The Full-Court Press

by dday

After yesteday’s unfortunate sellout in the Senate, all the elements of the right wing are out for blood and ready to finally tear out the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution once and for all. And they obviously have been successful so far, so this is little more than an object lesson of how they get their way.

From the propaganda front, the Wall Street Journal editorial board gloats about the Senate FISA victory and actually considers it as a line of attack in November, attacking the “Obama-Dodd” faction for wanting to surrender to our enemies, or something.

From the executive front, the President demanded his telecom amnesty and expanded surveillance powers in an Oval Office press conference today, where he also let slip the truth:

Bush was praising the Senate for approving his long-sought update to a foreign surveillance law. Critics say the bill legalizes his warrantless wiretapping program, which was implemented outside the boundaries of the law, and frees phone and internet companies from any responsibility for violating customers’ privacy.

“The senate bill also provides fair and just liability protections for companies that did the right thing and assisted in defending America, after the attacks of Sept. 11,” Bush said.

As recently as his State of the Union address, Bush would only call for legal immunity for companies “believed to have assisted” in his so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program.

(There was also the whole “Give me what I want or I will let the vital Protect America Act, which is all that stands between us and Al Qaeda on our shores, to lapse” thing in there.)

And like puppets on a string, the Bush Dogs in the House are imploring to give the Dear Leader his spying powers:

Some House Democrats were prepared to support immunity, regardless. In a Jan. 28 letter, 21 Democrats in the conservative Blue Dog Coalition sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., supporting immunity and listing other provisions that they believed were needed in a FISA bill.

They wrote that the Senate bill “contains satisfactory language addressing all these issues, and we would fully support that measure should it reach the House floor without substantial change.”

The list of these “Democrats” is at the link.

Meanwhile, the traditional media is simply reporting the facts, with headlines like Senate Bows To White House On FISA Bill (Yes, I know that’s from the Moonie Times, but they’re right). You’d think the Democratic legislators would be ashamed of themselves. Anyone who hasn’t figured out by now that the popular, and proper, course of action is to do the opposite of anything Mr. 24% says honestly doesn’t seem to me equipped to sit as a representative of the American people.

UPDATE: Some links on demanding that the House stays firm with their version of the FISA bill, here.

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