth Amendment.
The telecoms violated constitutional rights established by the Supreme Court and a handful of federal laws. Their desperation for immunity speaks for itself: they knew allowing the Bush administration to spy on their customers without warrants was illegal.
No matter how good you think the war spending bill is--$95 billion in domestic spending on unemployment insurance, higher-education benefits for veterans, etc.--it is not worth Congress forfeiting their constituents' constitutional rights. When Democratic leaders admit this was not their "preferred approach," that's the understatement of the month.
The telecom amnesty/expanded eavesdropping law is expected to be approved by the House today and by the Senate next week. So, instead of kicking privacy lawsuits based on the dubious "state secrets" privilege, telecoms can now have the suits dismissed because they received written assurance from Bush that spying was legal.
This celebrated compromise is not in the national interest. Boycott AT&T and Verizon. And send Senators Rockefeller and Bond, and Representatives Hoyer and Blunt, a copy of the Constitution with the Fourth Amendment highlighted.
1:30pm UPDATE:
The House overwhelmingly adopted the sweeping secret spying bill and has passed it on to the Senate.