Yet again, some media fuckhead portrays FISA as a "left" hobbyhorse.

[Leopolds Ghost]

This is a mastery of Post obfuscation akin to the Big Lie headline "Gore would have
lost under any scenario, media recount finds" followed by the buried lede published
by the Post after the break that under any scenario where all counties were recounted,
as Bush had suggested doing, Gore won by an equal amount. (The entire article was buried,
but the key was the headline, which was required to state a Big Lie to appease well-meaning
liberals who don't read below the fold and who refuse to believe headlines in the Post
are not authoritative historical record.)


Obama Supports FISA Legislation, Angering Leftists

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/obama_supports_fisa_legislatio.html

Note the classic Washington Post weasel words:

"walk a fine line between being weak on foriegn policy";
"claims the new law provides insuffcient court review of pending lawsuits"

Lawsuits which would be automatically thrown out by the law, which establishes that
the word of a Presidential aide is enough to indemnify someone of a crime such as
breaking and entering. Also note that Arlen Specter continues to be strongly opposed,
and issued a statement contradicting Obama, the second time a Republican has been allowed
to challenge an overcompensatingly Reaganesque New Democratic party from the left,
the first being the party's abandonment of traditional campaign finance reform. But
in the world of the Post, anyone who disagrees with the Washington Consensus of
Nixon / Reagan / Clinton / Bush is a leftist:

In so doing, Obama sought to walk the fine political line between GOP accusations that he is weak on foreign policy -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called passing the legislation a "vital national security matter" -- and alienating his base.

"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program," Obama said in a statement hours after the House approved the legislation 293-129.

This marks something of a reversal of Obama's position from an earlier version of the bill, which was approved by the Senate Feb. 12, when Obama was locked in a fight for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Obama missed the February vote on that FISA bill as he campaigned in the "Potomac Primaries," but issued a statement that day declaring "I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty."

Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) continue to oppose the new legislation, as does Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). All Obama backers in the primary, those senior lawmakers contend that the new version of the FISA law -- crafted after four months of intense negotiations between White House aides and congressional leaders -- provides insufficient court review of the pending 40 lawsuits against the telecommunications companies alleging privacy invasion for their participation in a warrantless wiretapping program after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The immunity outcome is predetermined," Feingold wrote in a memo today.

Obama came down on the side of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who argued that a provision in the new law reaffirmed that FISA, and that act's courts, gives the final say over government spying. President Bush has argued that a war-time chief executive has powers that trump FISA.

"It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance -- making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law," Obama said today.

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the most prominent Republican opponent of the compromise bill, issued a statement today calling that exclusivity provision "meaningless because that specific provision is now in 1978 act." Specter said Bush just ignored existing law in starting the warrantless surveillance program.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Senator Arlen Specter is right, and Senator Barack Obama is wrong.

Obama praised the part of the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008" saying that FISA is the exclusive means of intelligence eavesdropping.

But as Specter points out, FISA already says that.

Bush chose to ignore that clause, claiming the Constitution lets him eavesdrop regardless.

Repeating that clause (by passing a new FISA bill) won't stop Bush or future presidents with extreme views of their own power.

Only allowing the lawsuits to continue will provide a check against executive power.

[FrenchieCat]

2. I think that John Dean's words are meaningful to this dialogue...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smcP43FVNqM