UPDATE Below
No surprise Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, is parroting the maladministration's lies on the Gut FISA And The Fourth Amendment For Good Measure Act, but for the record:
Speaking to the national Fraternal Order of Police conference (in Louisville Monday), the Kentucky Republican hailed the update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying "we're safer for it."
"Now to me, the idea that we were supposed to extend the Bill of Rights to a bunch of noncitizens overseas, let alone terrorists, wasn't only dangerous, it was the height of stupidity," McConnell said, drawing applause from the police group.
Remind me not to donate to the FOP this year.
To the Courier-Journal's minimal credit, they did indulge in some he-said-she-said stenography:
Civil liberties groups and some Democrats have said the measure went too far, and could enable the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with people overseas without adequate oversight from courts or Congress.
"This law has basically given the government the right to scoop up those communications without a warrant," Caroline Fredrickson, legislative director of the national American Civil Liberties Union, said in a phone interview Monday.
How much do we regret not strangling in the cradle the "Iraq (hearts) Al Qaeda" meme and the "Mushroom Cloud" meme and the "Liberals Want Us To Lose In Iraq" meme and all the other lies we let slide because we couldn't believe anybody with the brains FSM gave a walnut would believe them?
We have to put a stop to this "We're Only Spying on Terrorists" meme right now this instant.
It's not going to be easy. I spent my lunch hour today explaining to a highly intelligent, well-informed, very liberal co-worker that the "FISA revision" was actually the removal of privacy rights for American citizens. This co-worker hates Smirky, hates repugs, hates the war, would vote for Satan if he ran as a Democrat. But he couldn't believe that Congress would actually approve a bill that gave the president - any president - the right to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant.
He did make one good point - people don't believe their rights have been removed until that removal affects their lives directly.
So how do we bring this home to people? How do we make them believe their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor are once again on the line?
UPDATE 7:20 p.m.: Always read the blog first. Looks like Gadfly may have discovered exactly the issue we need to bring this home to people.
