Gov't Trying Everything Possible Not To Give Up Telco Immunity Lobbying Records
from the not-so-transparent dept
Remember last month, when a court ordered the Obama administration to turn over records of who lobbied the administration for retroactive immunity for telcos concerning the warrantless wiretapping program? Yeah... well, it turns out the Obama administration isn't so keen on actually living up to that. First, it asked for a 60 day delay, so it could think about appealing (i.e., "give us time to stall, since telco immunity is being debated in Congress now, and we don't want this info out until afterwards"). However, the court said no, and said to hand over the info. And... yet again, the administration has now filed an emergency motion asking for 30 days to consider an appeal. It's difficult to see what this is other than a pure stall tactic. If the court already rejected the 60 day delay, why would it now turn around and grant a 30 day delay. All this is really serving to do is make people a lot more suspicious about what those records might show.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: immunity, lobbying, telcos, warrantless wiretapping
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Short Answer
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Re: Short Answer
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Why, because they were offered higher bribes than before, of course.
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WTF
Q: How do we the people actually get those in government to follow the law? Seriously, both parties (Democracy Inc.) have a strangle hold on the system and they lie to our faces. How do we stop the abuse of power?
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Re: WTF
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Re: WTF
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Re: Re: WTF
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Re: Re: Re: WTF
We have the right to have arms like bears, but not the ability.
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Re: Re: WTF
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Re: Re: Re: WTF
The problem is the vast majority of voters in this country don't care. And you telling them to care is infinitely more offensive to them than telco lawbreaking.
The problem isn't telco's or dishonest leaders, it's people who tolerate it. McCain and Obama both lied in national televised debates. Did anyone really think the next president wouldn't always lie when it benefited them?
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Then we get into the E-Voting machine conspiracy theory, but I'll let that to our resident conspiracy nut, Dark Helmet.
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Globalism cares not for individual elections. The key to the conspiracies I see in action aren't to alter the votes to pick the man they want, but to make sure only the men they want are on the ballot, making the voting process meaningless.
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Rebellion/violence IS a way to make the voters sit up and take notice.
Crap... I think the FBI is at my door, gotta run..
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Re: WTF
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Re: WTF
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Because he knows
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Re:
B. They DO mean something, just not what we think. If we all actually voted the banker-backed politicians out of office, they would simply change the government to something more authoritarian and stay in power. The only way, unfortunately, to really affect true change in our corrupt government would take a VAST amount of rebellion and bloodshed. Sadly, I don't see that happening....
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4 Boxes
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Re:
Personally I advocate a more peaceful response on OUR side. The bloodshed will be ours, but I think it's important for global support that the popular uprising not be the first to strike with violence. There are ways to combat the international banks. I suggest a few relatively easy steps:
1. Research your banks and bank locally: Make sure your bank isn't owned by a multinational conglomerate. Anything affiliated with the Morgans, Rothschilds, Stanleys, or Rockefellers should be immediately nixed. Also, any bank owned in any significant part by members of the CFR or Trilateral Commission. BANK LOCALLY for any financing needs.
2. Pay in cash. The biggest trick ever pulled on the people of he world was interest enslavement via cumulative debt. Not owing people money is a very powerful thing.
3. Stay off the grid wherever you can. Prepay cell phones work just fine, and you can even get pretty ones with lots of toys and internet connections on them.
4. Fight for liberties (that span across both major political parties). Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you should take away something from someone else. Abortion, guns, education options, free all that shit up. Voice your opinion but take away no one's right to choose and/or defend themselves.
Just a few thoughts on a dreary Chicago morning....
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Telco immunity
I interpret this as Obama continuing his attempts to mend the "bipartisan" divide by extending an olive branch.
Isn't it interesting that "bipartisan", at one time, meant working together? It now means "doing it the Republican way, or else"!
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Re: Telco immunity
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Re: Telco immunity
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Keep blame'in obama for everything bad in your life.
Hell blame your wife cheating w/ your neighbor on obama. ITS HIS FAULT.
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Are you referring to Kenya or Hawaii
Love,
Dark Helmet (Chicagoan and Illinoisan)
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Our city Mayors get elected term after term because they're good and honest (or superevil and corrupt, one of those two).
You should see our parking meter system...works perfectly! No hiccups!
(This comment was approved by the United States Olympic Committee and does not reflect the opinion of anyone with marginal use of their gray matter)
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Republican leaders are just as bad. They allowed this to happen in the first place.
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POS prick is nothing but a shill con artist back-stabbing maggot.
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This isn't about protecting the TelCos...
The only reason I can see that Obama is doing this is that both Republicians and Democrats were involved.
I'm on neither side of the political isle - they both frankly make me sick and have shown that they'll abuse their power when given a chance. This should highlight to those that think Obama can do no wrong and is a principled leader that he is just like most politicans right now. The truth is, you should judge a man by his actions and not by his words! His words are pretty, but his actions show the extreme ugliness of his character and total lack of principled leadership.
Freedom
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A few thoughts...
- Lobbyist... vote for us - you know where we stand.
- The Lobbyist party, transparency is all an illusion.
- Lobbyist - we work hard for the money.
- Lobbyists - power to the ppl (now show us the money).
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Re:
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But in today's order, the judge ruled that as the communications were with Congress and lobbyists, the exemptions did not apply.
Assuming this to be true and the basis for a decision in favor of the EFF's FOIA request, the court's alleged statement to the FOIA exemptions do not apply is non-sensical.
As I understand the facts, the FOIA request was directed to documents in the possession of two executive agencies. Last time I looked executive agencies are not Congress. Hence, for the court to supposedly rule in favor on the basis described by the EFF is totally out of "whack" with FOIA and its enumerated exceptions (about 7 in total).
I can well understand why the executive branch would not look kindly on what appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding and misapplication of FOIA. If the agencies to decide nevertheless to comply, it would likely be as the result of what the "boss" has said, and not because the law so mandates.
Again, this is NOT a battle about the public's right to know, and suggestions to the contrary are truly disingenuous. This is a battle about the right of individual plaintiffs to pursue claims they had pending in our courts that were summarily dismissed when immunity was granted. What the EFF and its allies are really trying to do is give back to these plaintiffs the right for their lawsuits to continue.
Of course, it is appropriate to consider whether or not it is fair to allow private rights of action against telephone companies who were almost certainly strong-armed into compliance with the wishes of the USG. It is also appropriate to consider the extent to which the disclosure of certain documents may inflict substantial damage on ongoing national security investigations.
It is not a question that admits to an easy answer. Things in life are not always black and white.
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Re:
The court didn't that say they were either. The court was saying that the communications were:
a. between the executive agencies and Congress
*and*
b. between the executive agencies and lobbyists.
Understand now?
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Re:
And that's why we have courts to sort things out. But the people involved with these illegal wiretaps don't want that because they know they've done wrong.
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telco
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