| Sometimes, a serendipitously timed contrast in leadership among our public servants can be breathtaking. Today is one of those days, and it revolves around your telephone.
Tycoon telecoms like Verizon (and, boy, are they not exactly our friend right now in NH) and AT&T may or may not have been helping the President spy on your conversations without a warrant. You read that right, and no, you are not in North Korea.
And what's the only thing worse than enabling a power-hungry White House in its quest to rend the constitution? Refusing to tell Congress whether they were involved or not. Apparently, the folks you pay through the nose every month to talk on the phone think that they are as above the law as the "Decider" himself.
Oh, but it gets worse still. Congress' bill to "fix" the spying provisions may even grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms for their possible crimes. Did I mention yet that this concerns the US, and not North Korea?
Chris Dodd 'aint having it. He is taking the somewhat extraordinary step of putting a hold on this bill (and unlike Republicans, he's not concealing the fact that he's the one placing the hold): Saying telephone companies had enabled an assault on the U.S. Constitution, Dodd announced in an email to supporters that he has placed a "hold" on a wiretapping bill reportedly including such immunity.
..."I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have," Dodd said.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who is also vying for the Democratic nomination for president, said in a statement Thursday afternoon "if they violated the law they should be held accountable."
Other Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Hillary Clinton, D- N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., hadn't returned a request for comment. This is leadership. This is defending our Constitution. And this is exactly why I support Chris Dodd for President.
Senator* Sununu, on the other hand, likes to talk about his "maverick" ways on civil liberties. He ignores Gonzales' taste for torture while voting to confirm him, then parades his call for removing him, though doing nothing materially to remove him.
Speaking of telephones, here is where Sununu's leadership lies. John E. attended a recent Senate committee hearing on the increasingly shady and abusive practices of cell phone carriers, including deceptive billing and fess, lousy service, and this from - surprise! - Verizon and AT&T: Verizon recently prevented NARAL Pro-Choice America from sending text messages to its supporters, and in August, AT&T censored the webcast of a Pearl Jam concert after lead singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush. Both actions provoked fury from free speech advocates. How did Civil Liberty John E., representing the Live Free or Die State, respond?John Sununu of New Hampshire, said he did not see anything in the cell phone companies' practices that would "warrant significant intervention in the marketplace." Warrantless spying? Censorship? Shady business practices? If it doesn't affect unfettered, unregulated capitalism, our Senator* just isn't interested. |
