Kudos to Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) for doing what had to be done: he put a hold on the administration’s telecommunications bill, that is, the legislation immunizing telecommunications corporations from lawsuits for their participation even in illegal government surveillance programs.

Dodd’s campaign web site posted the following statement:

“Today Senator Dodd will send a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid informing him that he will be placing a hold on FISA legislation that includes amnesty for telecommunications companies who enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

Take action and add your name to the list of people who don't want the Senate to provide telecom companies with amnesty for violating Americans' civil liberties. Visit http://chrisdodd.com/fisa to stand with Chris Dodd today.

Help spread the word, use the code below to embed on your blog or MySpace page and support Senator Dodd an his stand against the FISA bill:

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<a href="http://chrisdodd.com/fisa"><img src="http://chrisdodd.com/i/telecom-hold.jpg" /></a><br />”

 TPM has further details on the hold.

High time someone in the Senate, let alone someone running for the White House, noticed that a prime objective of the current administration is to protect corporate interests from any accountability whatsoever, in the courts as well as in the markets.

A large part of GWBush’s interest in the telecommunications bill – aside from the surveillance practices themselves – is retroactive immunity for corporate headquarters. It’s not an end in itself, either. That kind of protection, once obtained, would automatically be precedent for parallel protections in other contexts. The insurance companies, for example, could obtain even more cover than they have now.

While we look with horror at the carnage overseas, we would do well to remember that much of the motivation for the illegal invasion of another country came right here at home. Aside from more direct consequences, the war also drives the attack on the middle class – the world’s largest and most self-confident working class – in this country. Given this White House’s consistent attempts to undermine Social Security, to reduce pensions and the government funding that partly protects them, to make employee benefits like health insurance some kind nostalgic dream, it’s actually pretty amazing that more of the White House candidates don’t mention that the full faith and credit of the American people is itself under assault.