McDermott petitions D.C. appeals court

[Rose Siding]

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) is petitioning the full nine-member Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to hear his case involving a taped phone call between House GOP leaders.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) sued McDermott for invasion of privacy in 1998 after McDermott circulated a taped call between Boehner and other House leaders regarding an ethics charge against then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Boehner, now majority leader, was then chairman of the House Republican Conference.

At the end of March, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District ruled 2-1 that McDermott unlawfully received the tape from a Florida couple who illegally intercepted the call in December 1996.

McDermott said that the divided ruling is “both unsound in principle and unworkable in practice and will chill the disclosure of truthful information on matters of public concern.”

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/042706/court.html

[mntleo2]

1. I Am So Glad He Did That!

I cannot understand how a court can make something retroactive. What I mean about this is, I believe that this happened before the laws went into affect making it illegal to listen into a cell phone conversation. Remember cell phones were not that prolific then and they were on a lower frequency. Now the frequency is so high, hardly anyone can listen in (except I am sure the governemnt). Before that it was considered public airwaves and tho you could listen, it was not encouraged. I agree it is respecting someone's privacy to not listen, but hey...Most of the time, who would want to listen anyways? Somebody having a fight with their spouse? People chatting with their friends about going to the beach or somebody ordering pizza? How boring. Sheesh!

I remember it well, because I knew someone who had one of those radio recievers that could also get SOME cell phone frequencies, but when the law went into affect, she got rid of it. She never wanted to listen into the cell phone coversations anyway so much as perhaps the local news station's radio transmission to keep up on traffic or local news before it hit corporate radio and TV.

I heard the tapes originally when they were broadcast on corporate radio, and those tapes made him look like the ass he is. The reason those tapes were broadcast on corporate stations then was BECAUSE IT WAS LEGAL TO LISTEN. Boehner is a vindictive corporate slut and it was embarrassing to him to have it made public as to how easily he spread his legs for anybody that came along. And it was looking like Gingrich was going to slide out of some of the very ugly things he had done.

They deserve to have it broadcast again, IMO.


My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[NorthernSun]

2. Cheap cellphone companies

The cell phone companies were too cheap to scramble their signals so they paid congress to make it illegal to hear unscrambled radio signals - For the first time in history! Of course they tried to keep secret that anyone could listen in because it would hurt their sales. Even police departments and big stock traders were using cell phones and not realizing that any criminal could hear their conversations.
Congress banned the manufacture of radios that could pick up the cell phone frequencies but now some companies are operating outside that band and putting many people in jepardy again.

[lindisfarne]

3. McDermott really needs financial help to pursue this lawsuit.

http://www.mcdermottforcongress.com/
http://www.mcdermottforcongress.com/getthefacts.aspx
(donation link at bottom of page)

[mntleo2]

4. Kick. Please Donate To McDermott's Legal Fund!

Yes McDermott needs financial help with this and it implicates many other things other than his right to have a recording of a broadcast phone call, IMO. I just wanted to make sure other people saw he needs assistance with this.

Boehner is a corporate whore and everybody in DC knows it. He is using his power to corrupt and soil our Congress further, IMO.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[0007]

5. bttft

[Pastiche423]

6. Kick

McDermott is one of our greatest. I'm donating again.