With that as a precedent, we can expect this and future GOP administrations to apply the same standard to other favored industries – financial services, oil, insurance, munitions – that provide information about the public to the government, with no restrictions on its use or processing by the government and its private contractors.

Just as torture (which provides no credible intel) is a key component in Cheney’s strategy of rule by intimidation, telco/corporate immunity is a key component to his strategem of obtaining unrestricted government access to private information.

It’s time to Just. Say. No.

Hi
I know it’s asking to much the whole bill should die a silent death and the judges that serve on the panel should keep doing their job.

Everyone that voted for this should be thrown out of office it’s that simple for they no longer serve the consitution or the electorate.

If they ever did, more than likely corporate masters.
jo6pac

I was wondering about that…if the bill fails do we revert to the original law? Wouldn’t that be better all the way around?

You don’t need probably cause to issue a warrent for the arrest of George Bush. He has admitted on National Television that he broke the law. I am not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that if the house was led by anyone with any guts, Bush and Cheney would already have been arrested (and releasd on 100 million dollars bail) and their offices, computers, and files impounded and searched. Maybe Pelosi should be arrested with them, as she is obviously a party to a criminal conspiracy.

The interests in control of the executive branch have ufortunately meshed their business interests with America’s energy needs. Our dependenance on Oil is their “business.” A 50 billion dollar “business venture” in Iraq gone astray, now costing trillions…..

There has never been a more urgent need to preserve fundamental privacy protections and our system of checks and balances than the need we face today, as illegal government spying, provisions of the Patriot Act, and government-sponsored torture programs transcend the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security.
I urge you to make the following changes in S. 2248, the Administration / Rockefeller bill:
• No amnesty for breaking the law: Remove the provision giving the Attorney General the sole discretion to provide retroactive and prospective immunity to any telecommunication or other companies that spy on their customers. Consumers need the right to bring suit in either state or federal court to hold the telecoms accountable for illegally handing our information over to the government and our states’ utility commission need to be able to investigate or file suits that seek to stop the companies from spying on us in the future.
• Restore court review of orders for surveillance when not all participants in the conversation are foreign as a check on governmental access to our information.
• Require surveillance orders to specify who is going to be listened to or what facilities the government is going to tap into, in order to prevent authorizing dragnets that can sweep up Americans’ communications just as long as a specific, known US person isn’t the “target.”
• Place restrictions on the how and how long the government may keep, use and disseminate any US person’s information collected under this new warrantless dragnet. The data should be destroyed after it is used only for its intended purpose and datamining should be forbidden.
• S. 2248 should sunset on December 31, 2009, requiring a complete review under the next US government, hopefully one which will be more committed to upholding the Constitution than the current one.

A’57 @ 48

i sing of Olaf glad and big
A Poem by e. e. cummings

i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel (trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but—though an host of overjoyed
noncoms (first knocking on the head
him) do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments—
Olaf (being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds, without getting annoyed
“I will not kiss your fucking flag”

straightaway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)

but-though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skillfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat—
Olaf (upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
“there is some shit I will not eat”

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ (of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you

Ehren Watada! *g*

I pray this does not come to pass
But I suspect it will

The energy source with the capacity to bring change belongs to the Power of Life. Not the Forces of Death.

The elect of the people either do the will of the people or become the first fruits of revolution.