Dodd is a Winner
Must be brief. Sleep is nigh and etc.
You were edgy all day, weren't you, about how this Senate bill business regarding FISA and possible immunity for the mega-telecommunications corporations from prosecution for violating the law would work out, right? I'm sleepless here, having hung in to help you with late-night update.
Edgy would barely describe my state. Frankly, no F'ing way those gazillion-dollar-per-year profiteers should have anything in the way of immunity from the law. I can't remember how many polls and letters I have signed recently on this. The default has sadly become that the bigs rip off the smalls. Now that the practice seems to be that corporations - especially big ones - have a lot more rights and political sucking-up from the likes of Dick and George than actual people do - we must assure that these lawbreakers are brought back within the venue of the rule of law. No amnesty.
Hopefully I can pull off assembly of a few excerpts and links here that will be of use should you have been thwarted for whatever reason in tracking the day's events.
The inimitable Christy at FireDogLake has this
Sen. Chris Dodd gave a barnburner of a speech this morning, laying out the reasons that the rule of law ought to trump the CYA demands of the Bush Administration and complicit telecoms who trailed along in their unlawful wake -- before and after 9/11, for years. I'm reprinting the speech in its entirety -- as it was prepared for delivery -- because I felt that folks who weren't able to follow along would appreciate the read.
In the face of a challenge to the rule of law and the foundations of government, true patriots stand up. Thank you to Sen. Dodd for doing so today.
Mr. President:
I rise to urge my colleagues to vote against cloture on S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007.
Opposing cloture is essential, because there is no unanimous consent agreement in place providing for the immediate adoption of the Judiciary Committee substitute amendment.
As you know, Mr. President, the Judiciary substitute amendment, among other things, strikes Title II of the Intelligence Committee bill—the title which seeks to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who are alleged to have violated their customers' privacy rights by turning over information to the government without warrants.
I am fully aware that the Majority Leader has various parliamentary options at his disposal to move this legislation forward. It is his right to attempt to invoke cloture.
But I regret that decision, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in stopping this legislation.
Mr. President, why do I feel so strongly about this matter?
For the last six years, our largest telecommunications companies have been spying on their own American customers.
Secretly and without a warrant, they delivered to the federal government the private, domestic communications records of millions of Americans—records this administration has compiled into a database of enormous scale and scope.
That decision betrayed millions of customers' trust. It was unwarranted—literally.
But was it illegal?
That, Mr. President, I don't know. And if this bill passes in its current form, we will never know. The president's favored corporations will be immune.
Their arguments will never be heard in a court of law. The details of their actions will stay hidden. The truth behind this unprecedented domestic spying will never see light. And the book on our government's actions will be closed, and sealed, and locked, and handed over to the safe-keeping of those few whom George Bush trusts to keep a secret.
-clip-
And then there is this:
Harry Reid just pulled the telecom bill. The Senate will take it up again after the first of the year, but for now there will be no retroactive telecom immunity.
Karen Tumulty wrote over at Swampland earlier in the day:
from the Department of Freudian Typos:
Dodd's campaign at 5:59 p.m. sent out an e-mail update with this subject line:
DODD CONTINUES TO APPLY LEADERSHIP TO SENATE LEADERSHIP
At 6:05 p.m., it sent out a corrected e-mail with this subject line:
DODD CONTINUES TO APPLY PRESSURE TO SENATE LEADERSHIP
I guess he did.
Chris Dodd showed tremendous leadership. He stood by his principles and wouldn't back down, even in the face of opposition from members of his own party who were in the tank for the telecos and the Bush Administration.
Well played, Senator Dodd.
-clip-
You were edgy all day, weren't you, about how this Senate bill business regarding FISA and possible immunity for the mega-telecommunications corporations from prosecution for violating the law would work out, right? I'm sleepless here, having hung in to help you with late-night update.
Edgy would barely describe my state. Frankly, no F'ing way those gazillion-dollar-per-year profiteers should have anything in the way of immunity from the law. I can't remember how many polls and letters I have signed recently on this. The default has sadly become that the bigs rip off the smalls. Now that the practice seems to be that corporations - especially big ones - have a lot more rights and political sucking-up from the likes of Dick and George than actual people do - we must assure that these lawbreakers are brought back within the venue of the rule of law. No amnesty.
Hopefully I can pull off assembly of a few excerpts and links here that will be of use should you have been thwarted for whatever reason in tracking the day's events.
The inimitable Christy at FireDogLake has this
Sen. Chris Dodd gave a barnburner of a speech this morning, laying out the reasons that the rule of law ought to trump the CYA demands of the Bush Administration and complicit telecoms who trailed along in their unlawful wake -- before and after 9/11, for years. I'm reprinting the speech in its entirety -- as it was prepared for delivery -- because I felt that folks who weren't able to follow along would appreciate the read.
In the face of a challenge to the rule of law and the foundations of government, true patriots stand up. Thank you to Sen. Dodd for doing so today.
Mr. President:
I rise to urge my colleagues to vote against cloture on S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007.
Opposing cloture is essential, because there is no unanimous consent agreement in place providing for the immediate adoption of the Judiciary Committee substitute amendment.
As you know, Mr. President, the Judiciary substitute amendment, among other things, strikes Title II of the Intelligence Committee bill—the title which seeks to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who are alleged to have violated their customers' privacy rights by turning over information to the government without warrants.
I am fully aware that the Majority Leader has various parliamentary options at his disposal to move this legislation forward. It is his right to attempt to invoke cloture.
But I regret that decision, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in stopping this legislation.
Mr. President, why do I feel so strongly about this matter?
For the last six years, our largest telecommunications companies have been spying on their own American customers.
Secretly and without a warrant, they delivered to the federal government the private, domestic communications records of millions of Americans—records this administration has compiled into a database of enormous scale and scope.
That decision betrayed millions of customers' trust. It was unwarranted—literally.
But was it illegal?
That, Mr. President, I don't know. And if this bill passes in its current form, we will never know. The president's favored corporations will be immune.
Their arguments will never be heard in a court of law. The details of their actions will stay hidden. The truth behind this unprecedented domestic spying will never see light. And the book on our government's actions will be closed, and sealed, and locked, and handed over to the safe-keeping of those few whom George Bush trusts to keep a secret.
-clip-
And then there is this:
Harry Reid just pulled the telecom bill. The Senate will take it up again after the first of the year, but for now there will be no retroactive telecom immunity.
Karen Tumulty wrote over at Swampland earlier in the day:
from the Department of Freudian Typos:
Dodd's campaign at 5:59 p.m. sent out an e-mail update with this subject line:
DODD CONTINUES TO APPLY LEADERSHIP TO SENATE LEADERSHIP
At 6:05 p.m., it sent out a corrected e-mail with this subject line:
DODD CONTINUES TO APPLY PRESSURE TO SENATE LEADERSHIP
I guess he did.
Chris Dodd showed tremendous leadership. He stood by his principles and wouldn't back down, even in the face of opposition from members of his own party who were in the tank for the telecos and the Bush Administration.
Well played, Senator Dodd.
-clip-
posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home