Once those collapse, and money no longer buys enough of Maslow’s basics, it won’t be nationalism, it will be neighbor VS neighbor.

Yee haw!

…The measure would gut Congress’s efforts to conduct inquiries into the administration’s surveillance program because a subpoenaed company or government official could invoke immunity,

Congress could still conduct inquiries for the benefit of uncovering information for the press and the American pubic – it is just that the subjects of these investigations would not face legal penalties.

However from a PR standpoint, both the voting public and the consumer public still could react strongly to these revelations.

So, political careers and Stock value could be affected.

- US President and UK PM trying hard to rally their countries to fight it.

- Most of Congress and Europe want more talk, appeasement and a hold on the fighting.

End result will be 72 million people dead.

How do I make such a bold prediction?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_ii_casualties

We could have prevented WW-II if the American people and the Republican Congress stepped up to the plate earlier.

We are still ahead of it this time, but our resolve is slipping.

…doomed to repeat it…

John [you've never fought in a] Battelle

I don’t read that “corrolary” from John’s statement. Basically, what the proposed legislation would do, if I’m interpreting correctly, is prevent congress or the courts from levelling any punishment for violation of laws related to the unlawful granting to the government of information.

In other words, FISA restricts what the government can legally obtain. The proposed legislation would allow the government to request, and companies to provide, more information, in violation of FISA, and the companies providing such information would not be liable for any laws they broke, and could therefore claim immunity if called to testify about any laws the government may have broken.

I don’t see how this is paranoid, since it’s based on actual current events (Bush has admitted to domestic wiretapping in violation of FISA, and the Justice Department really did propose this legislation).

Company’s should NOT be required to help the Government with information when the Government is performing

intelligence activity the attorney general certifies “is, was, would be or would have been” intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack

huh ! ?

If you don’t like this rule, when do you think it’s OK for a company to help the Government prevent a terror attack?

I agree the GW crowd is far too obsessed with terrorism to the exclusion of more relevant and productive uses of our resources, but they have a right and obligation to keep an eye on the bad guys.