Well, the Senate passed the FISA legislation, including retroactive immunity for telecom companies who broke the law. I’m just sick about it, and increasingly angry with Claire McCaskill, whom I never expected to be the wannabe Republican she’s become.

What’s wrong with this legislation? The short answer is that it guts the Fourth Amendment, but there’s a good summary at Firedoglake today. I know the media is much more interested in the Congressional investigation of baseball, but maybe this will get your attention:

-- Persons spied upon have no ability to determine what information the government has collected, or to affect what the government does with the information. Americans will never know which persons or government agencies were shown private information about them, and if restrictions are placed on their activities or travel because of this secret information, it will be impossible for victims to determine why or to challenge the information.

The line being spouted about the companies working “in good faith” with the government is complete crap—they have been lavishly paid for breaking the law, while those who declined have been penalized. As somebody said (sorry, can’t remember where I read it), if we’re in a country where the government can simply tell businesses to break the law, how is that different from a police state? If there was just cause for what the telecoms did, then an investigation should exonerate them, and let the American people know what’s been done. But that’s not going to happen with this bill.

The ultimate mendacity comes from President Bush, unsurprisingly. If it is so critically important that we get this bill passed immediately (else The Terrorists Will Kill Us All), why is he willing to let the extension of the current law expire by vetoing an act he doesn’t like rather than waiting? Who is playing politics with our security in These Dire Times now?

You can sign an online petition to your Congressperson by clicking a link at the end of the Firedoglake article. It’s our only hope to save the Fourth Amendment at this point.