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 [...]

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 [...]

Evangelical litmus tests and the World Series: why we all need to be rooting against the Colorado Rockies

The World Series starts tomorrow night and people around here have gone Rockies crazy. I’m getting asked a lot if I’m excited, and the answer is yes - Go Red Sox! They all want to know “why aren’t you rooting for Colorado?” So I’m answering them:
First off, the Red Sox are my favorite team. Second, [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

AT&T: Say bad things about us and we’ll cancel your Internets

Slashdot broke the news on Saturday that AT&T’s updated terms of service for its high-speed Internet packages essentially forbid you from criticizing the company on pain of cancellation. The full terms of service are here, and here’s the offending passage highlighted, courtesy of Ars Technica:
AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion [...]

Telecoms want immunity from prosecution for illegal spying–and Bush and the Democrats may just get it for them

The Sept. 20 Newsweek had an illuminating look at the secret lobbying campaign being waged by the major telecom companies to retroactively block lawsuits against them for their participation in the NSA/Bush regime illegal wiretapping program:
The campaign—which involves some of Washington’s most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because [...]

Six minutes to midnight in the surveillance society…

As our own Sunfell excellently explained recently, our society is rapidly becoming one where your data shadow can chase you wherever you go. Where privacy is an illusion, where every thought, word, deed, and action you take can be catalogued and used to call you a terrorist sympathizer, deny you employment, shatter your reputation, or [...]

9/11: Living without fear

This is going to be a slightly different 9/11 recollection. I’m not going to start by telling you where I was and what I was doing that day. Because 9/11 isn’t about me, really. Or you, or any one single person. It’s about something deeper, something that touches every person, everywhere.
It’s [...]

The unintended consequences of Bush’s war on porn

Last month I wrote about the Justice Department’s new mandate that porno companies need to keep dossiers on everyone who performs for them. One thing I hadn’t realized is that these rules could also be extended to adult social networking sites, with the same penalties and fines for noncompliance. As the National Gay and Lesbian [...]

Sen. Thompson’s warning about dissent: ‘Be afraid. Be very afraid.’

You’re a manufacturer of automotive tires. You want to sell as many as possible. So you stick a baby atop a stack of tires in a TV ad, subtly suggesting to viewers that if they don’t buy your tires, the baby will get whacked. That’s the fear card.
You own an insurance company. You want to [...]

Justice Department on net neutrality: “Trust us”

Yesterday the Justice Department filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission opposing the principle of “net neutrality” and urging the FCC not to sanction regulations to protect it. In a report and press statement that sound like they were written by executives from AT&T and Verizon, the DOJ regurgitates telecom talking points that falsely claim [...]