Five Before Chaos

It’s really simple.

Integral Psychosis has the goods on the latest outrage.

Ass hurt yet?

Cue sound of smacking forehead. This is getting old. From Kos:

That means, of course, de facto amnesty for the telcos. The federal district court would not be deciding on the legality of the program, they would be limited to determining if the White House showed the telcos a piece of paper saying that the warrantless program was legal enough–which we already know. They’re going to try to justify it with that “substantial evidence” business, as if defining that piece of paper as “substantial” somehow makes the fact that they are directing the court to make its decision, regardless of the law, not a travesty.

This did not need to happen. For more on this:

TMP Muckraker ‘

“A formal statement goes out making it clear that everyone — Democrats, Republicans, House, Senate — agrees that telecoms should have retroactive immunity.”

Greenwald:

“I’ve now just read a copy of the final “compromise” bill. It’s even worse than expected. When you read it, it’s actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program with the “Protect America Act,” so it shouldn’t be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is”

You know what to do, folks. If you have a blog, please spread the word, or at the very least, get some friends to make some phone calls.

Contact Nancy Pelosi: District Office – 450 Golden Gate Ave. – 14th Floor – San Francisco, CA 94102 – (415) 556-4862 -
Washington, D.C. Office – 235 Cannon HOB – Washington, DC 20515 – (202) 225-4965
FAX: 202-225-4188

Contact Steny Hoyer (who is to blame for a good deal of this happening): 1705 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone – (202) 225-4131
Fax – (202) 225-4300

Contact the Obama campaign: 866-675-2008

Contact Peter Welch: (802) 652-2450

Other congress members contact info can be reached here.

Well, apparently that Dem strategy of talking tough for a bit, get everybody excited and still bend over for Bush is still in full swing. It seems like now, after holding fast on FISA, there’s talk of still passing the telco immunity obstruction of justice provisions, this time in two separate votes which enables the House members opposed to immunity to still somehow feel good about themselves, while failing to realize if they actually did something dramatic or drastic, they might feel good about themselves and stand up for the Constitution. But that’d be asking too much, now, wouldn’t it? It boggles the mind? It’s still truly baffling why some feel compelled to give in to Mr. Dogshit-in-Chief. Where is the pressure coming from? Oh, that’s right.. all that telco money. Silly me.

And I’d like to issue a correction, of sorts. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece praising Rep. Silvestre Reyes for standing up to Bush on FISA, with his sharply worded letter that stated:

You have also suggested that Congress must grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies. As someone who has been briefed on our most sensitive intelligence programs, I can see no argument why the future security of our country depends on whether past actions of telecommunications companies are immunized…

I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.

We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.

Well, you can throw Reyes and his letter into the full-of-shit can, as well. TPM Muckraker has the goods on a CNN interview with Reyes from last weekend (emphasis mine):

And Reyes said yesterday that “we are talking to the representatives from the communications companies because, if we’re going to give them blanket immunity, we want to know and we want to understand what it is that we’re giving immunity for.” When Wolf Blitzer asked him whether he’s “open” to such immunity, he answered “absolutely.” He said that he and the other House and Senate Dems working on hammering out a compromise would probably be finished “probably within the next week.”

Fucking disgusting. And they know they got us all by the proverbial balls right now. We need more primary challenges. Many more. I know, it’s not an end-all solution, but it’d be a good start.

Reyes on CNN :