Petition the House on Telecom Amnesty

I don't know about anyone else, but the Senate vote to grant telecoms immunity today is the most depressing vote I've seen since the Military Commissions Act of 2006 stripping habeas corpus, and before that, the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq in 2002. Not that any of them were terribly surprising, and it's probably a good thing to still have the capacity to feel disgusted, but none of that changes how repulsive such an immoral, unnecessary and unconstitutional act this was.

Wouldn't it be nice to know who Cheney was spying on?

Glenn Greenwald has his characteristic comprehensive rundown, and I'm sure will continue to follow this. Two key quotations:

Isn't that the very definition of a police state: that companies should do whatever the government asks, even if they know it's illegal?

— Dan Froomkin

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.

— Atrios

They're not all gutless. Some are just scoundrels.

That's why it's all the more essential to Petition the House to Stand Firm Behind the RESTORE Act, the House's far superior version of the same bill.

The authoritarians conjure spectres of evil terrorists, but the real horror is Cheney's wet dream: an unaccountable, Orwellian police state of proven malice.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)