So I checked CNN.com when I woke up this morning, and was sad and angry (but not entirely surprised) to read this:
President urges House to follow Senate's lead on eavesdropping bill.
The caption below the picture of The Demander reads:
President Bush demanded his surveillance authority be extended before Congress leaves for vacation.
Why?
"Protecting America is our most solemn obligation, and I urge the House to pass this bill without delay," Bush said...
But you've got it all wrong, Mr. Demander, Sir. If the House folds like the Senate did, we will be less safe than before, not more.
The president praised senators for acting "to give our intelligence professionals the legal tools and authority they need to keep America safe. I appreciate the hard work they did to find common ground to pass this critical bill. Today, the House of Representatives has an opportunity to consider that bill, pass it and send it to me for my signature."
The "intelligence professionals" already have the legal tools they need. What you're trying to do, Mr. President, is to give them illegal tools, under the oversight of your criminally ignorant Attorney General. This Attorney General is supposed to review and sign off on eavesdropping procedures...which is a strange assignment for him, considering the numerous instances in which he cannot recall what he has signed, or what his spokesperson says, or what meetings are about, or what the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Geneva Conventions, etc., say.
And why did the Senate fold? So they could not be accused of being soft on terrorism. The White House framed, the Senate obliged.
Here's how it should have worked.
The House drafts a bill with court oversight of the eavesdropping program. The Senate passes the bill, too. The President vetoes the bill. House and Senate Democrats take to the airwaves explaining how the President's actions made it harder for the "intelligence professionals" to do their jobs. The President's refusal to sign the bill as passed by the House and Senate would be the single reason that the FISA program was not updated. There was no need for the Senate to cave in to The Demander. The branches are equal, remember?
As I'm writing this, the House still has the "opportunity", the responsibility to save America- not from the terrorists, but from The Demander and his gang of warmongering criminals.
Let's all hope they make the right decision.