{"id":1902,"date":"2008-02-12T20:43:56","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T01:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2008\/02\/12\/its-not-okay\/"},"modified":"2008-02-12T22:38:35","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T03:38:35","slug":"its-not-okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2008\/02\/12\/its-not-okay\/","title":{"rendered":"it&#8217;s not okay&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/02\/12\/AR2008021201079.html?hpid=topnews\"><strong>Senate Approves Spy Bill, Protects Telecom Immunity<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"116\" hspace=\"3\" height=\"104\" border=\"1\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/tbn0.google.com\/images?q=tbn:1xGFE_P_UtzyIM:http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/Heartland\/Plains\/6271\/shrug.gif\" \/>The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Protection for the telecom companies is the most prominent feature of the legislation, something President Bush had insisted on as essential to getting private sector cooperation in spying on foreign terrorists and other targets. The bill would give retroactive protection to companies that acted without court permission.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">The House did not include the immunity provision in a similar bill it passed last year. House Republicans now want to adopt the Senate bill, which would avoid contentious negotiations to work out differences between the competing legislation&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">I just don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll ever understand this vote. I don&#8217;t have any real complaint against the Telecommunication Companies. I expect they bowed to pressure after 9\/11 thinking they were part of some patriotic something-or-another. But giving them immunity says that what Bush and Cheney did with the F.I.S.A. Courts is okay. It isn&#8217;t okay. Somehow, Bush has gotten Congress to grant immunity to our torturers and the companies that let him tap our phones. Maybe they don&#8217;t want to punish others for Bush&#8217;s misdeeds, but I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s really it. I suspect that they&#8217;re bowing to lobbying from the telecoms. Even worse, maybe they&#8217;re just not willing to stand up to Bush and Cheney. Whatever their motives, I hate this vote. It&#8217;s just very discouraging. That we knowingly invaded Iraq based on fabricated information and essentially assasinated their President is common knowledge. That we secretly wiretapped and data-mined the phone calls of Americans without due process is unquestioned. That we secretly renounced the Geneva Conventions with programs of indefinite detention without habeas Corpus and tortured prisoners is well documented. That we used our National Guard as an Army for foreign warmaking is absolutely clear. That we spent billions on this war while cutting taxes, thereby running up our <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20080212\/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi\/monthly_budget;_ylt=AvwZNZak5Q8VJs4eqCE0lKms0NUE\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>National Debt<\/strong><\/a> with no plan for paying it back is a dark blot on our economy. And yet, the Senate is saying that it&#8217;s okay. I don&#8217;t get it&#8230;<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">None of those things are okay&#8230;<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" vspace=\"5\" height=\"130\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/justice_1.gif\" \/>&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Approves Spy Bill, Protects Telecom Immunity The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Protection for the telecom companies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}