Many of our nation's phone companies, among them Verizon and AT&T, have been assisting our government for some time by wiretapping many Americans without a warrant. The phone companies also did things like install spy rooms and turn over personal information of its customers, like phone and email records, to the government. Of course, this was a plainly illegal thing for George W. Bush and the telecommunications companies to do.
But now, the phone companies are lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would give them immunity and protection from any penalties for breaking our privacy laws. Some of the lobbyists who work for the phone companies are part of the ever-spinning revolving door between government and business; one was an attorney general for Bush Sr., another was an assistant secretary of state, and on and on. There is pending legislation that was written by the Administration, providing blanket immunity to the telecom companies, as well as anyone in the Bush Administration.
The basis of granting immunity is that it's irrelevant that these companies engaged in illegal conduct, because Bush asked them to do it. Just read your Constitution and you'll know that that's hogwash.
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