Rule of Law and American Values: Obama for, Hillary Absent, McCain Flip-Flops Against

Hey, as a reminder, Congress is considering giving immunity to a coupla big telecoms for apparently breaking the law, specifically Constitutional protections.

There are folks in Congress who believe that no one is above the law, that the privileged should be treated like everyone else, but the good guys lost a fight today in the Senate:

Senate Moves to Shield Phone Companies on Eavesdropping

Obama, not McCain or Clinton, votes for electronic privacy

Remember that an unrelated case involving the telecom Qwest showed that wireless wiretapping was requested well before the administration showed any interest in terrorism. Here's more info on that.

Ronald Reagan never broke the law like this.

Follow Craig Newmark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craignewmark

Comments

[GDliberal]

I think it was CNN that said hillary was in the DC area yesterday doing satelite interviews instead of voting.
Her priorites and mine are completely opposite.

[longislandlol]

Make that big 'brother' is watching-- something Orwell new would happen--- bravo to the brave new world of Obama, and the other Senators that voted with him-- the rest? The poll-taking rest?

[longislandlol]

And what a week it was --- big bother is watching us all and nobody but Obama gave a damn..

[milo9]

Immunity for full disclosure. Why hasn't that been put on the table?

[SayWhatOneMoreTimeMFer]

Their very public> Be ashamed if you voted for them:
Among the Dems voting for the bill were Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Max Baucus (D-MT), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Bob Casey (D-PA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

[Typographer]

The headline for the New York Times story should have read: "Senate Votes for Expansion of Spy Powers; Cowardly Democrats Join Bribed Senators to Support Retroactive Legal Immunity for Criminally Corrupt Bush-Toady Telcos".

The New York Times article points out that at least one of the Democratic Party supporters of this heinous bill (John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia) received what amounts to a $42,000 bribe from Verizon and AT&T to obtain his vote for shielding these two lawbreaking corporations from criminal prosecution and ongoing civil lawsuits.

The only hope for preserving some shred of traditional expectations of privacy is for the House negotiators on bill reconciliation to vehemently insist on no retroactive immunity for the Telco crooks.

[SubparDude]

:
Obama just proved His Mettle. And she her's.

Can Mrs. Clinton make any more judgemental errors this week?

History would honor her early withdrawal to unite the party...

But I fear she no longer cares.
:

[patriotscholar]

It gets even better. If you want to be shocked, read this article in Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/politics?type=politics
News&w1=B7­ovpm21IaDo­L40ZFnNfGe­&w2=B7tmRC­RJt2YFzDsa­7MJ1CblL
&src=blogB­urst_polit­icsNews&bb­PostId=Cz1­VeFnrO5fmh­Cz7sNEgkr6­eaqCz3hWJU­Rc5eE5Cz8b­p0emPnej3&­bbParentWi­dgetId=B7t­mRCRJt2YFz­Dsa7MJ1Cbl­L

Scary stuff.

[repuglycon]

Watching the rethug senators work this issue on C-span gives me the vapors.

[DoninJoisey]

Hillary is too busy to worry about such trivial things....
We are nearly at what Orwell foresaw in his "1984".
Our system of justice is seriously off track.
It's no secret the current administration favors business over the citizen - I thought government was supposed to protect us.
Another example that all forms of oversight have been gutted or made patsies of the industries the are supposed to watch over.

[LeoMarvin]

Pay attention and I'll explain why you hate freedom. You see, patriotic Americans love the Constitution. And what we love about it is that whenever somebody tries to use it we know we've caught ourselves a terrorist! Bam! Cool, huh? Look, I don't make phone calls to Osama bin Laden, so you've got no right to complain if I want to draw your blood and interrogate your neighbors. It's just LOGIC. Get it?

[tbone99]

Thank you Sen. obama for your putting your money where your mouth is!
.Strange how Repugs, supposedly for less govn't are not above turning the whole world into their tool.And to the Dims that help their attain their ends- I'm hoping a list of their names made public will enable us to shorten their careers quickly.
A recent second victory for ATT is an ok for ATT to to to cash out their older employees pensions to much less than their worth to the tune of several billions.In other words: gov"nt permission to forcibly subsidize a corporation with its employees earned cash.

[strandwolf]

Corporation...what is that? A body. In Europe, societie anonyme or something. Powerful stuff and potentially toxic.

As usual in your case Mr. Newmark, you write well, and with good purpose. (Thanks so much for your revolutionary creation, by the way: CL. You and your team have wonderfully enhanced human activity.)

[desmirl]

You expect McCain and Hilary to take a stand for the people and against the corporations? Hah! (Got that laugh from Chris Matthews!)

[PLUMPLUM]

Congress still blinded by fear. The same fear that made Giuliani's security company so much money.

Why did anyone allow Bush to this? Why did they not think that regardless of what the Patriot Act required, that human nature would ask for more?

This so unfair to the citizens of this country.

[LDW]

OMG! Barak Obama finally votes something other than 'Present', and Huffingtonpost has to give the occasion an article of its own, (complete with the mandatory Hillary Bashing).

Now we know: Obama CAN vote! Yes, HE CAN! Wow!