UPDATE 2-Bush's phone immunity demand wins initial Senate vote 76 to 10

[EV_Ares]

WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's demand for immunity for telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program won an initial victory on Monday in the U.S. Senate.

On a vote of 76-10, far more than the 60 needed, the Democratic-led Senate cleared a procedural hurdle and began considering a bill to increase congressional and judicial oversight of electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists.

It includes a provision to grant retroactive immunity to any telecommunications company that took part in Bush's spying program -- surveillance without court warrants of e-mails and telephone calls of people in the United States -- begun shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nearly 40 lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Verizon (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research) of violating U.S. privacy rights.

Backers of immunity, who include some Democrats as well many of Bush's fellow Republicans, contend companies should be thanked, not punished, for helping defend the United States.

But civil liberties advocates and a number of Democratic lawmakers argue the courts should determine if any company violated privacy rights of law-abiding Americans.

Democrats vow to offer amendments in coming days to remove the immunity provision while backing a number of proposed new civil-liberty safeguards that enjoy broad support. Continued...

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1741702920071217

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. Sometimes I feel...

Sometimes I feel ashamed to call myself an American.
Privacy rights in the United States do not exist anymore.

[Botany]

2. ATT started spying in Feb. of 2001

No fucking deal.

[Kucinich4America]

3. Can't wait to see the roll call

I'm guessing all the usual traitors will be to blame. The Dumbass Little Cowards :grr:

[DeanDem10]

4. Message to 76 "ayes" in Senate

Get thee to hell...

[balantz]

5. What a disgrace our government has become

[99th_Monkey]

6. I'm confused. Senate still on C-span "live" debating the FISA issues??

WTF? so it's a done deal now?

[TwilightGardener]

7. I think that vote was the cloture vote. Now they're actually debating the bill itself.

[Vickers]

8. Can powder get too dry?

:shrug:

[ixion]

9. Congress to We, the People:

"We don't care what you think. We don't care about your rights. We care only about implementing a corporate theocracy so you can never challenge us again."

Some Freedom!