(no subject)

Did you know there was a minor act of political heroism over the past few days? There was.

Congress is considering a change to FISA. Some of the changes are technical... but one provision under consideration is to say that, if the telecoms violated the law, giving the government information without a lawful order, they should not be held responsible.

The telecoms had a duty to make sure they didn't just give information to some bozo with a badge. They had a responsibility to say "show us that we are obligated to give you this information." It's well known that they did not live up to this responsibility in at least one time period.

It's also clear and obvious that the President engaged in wholesale violation of FISA, and attempted to hide this behavior from the courts and the Congress. (Don't tell me he had the right under some theory of executive power. If he had that right, he could have gone to the courts to test that theory and obtained a ruling.)

The only way we're ever going to learn what happened, what laws were broken, and *why* they were broken - of course the administration insists it was "for our own good", they'd say that in any case - is via the telecom lawsuits.

Feinstein suggested a compromise. Let the FISA court rule on the legality of the orders given to the telecoms. If they followed legal orders, they'd get immunity.

That was rejected as a poison pill.

It seems clear that there's two sides to this issue. On one side, people want to learn about how the government and the telecoms violated the law. On the other side, people want to paper over wrongdoing.

After a heavy fight, the bill was pulled temporarily.

Please contact your Senators and ask that they fight telecom immunity in the new FISA bill.

(no subject)

Did you know there was a minor act of political heroism over the past few days? There was.

Congress is considering a change to FISA. Some of the changes are technical... but one provision under consideration is to say that, if the telecoms violated the law, giving the government information without a lawful order, they should not be held responsible.

The telecoms had a duty to make sure they didn't just give information to some bozo with a badge. They had a responsibility to say "show us that we are obligated to give you this information." It's well known that they did not live up to this responsibility in at least one time period.

It's also clear and obvious that the President engaged in wholesale violation of FISA, and attempted to hide this behavior from the courts and the Congress. (Don't tell me he had the right under some theory of executive power. If he had that right, he could have gone to the courts to test that theory and obtained a ruling.)

The only way we're ever going to learn what happened, what laws were broken, and *why* they were broken - of course the administration insists it was "for our own good", they'd say that in any case - is via the telecom lawsuits.

Feinstein suggested a compromise. Let the FISA court rule on the legality of the orders given to the telecoms. If they followed legal orders, they'd get immunity.

That was rejected as a poison pill.

It seems clear that there's two sides to this issue. On one side, people want to learn about how the government and the telecoms violated the law. On the other side, people want to paper over wrongdoing.

After a heavy fight, the bill was pulled temporarily.

Please contact your Senators and ask that they fight telecom immunity in the new FISA bill.