Today the FCC reversed a 30 year old ruling about multiple types of media being owned by one company.  Watch for the return of one company owning the newspaper, a tele station and both AM and FM stations in the same market.  Ain’t freedom of speech and freedom of the press a wonderful thing insuring that all views are represented?  I think its time for my meds again ...

My phone company just gave themselves another rate increase of 17% in Novembers billing. Are they expecting lawsuits anytime soon or is it just plain greed. It seems ironic that we have to pay more all the time for this intrusion of our non-existant privacy, if anything, those who want this so called important information should be the ones paying for the extra cost for the services they want and not the “little people” who own the phones they tap. After all if we want something we are expected to pay for it ourselves and not shift the expenses of wanted items onto others. The same should apply to Bush/Cheney, after all they have money and lots of it.

Shouldn’t they be paying us for providing them with some first rate entertainment that I am certain they hear while illegally listening to our phone conversations. And I am not talking about anything illegal either.

Let me see if I understand this.The King breaks the law and compels companies to break the laws and then no one prosecutes the King and the Congress gives the companies immunity.To paraphrase Mel Brooks"it is good to be the King”.Forget the Constitution we do not even have a Magna Carta.At least with the Magna Carta the King had to follow some rules.To allow the telecom companies and the King to violate the law and for neither one to have any sanctions is a farce on its face.Dictators always have the noblest of intentions that is why our Founders depended on the rule of law not the rule of man.Our King George may have the noblest of intentions but in our system if you are caught breaking the law someone has to pay.By the way if anybody lives in Count Rockefeller’s protectorate in West Virginia my heart goes out to you.How can you be head of the intelligence committee if you do not have any.

So does anybody else think it’s very strange that confronting such an important issue to Americans as this (determining if and how extensively some corporations and government agencies and officials worked together to egregiously violate the Constitutional Rights of American citizens) is going to be dependent on how long a single senator can remain standing in one spot, with no “potty breaks”?? Isn’t that more of a fraternity initiation ritual than serious governance? And isn’t reliance on such flimsy technicalities really a sign that there are no real, substantive options left at this point? Then again, Congress suffers an excess of lawyers, and this is the kind of gesture they understand so maybe there’s something worthwhile that will come of it; we’ll see I suppose, but I doubt that slipping on some NASA-approved diapers and hogging the mic is gonna do it.

Write/phone/email your senators,especially if they’re democrats, to advise them just how Orwellian/totalitarian this bill is and to advise them that yes votes for this bill will have consequences. These guys are turning the US legal code inro a rock from which all manner of maggots can run under and hide from the light of day.

#120854 by Robert Giacobbe

Ah Robert Giacobbe,

You are so right about the reasons why we need to make sure they don’t get away with this, and are allowed retroactive immunity, because of the legal wizards…(you didn’t include cheney’s ace, David Addington, but that’s OK…he maintains a spot very well below the radar, along with the rest of Cheney’s hand picked legal wizards).

Thing IS though, of those that you have mentioned, (as well as Gonzo and the others…can’t forget Gonzo) it isn’t so much THEIR ‘legal wizardry” but MORE the stupidity/incompetence/cowardice of all the rest of our elected officials, that have allowed them to get away with all of this. Any member of Congress, and ALL members of the Judiciary knew very well that all of these things were constitutionally ILLEGAL, and they let a lot of this stuff pass. Even the revised FISA last summer, when george threatened to keep them in session, and not ‘allow’ them to go on recess until they gave him continued authority to do what he had been doing illegally, was NOT necessary. The old rules never prevented them from wiretapping suspected terrorists, and the new ones didn’t help them.

So, the legal wizards are nothing more than patsy con-artists, doing the bidding of Dick Cheney, (it’s not like george knows a thing about any laws, and never has… at least not without one of his many ‘advisors’ telling him and writing it down for him to sign).

As for the THREAT of possible accountability, they already KNOW that. That’s why they hustled through the military commissions act, as well as the ‘revised FISA’ and so many others. They know damn well that once they’re out of office, they are fair game for prosecution on so many levels. And, they’ve known it for a while. Lord knows there are enough of us rubbing our hands together, just waiting to get them into multiple trials/tribunals/etc…here, there, every damn where!! I’m hoping to see ‘em at The Hague, even if just as an observer.

But, since they DO know this, I expect them to make a quick getaway, long before we can catch them. Cheney to Dubai, and georgie to Paraguay. (or close by in Argentina). So, if there’s gonna be any accountability, we need to get them before that happens.

Still, I’m with you. I have dreams…

Go Senator Dodd!!! He’s running for the office as well. How come nobody covers him much? Maybe he’s too busy working to campaign with the biggies? Like, doing his job?

Like Kucinich with the Cheney impeachment resolution that he put forth, that Ron Paul tabled, and wouldn’t allow to go forward?

Dodd and Kucinich at work. Where are the rest of them?

Quoue: “It’s hardly possible to write a posting like this without mentioning perhaps the most famous filibuster, which occured in Frank Capra’s classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” where Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic senator who stages a filibuster, to the point of physical collapse, against the Big Money guys in Washington….”

What a childish way of having to make a point. Even more childish, though, is the American compulsion to insist that people be “put to the test”. Of course, that is also the equivalent of the very primitive “Its either them or us”, uhh….....

this will come to nothing. remember only 60 votes are needed to stop a filibuster so that’s the GOP senators + 11 democrats. Also if the telecomms have to pay out they will just raise mine and your phone bill to do it.

About time,  he must be comming up for re-election.

Let’s wait & see ! Don’t be too optimistic !

Hip, hip, hooray for Senator Dodd! A true American Hero!

Hopefully Dodd will have the support of the dems and stress the foundation of this huse of cards built on sand.  Bushee’s want a pass on this bit of sleazy illegality.  In treaties and contracts with other nations they put in a clause that the nation won’t turn the USA over to the world court for war crimes.

Glad to see this about Chris Dodd.  The bankers may own him lock, stock, and cash register but apparently not the telecoms.

Let’s see it, Sen. Dodd, please…

If the man goes through with it, it may become a turning point in modern, American history.  (it may come to nothing too) I get the feeling that all this country really needs is for someone that can’t be ignored to stand up and say, “No more”.

Mr. Bush has built a house of cards with deceit and secrecy.  It stands because no one has been willing to blow it down.

And if Sen. Dodd, manages to stand up - all by himself - to the Bush administration, the Democrats will have a dark horse in the race striding ahead.