The FISA bill will come up for final vote in the Senate, probably tomorrow, and the weak leadership of the Wussacrats in that chamber, just like the reprehensible cave to Bush and the Republicans in the House by the Wussacratic leadership, will result in the passage of terrible legislation that tramples and defies the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

There was no need for this.  Senator Harry Reid many months ago could have brought to the senate floor the stronger, no telecom immunity, Senate Judiciary Committee version as the fundamental bill rather than the weaselly, in the tetelcoms' pocket Jay Rockefeller chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, telecom immunity tripe.  Mr. Invertebrate Reid is supposed to control what comes to the floor but does a piss poor job.

But, this FISA bill was totally unnecessary.  The original legislation from the mid 70's has been constantly revised to keep pace with technological advances.  It also allowed surveillance without a warrant for 72 hours while a warrant was obtained.  The government had three days of warrantless eavesdropping to get a warrant.  Three days is plenty of time for a competent, well-organized, efficient department or agency to acquire the necessary warrant(s). 

But as a NYTimes editorial wrote: "The real reason this bill exists is because Mr. Bush decided after 9/11 that he was above the law. When The Times disclosed his warrantless eavesdropping, Mr. Bush demanded that Congress legalize it after the fact."

Any Democrat who voted for this bill in the House and those senators who plan to vote for this egregious legislation this week are aiding and abetting the criminal Bush and his regime.  Those Democrats who excuse their support claiming compromise have no integrity.  There should be no compromise when it comes to defiling and defying the Constitution of the United States of American.

And Joseph Galloway at McClatchy News asks how these elected denizens of Capitol Hill, especially the Democrats, can rip the Fouth Amendment?

"Early next week the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

"That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

"That a majority on both sides of the aisle - not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties - intend to vote for such a violation of Americans’ right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

"They would have us believe that a nation of 300 million people must surrender what a million other Americans gave their lives in war to protect in order to protect us from a couple of hundred fanatics hiding in caves in Waziristan.

"If neither John McCain, the Republican, or Barrack Obama, the Democrat, can find the courage to oppose such a violation of so basic a right, then what are we to do for a president, a successor to George W. Bush, The Decider, who has since 9/11 decided what rights you are entitled to keep, what laws he will or will not obey, and whether you will be protected by these words of the Constitution:

“ 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'

"We have done incalculably more and greater damage to ourselves since September 11, 2001, than a thousand bin Ladens and ten thousand al Qaida recruits could ever have done to us.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Now it would seem that we have no one to fear but ourselves and our leaders.

"The questions I pose are these:

"How can even one senator on either side of the aisle in good conscience vote in favor of this law that does nothing to enhance our security and everything to diminish our rights as a free people?

"How can both men who seek to become our next president cast such a vote when both should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder declaring that they would govern by our consent and with our approval, not by wielding the coercive and corrosive and corrupt powers that King George III and his latter-day namesake from Texas thought are theirs by divine right?"

Like other bloggers, I've written so many times about this FISA fiasco, but in the end it comes down to the following: 

This is what the late, great US House of Representatives member, Barbara Jordan (D-TX) eloquently stated at the Nixon impeachment hearings: "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."

Unfortunately, those members of the House who voted for this reprehensible FISA bill have, and those senators who do so this week will have reduced, subverted, and destroyed the Constitution of this country. 

None of the current Democratic leaders, the Blue Dog Democrats nor any Republicans on Capitol Hill have the integrity and courage of Barbara Jordan, nor belief in their oath to Constitution as Barbara Jordan, nor faith in that living document as did Barbara Jordan.