I'm so sick of the Bush administration's cavalier attitude towards my civil liberties

This morning I was getting quite annoyed listening to Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence on NPR's Morning Edition.

So annoyed that I was arguing with the radio.

He kept saying stupid stuff like we shouldn't publicly debate FISA because how FISA operates shouldn't be public and that the telecom companies need immunity from prosecution for breaking the law because they didn't break the law.

Um, this is the guy whose title includes the word intelligence?

Then, this afternoon I was cheering at the radio when I heard that the House had recessed without addressing the FISA renewal. Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel have stood up to Bush and told him that his fearmongering won't pressure them into passing a bad law.

"The president knows full well that he has all the authority he needs to protect the American people," said Pelosi, who referred to Franklin Roosevelt's admonition about fearing only fear itself. "President Bush tells the American people that he has nothing to offer but fear, and I'm afraid that his fearmongering of this bill is not constructive."

"This is not about protecting Americans. The president just wants to protect American telephone companies," Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday.

THE DEBATES WE HAVE BEEN HAVING OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS ARE CONSEQUENTIAL AND ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT THIS BODY DOES. AND THAT IS UPHOLD THE LAW, NOT JUST PASS THE LAW, UPHOLD THE LAW. AND AS I SAID A LITTLE EARLIER IN THIS DEBATE, PART OF THAT WAS OVERSEEING THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT TO ENSURE THAT THEY EXECUTE OUR LAWS APPROPRIATELY AND LEGALLY, AND THE CONGRESS HAS BEEN GIVEN UNDER THE CONSTITUTION THE AUTHORITY TO SEEK INFORMATION. THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HAS SOUGHT INFORMATION, AND THAT INFORMATION HAS NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING. THE CONGRESS, AS MR. BOEHNER SAID, CANNOT DO ITS JOB. IF THE CONGRESS SIMPLY FAILS TO ASSERT ITS CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE.

Go Dems.

What he said.

And him, too:

If the executive branch comes to a private company and asks it to do something illegal, the executive branch has powerful ways of making the company see things its way. Being on the good side of the incumbent administration is a good place to be.

But still, companies will think twice about cooperating with illegal requests if they're sure that doing so will come around and bite them in the ass in the long run. But if you create the situation the Bush administration is proposing -- where failure to comply with illegal requests has negative consequences, but agreeing to comply with illegal requests lets you off scot free -- then no company going forward is going to have any reason to refuse to comply with any sort of illegal requests. In essence, the immunity provision would gut whatever other restrictions the new FISA law might contain.