McCullagh's Law of Politics:
As the certainty that legislation violates the U.S. Constitution increases, so does the probability of predictions that severe harm or death will come to Americans if the proposal is not swiftly enacted.
House Democrats actually had voted to extend the wiretapping law for three weeks--Bush and the Republicans rejected that compromiseThe only thing at issue is immunity for telcoms. Period.
"What makes this situation rather bizarre is that retroactive immunitynfor alleged illegal activities by AT&T and other telecommunications companies years ago is unrelated to extending the Protect America Act (which deals with future surveillance authorization). That makes this situation a little like Bush threatening to veto, say, a defense spending bill if it doesn't include authorization for an invasion of Iran.(1)"
Monitoring programs authorized under the original "Protect America Act" will continue until Aug 8 2008 when the authorizations expire.
The president asserts that the expiration of the Protect America Act will pose a danger to our country. The former national security council advisor on terrorism says that's not true. Former assistant attorney general says that's not true. Numerous others, and the chairman, has asserted that's not true. Why is that not true? Because FISA will remain in effect. The authority given under the Protect America Act remains in effect. And if there are new targets, the FISA court has full authority to give every authority to the administration to act. Steny Hoyer
