House Dems to Grant Immunity to Telecoms

The Democratic Party is preparing to fail the American people yet again according to Glenn Greenwald, writer for Salon and documentary filmmaker. In his recent interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, he reports that the Democrats are prepared to vote in favor of the legislation which was written by the White House and Jay Rockefeller.

According to Greenwald, the ramifications of the legislation passing would be as follows:

"Well, it’ll mean that all of the lawsuits that exist now against the telecommunications company that the customers have been winning in court, on the grounds that what the telecoms did was illegal, will all be—disappear. They’ll just go away forever. And because Congress hasn’t investigated what the President has done, and because the media has been virtually inactive in doing so, that’ll mean that the last hope for finding out how the Bush administration spied on us for all those years will be just completely abolished, and we’ll lose the ability to find out what our government did for all those years in breaking the law and in spying on us. That’s the real reason the White House wants this bill, and that’s what the Congress is about to do, is to hand the President the ability to conceal that behavior for years and years and years."

In addition, this legislation which is set to be approved by House Democrats will allow domestic surveillance to occur without warrants being issued by the FISA courts.

It is unfortunate to see that the Democratic Party has caved into Bush's rhetoric. This past Monday Bush had the following to say. "There’s a lot of legal complexities on the FISA renewal debate, but the real issue comes down to this: to defend the country, we need to be able to monitor communications of terrorists quickly and be able to do it effectively. And we can’t do it without the cooperation of private companies. Now, unfortunately, some of the private companies have been sued for billions of dollars, because they are believed to have helped defend America after the attacks on 9/11.

Now, the question is, should these lawsuits be allowed to proceed, or should any company that may have helped save American lives be thanked for performing a patriotic service? Should those who stepped forward to say we’re going to help defend America have to go to the courthouse to defend themselves, or should the Congress and the President say thank you for doing your patriotic duty? I believe we ought to say thank you."

We elected Democrats in favor of Republicans in 2006 for two reasons. To end the war. To hold the administration accountable. They have done neither. Instead, they have acted as accomplices to this administration's wrongdoing, just as the Republicans had prior to the Democratic majority takeover.

Have you had enough? I have. I'll be writing my representative and telling them that not only will I not support them should this legislation pass, I will not be voting for a Democrat in the presidential election come this November.