FISA

Jonathan Turley, a man my Dad believes to be a preeminent authority on the Constitution, today on the new FISA bill.

The argument for it is quite simple. Nobody wants to have a confrontation over the fact that the President committed a felony -- not once, but at least thirty times. That's a very inconvenient fact right now in Washington.
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It's like one of those stories where someone is assaulted on the street and 100 witnesses do nothing. And, in this case, the 4th amendment is going to be eviscerated tomorrow and 100 people are going to watch it happen because it's just not their problem.

When you talk about expanding the President's power, it's coming out of the morrow of the 4th amendment; it's coming out of the bone. And it's going to hurt. And it's being done for political convenience. There's not an ounce of principle, not an ounce of public interest in this legislation.
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[The telecoms] are going to have a great victory. But it's a pyrrhic victory for the rest of us and what we will lose tomorrow is something very precious. It's going to be part of the 4th amendment. And that is beyond measure.

That Senators Feingold, Leahy, and Dodd's opposition to this bill is seen by most legislators as politically risky, is a reminder of how far our country has to go to cleanse itself of the stench left by the Bush administration. In our current political climate, the 4th amendment, like the Geneva Conventions, has been "rendered quaint" by the Global War on Terror(tm).

I suppose I have no choice but to trust Barack Obama's political senses. He obviously believes the backlash from GOP attack ads would be an unnecessary burden for his campaign. In exchange for that trust, I expect President Obama to urgently restore the 4th amendment after he takes office. Of course, that lets the guilty actors in the Bush administration and the complicit telecom companies -- who have likely committed felonies -- off the hook. As much as I hate to see Bush get away with this, it is more important that we restore the rule of law and not allow this illegal program to continue for one day after Bush leaves office.

What hypocrites we must look like to the rest of the world. America -- the beacon of Democracy in the world -- allows its government to openly violate the supreme law of the land; allows its President to incarcerate any man for any reason for any length of time; allows its military to torture prisoners using techniques developed by Communist China to obtain confessions from American prisoners. Meanwhile, our population is more interested in what Paris Hilton did last weekend than any of that stuff.

It is, truly, a sad state of affairs.