in praise of Senator Feingold

[eclectica]

The people of Wisconsin ought to be proud of themselves for their Senator Russell Feingold. He has introduced in the 109th Congress Senate Resolution 398 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.RES.398:) which would censure the president for the NSA wiretapping that violates the 1978 FISA law. The bill has one cosponsor: Tom Harkin of Iowa. It is now under review in the Judiciary Committee.

Censure is mild and president Bush ought to be impeached for his blatant disregard of the law. The fact that Feingold has so little support amongst the other 98 cowards in the Senate for a resolution which is so modest , shows how deep the shit is in the Congress. I don't know why they are so scared of Bush. They do not want to be accused of being weak in the "war on terror". So they have allowed the president to break the law and wiretap people at will without any judicial review. They lack character and leadership.

You can read the transcript to the press conference regarding the censure resolution, which Senator Feingold gave today here (http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/06/03/2006316.html).

For all the speculation about Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate in 2008, only Feingold looks worthy to me. And besides, Hillary is on the list of filesharing enemies (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=796).

[nicobie]

I agree.

This is quickily turning into a muslim country.

[napho]

Amazing. I thought liberals were extinct. What's next, NYC police riding great wooly mammoths to break up looting incidents?

[nicobie]

Hey napho,

Check this out; http://www.carveright.com/results.html

I've one of them and will carve u're project for postage. ($3.85 usps anywhere in the US)

Software d/l is . . .

http://www.carvewright.com/update.php?major=1&minor=025

Password, if asked for is; EDIT>>>(password removed)<<<EDIT

Just email me your project and I will send it to you. Wood is on me :)

[eclectica]

An article was released May 10th in USA Today, in which a source of theirs described the NSA database of phone calls made by Americans. It is here:
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm)

The database contains a record of all the calls Americans have made in the United States. According to the source it doesn't contain the recordings of the calls, but just the calling records. All the phone companies except for Qwest (AT&T/SBC, BellSouth, Verizon) cooperated with the NSA. The phone companies have claimed that they have done nothing illegal, but actually they violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 by divulging customer information. From The Seattle Times is an article:
Phone companies' role confounds legal experts (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002991167_nsalegal13.html)

Seeing that phone companies have now subjected themselves to billions of dollars of damages or penalties by violating the law, that just goes to show that the bad judgement of the well paid executives in charge of these companies is more costly to their companies than the burden of having to pay good benefits and wages to their unionized work forces.

In addition, the loss of customer confidence will be felt when people realize that their phone company is voluntarily cooperating with the government to spy on them. I've taken the position in this thread:
cable versus DSL: who is benevolent towards p2p? (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=806)
that for filesharers, telephone companies are preferable to cable companies because they provide consistent speeds, do not block ports, and follow a principle of network neutrality. Lately the difference between cable company and telephone company has become blurred with both providing high speed services. I believe that telephone companies ought to try to distinguish themselves from cable companies by conducting themselves with integrity. Yet on the issue of their respect for the principle of network neutrality, and now this new revelation that they cooperated with the NSA, all the telephone companies except Qwest have been unworthy in their performance.