Their letter (PDF) is here.
The pertinent quote is, “CCIA represents an industry that is called upon for cooperation and assistance in law enforcement. To act with speed in times of crisis, our industry needs clear rules, not vague promises that the U.S. Government can be relied upon to paper over Constitutional transgressions after the fact.”
Sylvester Reyes, Chairman of the Intel Committee is saying that the Dems are willing to cave completely on telco immunity.
There is no need for this.
Emptywheel at Firedoglake makes a very good point: The telcos doubtless had indemnity agreements, whereby the US government agreed to pay all judgments, so they are at no risk.
The telco immunity is about Bush and His Evil Minions™ trying to avoid any real scrutiny regarding their activities.
Yes, in addition to other matters, Bush is going full fear factor to sell the telco immunity.
I hope it won’t work. My sense is that the House stood up to him, and when they went home for the recess, they had constituents high-fiving them.
If they have any sense at all, they will tell Mr. 19% to pound sand.
They tried to collect all the phone records, and all the internet traffic, and they started in February 2001, 7 months before 9/11, and Bush is terrified that he’ll have to pay for his law breaking.
Let him twist in the wind.
The Republicans are shocked that their efforts to cover-up illegal telco spying on Americans have gone unrewarded.
Despite their best efforts to get retroactive immunity to pass, they have not seen an increase in donation from phone and internet companies.
This isn’t surprising. The telcos know that immunity is to cover the collective asses of Bush and His Evil Minions™, and that the Republicans will cover his ass regardless of whether or not they donate to Republican campaigns.
You see, the telcos are trying to rent Democrats, because they know that the Republicans are already bought and paid for.
I believe that this may be the fruits of the house telling Bush to pound sand on Telco immunity.
They did this, and then they went home, and the feedback from constituents was overwhelmingly positive, so now Harry Reid has found some guts on the foreclosure bill.
I think that Reid may finally get opposing that a president with a 19% approval rating, which makes Bush as popular as a home root canal kit, is a winning strategy.
Besides, this is something that is easily understood: It prevents foreclosures from creating instant slums, and it puts some of the onus on the banks, who were more financially knowledgeable than their victims.
Rep. Markey has consistently been at the forefront of such things, and how he has proposed the Wireless Consumer Protection and Community Broadband Empowerment Act, which calls for the following:
Seems like a good bill to me.
Earlier I wrote about my senator, Barbara Mikukski, and her voting for telco immunity, and the inadequacy of her response.
I also wrote to Ben Cardin, expressing my appreciation to him for voting against caving to George W. Bush. Major props to him:
Dear Mr. Saroff:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the President’s warrantless wiretapping program.
In February 2008 I voted against final passage of S. 2248, the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Amendments Act. The bill would have made permanent changes to the original FISA law in addition to many of the changes included in the Protect America Act (PAA). I am disappointed that the Senate has failed to a dequately improve the PAA which Congress enacted in August 2007, and which I also opposed . The PAA was intended to be a temporary solution to FISA, giving Congress the opportunity for a more careful consideration of amending the FISA law.
The President must have the necessary authority to track terrorists, intercept their communications, and disrupt their plots. Congress should make needed changes to FISA to account for changes in technology and rulings from the FISA Court involving purely international communications that pass through telecommunications routes in the United States . While we have a solemn obligation to protect the American people, we must simultaneously uphold the Constitution and protect our civil liberties.
After learning about executive branch abuses in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress passed very specific laws which authorize electronic surveillance. Congress has regularly updated these measures over the years to provide the executive branch the tools it needs to investigate terrorists, while preserving essential oversight mechanisms for the courts and the Congress. FISA requires the government to seek an order or warrant from the FISA Court before conducting electronic surveillance that may involve US persons. The Act also provides for post-surveillance notice to the FISA Court by the Attorney General in an emergency.
I am very concerned that the FISA law was disregarded by the Administration, and want to ensure that we put an end to this type of abuse. We are a nation of laws and no one is above the law, including the President and Attorney General. Congress has the right to know the extent of the warrantless wiretapping program and how it was initiated and changed over the years by this Administration.
I voted in favor of the Judiciary Committee substitute to the Intelligence Committee bill. The Judiciary Committee version strengthened Congressional and judicial review, including increasing the oversight by the FISA Court of the Administration’s wiretapping program. I am therefore very disappointed that the Senate rejected the Judiciary Committee substitute, and that the Senate has rejected numerous amendments – including an amendment that I had offered which would reduce the length of the reauthorization from six to four years – to improve this legislation.
I am hopeful that the House will make much needed improvements in this legislation during conference, and that I can support balanced legislation that gives the intelligence community the tools it needs to track terrorists and prevent attacks, while maintaining safeguards against the abuse of power by the executive branch. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to work to ensure the safety and security of the American people, as well as their civil liberties. Domestic eavesdropping raises serious and fundamental questions regarding the conduct of the war against terrorism, the Constitutional and privacy rights of Americans, and the separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Congress must continue to work to strike the right balance, and we did not achieve that goal with this legislation.
Thank you again for contacting me, and please feel free to do so again in the future.
The ‘Phants in the Senate are threatening a filibuster, and the white house is threatening a veto over the Senate’s bill modifying bankruptcy laws to allow a judge to modify the terms of a loan on a primary residence.
Today, you can do this on your yacht, or your vacation home, or your rental property, but not on your loan.
Allowing so-called “cram downs” will not fix the problem, but it will make it better, and it will land squarely on the shoulders of the lenders who were the worst actors in this debacle.
You know the old saying, “Capitalism for the Poor, Socialism for the Rick”, and in that vein we have the large multinational banks lobbying congress for a bailout.
Bank of America is circulating a legislative proposal to create “a Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation that would buy up billions of dollars in troubled mortgages at a deep discount, forgive debt above the current market value of the homes and use federal loan guarantees to refinance the borrowers at lower rates”.
It’s a bailout for the banks more than anything else, and the author of the article, NY Times reporter Edmund Andrews, notes he irony when he says:
A confidential proposal that Bank of America circulated to members of Congress this month provides a stunning glimpse of how quickly the industry has reversed its laissez-faire disdain for second-guessing by the government — now that it is in trouble.
These folks made their bed, and they had the computers and models, let them lie in it. Any bailout should be to the people at the bottom of the pyramid, not the top.
The Republican’ts are threatening a filibuster, and Bush and His Evil Minions™ are threatening a filibuster, but the Senate bankruptcy reform bill is a decent piece of legislation.
Basically, it gives bankruptcy courts the right to modify the terms of a loan on a primary residence, much in the same way that they can for rental properties and vacation homes.
It should keep people in their homes, it will allow things like outrageous fees and deceptive loans to be modified, and it places the burden to a large degree on the purveyors of the toxic mortgages.
Needless to say, the mortgage industry hates it.
Hillary Clinton is finally going after Barack Obama’s dishonest right wing attacks on health care reform.
This is going to make any health care plan nigh-impossible if Obama gets elected. Thanks.
Universal Healthcare is more than a core Democratic Party value. It’s essential to save this nation.
What’s more, it will change the dynamic of governance in the US for decades to come, and will create a Democratic majority nationwide for decades to come.
And Barack Obama is campaigning against it, because he thinks that he’s just so awesome that he will get Republicans to support him in slitting their own throats politically.
Too true. Too Funny.
A week or so ago, I sent an email to my Senators regarding the FISA update and Telco immunity.
I congratulated Ben Cardin, and castigated Senator Barbara Mikulski for their votes on telco immunity, which is really all about covering up the misdeeds of the Bush administration.
Here is her response, and my comments, which I’m not sending, because it won’t do any good:
Thank you for getting in touch with me to express your concerns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). I appreciate learning of your views about this important matter.
As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am very aware that terrorists plan and intend to harm the United States and the American people. I hear about these threats every day – and I take them very seriously. Yet I agree with you – that even as our nation faces new threats, Constitutional protections must be safeguarded.
Which is why she decided to allow the phone companies to Hoover the records of every call in the US and all the internet traffic.
To quote Keith Olbermann:
Mark Klein is the AT&T whistleblower who appeared on this newscast last November, who explained, in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all of AT&T’s circuits — everything carrying every phone call, every e-mail, every bit of web browsing — into a secure room…
…Room Number 641-A, at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco — where it was all copied so the government could look at it.
Not some of it; not just the international part of it; certainly not just the stuff some truly patriotic and telepathic spy might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.
Everything.
Every time you looked at a naked picture, every time you bid on eBay, every time you phoned-in a donation to a Democrat.
“My thought was ‘George Orwell’s 1984,’” Mr. Klein told me, reflecting back, “and here I am, being forced to… connect the Big Brother machine.”
You know, Mr. Bush, if Mr. Klein’s “Big Brother Machine” — the one the Vice President conveniently just confirmed for us — if it was of any damn use at all at actually finding anything, you could probably program it to find out who started that slanderous e-mail about Barack Obama.
Your actions are inexcusable and unforgivable.
The FISA Act was created in 1978 to regulate how electronic surveillance was conducted in the United States . This law needs to be updated to account for changes in communications technology over the last thirty years.
I’ve yet to see any reason for this. What FISA says is, “if you think that there is an issue with foreign communications, you get the tap, but a judge has to approve it within 72 hours.
That’s why I voted for a bipartisan bill that updates a number of problems with the existing law. This new legislation (S. 2248) strengthens national security while protecting civil liberties. The bill also strengthens the role of the FISA Court by requiring greater judicial review and improves oversight and accountability of the entire FISA process. The Senate passed S. 2248 by a vote of 68 – 29 on February 12, 2008. One key provision I fought to include in this bill was a requirement that a warrant must be approved by the FISA Court to monitor a U.S. person anywhere in the world. This new protection means that the Constitution travels with you – even beyond the borders of the United States.
Under FISA, you need a warrant within 72 hours for anyone. How is this “stronger”.
I understand your concerns about providing limited liability protection to telecommunication companies who assisted the government’s efforts to disrupt terrorist plots in the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001. While the Bush Administration wanted full retroactive immunity for these companies and any White House employee or government official involved in the warrantless wiretapping program, S. 2248 provides a more narrow, focused, and limited liability protection . I strongly supported an amendment offered by Senator Feinstein that would have required the FISA Court to determine if liability protection should be afforded to these telecommunications companies. Unfortunately, that amendment failed to get enough votes to become part of the bill.
Your ignorance astonishes me. This program did not start, “the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001”, it started in February, 2001, a full 7 months before the attacks, and it is clear now that the administration used threats of retribution on government contracts, as in the case of Qwest to get compliance.
When the Senate debated this bill, I supported this protection because those companies were acting in good faith under assurances from the President and the Attorney General that what they were being asked to do was legal. You should know that I also support holding accountable those Bush Administration officials who disregarded the law under the President’s secret wiretapping program.
These companies have legal departments. They know the law. And they are already protected when they follow the law. If they were told that a FISA warrant was in process, they would be indemnified.
Your claim that you, “support holding accountable those Bush Administration officials who disregarded the law under the President’s secret wiretapping program”, is a lie.
Whats more, in your capacity as a member of the intelligence committee, YOU are one of those people who allowed him to disregard the law.
I have heard from many Marylanders on this important issue and I appreciate hearing of your concerns. While we may disagree on some parts of this reform, we both share the same goal of strengthening national security while protecting our civil liberties.
No, you are interested in covering your ass, in one of the bluest states in the nation against Republican attack ads. That;s why you, and about 1/3 of the Democratic Senatorial caucus folded like broccoli to George W. Bush, who is less popular than hemorrhoids.
Again, thanks for keeping in touch with me. Please let me know if I may be of assistance to you in the future.
Sincerely,
Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator
Just so you know, I will never vote for you in a primary or general ever again, nor will I give to an organization that endorses you.
Following the House growing some balls and not caving on telco immunity, the Congress is trying to redraft the bill to get something passed, but the Republicans are refusing to even show up to the meetings on this.
It’s a big whiny baby tantrum.
If I own a rental property, or a vacation home, and I declare chapter 11 bankruptcy, the courts can modify the terms, though not the principal, or the loan, but for my primary home, they cannot.
It does not make sense to me either, so I support the bills Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act of 2007 and the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, which allow courts to modify mortgage terms in bankruptcy.
They don’t go far enough, they only apply to the more exotic mortgages, and they should apply to all, particularly in terms of prepayment penalties and other fees.
The mortgage industry says it’s bad for consumers, because it will drive up interest rates.
The truth is that it makes the more exotic mortgages less attractive, but the old style fixed rate mortgages should be about the same.
Even if it did bump up rates, average mortgages payments would still stay the same, because people do not buy homes on price, but on monthly payments, and prices would adjust.
That’s what happens when one makes such a highly leveraged purchase.
As the late, great Steve Gilliard says, never stop a your enemy from stepping on his own dick, and George W. Bush’s proposal to raise Medicare premiums is such an example.
It turns out that the Medicare costs projected by the lying sacks of excrement in the Bush admin are wrong, so the lying chimpy usurper boy is proposing an increase in premiums, along with the proposed cuts he put forward earlier.
FWIW, I think that this is an excellent time to reintroduce legislation granting authority to the government to negotiate with drug makers.
The Republicans are going to have to vote for higher premiums, which is a political loser, and for Medicare cuts, which is a political loser, and against the power to negotiate with drug manufacturers, which is a political loser.
Heck of a job Georgie.
Holy crap. She is calling Shrub’s bluff.
February 13th, 2008 by Speaker Pelosi
All Members of Congress fully understand and support our responsibility to protect the American people and the need for the President, the Congress, and policymakers to have the best possible intelligence to fight terrorism.
On Friday, a surveillance law insisted upon by the President last August will expire. Today, an overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted to extend that law for three weeks so that agreement could be reached with the Senate on a better version of that law. The President and House Republicans refused to support the extension and therefore will bear the responsibility should any adverse national consequences result.
However, even if the Protect America Act expires later this week, the American people can be confident that our country remains safe and strong. Every order entered under the law can remain in effect for 12 months from the date it was issued.
Furthermore, the underlying Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides for the surveillance of terrorists and provides that in emergencies surveillance can begin without warrant, remains intact and available to our intelligence agencies. Unlike last August, the FISA court has no backlog of cases, and thus can issue necessary court orders for surveillance immediately.
Because of the laws regarding binding arbitration, details of the pervasive culture of gang-rape at Halliburton operations over seas will never see the light of day.
The Congress has increasingly made easy for companies to institute binding arbitration, and this is the result, rape without consequence.
One hopes that the House will have some guts, but I doubt it.
This is about protecting lawbreaking by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade, not about keeping anyone safe or getting the cooperation of telcos.