Obama: No Immunity For Telecoms

[Botany]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/21/obama-no-immunity-for-tel_n_108458.html


Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement in support of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he would try to strip a provision granting immunity to telecommunication companies when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate next week.

The House approved a compromise bill Friday that would set new electronic surveillance rules that would also shield telecoms from lawsuits arising from their participation in the government's warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and computer lines in the United States.

[bleever]

1. Yes.

That's the Constitutional scholar I voted for.

:thumbsup:

[Botany]

3. Thanx

[jeff30997]

2. "he would try "

Er..

[dailykoff]

4. How about "trying" to vote no on the whole "compromise"?

Better yet, how about being straight with us and admitting that FISA is totally unconstitutional and completely unnecessary and has been since it was secretly enacted in 1978?

[Skittles]

5. don't hold your breath n/t

[qijackie]

7. Absolutely. How about that? This bill is horrendous.

[Imagevision]

6. Until the shit hits the fan, Obams's the man!

[11cents]

8. So shameful for HuffPost to have that as the headline

It's the same story that shook us up yesterday, and Huffington tries to frame it as Obama asserting his principles. Apparently she thinks her job is to lie to us.

There's no way to polish this turd. His promise to "try" to remove immunity was actually the most offensive part of the statement, a blatant attempt to cover ass and hope we're too ignorant to notice. Including immunity seems to be the main reason for this bill's resurrection, and Reid has already said that the "attempt" to remove it will be fruitless. Anyway, the bill is poisonous even without immunity. The only thing that will stop it is a filibuster, which Obama can either greenlight or not. No sign so far that he will.