I promised myself I'd largely stay out of the FISA fight, I really did. I promised myself that I'd largely stay out of it except for commenting in a couple places.
And yet I can't not any more. Not after logging on and seeing yet another couple of melodramatic diaries topping the recomended list.
I apologize in advance because I am no longer going to mince my words, or even attempt to be mindful of other's feelings. Attack me for my thoughts if you must, call me names if you must but the fact is that a lot of people here are acting like Chicken Little and not only is it not helpful but it's destructive.
The most common over the top charge is that FISA is 'killing' (or some similiar word) the 4th.
But is it really? A quick glance though the history of the US shows that our history has largely been a balancing act between respecting the rights of the individual and the necessairy and reasonable limitation on those rights.
Thus the question becomes how unlimited should the 4th be? And what limits should we accept? Myself, I realize that the goverment has to monitor a large portion of calls for our protection. At the same time it is only reasonable that there is some independent oversight and that is what Bush didn't want. Make no mistake about it Bush would rather have his cake and eat it too, and if not for luck, commitement and activitism Bush would have gotten his way almost a year ago.
Thankfully, he didn't and now we have a FISA bill that makes neither side happy (which is a sure sign of a compromise) but more importantly it's a bill we can live with.
Now I've seen some analysis that the watchers, the IGs of this bill would be worthless. And I do accept that's a possiblity, but given the president's willful and steadfast refusial to do anything but what he wants when he wants, what would people propose? How do you reign in a president after Congress has spent the last 50+ years reliquishing the majority of it's power?
Myself, I can't see a way at least not with the unresponsible, uncompromising one we have. Which is why we must win, as who here doesn't think that Obama will be much more willing to listen to all sides?
And above all remember this while you're running around screaming that the sky is falling, FISA is a bill, the 4th is a constituional amendment. Do I need to remind people which one truimphs over the other?
But that's not all there is to this bill as many here seem to oppose the bill solely because they believe the bill protects the telecom companies.
The only probelm is that it doesn't, not really. The only protection the telecoms get is from civil lawsuits; which if you think about the politics of the situation you'd realize that's a reasonable trade off. The telecoms can't have thier pants sued off of them (after all there is no consitutional right to sue someone just because you think they can) but could still face criminal proscution.
More over again what would you have? Complete immunity or complete proscution? And before you say complete proscution, remember this is politics we're talking about so you must think if I go for complete proscution can I get it? Or will I just get laughed at and then get complete immunity?
It's not enough to simply want it done, it must be doable and I submit there is no way there is the support for complete proscution in either Congress or the public. By pushing for lawsuits people start to look greedy (reguardless of the true motive) and that feeds into the common preception about tort reform being needed.
So there you have it, while people are whining and moaning and screaming about the sky falling; I actually am going to thank the democrats in Congress for delaying a bill far longer then they thought they could, for finding a compromise we can at least live with and for finding at least a new wall that Bush has to deal with. The FISA compromise isn't pretty but then again politics isn't and it's past time some here get over themselves and thier ego.
And after that I'm going back to the work of getting more democrats elected and getting a democrat for president. Because only then can we really begin to the work to fix this country, be short sighted if you wish, act like this bill is the end of everythign we know if you wish. But do so knowing that we're back to shooting ourselves in the face and reinforcing every lie the GOP tells about us