17 December 2007

half the FISA battle won...

well, at least it's on hold.

Majority Leader Sen. Reid pulled the FISA bill from the floor late this afternoon handing Sen. Dodd a temporary victory in his filibuster fight to delete telecom retroactive immunity.
Harry Reid just announced on the floor that he intends to table debate on the FISA overhaul legislation until January.

This is an important development and will hopefully allow the opposition to telco amnesty to convince enough Senators that providing blanket immunity to these companies who broke the law really doesn't do much to keep us safe.
FISA Bill Tabled Until After The New Year from Paddy over at Cliff Schecter's Bravenewfilms.org.

Senator Dodd means to continue his action if the immunity is not removed by the time it's reintroduced in January.

This is a case of one man, with a lot of support, making a difference. It's an example of the Constitution's checks and balances at work and a fight for the return of transparency.

This idea of retroactive immunity bothers me. How can you just say that something that was done when it was illegal can't be punished? I guess the most outrageous example would be something like Jeffrey Dahmer being convicted of 17 murders in 1992 or H.H. Holmes being hung in 1896 for killing 27 people, Congress passing a law that murder is not against the law, and making it retroactive all the way back to 1789!

Like I said it's an outrageous example, but what is the difference? What happens to the rule of law? Especially since even with adding it to the wiretapping bill, it's still illegal at the basis of FISA. The bill still calls for FISA approval of wiretapping but infers that it's okay to do it without the approval.

Now, if Obama, Clinton, and others had been where they belonged since they said they supported Mr. Dodd's stand, it would have shown more than lip-service.

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