oh noo they know about my porn.....

THEM HAXORZ!

even though this is probably meaningless in the long run, it just makes me love this country more.

i salute you, house of representatives! thanks for making a rare stand against those lining your pockets and speaking for the american people for a change.

I wish Gizmodo would quit reciting the paranoid talking points of the moonbat party and stick to tech reviews. You're embarassing yourselves.

How many of you realize that there is no warrantless wiretapping of U.S. Citizens UNLESS AL QAEDA IS ON THE OTHER END OF THE FREAKING PHONE CALL!?!?!

Left wing wacktards.

oh yeah house dems, way to have a backbone! Seeing things like this happen really makes me happy.

As Ted Kennedy so eloquently put it:

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

- Senator Edward Kennedy
December 17, 2007

aperryz: yeah, it's not like we need the phone companies in this country. Screw them.

Oh wait... without the telcos how are we going to transport all of our stolen music and video!?!

Those bastard phone companies... they should be ashamed of themselves for fighting Al-Qaeda and slowing down our illegal downloads.

@FlashTurbo: "How many of you realize that there is no warrantless wiretapping of U.S. Citizens UNLESS AL QAEDA IS ON THE OTHER END OF THE FREAKING PHONE CALL!?!?!"

Hahahahaha! Someone has really been chugging the kool-aid! Of course they would never listen in on a phone call unless they had positive proof that Al Qaeda was at the other end! There's no way that could ever happen!

The really cool thing is that they could do it legally, just by requesting the warrant after the wiretap, but they just don't want to bother with that. Why should they, when the only people who are bothered by illegal government actions are "Left wing wacktards"??

@FlashTurbo:

Sir, I salute you. You're ignorance in this matter is absolutely breathtaking in both scope and breadth. As I recall, and correct me if I'm wrong since I'm sure you will whether or not I offer, this stems from the wholesale handing over of phone records which did not discriminate against between the old lady calling her grand-daughter off at college or the guy scheming bad things in Afghanistan. One estimate I heard was 30 million people, but that was a government source so the number is probably much higher. Are you to tell me that there are 30 million terrorists or co-conspirators here in the border of the United States? If so we have much bigger problems than Iraq or Afghanistan. No, our problem is much greater: an uninformed electorate and generally stupid-ass citizens. In the long run this will bring down the United States more assuredly than any dirty bomb. A terrorist act's immediate effects tend to be localized. Retarded US citizens effects everyone globally.

@FlashTurbo: This is not a nation of "trust me, I'm doing this for your own good", it's a nation of laws. It's not a question of if this surveillance capability was abused, it's a matter of how much, and when we'll find out. Just like the ongoing revelations about FBI national security letters.

And the main reason that Bush wants "telco immunity" is in order to keep the whole matter out of the courts so that his administration's behavior isn't brought to light. It's as much amnesty for him and his ilk as it is for those who colluded with him.

@FlashTurbo: Excellent point ... except for the fact that Alberto Gonzales and Bob Mueller both admitted last year that U.S. citizens, who were very much not in cahoots with Al Q, had been improperly caught up in extensive surveillance. It is those sorts of goofs that are the very reason for the immunity issue.

@Zan- Well said, my friend. Exactly to the point.

@Flashturbo. You're the kind of ignorant American that I would like to mother fucking waterboard. You are an asshole and deserve to have some sense beaten into you with a giant HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Textbook.

@FlashTurbo:
Carry on citizen, certainly there is no reason for you to worry about our government disregarding the law. Especially when they are pressing so hard for immunity for companies that have done nothing wrong, that doesn't seem suspicious at all....

@FlashTurbo: You are double-plus-right, Citizen!

And we have always ben at war with Eastasia.

stop being political. and don't endorse obama.

kthxbye.

So, it seems as if the one thing everyone can agree on is that American stupidity will be the ultimate downfall of this country.

So, I propose (and have been for years) that a nationwide intelligence test be administered. All citizens who score below a minimum baseline level of intelligence shall then be given the option of leaving the country or being euthanized. That should solve all our problems.

FlashTurbo is obviously playing a joke on you guys, no need to get your feathers in a ruffle.

However, as the OP states, this is no victory since it's unlikely to get past the Senate and will most definitely be vetoed, and they don't have enough votes to override a veto.

One thing that should be stated is that warrantless surveillance started way before 9/11/2001.. like 6 months before. So any talk of how it would be wrong to sue "companies that helped us catch terrorists after 9/11" - putting aside the fact that those companies would have no choice but to cooperate with a court ordered warrant - is completely false. Finally, the courts are the last chance at finding the full scope of the lawlessness that the administration is engaged in. And who knows, it might give some insight as to how the government and telcos were engaged in massive surveillance 6 months before 9/11, and despite all the red flags and warnings, did not prevent it.

@Eric1285: Speaking for everyone outside america, we don't really want your rejects thanks.

Being sued for what they did would serve them right for cavint to an evil administration who asked them to do illegal and anti-constitutional acts. I don't know what kind of business sense they thought they were following doing this, but a nice class-action lawsuit (with lots of $$$s in penalties) would remind them that it was a very, very bad idea.

Seriously, what happened to "the consumer is king" and to the right to privacy in your country ?

@bvicarious ..

You're right that it will probably be vetoed, and the votes aren't there to override a veto. But as long as the House hangs tough (which is admittedly a slim chance), that's still OK. Because as long as Bush keeps vetoing any reasonable legislation, he gets no legislation at all. He thinks he can force Congress to give the telcos immunity by vetoing any law without immunity. But if the House is willing to stand firm and say they will pass no law with immunity, it's a standoff. If Bush vetoes a law because it doesn't have everything he wants, maybe he gets nothing at all instead of getting what he wants.

@FlashTurbo: And if you believe that, your president has a bill of goods he wants to sell you.

@bvicarious: Actually, warrantless surveillance goes WAY back. Nixon wasn't the only one who had an "enemies list" he wanted the federales to listen in on--he's just the one who got caught while it was still going on.

@FlashTurbo: Wow. Your ignorance of the matter is blinding. Sometime this weekend sit down and try to have an original thought for yourself.

It was the telecommunications act of 1997 (or there-abouts) signed by Clinton that mandated the spigots into the system that would allow the government to monitor any communications, and that was done primarily for the benefit of the FBI in domestic operations. People were complaining about the spigots back then but my guess that some of the same folks in Congress that voted for that are now complaining about the use of it.

Libtards the Immunity Bill will go thru and get passed into law!Telecoms will get Immunity and thats final. This whole nonesense with the house and the leftist liberals has nothing to do with protecting our rights, its about blocking Presidents Bushs agenda of fighting terror, The liberals know it will get Veto so they do the usual song and dance to appease the the leftist moonbats. They know eventually they HAVE NO CHOICE!!
So suck it up moonbats.

@Cellenin: Damn, straight brah. Gubbamint conspiracy moonbat tin foil hat homo-seck-shul married book reading pussies! George Bush is the best president EVER!!! These whiners ain't got as many yellow ribbons on their Japanese cars as I do on my shit-kickin' Hummer! They are all a bunch of morans! Whut less would you expect from a bunch of idiots nominating an old hag and a black teenager for president? We need tah bomb Iran, take all the oil and convert the Muslims to Evangelical Christians. YEEEHAW!

*barfs*

government and intellegence ......surely thats an oxymoron ?

y'all done pwned FlashTurbo b'fore I even gotta chance :'(

Alright. Simple question.

Why would ANYONE ever now help the government do ANYTHING to fight terrorism, if they knew an ACLU lawyer will eventually sue them into bankruptcy for it?

@Kaiser-Machead: Don't worry, there's no shortage of idiots that need to be schooled, my friend.

@Sockpuppet: It doesn't matter what the rest of the world wants. The only thing that matters is what the US wants. Where have you been the past 200 years?

Question:

Why would ANYONE ever do ANYTHING to aid the government if they know that they can be retroactively sued into bankruptcy by a zealous ACLU lawyer?

Please.... So basically this is letting the Telcoms know that should we ask them to do something again, we don't "got their back".

And it isn't warrentless wiretapping of just anyone. If you tried to convict someone here in the states with evedence of such taps, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. However, it is needed for intercepting calls from known threats. We aren't living in the land of Jason Bourne, but unfortunately many people seem to think we are. Hell, we couldn't even get intelligence right before we went to Iraq, now that they're trying to rectify our horrible intelligence program, like we wanted in the first place, we go and tie their hands behind their backs. Everyone knows I don't agree with everything the republicans do, but this is one thing I wish some on the democratic side would wake up and stop sniffing the partisan air. If Gore or Clinton administration had authorized this you know things would be switched, and it would be the Republicans saying "warrentless wiretapping", etc.... It's all BS.

@aperryz: as ted kennedey put it:

Glug glug glug, drive drive drive, bridge bridge bridge crash, swim swim swin.

@djdare: As George W. Bush put it:

Glug glug glug, lie lie lie, kill kill kill, deny deny deny.

@djdare: Btw, for a "dj", your records skip a LOT.

@Sir_NightSky:

"Please.... So basically this is letting the Telcoms know that should we ask them to do something again, we don't "got their back"

Yes, if anyone BREAKS THE LAW, we don't have their back.

"And it isn't warrentless wiretapping of just anyone. If you tried to convict someone here in the states with evedence of such taps, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on."

Oh, really? Ever read the Patriot Act?

"However, it is needed for intercepting calls from known threats."

Wrong, FISA never kept the Govt. from snooping anyone, they just needed a warrant after the fact.

A little segue:

I THOUGHT I'D TYPE IN ALL CAPS FOR ALL THE IDIOTS WHO CLEARLY CAN'T READ AND HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT FISA IS: YOU CAN STILL INTERCEPT CALLS AND GET A WARRANT LATER. YES, THIS IS A FACT. LOOK IT UP. I'D LIKE TO STOP SEEING IGNORANT JACKASSES SPOUTING OFF ABOUT HOW AMERICANS LIKE MYSELF DON'T LIKE OUR RIGHTS BEING VIOLATED. YES, YOUR CHIMPANZEE PRESIDENT IS VIOLATING OUR RIGHTS. NO, I WON'T STAND BY AND TAKE IT UP THE ASS LIKE YOU DO. I WILL BE A TRUE PATRIOT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION, INSTEAD OF WATCHING MY COUNTRY GO DOWN THE TOILET WHILE YOU FLUSH IT.

Ah, now...back to our regularly scheduled program...

"We aren't living in the land of Jason Bourne"

So, then why do so many Republicans jack off (no pun intended) to "24"?

"Hell, we couldn't even get intelligence right before we went to Iraq"

Wrong, they got the right intelligence. They just LIED. There is a difference. The evidence of this huge lie is EVERYWHERE. You just choose to ignore it? Wake up.

"we go and tie their hands behind their backs"

FISA FISA FISA. READ IT NOW. PLEASE.

"but this is one thing I wish some on the democratic side would wake up and stop sniffing the partisan air"

I love how you equate defending our rights as a Democratic "partisan issue". Pathetic.

"If Gore or Clinton administration had authorized this you know things would be switched, and it would be the Republicans saying "warrentless wiretapping", etc.... It's all BS."

If Clinton or Gore did what Bush has done in the last 7 years, I'd hate them just as much. News flash: Bush is THE WORST PRESIDENT, EVER. This is not debatable. This is A FACT. The sooner people realize this, the better off our country will be. This issue has nothing to do with political party. It has EVERYTHING to do with respecting the LAW and respecting our RIGHTS. Can someone please tell me why so many people are too stupid or ignorant to grasp this concept?!

Who cares? OMG. Your rights?? WHo the hell cares if they lisened in on some phone call or read an email that leaves the United States.

I dont' give a damn.

This is just political grandstanding. If you think a congrats is warranted to the house youre oblivious to how this all works. This is just to appease the voters for the inevitable reelection around the corner...all the while knowing it will never leave the Senate, who doesnt have to worry about an election as much.

Here's a test...if you don't like Bush so much, why dont you return that check youre getting this May? It's a little different now huh?

No it's not, dickknapoleon. It's the same. Just more spendy.

@knappoleon: that's the wrong attitude to have, you are correct that this is just bullshit political grandstanding, but these are your rights, you shouldn't act like it doesn't matter. Allowing yourself to get trampled upon time and time again is the wrong attitude.

@johnnyabnormal: mine was funnier

@johnnyabnormal: I don't get it? because i wrote the same word over and over? Ted kennedy drinks enough that it would clearly take more than one glug to drive a car off a bridge... plus I had just seen a tom tom ad.

@johnnyabnormal: look at me post multiple times

@djdare: You're skipping again. :)