Telecom Immunity Bill Hides Spying Provisions

Corrupt notes an Ars analysis of the FISA bill of which the telecom immunity provision has been getting all the attention. Timothy B. Lee enumerates the ways in which the bill loosens current protections on domestic wiretapping and opens up whole new areas to government eavesdropping. "The legislation eliminates meaningful judicial oversight of eavesdropping between American citizens and foreigners located overseas, and effectively legalizes dragnet surveillance of domestic-to-foreign traffic. It stretches out the judicial review process so much that the government will in many cases be able to complete its surveillance activities before the courts finish deciding on its legality."

Re:So it's even worse than we thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bin Laden must be laughing himself sick. One terrorist act that kills fewer people than died every single day during WWII, and the US starts throwing the rights and freedoms its heroes bled and died for down the nearest toilet...with enthusiastic applause from hysterical soccer moms and authority-worshiping lackwits.

And the most depressing thing is that he, himself, predicted it whie the rubble was still smoldering.

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The US Government will lead the American people - and the West in general - into an unbearable hell and a choking life."
- Osama bin Laden [cnn.com], as quoted in his only post-9/11 interview, ca. November 2001, and as aired on CNN in early 2002.

Facebook Groups to lobby Individual Senators

[Merlinus]

There is a group on facebook to lobby Senator Obama and follow-up groups to lobby every Senator individually:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17961184023 [facebook.com]

Groups for Minnesota Senators Klobuchar and Coleman:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17065979228 [facebook.com]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18283117073 [facebook.com]

Re:Yello (belly) alert

[Peter La Casse]

But the snipers were not terrorists; they were spree killers. They had no political agenda or ideological goals.

According to wikipedia [wikipedia.org], "A series of trial exhibits indicated that Malvo and Muhammed were motivated by an affinity for Islamic Jihad."

Re:What are you so worried about?

[ArcherB]

What do we have to be so darned worried about? It's not like the President would compile an "Enemies List" of people to wiretap, or something. This is America, right?

oh crap [wikipedia.org]

With respect to the fairness doctrine, I present the following:
FileGate [wikipedia.org]

The incident caused a firestorm of criticism because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top figures such as James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, and Marlin Fitzwater.