FISA Fight The nation's editorial boards weigh in
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
According the American Civil Liberties Union, the president could have extended the act until Congress could figure out how to hammer out a palatable version of the FISA bill. But, says Timothy Sparapani, senior legislative counsel, on the ACLU's Web site, "The president continues to misrepresent the situation with FISA. Fear mongering and making unsubstantiated claims of lost intelligence does not help Congress reach a resolution."
No, but it might force Congress' hand, nonetheless, into passing a version of the bill that has everything Bush wants.
He's already threatened to veto anything less. But what of those who feel the government is violating their privacy?
"Suck it up," said the president of the United States, the same guy who led the charge into Iraq to, you guessed it, protect our freedoms.
We'd like to take this opportunity to remind the House that we'd like to see less sucking up and more standing up, please.
The Houston Chronicle:
What this dispute is really about is shielding telecoms from any responsibility for enabling surveillance of customers that might have violated their constitutional rights to privacy.
It's understandable that Bush would want to prevent court scrutiny of a potentially illegal spying program that operated outside the law for so long. But the administration is putting the protection of corporations and partisan posturing above the constitutional rights of the American people.
