is it true that dick cheney had the popular pinky and the brain spielsberg cartoon canselled because of the close likenes of himself as the meglomanic brain, and george bush as pinky?

Its the Govts fault for going into the wiretapping and seizing of records. The companies thought that complying was the right thing to do. If the Govt contacted your firm and demanded access, would you argue, given their previous detention of people without any evidence or any trial for months or years in gitanamo? seriously.

A large corporation is capable of defending itself and it's officers. Corporate accountability is necessary if we are to have a country of laws and not men. No ex post facto lawsshould be passed to expunge culpability. In the future, then, if the Executive branch wishes to exceed it's present authority,it will go to Congress and get the authority. If this to be a nation of lawsnot of men, those who break the law must be held accountable. The Fourth ammendment is central to ourliberty, and Liberty is ultimately our only security. The Founders understood that and soon, God willing , will the cowardly execs at SBC, I mean ATT.

How many other major U.S. corporations serve as front companies for the government/intelligence apparatus?

Must we be dragged into the swamp of
"we have been advised not to cooperate" republican reindeer games? issue an order for the attorneys involved in this issue on behalf of the companys -not the legal eagles involved in active cases- but the in house and outside review council (if any) as to the compliance ,or lack there of, with federal and state regulations. and laws, and have them explain what they have helped to do and remind them they can not refuse to do as instructed by supeona and that there is no grant of executive privledge or order from a federal agency or entity that can be used to excuse them from or shield them from compliance, and mandate the un-diluted production of any and all documents required by the committee.

LOCK UP A FEW CEO's and see how quik they cough up witnesses and paperwork.

Thomas Williams has the RIGHT IDEA! Threatening the Rich, Pampered, Lying, Dishonorable, Theiving, Deceitful BOYS WITH BUBBA IN A 6 X 8 CELL WOULD LOOSEN THEIR SNAKE TONGUES!

So, since congress lacks the will to hold either the administration or themselves they want to hold the telcos responsible for not standing up to unlawfull government requests. How much "oversight" from the FCC would it take before a telco started losing money? I'm sure there were never any explicit threats just implications.

So what the hell is everyone afraid of? Ah, we don't want the little lady to find out about (?) Come on people.. get over it.

Actually, Qwest denied the NSA the records that they sought. Look what has happened to Qwest CEO as the result of that refusal. Typical Bush politics. Bush & Cheney should be impeached and then fairly tried and simply locked up for the rest of their lives.

Dems caved again. Rockefeller and Fienstein agreed to grant immunity to w's telecom goons.

Steve, I really don't want to "get over" wondering whether this "average Jack" is under surveillance. In our corporate society where so much is controlled from closed-door boardrooms (like whether my phone company Verizon will make my email records available to NSA at my expense) and knowing that NSA has the technology to search out any "key words", and when bloggers accuse others of "wartime" treason and habeas corpus has been denied to some, I'm worried.