White House not out of the woods on NSA just yet

I'm glad to see this. Spector's Senate NSA surveillance bill faces a fight from some Dems and other critics. Thank G-d somebody is willing to say the stupid bill is a disaster.

Specter's proposal would, among other things, allow the transfer of all pending lawsuits to a secret FISA appeals court that could throw the cases out for "any reason." The bill would also allow -- but not require -- the administration to seek legal approval for the NSA program from another secret court that administers FISA.

The legislation also would lengthen the amount of time the government could spy on alleged terrorism suspects before receiving warrants, and would explicitly affirm the president's "constitutional authority" to conduct spying programs on his own.
In other words, it's a simple rubberstamp for the administration's trampling of the law and the only oversight written into it would be dependent on Bush keeping his word to voluntarily subject his habitual malfeasance to review. As if we can depend on that.

The alternative bills don't appear to be a whole lot better but at least it keeps the debate alive and one can only hope some few courageous legislators will emerge to finally hold the White House accountable for this gross violation of established law.