Fine lines....
The patriot act enabled wiretaps on non-citizens and citizens combined.
Under Executive order the telcoms were shut up. The stupid democrats are undermining the war on terrorism purely because they hate bush. 

The Democrats wanted the telcoms to show Who and how the wiretaps were going, that would tear apart discovery of sleeper terrorist cells and be detrimental to our nation.

Under the fica laws and patriot act they do not have to speak, and while fica only protects legal non-citizen taps... the patriot act does not do the same protection of telcoms... hence why the new protection is needed.

Go read up on the patriot act, there is more under that umbrella than you think.
it gets rid of the red tape.

this is where the fine line between freedom and fighting terrorism comes in. Freedom comes at a price, in this case wiretaps.

1) Never take anything from a bush PR bunny at face value.
2) The original FISA legislation compels telecoms to assist in valid legal wiretaps.
3) The original FISA legislation already provides immunity for telecoms that assist with valid legal wiretaps.
The push by the bush regime to legislate retro-active amnesty for the telecoms has precisely nothing to do with protecting Americans and everything to do with killing the discovery process in pending civil suits against the telecoms that would undoubtedly reveal the scope of the bush regime's illegal domestic spying.
FISA does NOT need to be reformed-- it needs to be ENFORCED!

Isn't this kinda like what Yahoo! got raked over the coals for concerning China? 

Do as I say, don't do as I do...

With this laws I always wonder what kind of legal loopholes will come with.

If it gets passed, will they suddenly find telcos are suddenly immune to a lot of other forms of prosectution, or other people become targets instead.