Senate to sell out on FISA

By Libby What's worse than a President who is shredding the constitution and trampling the rule of law into an unrecognizable lump of useless paper? A Senate that intends to unjam the shredder and polish his boots. Once again it appears our great Democratic saviors are going to sacrifice us on the altar of deep pocket contributors. Glenn has the details. UPDATE III: I just learned that the FISA bill cooked up by Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller's Senate Intelligence Committee does contain full retroactive amnesty for telecoms. Here is a list of all registered Verizon lobbyists, and here is a partial list of some of the lobbying firms working on behalf of AT&T. AT&T was the fifth largest contributor to Rockefeller's last campaign, followed by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association in Sixth place, Bell South in Ninth Place, and Verizon was in the top 20. It's basically legalized bribery and influence peddling -- they pour money into the campaign coffers of these Senators from both parties, pay former government officials such as Jamie Gorelick to help them, and then these Senators jump and pass laws providing that they will receive amnesty for serious felonies. ... This on top of allowing the program to operate under umbrella warrants for a year at a time, effectively eliminating any meaningful judicial oversight. We elected the Democrats to a majority for this? Why don't they just hand the man a match and let him burn the Bill of Rights and be done with it? Christy has the call list and also notes that we should be asking our presidential candidates their position on this and related domestic surveillance issues. I'd agree. It would be good to know.