FISA update: It's going down tomorrow

[solarbird]

Okay, so, executive summary: The fix is in. House vote for the protection of criminal spying and the erasure of the 4th Amendment goes down tomorrow. Democratic Party insures passage, protects Chief Executive Mr. Bush by ending the last investigations, insures evidence and reasons for immunity will be kept secret. Senator Obama, btw, is MIA, when not endorsing supporters of amnesty over primary rivals opposed to it. This is a joint effort between the parties because this is what both parties want. There will be political retaliation; donate to the Strangebedfellows fund to that effort. Glenn Greenwald has more, like usual. So does Threat Level.

Slightly longer:

The bill is out, and on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's website. It provides for essentially limitless warrantless spying on Americans, without even the previous potential limit of the minimal FISA court review. Said review is still technically present, but unenforceable, and evidence collected illegally - for up to years - can be used. Nonfunctional court review is not actually court review in any way. Quoting the ACLU:

This bill allows for mass and untargeted surveillance of Americans' communications. The court review is mere window-dressing –- all the court would look at is the procedures for the year-long dragnet and not at the who, what and why of the spying. Even this superficial court review has a gaping loophole –- "exigent" circumstances can short cut even this perfunctory oversight since any delay in the onset of spying meets the test and by definition going to the court would cause at least a minimal pause. Worse yet, if the court denies an order for any reason, the government is allowed to continue surveillance throughout the appeals process, thereby rendering the role of the judiciary meaningless. In the end, there is no one to answer to; a court review without power is no court review at all.

It also provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies separate and specific violations of Federal law in cooperating with illegal spying by the Bush administration, shutting down the last remaining function investigation of this administration, and, for bonus points, orders the court it is ordering to grant this immunity not to say why; not only will the "evidence" submitted be secret, but the judge in question will not even be permitted to reference it. It's entirely a "grant immunity and shut the fuck up" order from Congress to the court. The ACLU again:

The telecom companies simply have to produce a piece of paper we already know exists, resulting in immediate dismissal. That’s not accountability. Loopholes and judicial theater don’t do our Fourth Amendment rights justice. In the end, this is politics. This bill does nothing to keep Americans safe and is a constitutional farce.

The process by which this deal has come about has been as secretive as the warrantless wiretapping program it is seeking to legitimize.

In terms of political cover, the House leadership has decided - as rumoured - to bundle FISA with the supplemental Iraq War spending bill, so that they can claim that they were forced to vote for it or "leave the troops! stranded!! in Iraq!! and cut!! and run!!" and all that crap. I remind you that this entire agenda is controlled by the Democratic party; this is their show, and they are doing it this way because they want to, not because they have to.

Russ Feingold condemns the measure here. As far as I know, no elected Republicans are even pretending to be opposed; up to 100 Democrats may actually be opposed, but frankly, I don't trust the word of any of them who haven't been working actively on this, which cuts the count down to about 10 in the Senate and a similar number in the House.

The vote in the House is, as of right now, going down tomorrow. The Senate vote will follow quickly. The bipartisan alliance that forms our "two party" system has set everything up get exactly what it wants in exactly the timeframe it wants, with just enough lie to let the political media cover their asses for them. It is well past time for new parties.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

OK, let's be blunt here. As long as the fix is in on both sides of the aisle we're not going to get new parties, because They have nominal control of our commo.

Now, if we manage to get RENEGADE vice PHOENIX there's a snowball's chance we could see some movement on this issue going forward (i.e. just because Dap Dap *can* spy on us with impunity doesn't mean he WILL, among other things). OTOH, if yon former resident of the Hanoi Hilton manages to *really* get the fix in, we got two choices, because the third is unthinkable.

Starfleet would like to remind us of General Order 46A.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Is this message in code? I've read it several times and still have no idea what you're talking about. Defining the following terms would be helpful:

commo, RENEGADE vice PHOENIX, Dap Dap, General Order 46A.

Google was no help.

ETA: Ah, googling "Renegade vs. Phoenix" reveals that you're talking about SS names for Obama and McCain. And I scared up ""If transmissions are being monitored during battle, no uncoded messages on an open channel" for 46A.

Still doesn't make sense, though given that you're admitting to coding messages that's probably the point.