The Other Side of the FISA Debate

The president has signed the new FISA bill which provides a solid legal basis for the entire foreign intercept program. Most of us on the right side of the aisle are quite pleased that the law which undergirds this program has been update to reflect today's technology.

However, such is not the case on the left. They're livid, both with the law and with the Democrats who couldn't stop it despite being in the majority. Here's an example of the sentiment on the left:

The passage of the new FISA bill by the Senate and now the House demonstrates that the Democrats stand neither for defending civil liberties nor for checking executive power.

They stand for nothing at all.

Conversely, the new bill shows that the Republican Party can get the Democrats to surrender almost any civil liberty-- indeed, to give the President just as much unchecked power as he might obtain under a Republican controlled Congress-- simply by playing the fear card repeatedly and without shame. And this the Republicans did with gusto in the past few days, with one Senator even suggesting that America would immediately be attacked if the President was not given everything he wanted, no matter how unnecessary the demands, and no matter what alternatives were available.

When the Republican-controlled Congress passed the abomination called the Military Commissions Act of 2006, I criticized Democrats who failed to block it, calling them spineless and cowardly. At least then the Democrats had the defense that they were in the minority. One can hardly say that now. They control both houses of Congress. If anyone could stand up to the President, you would think it would be a political party that had not one, but two separate chances to push back. Indeed, how difficult should it be, you might well ask, to say no to a lame duck President with 28 percent approval ratings? What is the political cost to forcing this spoiled child to compromise?

And the rant goes on from there. If you must, you can read the rest here.

They just don't get it. The thing that makes the left so dangerous is that they'd rather sacrifice American lives than risk violating some terrorist's civil rights. They live in a world of selfish fantasy where the only thing that matters is their feelings and rights, and if others have to pay the ultimate price to protect them, so be it....just as long as they're not bothered.

They also demonstrate a shocking lack of intellectual honesty. They know that the purpose of this program is to detect foreign terrorist threats, and yet they insist on promoting the myth that the law will give the goverment carte blanche to "spy" on Americans. It's just not true, but truth doesn't matter. Feelings matter.