Plain and simple collusion of the two parties.
Not anything new, we have been watching it happen ever since the 2006 elections, when little miss Pelosi took over the gavel and started expounding for Bush.

You know what I am damn sick and tired of?

“Slipped into the Bill.”

Slipped into the Bill? What the H-E-Double-Q are these cabbage heads getting paid for?

If someone slipped something into MY bill I sure as hell would notice!

They’ve been getting away with this for far too many years!

If you get a little time, sit down and watch Fahrenheit 9/11 again. Wait till you get to the part where Conyers explains to Mike “We don’t read the bills.” I say we fire the whole lazy, incompetent, bunch of them!

Lazy, incompetent, hmmm ... who does that remind you of?

Re:Gmonst

I disagree, but you do what you will with your own dime.  There is no reason to record every transaction and keep a record of it by the government.  Small businesses must do their taxes and they can be audited just like everyone else.  To track each and every transaction a business or an individual makes, does indeed appear nefarious in my book.

In addition, this was “slipped in” to a 630 page bill.  As the article states:

“The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.”

Get rid of the Korporate Scum that willingly spied on you while charging you for it.

Switch to
working Assets or another carrier and tell Verizon and AT&t;to shove it and tell them why!

No surprise from our steel-spined congress, either.

Outraged,

That provision doesn’t seem so nefarious to me.  It seems to me like it is simply trying to get the government records of online income, much like the information reporting it gets from banks or employers.  If I am not reading it wrong, those who do less than 200 transactions a year, worth less than $10,000 a year are exempt from the reporting.  That means its targeting online businesses.  It doesn’t seem so much about spying (really I assume they already watch what they want to watch) as about getting taxes from online merchants.  It seems to me that kind of record keeping is inevitable.  Uncle Sam never lets a cookie jar of potential tax funds go unexamined for long.

As for the FISA deal its another of Congress’s capitulations to the White House.  I am not sure what was broken originally with FISA.  As far as I know it already allowed for wiretapping without a warrant for a certain grace-period time.  I have never seen the need for changes.  There might be good legitimate reasons, but they are not laid out very clearly.  The immunity for the telecoms doesn’t bother me so much for the telecoms not being punished, but that it puts up another road-block to getting at the truth of the law-breaking Bush regime.  It stands as further evidence that this weak-willed and timid congress will do nothing to bring the most corrupt presidential administration in the history of the country to any kind of justice.

This just in.  They also want records of every transaction made anywhere for anything.

“Washington, DC -  Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd’s 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: “This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay’s PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America’s small businesses are breathtaking.”

http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/press_template.php?press_id=2571

>It’s becoming more evident that spying on business was every bit as important to our “business presidency” as spying on the citizens themselves. It only makes sense.  Who has the brains? Who actually does the work?  What happens when citizens decide “the hell with the company”, I’ll work for myself.  In order to maintain the monopolies they’ve created they would need to subdue all competition, and know the “inside track”....right?

The only other ones you “need to know about” are journalists and activists.  They can be “problematic” since they tend to expose these things.  Sure…  And who put this verbiage in the bill…Dodd…or someone else?  Either way, I’m going to call.

In an editorial titled Mr. Bush vs. The Bill Of Rights, the New York Times Editorial Board clearly points out what a sham the much heralded FISA “compromise” really is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18wed1.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

“Mr. Bush’s powers do not supersede laws passed by Congress or the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

[And Mr. Bush is leaving! Adding puzzle to insanity. Why on earth does Congress capitulate to the man now?]

“If Congress cannot pass a clean bill that fixes the one real problem with FISA, it should simply extend the temporary authorization. At a minimum, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, should oppose FISA expansion and pledge to revisit it next year. If any significant changes are going to be made, they should be made under the next president.”

[Shoulda, coulda,]

Booman: http://www.crooksandliars.com/

“Here’s the meat of this issue. All electronic surveillance involving U.S. citizens must be carried out in accordance with the FISA law. And, provided that the law is followed there can be no liability for telecom corporations or anyone else that provides assistance. That’s laid out here:

(i) Bar to legal action
No cause of action shall lie in any court against any provider of a wire or electronic communication service, landlord, custodian, or other person (including any officer, employee, agent, or other specified person thereof) that furnishes any information, facilities, or technical assistance in accordance with a court order or request for emergency assistance under this chapter for electronic surveillance or physical search.

“Good God, is this why we elected a Democratic majority in 2006? So they can continue to enable the Bush administration as more and more independent sources have verified the criminality that we’ve claimed correctly all along?”

“Steny Hoyer’s “compromise” on FISA is odd, to put it mildly–infuriating to put it accurately. With a majority in the Senate, why the need for a compromise? Is it that Hoyer is just afraid not to be invited to any more cocktail parties by his Republican brethren? Even the NY Times calls it ridiculous.”
~~~

Steny Hoyer, a “Bluedog” is to be complimented for once again demonstrating the “Bluedog’s” eagerness to serve their master. There is a reason they’re called bluedogs. It sounds nicer than Yellow Dog. Or yellow bellied dog. Or mad and foaming at the mouth dog.

But we can’t place all the blame on them, or Hoyer. This never could or would happen if the corruption stopped at the aisle. Clearly TOO MANY of those on the left are not only willing to accept Bush policy and misbehavior and criminality, but they mean for it to continue long after the Bush is gone. How about that?

Just one more reason why they, particularly the leadership, the committee leaders, the bluedogs, and all the other tail between the legs congress-dogs who wimpled up to cast their yea vote, need to be replaced.

So, are we up to the job?

These misguided and misbegotten “leaders” really believe capitulation and enabling will guarantee a democrat victory in November! What they apparently are not smart enough to understand is very apparent to everyone else. Their cowardice and indifference screams, more of the same. So there’s a good chance they may actually defeat themselves, for sure giving us more of the same!

Geez! What does it take to get someone with the brains God gave a cabbage into congress?

Oh, duh! That’s what we have! A bunch of cabbage heads in congress. Only this bunch has moved beyond the sauerkraut stage and into spoiled rotten. [My gosh it stinks in here!] Time to throw them out.

I’m trying to understand the push for telecom immunity.  So the Chief Executive has the power to order private actors to break the law, and when he issues such an order, the private actors will be protected from liability of any kind on the ground that the Chief Executive told them to do it.  Wasn’t this the very theory that the Nuremberg Trials rejected?

This House Requires a serious cleaning.
I will not be voting for any Democrat who has ‘Appeased’ this admin.Recall Petitions will be welcomed at my door.
this is why the DoJ should also not be under the Executive branch but under SCOTUS. Nor SCOTUS’s nominated by the Pres & confirmed or denied by congress. they too should be elected positions- dependent on a Constituional Law degree and a record of protecting it.They too should be subject to removals and Re-Elections.
At this Point I would Welcome the UN and any action the international community would take against ALL Three so called Branches - Now more like a Stick.
this Bill, the funding bill, the silence on and disregard of the 35 articles of impeachment are only the crap they have done, or not done, in the last week which Prove We no Longer Live in a democracy.The international communtiy must know we are being Held Hostage,all our resources and ‘Toys’ at these criminals disposal. it would be in their best interset to take action before any of them are on the receiving end of their Game.But then again their silence and complicity only shows the entire world is corrupt.The idea of the Servant ‘Kings’, lost in tales of the Knights of the Round Table.Just Fables to keep Humanities Hopes Up.No Moral Lessons to be learned No Higher Calling to be had….
Makes an Atheist hope for the 2nd coming- maybe then we could get some Justice.
‘As Above,so Below’ has reversed “As Below, so Above”.Who do these People Serve- certianly Not Humanity,Nor those to come and certianly Not That which created us all .This is Hell.

Oh come on ... lets say it like it is. This 110th Congress does not compromise. They enable!

Got that congress? Every single one of you ... except Kucinich ... you enable. Kinda like you should be charged with complicity in a serial crime. Not because you hold the gun, but because you know and sit silent. There are some who might even say you drive the getaway car!

Who in heavens name has a chance in the face of your outrageous indifference?

What else did you expect from Nancy “can’t surrender fast enough” Pelosi?  People need to join Progressive Democrats of America and work to replace these corporate stooges with real Democrats who put healthcare before warfare, who don’t find it necessary to surrender our civil liberties to the lawless Bush regime.

Wonder if NSA managed to blackmail members of congress based upon what they gleaned from illegal wiretaps?

Or is it just those huge contributions coming from the telco industry?

Do not vote Repugnican or Democrap again, you’re just gonnadaget more of the same…

Congress is considering a “New Deal” type program to deal with the failed economy.  People will get paid by the government to spy on their neighbors.

This is disgraceful. The Democrats elected into Congress right now better not get used to their position because we’re going to get some new blood in Washington. Ridiculous.