The vote on the GOP cloture motion -- to ignore all the amendments and proceed to a final vote on the Bush-Rockefeller SIC bill -- has just occurred. The motion has failed, which means (shockingly) that Democrats have successfully mounted a filibuster preventing the vote on this horrible bill from occurring.Translated to mean the Democrats seem to have evolved into vertebrates, although they're still an endangered species, and their capacity for DEvolving remains viable.
Tidy summary of what just happened to my faithful readers (all 3 of you): Today's anti-cloture vote means the FISA law, as unconstitutional as it is, has not yet been amended permanently with something even more odious called "The Patriot Act," embodied by the corporate/executive (read: fascist) wiretapping of your phones and monitoring of your emails -- of anybody at anytime -- and without warrant. Make no mistake: they're doing that now, but they're still liable for prosecution.
However, the worst of this excretia is Dubya's demand for immunity from civil action for the telecoms, i.e., AT&T and Verizon, for their wholesale participation in violating the American public's right to privacy. The telecoms must be held liable (to bankruptcy is the hope here) in order to hold Bush & Cheney liable (to maximum security incarceration is the dream here). If they get immunity, then the cover-up will succeed.
Of course, nothing is settled by today's events, and this act of what amounts to be heroism could easily be reversed with the help of 3 or 4 snivelling Senate Democrats not comfortable with doing the right thing. Stay tuned.
1 comment:
Got news for you. They may already have immunity. Gov. officials have immunity for anything done within their offices (i.e., scope of employment). If the telecoms are viewed as, essentially, deputized entities, making them "officials" there is an argument that such immunity attaches. Don't know that for certain, but it is a possiblity.
Commander Guy Deux, Attorney at law.
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