Friday, June 16, 2006

fisa amnesty

* glenn:
"In sum, Specter's legislation amends the provision of FISA which provides for criminal penalties, and then, astonishingly, makes those revisions retroactive all the way back to 1978 (when FISA was enacted). The effect and almost certainly the intent of those revisions is to immunize the President and anyone acting under his authority from criminal liability for violating FISA -- just as the Post and the ACLU correctly reported, and just as Specter falsely denied.
[]
Specter's dishonesty aside, these shenanigans reveal what the White House is really after. Their Senatorial minions are going to support NSA legislation only if it contains full amnesty for the lawbreakers in the administration. The White House will then "reluctantly" agree to a newly revised FISA, and will have full immunity from criminal prosecution.
[]
The White House insists that it has clear legal authority for warrantless eavesdropping, so why are retroactive amendments to FISA's criminal provisions necessary at all? And if we stand by and allow the Republicans in Congress to legislatively exonerate the President and his aides from breaking the law, it is hard to imagine what we won't stand by and tolerate. If the President can break the law and then use his party's control over the Congress to grant him legislative immunity from the consequences of his criminal behavior, no hyperbole is required to say that the rule of law exists only as an illusion."
no hyperbole. that's the thing with glenn - he sounds shrill because of his subject matter.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

lukery: that's the thing with glenn - he sounds shrill because of his subject matter.

teresa nielsen hayden a couple of years ago (paraphrasing): i hate the way this administration makes me feel like, makes me out to be a conspiracy theorist.

ps, i'd like to immunise the preznit w/a gigantic hypodermic full of chloral hydrate--or worse.

lukery said...

lol

i wrote " he sounds shrill because of his subject matter." a number of different 'head-banging-keyboard' ways- and then opted for the most subtle option - glad you picked up on it

i hope chloral hydrate is painful

Anonymous said...

lukery: i hope chloral hydrate is painful.

nah, it's an excellent sleeping medication--dunno if they still do it (prolly not) but nurses in US hospitals would give it out regularly when patients complained they couldn't sleep.

ps, i really meant the 'or worse' part but put the chloral hydrate in to like soften my meaning, lol.

lukery said...

rimone - that's just like you - always softening up the hard edges

Anonymous said...

And just in case someone would want to bring a suit on this, we have our nicely stacked Supreme Court to keep the kibosh on it.