Quote of the Day

Glenn Greenwald has a wonderful response to Fred Hiatt's pathetic plea in today's Washington Post for amnesty for the telecoms who helped Bush break the law by warrentless tapping of the phones of American citizens. The last paragraph of his post sums it all up for me:

The real point, of course, is that corporations -- just as is true for ordinary citizens and small companies -- can dramatically reduce their chances of being subjected to long, protracted litigation by obeying the law. Hiatt's rationale -- it's so unfair to make these poor corporations endure the costs of litigation -- would "justify" granting general amnesty to corporations for all illegal behavior, i.e., it would eviscerate the rule of law. We want there to be a price to pay when private actors violate the law. But the "price" which AT&T, Verizon and others are paying from "litigation costs" is so miniscule that to cite it as a reason to give amnesty is either incredibly ignorant or purposefully dishonest.