Washington D.C.-Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd is fighting for all of our rights in the chambers of the Senate as this is being written. As far as I can tell from the c-span 2 broadcast, he's literally the only senator on the floor trying to prevent retroactive immunity for the telecoms in allowing the Bush administration to spy on all of us illegally without a warrant. The good side of all of this is that the House Democrats aren't so willing to hand-over everything to the White House and to wreck our Constitution--the only thing that makes us Americans.
Consider for the sake of posterity that if our rights are eroded further--institutionalizing elements of a Police State--that only a handful of the Senate opposed it. But, this is how Empire ends: not with a whimper, but with a bang. Imagine you held-up a grocery store, but were granted immunity and were told that "it wasn't illegal at the time." Would anyone be safe after that? Even if they get their retroactive immunity, they have to get-it-past the House. After that, the fight against illegal surveillance will continue regardless. The fear is that it will be resolved through insurrection when it could have been done through the courts.
10:09 PM EST: Senator Dodd's comments on the amendments has ended. The voting comes tomorrow. We know that the Senate is going to pass the version of the FISA update with the retroactive immunity. They appear hell-bent on preserving the power and privilege of their rich backers. This should be unsurprising.
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