US Senate votes to give Telecom Companies Immunity

[Olo401]

Originally titled "The Senate just voted to screw you over", because it's the hard throbbing truth.

In a fantastic show of unity and expeditiousness, Democrats in the US Senate handed legal immunity to telecommunications companies that volunteered terabytes of personal, private information and communications of U.S. Citizens to the Bush Administration as part of its illegal domestic wiretapping activities.

In the space of a couple hours, at least six amendments to the FISA reauthorization bill that would have toned down or stripped this provision from the bill were voted down handily, in some cases with 25 or more Democrats crossing to vote with a united Republican front. A vote to prevent the end of debate on the final bill (commonly known as a filibuster) was originally scheduled for 2:15PM today, but Senators figured "why the hell wait.. let's fuck the people over now!" and voted 69-29 to end debate.

A final vote is now scheduled after their plush little lunch breaks with telecom lobbyists who obviously paid dearly for the action today. Senators who crossed over earlier are expected to vote "no" on final passage, since this vote is worth about as much as the American Dollar these days and it will probably pass 51-49 and allow two-faced Senators to at least day they voted for it before they voted against it.

On a more serious note, thanks goes out to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and the 28 others who at least had the balls to stand up to corporate fascism.

Link to live details & bitchfest: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...877/437/455181

[MisterBob]

k

[Tajin]

In before the guartz, the sunbl1nd and whoever else I missed.

[Neosutra]

Ignorant Biased much?

[Jotaru]

Apathy ftw I guess...

WTB new country

[Demosthenes11]

I'm tapping wires right now and nothing is happening, I can't hear anyone
halp

[Norelco]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

[Deejay]

Apathy ftw I guess...

WTB new country

Why do you have gamestop in your sig? I shop at Wal-Mart a lot but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn my sig into their corporate banner.

[Correction]

This is actually fairly important news but I guess it's more fun to backseat mod when you don't understand big words like 'cloture' and 'retroactive immunity' and wish to hide your ignorance of the larger issues behind the administration's wiretapping program.

[Norelco]

Apathy ftw I guess...

WTB new country

Why do you have gamestop in your sig? I shop at Wal-Mart a lot but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn my sig into their corporate banner.

Dude, your signature says MyGamerCard.net, a website that has advertisements all over it. Do you see the irony here?

[Olo401]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

It's a general discussion thread, and this sure isn't a topic that belongs in the spam forums.

Your country just said that ALL your electronic communcations (landline phone, cell phone, email, your website visits, all that PORN you've been looking at in the Fuck or Duck thread too) can be monitored without reason, and you say you don't want to hear it. I want to ask why, but given your reaction I want to save you the trouble of writing another apathetic, dismissive reply.

[izembo]

nothing to hide, no reason for them to watch, dont really care.

[Norelco]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

It's a general discussion thread, and this sure isn't a topic that belongs in the spam forums.

Your country just said that ALL your electronic communcations can be monitored without reason, and you say you don't want to hear it. I want to ask why, but given your reaction I want to save you the trouble of writing another apathetic, dismissive reply.

Because I don't have anything to hide from the government. If that prevents me from boarding a plane that will eventually be flown into a building, so be it.

[Ashira]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

Nothing wrong with this thread, topic, or point of discussion, despite what side you may be on on this issue at hand. Topic stays, and we're not about to start censoring/censuring posts because they're political.

[Deejay]

Apathy ftw I guess...

WTB new country

Why do you have gamestop in your sig? I shop at Wal-Mart a lot but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn my sig into their corporate banner.

Dude, your signature says MyGamerCard.net, a website that has advertisements all over it. Do you see the irony here?

But you're also leaving out the part that has my gamertag, gamerscore, and the last 10 games i've played. Why you're comparing that to a Gamestop logo is beyond me.

[Ashira]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

It's a general discussion thread, and this sure isn't a topic that belongs in the spam forums.

Your country just said that ALL your electronic communcations can be monitored without reason, and you say you don't want to hear it. I want to ask why, but given your reaction I want to save you the trouble of writing another apathetic, dismissive reply.

Because I don't have anything to hide from the government. If that prevents me from boarding a plane that will eventually be flown into a building, so be it.

Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean everyone, most especially including the government, to hear it. We are afforded individual rights and this seriously infringes upon that in the name of that sham of a Patriot Act.

[Skyylya]

I personally don't care if someone is tapping my communications as long as it stay's confidential.

The only reason you would be upset, is if you're doing something you're worried about getting in trouble for.

if you have nothing to hide then who cares. I'd rather them tap everything and catch some communication that is going to potentially harm me or someone I care about than not tap something, cause I don't know if/when they do it anyway and it doesn't affect me.

If they want surveillance and shit in my car and my house, well that's another story. but email and phone? tap it all I say!

[Norelco]

Apathy ftw I guess...

WTB new country

Why do you have gamestop in your sig? I shop at Wal-Mart a lot but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn my sig into their corporate banner.

Dude, your signature says MyGamerCard.net, a website that has advertisements all over it. Do you see the irony here?

But you're also leaving out the part that has my gamertag, gamerscore, and the last 10 games i've played. Why you're comparing that to a Gamestop logo is beyond me.

It's still an advertisement is it not? All that crap is just a disguise to get someone to click on that link, and boom, that company gets money for ad views/clicks. That's what advertising is. In your case with your gamertag it's clever.

[Norelco]

Seriously, shut the fuck up with these threads. Can we put a ban on these, mods?

It's a general discussion thread, and this sure isn't a topic that belongs in the spam forums.

Your country just said that ALL your electronic communcations can be monitored without reason, and you say you don't want to hear it. I want to ask why, but given your reaction I want to save you the trouble of writing another apathetic, dismissive reply.

Because I don't have anything to hide from the government. If that prevents me from boarding a plane that will eventually be flown into a building, so be it.

Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean everyone, most especially including the government, to hear it. We are afforded individual rights and this seriously infringes upon that in the name of that sham of a Patriot Act.

Exactly which individual rights are you referring to in this instance?

[sunb1ind]

People just hate it when something that actually matters IRL gets brought up. I know its more fun to clown on scientology, but come on. Stop posting "lock thread" and getting your panties in a bunch when you don't agree with something.

LOL@ repeated use of "nothing to hide" argument.

Some people like being watched, exhibitionism can spice up your sex life