and some politics...good news, for once!

[lagilman]

House Passes a Surveillance Bill Not to Bush's Liking
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, March 15, 2008; Page A02

A deeply divided House approved its latest version of terrorist surveillance legislation yesterday, rebuffing President Bush's demand for a bill that would grant telecommunications firms retroactive immunity for their cooperation in past warrantless wiretapping and deepening an impasse on a fundamental national security issue.

Congress then defiantly left Washington for a two-week spring break.

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Hands have been slapped, the Constitution remains intact, and it looks like this mess will have to wait for the next president to come along before it can be resolved. Aw, poor Georgie, do you feel misunderstood and unloved?

Good. Asswipe.

A cheer for the congresscritters who stood firm, and voted to keep America the land of the free, not the land of the easily cowed...

Comments

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Good for Congress! About time these congressmen/women showed some backbone.

[tina-jens.livejournal.com]

I was not betting on the congress to do the right thing, but I'm pleased as can be that they did.

[rwglaub.livejournal.com]

The telecom companies don't need immunity, not if they did everything according to the law.

Getting a warrant is not difficult. All you have to do is present the evidence before a FISA judge, and in almost all cases it will be granted. There is also a provision for a warrant to be granted retroactively up to 72 hours later in case of emergencies.

Makes me wonder what this administration is trying to hide.

BTW, the Pentagon put out a report on Thursday (very quietly, not available on the web) that says that after surveying 600,000 captured Iraqi documents, there is not one bit of evidence that Saddam Hussein gave any direct support to Al Qaeda. His money was spent on payments to the families of Palestinian bombers and finding new ways of terrorizing his own people. The papers show that Saddam's security apparatus spent most of it's time going after the Iraqi people.