Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Telecom Amnesty Opponents Back New Amendment

Posted by kdawson on from the putting-on-the-sensible-shoes dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "With the telecoms all but assured of amnesty for their participation in illegal spying, there's now one last amendment in their way — the Bingaman amendment. Because President Bush is unwilling to sign FISA reform without immunity, and because Blue Dog Democrats fear for their reelection unless FISA reform as a whole passes, most compromise positions are already off the table. So the new amendment seeks to sidestep part of the problem by moving it to a later date. It would put the court cases and amnesty provision on hold until a report is completed detailing exactly what happened, allowing Congress to consider denying amnesty at that time. There's an EFF campaign to support both this and the Dodd-Feingold amendment, which would strip immunity altogether."

3 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Pre-emptive Godwin by Reader+X · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I was browsing Wikipedia and came across the following definition for "fascism":

    Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

    Hm. Committed nationalist militants working in collaboration with "traditional elites", such as large telcos.

    Discuss.

  2. What is the UN? by Nicolas+MONNET · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The UN is nothing but the sum of its members.
    And the US have been largely responsible for castrating it. Look at the use of veto in the UNSC in the past 30 years. Even USSR did not fuck it up that much.

  3. Re:On a side note by intx13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I advocate mid-term votes on each of your congresscritters, with ballots such as that below (for each):

    I think congressperson X:

    1. Should be given a 20% raise.
    2. Is doing fine as is.
    3. Should be given a 20% pay cut.
    4. Should be given a 20% pay cut and disallowed from running for re-election.
    5. Should be taken out back and shot.

    Get the people really involved!