Spy amnesty bill gets yanked

As a former Connecticut resident, I know that Sen. Christopher Dodd isn't good for much other than competing in the liver-damage Olympics with his buddy, Sen. Kennedy. But those of us who care enough to want to rein-in the surveillance state owe him a vote of thanks for his threat to filibuster a bill that would have shielded telecommunication companies from lawsuits over their collaboration with the government in schemes to spy on Americans. The threat worked; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled the bill from consideration for the time being.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has the lowdown on the spying scandal, and the effort to make telecoms de facto deputies of the NSA.