You would expect the well-drilled Republicans in the Senate to vote, en masse, with the president to offer immunity to telecom companies, who, with him, broke the law and spied on hundreds of thousands of Americans.
What you wouldn't expect is the defection of 18 Democrats, who voted to ratify this unconstitutional FISA bill. What you wouldn't expect is the Senate leader Harry Reid to offer the Senate a version of the bill that included the retroactive immunity. Nor would you expect him to ignore a "hold" placed on the bill by Chris Dodd, which would have given Reid the opportunity to eliminate the immunity. After the vote, Ruff Tuff™ Harry Reid wrung his hands and bemoaned his inability to do anything to stop the bill. What a crock.
As for the Democrats who voted for the FISA bill with immunity, we can only guess that they agreed with the bill's precepts, or they were afraid of being accused of being soft of terror.
Have any of them examined the results of the primary in which a pro-civil liberties, anti-war candidate is leading all candidates?
Have any of them ever read the Constitution?
And so, not only can the government spy on you and me with impunity, and without a warrant, but any corporation which assists them now, yesterday or in the future, gets a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.
Unless the House decides to shred the immunity clause, and that's a possibility, though a small one. Time to call your representative in the House to have them vote against immunity.
BTW, while Chris Dodd was fighting immunity with every tool he had, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman voted to exonerate the criminal telecom executives.
All this and what's the major headline on the NY Times website? Clemens Set to Testify. Even if we have abandoned the Constitution, we aren't failing baseball.
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