Our political system at work. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D- W Va) allowed the telecoms to purchase his vote, then denied it vigorously. At&T and Verizon suddenly gave the corrupt Senator lots of campaign cash, and in return, he helps them evade criminal prosecution. Bleh. Is it any wonder everyone's opinion about Congress is so low?
Telecom executives from companies seeking escape from privacy lawsuits accusing them of illegally collaborating with secret domestic spying programs wrote thousands in checks to the re-election campaign of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia)
[snip]
The companies are facing surprisingly effective lawsuits against them for allegedly helping the government data-mine trillions of Americans' phone records, wiretap the internet and listen in on Americans' overseas conversations without a warrant as required by federal law.
AT&T and Verizon executives didn't just mail checks to Rockefeller's campaign; they threw fund-raising parties - a Verizon shindig in New York in March and an AT&T gala in San Antonio, Texas in May, according to the New York Times.
That would explain the otherwise inexplicably high number of contributions to Rockefeller from Texans other than AT&T executives (especially from Texas real estate interests) that came in at the same time frame as the AT&T contributions.
[click to read more: Senator Denies AT&T, Verizon Cash Bought Spying Immunity Vote on Threat Level]
In slightly unrelated news, I finally got my Electronic Frontier Foundation t-shirt.
