The bill, however, did not pass by the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto, which is inevitable. What will likely happen now is that this issue will be delayed until the next president is sworn in, who will hopefully be somebody who agrees that telecoms need to be held responsible for their actions.

If you’d like to see the actual breakdown of the vote, here’s the official tally, which unfortunately does not list Representative’s states.

I’ll close with a quote from Ted Kennedy regarding the retroactive immunity fiasco and our president’s insistence on it:

"The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no new FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he is willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies."

(Full text here.)

Previous Megatome entries:

• Colorado Senators Side with Telecoms
• Senator Salazar Responds – Still Doesn’t Get It

In this case "certain assistance" means the activity that we’ve been hearing about that violates our Fourth Amendment rights – telecoms assisting the NSA in warrantless wiretapping activities.

Apparently my Colorado Senators don’t seem to think that holding telecoms accountable for their actions is a good idea – they both voted against the amendment. I certainly am not surprised by Republican Wayne Allard‘s "nay" vote, but I’ll have to admit that I expected better from Democrat Ken Salazar.

Want to see how your Senator voted? Look here for the official tallies. If your Senator voted "nay", I strongly urge you to contact him or her and express your disappointment. I have already sent emails to both Allard and Salazar – hopefully enough other people will do the same to make our Senators realize that they work for their constituents and not large companies.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some great resources regarding retroactive immunity and warrantless wiretapping.