FISA: Why we fight.

Kudos again to House Democrats, who continue to actually consider things carefully and -- gasp! -- ask questions about George W. Bush's still-unexplained and ultimately nonsensical demand that Congress usurp the role of the judiciary (on behalf of an out-of-control executive that can't do its own dirty work for once) and grant retroactive amnesty from suit to the telecom corporations that (in a Great Act of Patriotism!) knuckled under to the "administration" and agreed to spy on you for pay.

Every time Congressional Dems actually slow down and take stock of the situation -- from Senator Chris Dodd's brave (and lonely and seemingly futile) stand, to the cautious maneuvering of House Dems today -- new revelations arise that should make all Americans who value our freedoms glad they did.

The House has appeared on the brink of caving to Bush's petulant demands more than a few times in recent weeks, only to step back and reassess things when they realized that this program -- like any program launched by the Bush "administration" -- would likely operate totally unsupervised. Indeed, no other conclusion was possible for anyone watching the contortions and stonewalling in the case of the US Attorneys and White House e-mail investigations.

Then it was word from whistleblower Babak Pasdar, who revealed to Wired that:

A U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance

Then the Wall Street Journal's discovery of the undead zombie status of the Total Information Awareness program. (How's that for "power of the purse," by the way? Kill a program, only to find it vaporize and recondense in a different form, in a different part of the budget.) Another few days taken to think things through rationally as opposed to peeing our pants in fear, and what do you know? Turns out the "administration" has already gone over the cliff on erasing the lines between domestic and foreign spying, and is vacuuming up unprecedented amounts of personal data on... well, you.

And who's sifting through your data? Why, it's the FBI. Only the agency that just can't seem to keep its nose out of your drawers, no matter what laws we put in their way.

So another reconsideration of the facts has shed still more light on the brazen whitewashing that is the Bush-Cheney gang's demand for amnesty. And it really should derail FISA again. Every time we get close to finally having to roll over, another day's delay brings another revelation of how ridiculously the "administration" has overstepped on surveillance.

It brings to mind the group Markos noted yesterday that almost ended up with both Eliot Spitzer and Geraldine Ferraro speaking at their event, just before they each individually blew up. Every time the Congress seems ready to give in on FISA, we find out more about how crazy Bush is, the deal falls apart, and the Constitution wins back a few inches of turf.

Today, the House is expected to vote on much-improved language that probably only became possible thanks to the slow drip revelations of just how unwarranted this retroactive amnesty is, just how far out of control the "administration" has already gotten on surveillance, and just how impossible they'll make it to effectively monitor them on it. And today's vote won't be the end of the process, either, since more reconciliation with the Senate's hasty acceptance of amnesty lies ahead.

But with a House recess coming up, we may yet learn more. Hell, the way things are going, with two weeks we may yet find out Bush is bugging the DNC.