Better AT&T be saved than American lives?
February 22nd, 2008, 9:16 am · Post a Comment · posted by fsherman
The latest on the wireless eavesdropping bill that expired last weekend — the one without which, according to Bush, we’re blind and deaf to terrorist attacks — is that Republicans refused to let their staffers meet with Democratic staffers on a compromise bill this week.
The reason? Bush says he won’t accept any compromise on giving telecommunications companies immunity from lawsuits over allegedly breaking the law by giving the government Americans’ phone records: “I would just tell you there’s no compromise on whether these phone companies get liability protection.”
But I thought our survival depended on passing this bill? The Heritage Foundation even put up a clock on its Web site showing how long it’s been since this vital legislation expired. And yet Bush would sooner let this life-saving tool of surveillance die, sooner let us be murdered in our beds by terrorists, than let AT&T get sued?
A number of Republicans grumbled when the bill expired that the “Islamofascists” must be cheering. I guess now they’re cheering Bush, huh?
