House And Senate Disappoint With Telecom Immunity; Obama May Fix It  Saturday, June 21st, 2008

We need a quote from Ron Paul on this one! If there's anything that makes us fighting mad this week, it's the decision of House and Senate leaders on Thursday to okay legislation that would protect telecommunications giants from privacy lawsuits. Within the surveillance bill, telecoms can have privacy lawsuits by consumers thrown out in Federal court if they have documentation from the George W. Bush administration that spying on the consumer's phone conversations is approved.

Whenever we gag at the brands "AT&T" and "Verizon" (and formerly Cingular Wireless, now an extension of AT&T), people don't always seem to get it. But these companies are among the telecom firms that assisted the Bush administration with warrantless wiretapping - via phone and computer lines - over the last 7 years.

More than 40 customers have filed lawsuits against telecoms they allege have violated their right to privacy; however, this new legislation that the House and Senate are approving (what are they thinking?) will protect the billionaires, and not the little guy.

Senator John McCain voted in favor of immunity for the telecoms.

Senator Barack Obama has issued a statement saying he approves of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), but not the provision granting legal immunity to the corporations

There's "little doubt," Obama said, that the Bush Administration and the telecom giants have "abused authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders."

"I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses," Barack continued.

As for the White House, they have threatened to veto any surveillance bill that does not provide legal immunity for the telephone companies. So shady! There is far too much behind-the-scenes collaborations between huge corporations and the government, y'all...private citizens should not stand for this.

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