Tell Harry Reid to block granting telecoms immunity from the spy scandal

It’s heartening to see how Democrats and the American public alike are rallying behind the idea that the major telecom companies should not be immune from prosecution for their role in abetting the NSA’s illegal spying. The common wisdom is that Americans care less about esoteric issues like privacy than those that hit them in [...]

Prescription for congressional democrats…

Something from Mark Fiore for those congressional democrats who keep voting for FISA and war funding, and can’t seem to muster the political will to treat Bush like the lame duck he is:
Spineocrat!

Quotabull

Our purpose is, and has always been, to ensure a civil and safe environment where the many types of campus activities and open discourse can occur.
— University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump. According to an Oct. 25 Associated Press story: “University of Florida police were justified in using a Taser against a student who [...]

Is that a bottle in your vagina, Rep. Pete Stark?

…because, good Sir, you are the star of your own dirty shame today.

I guess if you’re going to hang yourself, your own spine is as good a noose as any. Slithering up to the podium like a worm, apologizing for:

Saturday Video Roundup: Mahmoud Benatar vs. They Might Be Seagulls

Ready to have a little fun? Good, because this week’s SVR is more fun than a barrel of monkees. Doing music videos. Let’s kick it off with an ode to lip gloss. Because, you know, it be poppin’.

Dodd threatens filibuster of FISA bill

“Why does Harry Reid hate America and freedom?”
That’s the question I was asking myself after S&R reader “Dee Loralei” pointed out in comments to my post yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Reid was planning to move ahead with a vote on the FISA update, even in the face of Dodd’s hold on the bill. [...]

Democrats’ spines turn to jelly on warrantless spying once again–but there’s still hope

It was largely expected, but no less disappointing to wake up this morning and find out that Senate Democrats on the Intelligence Commitee agreed to carry water for the Bush administration by granting retroactive immunity to the telecom companies involved in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping scandal:
The draft Senate bill has the support of the [...]

Quotabull

Charity is not a health care system.
— Dr. Terry D. Dickinson, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association, defending dentists against critics “who include public health experts, some physicians and even some dental school professors — [who] say that too many dentists are focused more on money than medicine.”
The President feels very strongly that this [...]

Former President George W. Bush: What will he do next?

At noon on January 20, 2009, George W. Bush will become a former president of the United States. Assuming they live, he will join former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and his father in a unique fraternity.
He will be 62. He is a relatively young man in good physical health. He will be capable [...]

Homeland security: the lethal illusion

In defense of the indefensible.
If you go through life without making any enemies you’re doing something wrong. If you go through life making a lot of enemies you’re doing something worse.
For a long time, the US contented itself with one enemy, the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the CIA conducted covert operations such as rigging elections for [...]

Verizon to the government: “Our customer information…let us show you it.”

In response to an inquiry launched by House Democrats as to the role the major telecoms played in abetting the NSA surveillance program, Verizon came out yesterday and admitted that it had turned over customer data to federal authorities 720 times between 2005 and 2007–or once a day, every day, for the last two years:
The [...]

The NSA was spying on Americans before 9/11, and telecoms were in on it

That’s the accusation levied by disgraced former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who claims that he was approached by officials from the Bush administration to bring his company into an NSA surveillance program in February 2001–as in, several months before the 9/11 attacks, and contradicting claims made by the White House that 9/11 was the reason [...]

Lingering bad aftertaste from Clinton’s Iran vote

Though it’s been almost three weeks, Hillary Clinton’s vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment still sours the stomach. In Sunday’s New York Times Week in Review, Helene Cooper terms it “more hawkish than even most of the Bush administration has been willing to venture so far.” The bill, of course, branded Iran’s 125,000-member Revolutionary Guard Corps [...]

Saturday Video Roundup: edufication in the America

Howdy, folks, and welcome to Saturday Video Roundup, where today our guests tackle the tricky issue of education and politics. Up first, one of our heroes offers some thoughts on education in our ownership society.

Democrats battle Bush–and each other–over telecom immunity for spying

Although this Reuters article does a masterful job of burying the lead (as Denny would say), the fact remains–the House Judiciary Committee refused to grant immunity to telecom companies for illegal spying in their FISA law update
[T]he House Judiciary Committee voted 21-14 to reject an amendment sought by the White House that would shield telecommunications [...]