A Spy Chief is the New FISA Court

I have been devastated over the last couple of days (thus the reason for our absence) to realize our constitution has been shit on, not only by Bush and his neo-con crackerjack incompetents, but by Democrats too scared or too elitist to challenge Bush in any way.

For the first time in nearly four decades, a senior intelligence official — not a secretive federal court — will have a decisive voice in whether Americans' communications can be monitored when they talk to foreigners overseas.

The new bill gives National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales joint authority to approve the monitoring of such calls and e-mails, rather than the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Before the passage of the law, the President was in violation of the constitution, today it is the law. This action is no less a violation of separation of powers as was the Iraq War authorization.

This means an intelligence official is now empowered to sort through the legalistic, secretive world of FISA, rather than a judge or the nation's highest law enforcement officer. McConnell was added to the legal decision-making after lawmakers argued that the attorney general shouldn't hold the power alone. The spy chief's experience is largely in military intelligence, not legal matters. Oh, should we be thrilled that it is not Gonzalez alone? Are we supposed to be happy it is two people in the Executive branch (virtually and figuratively) instead of a court of law set-up to do such monitoring.

Civil liberties groups and some Democrats call the bill a vast expansion of government power. In the past several days, officials who work for McConnell, the Justice Department and the Republican congressional leadership have argued vehemently that that isn't so. Where the hell are they? Where is the outrage?

Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies, which advocates for civil liberties, said the new law will potentially allow the government to intercept millions of Americans' calls and e-mails without warrants — as long as the NSA and other authorities have a foreign suspect in their sights. "This power that they have obtained is a dramatic expansion," she said.

The power may last longer than some people expect, Graves noted, thanks to a little-noticed provision of the bill. While the law expires in February unless Congress acts to extend it, any surveillance orders that are in place when it sunsets can last up to a full year, she said.
Without a repeal, lawmakers "weren't just giving them the power for six months. They were giving it to them for the rest of the administration," Graves said.

Make no mistake about it, this bill is a vast expansion of power. See talk left for more discussion and how a President with 25% approval rating can strong arm this Democratic Congress. I am disgusted.