And so it begins...

[fearmeforiampink]

Statement from Senator Obama’s Office on the FISA Bill

Monday, December 17, 2007



“Senator Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd's efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect. Senator Obama supports a filibuster of this bill, and strongly urges others to do the same. It's not clear whether he can return for the vote, but under the Senate rules, the side trying to end a filibuster must produce 60 votes to cut off debate. Whether he is present for the vote or not, Senator Obama will not be among those voting to end the filibuster.”

And yet now;

Via zarq, and I'm also going to nick his summary as it summarises the situation rather well (beyond the whole "Obama sucking" thing):

1) The nation's largest telecommunications companies will no longer have to worry about lawsuits filed by customers angered that the companies turned over their personal information to the government without a warrant.



2) If an American citizen makes an overseas phone call to a suspected terrorist, the government can monitor that call without a warrant, and they don't need to report it to anyone. The US government has decided it can arbitrarily decide who a terrorist is, without oversight

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In other news, I've spoken to my solicitor (well, actually his secretary), and as soon as the letter from them reaches the people who manage the flat in London, I should be able to roll up with my passport and get the keys.

It amuses me that said secretary said she'd "Draft a letter for [my solicitors] signature", and leave it for him to sign in the morning – i.e. she'll write the letter and unless she gets something wrong with it, he'll just sign it and send it off (or indeed, give it to someone else to send off).

It's also quite nice that as well as knowing my solicitor reasonably now, I now know his secretary well enough that she's able to adapt to my sometimes disjointed explanations, and indeed, knows the generality of

Comments

[ieb.livejournal.com]

Meh. For politicians, lies, betrayal and back-stabbing are all just ways of saying "I love you". That's why they have this romantic view of wars and legislature.

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

Well, that sounds like good news with the keys and all that.