The Daily Kos has an interesting read on the new FISA deal being readied for a vote in Congress.

Under the tentative agreement, a major sticking point until now would be resolved by a compromise that would allow a federal district court – not the secret FISA court – to decide about providing retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies being sued for their role in the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

It was not immediately clear, however, what standard the court would use to determine whether such immunity was justified.

If that standard is too low, immunity opponents maintain, the law will have been written so that companies are virtually guaranteed immunity – devaluing any claim of court scrutiny.

First reports are that that standard will be too low, and will be that way by design. The people who want this “deal” pushed through think you and the rest of the millions of Americans who don’t actually want to be spied on by what purports to be their own government will think it’s a victory if the “review” is conducted in federal district court instead of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) established under the original FISA.

But the problem isn’t where the review is conducted, it’s what constitutes the review.

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Secrecy, instilling fear, uncertainty and doubt into the public discourse to protect companies that release subscriber data presumably protected by privacy laws on the books today, all in the name of protecting our national security. Another clear case of the current administration taking this argument to the extreme to open a door to circumvent current laws preventing spying on U.S. citizens. Of course we want our country to be secure. Of Course we want to catch bad guys talking to other bad guys overseas. Just do it with some level of accountability so that absolute power doesn’t rest exclusively with the Executive Branch. Write your congressman and senator to let them know we need accountability.

More here…

The president has been working this for months.

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