Imagine the sweeping power that the Mafia could have gained by pulling what the telecom companies have been able to do.

Just imagine. Granted that the situation is slightly different, but only in degrees. The telecoms were 'asked' by the sitting retard for 'help' in rooting out those terrorists. Really, that's the biggest difference.

The result is the same: corporations, front companies, knowingly and willingly broke the law and flagrantly violated the constitution and for a handful of beads, the politically powerful bent the law.

This sets a HUGE bad precedent... What's next? The Halliburton immunity act? The Blackwater terrorist operation support act?

As a matter of fact, If I was in congress I'd sponsor and submit these and many other bills into the record and demand similar treatment to that of the telecom sellout that just oozed through. What the hell, strike while it's hot and you can get these 'hard working' and 'patriotic' corporations the political cover to protect them from lawsuits of over the electrocution deaths of soldiers and immunize them from pesky wrongful death lawsuits and accountability for the billions wasted for their corporate benefit.

I'd do it. The time is right to stifle the rule of law and help the suffering people of Iran by unleashing these corporate do-gooders onto the world unencumbered by the threats of democracy.

Yes, I realize that I said Iran.

I've got a name for the legislation: 'The Iraq Contractor and Sub-contractor Support Act'.

No patriotic coward would dare not support legislation that gave all US corporations operating in foreign (have to leave room for the shameful future performance in Iran) lands total immunity from having to worry about being held back from their main task (fleecing America) in their efforts to bring (Bush league) democracy to these poor and unenlightened countries.

What's next? The Wall Street Economic Reconstruction Act which will toss out all lawsuits against mortgage and other financial corporations who were just trying to further the goals of a 'slave state' better America through investment in the communities where hard working Americans live.

Next is the (de)Flowering America Act which would eliminate all lawsuits and most of the pesky and hard to follow regulations on the herbicide and pesticide corporations who are just trying to maintain a greener America through the (ruthless) testing, development (and dumping/leaking) of their products. This would have the side benefit of helping the patriotic chemical corporations that are bearing the brunt of massive regulations loads. They need to be freed to do what they do best. (Killing human beings.)

All worthwhile and vitally needed legislation that no loyal automaton politician couldn't get behind in this current climate of cowardice.

Just think of the benefits to those politicians in the form of cold hard cash... What's more patriotic then that?

Court challenge?

Glenn, assuming this "compromise" legislation passes, why can't it be challenged via lawsuit?

It's so obviously unconstitutional I would think we'd see the same type of favorable 5-4 decision as in the Habeas Corpus case.

Preemption. What courts have jurisdiction? Does anyone? It's Frankenstein's monster!

It's not hard. It's gotten a little harder with digital phones but since they default back to analog when they are having a hard time communicating then wouldn't it be rather easy to get a phone into analog mode to facilitate eavesdropping? Some towers leap frog their signal from tower to tower I've been told.

Whatever this comes down to, I have heard that whenever a citizen perceives they are private or have an expectation of privacy then anything that violates that expected privacy is in violation of the fourth amendment. Now if this bill removes that 'actual' privacy then it can be argued that it has injured the average citizen that is expecting privacy in their conversations and daily actions. There are some very distinct areas where this privacy has been confined. Specifically, from what I remember, is your license plate number and your house number. I remember someone suing over their license plate number being revealed in the media and they tried to argue that it was a violation of their privacy. Since anyone driving behind you has access to it, it's not really very private.

Is this FISA thing a sellout, a CYA tactic (which must be a HUGE issue although if they actually agreed to this endless spying I'd not be to shocked. Now.) or the potential moving to permanently limit all privacy by in effect comparing your phone and email/internet traffic to a license plate. If you follow the idea, anyone *could* intercept your internet communications. Anyone *could* intercept your cell phone calls. Anyone *could* intercept your mail. Grabbing your land line phone conversations would be harder to put in the 'public domain'. If it gets to the point that they argue that, then all holds are off. If they start arguing that there is no 'expected' privacy then we are firmly in a police state and there may be no hope of getting out of it. I guess technically there wouldn't be *any* places considered private (except the president and vice president's office).

Will 'we the people' have to resort to offshore hard encryption devices to ensure our right of privacy? (Will hard encryption become illegal like Bubba Clinton tried to do? (It was his administration, right?)) Should we all become paranoiacs over the near total lack of perceived privacy. The leash on the government dogs sure has gotten long...

From Pandagon:

I will accept Obama’s cave-in on FISA if, the next time I commit several major felonies all in a row towards no discernible productive result, I can just say he asked me to do it and get off scott free. Deal?

No deal. Embargo on!

Seriously, these deals are only for those that can provide a service to the ruling elite. Bloggers at Pandagon, no matter how cute, don't rate a special deal.