Leahy and Bond just spoke. Not to be predictable, but a big fist bump (terrorist fist jab?) to Leahy and an exasperated head shake to Bond. In his first of what will likely be many victory laps, Bond told us the process of getting this bill has “accomplished its goal.” If “its goal” is the making sure the White House has zero accountability and congressionally-sanctioned domestic spying then YES, it has accomplished its goal. Well done, Kit.

Oh girl. Feinstein is up! She’s going through the bill, provision by provision, and why she thinks it’s so super awesome. I could counter her point by point but the lawyers I work with are a lot smarter than me and they’ve done this about forty-eight times.

Also, she needs to let this exclusivity thing drop. FISA was already the exclusive means for wiretapping in the United States when President Bush and his posse flat out ignored it. Bolding, underlining, italicizing and adding “…seriously” to the language will not keep future presidents from attempting to circumvent it. If they even feel the need once the Senate passes this law gutting FISA…

By the way, if one more person calls the cases against the telecommunications companies “frivolous,” I will absolutely lose my mind. These cases are legitimate complaints filed in the wake of the shocking and deeply disturbing revelation that the National Security Agency was ordered by the president of the United States to spy on Americans without the warrants required by the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution. To say that those Americans who did the only thing they could - take legal action - are frivolous, money-hungry or unpatriotic in any way is to say that our Constitution is not worth defending and that our expectation of privacy is as fluid as what our country is experiencing and not what it is.

Also, does it make anyone else’s blood boil that the White House actually won the semantics war two and a half years ago and now everyone refers to the warrantless wiretapping program as the Terrorist Surveillance Program? Every time I hear anyone say “TSP” I cringe. It makes you wonder why the administration didn’t attempt to label waterboarding the “Terrorist Submersion Program.”

Sanders has started: “We are a nation of laws not men regardless of who the president is.” Sing it, Bernie.

More FISA debate coming up…

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