Slate = FISA Bill: "one part Nuremberg defense, the other part Nixon"

[L. Coyote]

Five Myths About the New Wiretapping Law
Why it's a lot worse than you think.
Patrick Radden Keefe -June 25, 2008 - http://www.slate.com/id/2194254

Unless you're a government lawyer, a legal scholar, a masochist, or an insomniac, chances are you haven't read the 114-page bill. Don't beat yourself up: Neither have most of the 293 House members who voted for it last week. Ditto the mainstream press, who seem to have relied chiefly on summaries provided by the same lawmakers who hadn't read it.

To be fair, wiretapping is so classified, and the language of the bill so opaque, that no one without a "top secret" clearance can say with any authority just how much surveillance the proposal will authorize the government to do. (The best assessment yet comes from former Justice Department official David Kris, who deems the legislation "so intricate" that it risks confusing even "the government officials who must apply it.")

Out of the echo chamber of ignorance and self-serving political cant, a number of myths have begun to emerge. We may never know for sure everything that this new legislation entails. But here are a few things that it most certainly doesn't.

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The Bill: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM104_080619_fisapromise.htm

[havocmom]

1. K&R

Where did my country go?

[Supersedeas]

2. the GoP Media establishment doesn't want you to know what's in the Bill, when spin comes fast and

cheaper