Tort$$$ Trump Terrorism
Fascinating report from the guy who brought you the tale of nepotism, incompetence and agenda-shoving that was Plamegate. Turns out the Dem Cong weren’t simply interested in gratuitous Bush-bashing last week when they could have been seeing to our national security. They were interested in money. Novak:
A closed-door caucus of House Democrats last Wednesday took a risky political course. By 4 to 1, they instructed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call President Bush’s bluff on extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to continue eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists. Rather than passing the bill with a minority of the House’s Democratic majority, Pelosi obeyed her caucus and left town for a week-long recess without renewing the government’s eroding intelligence capability.
Pelosi could have exercised leadership prerogatives and called up the FISA bill to pass with unanimous Republican support. Instead, she refused to bring to the floor a bill approved overwhelmingly by the Senate. House Democratic opposition included left-wing members typified by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, but they were only a small faction of those opposed. The true reason for blocking the bill was Senate-passed retroactive immunity to protect from lawsuits private telecommunications firms asked to eavesdrop by the government. The nation’s torts bar, vigorously pursuing such suits, has spent months lobbying hard against immunity.
The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party’s most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the phone companies for giving individuals’ personal information to intelligence agencies without a warrant. Mike McConnell, the nonpartisan director of national intelligence, says delay in congressional action deters cooperation in detecting terrorism.
Keep reading, there’s more. P.J. O’Rourke famously referred to our Congress as a Parliament of Whores. There’s a broad spectrum of hookerdom, that runs from concubines and kept women all the way down to streetwalkers and crack whores. Guess which kind are leading the majority in the House of Representatives. No offense intended to actual honest working whores. It’s a figure of speech.
Topics: pols, shameless opportunism
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:53 am on Monday, February 18, 2008
7 Responses to “Tort$$$ Trump Terrorism”
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February 18th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
The true reason for blocking the bill was Senate-passed retroactive immunity to protect from lawsuits private telecommunications firms asked to eavesdrop by the government. The nation’s torts bar, vigorously pursuing such suits, has spent months lobbying hard against immunity.
It’s quite a thesis that trial lawyers lobby would agitate to block this legislation so as not to remove the option to sue telecoms.
And that the Democrat Congress would respond to that.
I’ve also read that the tort guys wanted the option to sue government if they were barred (no pun intended) from suing the phone companies.
Whadda planet.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys……………..P.J. O’Rourke
I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts………Will Rogers
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself…………Mark Twain
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul…………….George Bernard Shaw
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner…………..James Bovard
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free……….P.J. O’Rourke
I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts…………….Will Rogers
No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session…..Mark Twain
There is no distinctly native American criminal class, , , , , , save Congress…….Mark Twain
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have………Thomas Jefferson
(there, I feel better)
February 18th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Web Reconnaissance for 02/18/2008
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the dayso check back often.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I don’t know which angers me more: back when I thought Congress was just a conglomerate of idiots, or now when I know they’re self-interested idiots in the pocket of law-sanctioned thieves, i.e. trial lawyers.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Why protect Americans, when you can have your campaign base charge $350-500/hr trying to convince the judge that their client “was only calling his elderly mother in _______ wishing her a happy 80th birthday” when in fact that “Happy Birthday, Mom!” was a carefully coded password to start a massive attack?
No, the aftermath of a massive attack, after these bozos decide to let loose in DC and cause chaos in and around the governmental buildings - that’ll be the time Congress will tell the tort lawyers to get lost. Even better: wiretap all these tort lawyers for a spell and see how THEY like being spied on - I can bet you’ll get quite an earful of other shady goings-on.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:00 am
…“was only calling his elderly mother in _______ wishing her a happy 80th birthday”
I”ll fill in the blank with YEMEN.
It reminded me of another American trial lawyer, Lynne Stewart, who served as courier for messages from the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdul-Rahman, (in jail for the 1993 WTC bombing) to his supporters & cronies in the Middle East.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
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