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Still not stunned

Submitted by Eric Schmitz on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 11:57am.

Evan Bayh thinks it's fine and dandy for prosecutors to use illegally obtained evidence against a defendant in court. (Not that we're going to ever know what is or is not legal in any case. FISA exclusivity fails 57-41, 60 needed for a "majority.")

And Evan Bayh wants to make sure nobody ever knows whether anything illegal was done in the first place, whether or not it is legal now, not that we'll know that either. (Telco amnesty stays in: 31-67.)

[Update: Hmmm, looks like he would simply rather nobody be investigated at all for anything that may or may not have been legal then but it doesn't really matter now anyway. (Substitution of the government as defendant instead of the telcos fails 30-68.)]

So now we're down to the House as the last bastion against the shredding of our Constitution. We're lookin' at you, Congressman Hill.

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can't find the word

Submitted by Brian on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 9:42am.

I'm trying to find a way to describe these votes that doesn't include the word "treason", but so far, I've been unable to do so. I'm trying to convince myself that at least some of the senators who supported telecom amnesty had the best interest of the country in mind, but it's hard.

I keep going back to Atrios' post yesterday:

While one can't discount legalized bribery campaign dollars entirely, I do think too often we assume they're the reason lawmakers do the "wrong thing" when the simpler explanation that they believe the wrong thing is in fact the right thing is the answer.

Too many Democrats simply don't have the values we imagine they do, and it lets them off the hook too much to assume they're simply craven people who need to get re-elected instead of bad people who don't share our values.

On the bright side, Donna Edwards won - one Bush Dog Dem down.

--Brian--
================
I'm bowling for kids' sake - are you?
http://communitybowl.kintera.org/brian

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Treason? When the shoe fits...

Submitted by Eric Schmitz on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 7:14pm.

John Warner:

What we always have to remind our colleagues and the American public is that these companies have volunteered. They're not in this for a profit motive.

I guess that explains why the wiretaps were stopped when the government didn't pay the phone bill. Or not.

But I, too, was thrilled with the results in MD-04! :-D

--
"We need more than just a victory. We need to win in such a way that everything changes, that we're not threatened again. Because I don't want to go through this one more time, or have others go through it after us." --Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing

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