[Paisleychick-lj] Still no telecom immunity

[Beatrice M's blog]

[![][1]][2]   
[Wired][3]   
Originally uploaded by [von Kinder][4]. 

Yay! The "Protect America Act" expired because the House didn't roll over to the Executive Office. The Senate caved, but the House stood strong. The California senators were a mixed bag. Boxer voted correctly in my view all day long - Feinstein [not ][5]so [much][6]. Obama did make the vote at [11:03 am][6], but didn't make the 7:30 am vote - which caused some confusion on various blogs and stuff - did he vote no or was he just MIA? Both - as his travel schedule for campaigning has been pretty brutal.  
  
Okay, this is weird. I distinctly remember seeing a vote that took place at 7:30 in the morning and commenting on it on some political blog this week and wondering why they'd hold a vote so damn early in the morning. Now I can't find it because reddit's search engine, which is usually fantastic, is dead. All queries return 0 results. "there are no results here" Damn. Now, when I check the [US Senate Voting][7] records for Feb 12, I cannot find a vote for 7:30 am at all. I thought it was really odd that they would hold such an important vote that early in the morning. The [only one I can find][8] where he was a no show on the [12th is at 5:30 pm][8]. Maybe he had to leave then? I dunno. I do know that Clinton was a no show all day (even though she was in Maryland!!) and that I agree with the votes that Obama did cast. You can read his [press release][9] if you're interested.   
  
Okay, the more I look into this, the more confused I get. At [12:18 pm there was a vote on S.2248][10], which states it is: "An original bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to modernize and streamline the provisions of that Act, and for other purposes." The [vote held at 5:30 pm][8] is the EXACT SAME THING! The only difference in votes is that Obama wasn't present. ::scratches head::   
  
Either way, I'm extremely glad to hear that this bill is dead. The only real thing that Bush wanted was immunity for the telecoms that are aiding the government by spying on all of our communications. The FISA Act is still in effect. Wiretaps are not dead, the government can still get them. Well, provided they [pay the phone companies][11]. The government [finally admitted that they have been spying on us][12]. The interesting thing about this whole thing is that Bush was admonishing / bullying / whatever you want to call it the House into passing this bad idea. [Olberman's special comment][13] was great - as usual. I don't like his (MSNBC's) Hillary Bashing, but I do like his Bush Bashing.... Olbermann rightly points out that this failure of this act to pass is really on Bush's shoulders because he swore he would veto any legislation that didn't include immunity for the telecoms. Now that the Dems in the House stood up to him - guess what, there's a [vauge terror warning][14]. There is a [fantastic webpage-timeline of terror threats vs the underlying real news stories going on that week by Rolling Stone][15]. The main article ["The Fear Factory"][16] is a very interesting read. Rolling Stone has good reporting, which confuses me as I think of it as an entertainment rag. But really, I think they're on par with Harpers for some of their stuff.  
  
Mark Klein worked at AT&T and witnessed first hand the illegal warrantless wiretaps. He is a whistleblower extraordinaire. He came forward with stunning allegations and proof that the NSA hooked up a big ass interceptor and sucked all communications over their network. They really are helping to protect America from itself by bringing lawsuits against the telecoms that have illegally cooperated with the NSA - specifically, [AT&T][17]. [Donate to EFF][18] to help them with this incredible fight. [California Lawyer's cover issue][19] was on their work with this case. 

> One sunny day in San Francisco two winters ago, a retired telecommunications technician with an understandable distrust of telephones stepped off a BART train after a short but fateful ride. His name was Mark Klein, and his destination was a red brick office building in an untouristed part of the city dominated by low-rise warehouses. There he met with a small group of maverick, tech-savvy lawyers called the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  
For Klein, then 60, this trip was a long time coming. As a veteran telecommunications technician and computer network associate at AT&T, he had in recent years obtained several company documents that described in specific, technical terms a secret room he says the National Security Agency (NSA) had set up on the sixth floor of an AT&T building downtown. Klein entered the room itself only once, and that was just for a couple of minutes. (Generally, people needed a security clearance to gain access.) However, just one floor above, he managed the Internet-traffic room to which it was electronically connected. Through that work, the documents he gathered, and conversations he had with other employees, Klein came to understand that his employer was colluding with the federal government to siphon a copy of billions of domestic Internet communications into that secret room, every second of every day. And all without a warrant. "Even Nixon didn't go that far," Klein thought. As he later told MSNBC, the situation made him think of George Orwell's classic 1984. "Here I was, being forced to connect the Big Brother machine." However, after complaining to a supervisor, with no result, he did not pursue the matter. He retired in 2004.  
Then, in December 2005, the New York Times outed the Bush administration's warrantless domestic-surveillance program, which the administration subsequently defended as an effort to monitor no more than a handful of phone calls to the Middle East. This convinced Klein that the time was finally right to share his inside information.  
His timing was better than he imagined: When he knocked on EFF's door that day in January 2006, the lawyers inside were already working feverishly to craft a class action against the nation's largest telecommunications company.

  
I'm really proud of the Democrats in the House for standing tall and NOT caving to Bush. I've been worried and depressed about how much congress as a whole has just rolled over and let the Bush team kick em instead of standing strong and pushing back. I know this is only one instance of them standing tall, but damn, this was an important one....

   [1]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/318622997_407407d29c_m.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonkinder/318622997/ (photo sharing)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonkinder/318622997/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/vonkinder/
   [5]: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00014
   [6]: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00015
   [7]: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_2.htm
   [8]: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00020
   [9]: http://obama.senate.gov/press/080212-obama_statement_122/
   [10]: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00019
   [11]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/fbi-wiretap-cut.html
   [12]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/on-cusp-of-sena.html
   [13]: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/77138/
   [14]: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbialert16feb16,0,2494118.story
   [15]: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18056504/truth_or_terrorism_the_real_story_behind_five_years_of_high_alerts/print
   [16]: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18137343/the_fear_factory/print
   [17]: https://www.eff.org/cases/att
   [18]: http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
   [19]: http://callawyer.com/story.cfm?eid=891639&evid=1

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/333388.html