None of these people including Edwards has ever leveled with the public the “real” reason they voted for this occupation. Any person with a half-brain knew before the invasison the reasons were fraudulent. So all votes were either for a corrupt, stupid, as a favor or forced but no vote could have been that anyone really believed Saddam was a threat.

I may be wrong here, though I feel very sure of my ground, but I think you are incorrect about what Leahy’s position is in this.

Here’s what happened. There were two bills passed. Leahy’s bill said NO immunity for telecoms. The other bill said yes to immunity for telecoms. It’s up to Harry Reid which bill get to come to the floor first, and Harry deliberately picked the one that had yes to telecom immunity, thereby weakening the bill that Leahy supports’ chance to pass.

So you see, it’s Pat Leahy who’s the one who is getting screwed here, and by no lesss than Harry Redi. So what’s the next step. The next step is that since both bills will be passed, it will go to conference committee, and the bill that will come out, is sure to have FISA immunity in it.

Leahy is not the enemy here. It’s Harry Reid. Friends on the hill say it’s only the fact that Leahy is fucking furious with Reid that is poasponing this thing from a vote for about a month. Maybe.

Just to clear things up.

Nonetheless, it’s seems that once again, it takes someone like John Edwards who is outside the rarefied air of the Washington cocktail weenie circuit to show some actual, you know, political type leadership on this issue.

And that includes candidates, you know, leaving the campaign trail to do their jobs

What is more important? Their jobs or our country?

I would hardly call campaigning at this stage “our country” so yes, their jobs are more important right now, seeing as their jobs directly affect the state of our country

Under the 1994 US Congress the CALEA bill was made law:
“The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994 (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279). In its own words, the purpose of CALEA is:

To amend title 18, United States Code, to make clear a telecommunications carrier’s duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes.
CALEA was intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have the necessary surveillance capabilities. Common carriers, facilities-based broadband Internet access providers, and providers of interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service – all three types of entities are defined to be “telecommunications carriers” for purposes of CALEA section 102. The driving force in adopting CALEA was the FBI’s worry that increasing use of digital telephone exchange switches would make tapping phones at the phone company’s central office harder and slower to execute, or in some cases impossible. Since the original requirement to add CALEA-compliant interfaces required phone companies to modify or replace hardware and software in their systems, U.S. Congress included funding for a limited time period to cover such network upgrades. CALEA was passed on October 25, 1994 and came into force on January 1, 1995.”

There is more at Wikipedia the source.

Me loves John Edwards and what he stands for — jobs and health care for the middle-class and working-class and poor Americans. No to the corporate greed of the the drug and insurance and banking industries.

You notice that Edwards is out front of both Hillary and Obama on the message and they’re both stealing it by bits and pieces? Good for them, but better for the Democratic Party and America.

Just sent another 100 bucks to John Edwards to keep the fight alive.

cinnamonape at 189
In response to Twain @ 163
Are you saying that those of us who support Edwards are dumb?

Apparently some people want to set up a situation where they can run to Jane and accuse me of insulting others on the site. I’m not going to fall for that. I’ll simply say that I really, really wish that people who support Edwards were a bit more critical of their candidates activities.

For one thing, if he were nominated those things would assuredly be raised against him. And indeed, the very fact that he hasn’t been a front-runner has led to these things not being examined by the MSM to any great extent.

I’ve seen this pattern in your comments before — not exclusively anti-Edwards; just contrarian. Like a knee-jerk reflex. One of the mods slapped my wrists for noticing the cinnamonape comment trend before … so I await that.

Now, on to the issues rather the personalities behind them, what I really find absurd are your assumptions that (a) no one is beating up on Edwards “yet” (?? He’s the Curse of Corporate America. Haven’t you heard? And for that I support Edwards double-time; and (b) the Dark Side is just ignoring him right now; but, never fear, all that lobbyist payola he slurped up (See Clinton and Obama), all those child prostitution rings he set up (See Larry Craig, G.W. Bush, that male prositute from the fake WH Press Corps who did overnights in the White House, et. al), all the bad John Edwards stuff will come out. Any day now.

Don’t hold breath.