The Senate caved in on the FISA law (thank you very much, Harry Reid):
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 an amendment that would have stripped a grant of retroactive immunity to the companies. President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program.
So the Senate agrees with George Bush that he, George Bush, can break any law or demand others to break it for him and that there will be no negative consequences from any of this. Why bother having laws in the first place, then?
Now, this is the Senate version of the bill. The House version does not have retroactive immunity for lawbreakers in it. The action alert consists of you telling the lawmakers that you want the final bill to look more like the House version than the Senate version. Go here.