Friday, January 11, 2008

Telecom Immunity - McCaskill Fooled Again

Remember when Claire "WWJTD?" McCaskill rushed along with the Senate Republicans to approve an extension for the NSA's spying? Remember how her excuse was that it was sooooo important that the NSA continue its spying on the bad guys that we had to do something, anything, quick, even if it meant allowing the NSA to spy on ordinary Americans?

Flash forward to the recent debate on retroactive immunity for the telecom companies that traded their customers' privacy for government contracts. McCaskill joined with those who threatened to vote Republican again (WWJTD?), forcing a real Democrat (Chris Dodd, God bless him) to threaten a fillibuster. The simplistic argument in favor of telecom immunity is that the companies should not be exposed to harm for patriotically going along with government requests.

Yesterday, we saw just how badly McCaskill had been fooled.

The Feds care so little about the service that they don't even pay their bills, an those "patriotic telecom companies" have been treating our over-protective spy agencies like credit-risky teenagers - dropping their services when they start falling behind on payments.
In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.
It's gut check time for McCaskill. There's a lot riding on this retroactive telecom immunity issue, and, so far, she's on the wrong side of it. Did she spend all that time and all that money just so she could go to Washington and behave like Jim Talent? Did she really ask all of us who supported her campaign financially and with our volunteer hours to elect a stealth Republican?

Worse yet, did we support a fool? Or were we the fools?

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

See EX POST FACTO, Article I Section 9, US Constitution.

"No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

This shouldn't even be a debate.

McCaskill appears to be a "terror/freedom" Republican in Democrats wool.

(I'm not even going to go into the fact the actions of both the telecom industry AND the government in this matter were/are illegal.)

1/11/2008 2:04 PM  
Blogger craig said...

One question?
Why does a Senator in the majority party have to threaten filibuster?

1/11/2008 2:33 PM  
Blogger craig said...

One question?
Why does a Senator in the majority party have to threaten filibuster?

1/11/2008 2:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Crazy, isn't it?

The answer is "because the majority is so slim and Claire McCaskill and her blue dog friends hate freedom."

1/11/2008 2:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the Democratic party is as splintered as the Republican. There's something to like and dislike about both of them as well as the individuals in them. There are some Republicans I could also live without even though I am a conservative.

I truly wonder if we're ready for a third party.

1/11/2008 4:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, we are ready for a third party. Bloomberg could save our country from the socialist dems and the thoroughly corrupted republicans.

1/11/2008 4:31 PM  
Blogger whistleblower said...

travilingal and Unity '08…

Amen! We have become so divided that a "D" just means “anti-Republican”. Who can be liberal enough to please the far left? This isn’t just a problem with the Democrats, the Republicans are just as guilty. Is it just a show so that we don’t see how incompetent they really are?

I'd gladly vote for every Independent on the ballot just to rid ourselves of the extreme partisanship the currently exists, and I think a lot of the country would join in. About 80% of the voters are probably closer to the middle, than the left or right, but we don't get represented.

The State of the Union Address will be coming up soon. One party will applaud everything the President says. The other party will frown and shake their heads. That’s the way it has been for the last twenty years (That's are far back as I can remember). And we have the gall to call ourselves the “United States of America”?

Unfortunately, the mainstream media will not give an Independent the time of day.

1/11/2008 5:40 PM  

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