Be Still, My Heart

Maybe there's some good news today, maybe... It looks as if the Senate Judiciary Committee today reported out a version of the FISA bill that does not, repeat, does not offer retroactive immunity for illegal spying of Americans. Think Progress has a good summary.

The legislators at the time of the Sen. Frank Church Committee who were shocked by the revelations of the spying that had occurred against American citizens (COINTELPRO anyone?) were the legislators who wrote the original FISA act. They put criminal sanctions in the bill as they did not trust the government, the criminal sanctions were a means to punish the individuals who actually did the spying and of course the corporations that aided & abetted such spying. Spying on Americans seems ridiculously easy,

The judges modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications that were approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation. (Seattlepi.com)

yet the bushies seemed stymied by the need for "useless things" like 'probable cause'. Remember the TIA program? The bushies were determined to get it, by hook or by crook. This of course was the "by crook" method, retroactive immunity for every information supplier that provided unrestricted access. Hear about the Qwest communications insider trading case against CEO Joseph P. Nacchio? He was ultimately convicted of 19 counts of insider trading and was sentenced to six years in prison, yet what he did was pretty much the same as every other Telco 'big cheese' did during the late 90's - early oughts. Why was he alone convicted? His company, Qwest, was the only one to not go along with the bushies' request for illegal access to their networks.

But I'm saying only that this retroactive immunity-free FISA bill version might be good news, not that it is good news. That's because Reid, Pelosi, and all those bush dog dems are still all out there and have proven time & again this last year that they are not to be trusted not to cave when we need them most. I won't be surprised in the slightest should tomorrow's news reveal yet again that the democratic leaders have allowed the retroactive immunity FISA bill version to pass into law and be handed to GW. Please support Sen. Christopher Dodd, he has pledged to both put a hold on a bad version and to filibuster. With luck another 40 dems will be brave enough to stand with him.