NYT editorial: The FISA Follies, Redux

[struggle4progress]

Published: January 26, 2008

The Senate (reportedly still under Democratic control) seems determined to help President Bush violate Americans’ civil liberties and undermine the constitutional separation of powers. Majority Leader Harry Reid is supporting White House-backed legislation that would expand the administration’s ability to spy on Americans without court supervision and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of Mr. Bush’s illegal wiretapping program ...

Mr. Bush says without amnesty, the government won’t get cooperation in the future. We don’t buy it. The real aim is to make sure the full story of the illegal wiretapping never comes out in court ...

Mr. Reid — who is still falling for the White House’s soft-on-terrorism bullying — set up deliberations in a way that ensured that a better Judiciary Committee version of the bill would die a procedural death and that the Intelligence Committee bill would pass.

The Judiciary bill died this week, with the help of other bullyable Democratic senators like Mr. Rockefeller, Claire McCaskill, Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson. The Republicans repaid them by announcing they would block any further attempts to reach a compromise ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/opinion/26sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[rpannier]

1. Our glorious leadership in action

And we keep re-electing these idiots because????

[MasonJar]

2. Call him! Fax him! E-mail him! He must hear from us before the vote in mass and,

if he proceeds with this vote, he must be reamed by us after the vote. It is time for these Bush facilitators to be called to account.