SOS
It's definitely SOS time: Shame on the Senate.
They voted late last night to confirm Michael Mukasey, as Attorney General, despite his stance on torture (pro) and executive power (unlimited). See Mukasey Wins Vote in Senate, Despite Democrats’ Doubts.
Next up for Senate to Sell Our Souls is a vote on the FISA amendments and telecom immunity. Specter floats compromise on FISA telecom immunity. Specter is supposedly proposing a "compromise" on immunity. Of course, in Specterese, that means he's giving away the store -- our rights. The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed a vote on the bill until next week. SJC To Vote On Surveillance Bill Next Week. Spenser Ackerman of TPM thinks it's to make the bill more palatable. Either that, or the delay is meant to give the Senate a break from the bad press over approving Mukasey despite his stand on torture before they do the same on FISA.
At this point, no one can seriously argue any more that the only spying that occurred was of the "bad guys" in other countries. As if there was any doubt, former AT&T employee Mark Klein has exposed that lie, by revealing that AT&T was involved with the NSA to capture all of our communications -- phone, email, internet. AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up.
And the whole argument by the telecom companies that they just responded to the government's requests during a time of emergency is just baloney. As described in Scholars and Rogues, Ignorance is no excuse for telecoms in NSA illegal spying case, the legal departments of these companies knew better than anyone what was permitted under the law. Hell, I believe that they were involved in drafting the law, so I would think they knew precisely what was permissible and what was not. And if it were at all within the realm of reason to argue that it was within legal requirements, immunity wouldn't be so important.
The only "interesting" question I have about all of this is whether the grant of immunity could constitutionally be given if the underlying conduct is unconstitutional. I'm certainly not a constitutional scholar, but if the spying done by the government, with the assistance of the telecom industry, was unconstitutional, can Congress grant immunity or is that an unconstitutional act of Congress as well? Of course, it would take years of litigation to get the answer to that question and with the conservative bunch on the Supreme Court, who knows how they come down on the issue anyway.
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