Wonkette

The government likes being able to listen in on our phone calls. It helps them help us feel safer, see? But to do so, sometimes they need a little help from your friendly local telephone monopoly, which is kind of a problem for some people. Those people sued the phone companies for helping the government make sure that you’re not a vicious terrorist, like you have the right to privacy or something. And, then, the lobbyists got involved.

Because, really, why pay lawyers to defend you against potentially indefensible lawsuits when you can hire lobbyists to change the laws? And, so, telephone company lobbyists tried to work their lobbying/campaign contribution magic on Congress and the Administration to get themselves made retroactively immune from the lawsuits that had already been filed. And, at least in the case of President Bush, it seems to have worked.

Bush has threatened to veto (his new favorite verb!) any domestic wiretapping bill that does not contain immunity for telephone companies. As though it doesn’t really care that bills become laws, Congress is ignoring the President and passing the legislation without the provisions. But, because they are having this fun debate about whether to give the phone companies immunity or not, we can all ignore the fact that they all agree that the NSA should be able to continue to spy on us. Nothing to see here, people.

BellSouth, AT&T added to NSA lawsuit [CNN]
Panel Drops Immunity From Eavesdropping Bill [NY Times]