10/16/2007
A few fact$ that probably will have no effect what$oever on the legal $ituation of the telecom$ caught $pying illegally for Bu$h on their cu$tomer$ (UPDATE)
From the new book Digital Destiny by Jeff Chester of The Center For Digital Democracy:
[...] federal candidates since 1990 have been given more than $183 million in campaign contributions by the communications lobby - $115 million of that since the 2000 election. The phone, cable, and broadcast industries have spent $344 million for lobbyists since 2002 alone.
There may be a lot of noise about the spying the Republicans ordered up from the telecoms in violation of the Constitution, but you have to wonder how hard Congress - who are all essentially telecom employees - will actually press the people who pay for their campaigns, meals, holidays, transportation, political advertising, staff, etc.
Maybe I'm too cynical. It would be wonderful to be wrong.
UPDATE:
Several posts over at Salon by Glenn Greenwald trace the flow of telecom bribes to Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller.
The best government money can buy; Wired has the bill of sale.