This is an article I intended to post earlier this week. The upshot of it is I think I heard the Senate did not vote on this bill before the 4th of July break. That means the bill will still be up for a vote after the break.

I'm concerned about this bill and the precedents it seems to set. We are a nation of laws and laws develop along the concept of precedents. It's like being one degree out of 360 off on an azimuth. The farther you go on that wrong azimuth, the wider of the target you're going to be. We're looking the other way on the behavior of both this President and the telecom companies. That means we may have to look the other way the next time something like this happens. That drifts us to a nation of men and not of laws.

Does anybody have any more detailed information about this bill and its language? One of the difficulties is that the law deals with classified activity, thereby restricting the details the public may know.

Here's what the NY Times had to say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/washington/20fisa.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1214787107-qAytIRni/CeimrhzzwBGyw