Republicans can't be bothered to attend FISA meetings when there is political hay to be made...

I really resent the hell out of having crap like this waved in my face:

The Bush administration informed Congress on Friday that the government has “lost intelligence” because of the expiration of surveillance legislation caught in a political tug of war.

“We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act,” says an underlined passage of a six-page letter signed by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell.

Of course, the fear-mongering screed does not provide any, you know, details or anything, just banal assertions of impending doom.

I especially hate it when this sort of thing just flies right under the CNN/M$M line...

“The House and Senate met again today to produce a strong new FISA bill and once again, Republicans and the White House refused to come to the negotiating table. Despite the Republicans’ apparent insistence on turning this into a partisan issue, Congressional Democrats will continue to reach out in a bipartisan way to finalize a strong FISA law that protects our national security and our civil liberties.

“Meanwhile, in a letter to the Congress today, the Bush Administration repeated its claim that the expiration of the Protect America Act (PAA) has resulted in intelligence gaps. If the expiration of the PAA has lessened the willingness of telecommunications companies to comply with surveillance requests to protect our national security, the President and Congressional Republicans have only themselves to blame for refusing to support the PAA’s extension.

“The existing FISA statute provides a remedy: convert the surveillance requests to compulsory court orders. The Director of National Intelligence has admitted that the backlog at the FISA court that prompted the passage of the PAA last summer no longer exists. FISA court orders can therefore be issued even more quickly than they were in the past.”

So let's get this straight - administration minions can pen a letter in which they make broad assertions about how we are all, every last one of us, in peril, because the Democrats won't roll over for retroactive telecom immunity, but your Publican legislators can't be bothered to come to the table? And the mythical "lost intel" is the story for the media outlets that bother to report it? And the churlish fucks who refuse to negotiate get a pass?

Yeah, there's your so-called liberal media, folks. Holy Chocolate Covered Christ. I don't know which is more infuriating - the idiots who keep spouting the liberal media myth, or the banality of the corporate GOP shills among the M$M. Call it a toss-up. I hate them both with equal vigor and venom.