Wow. I’ve been beating up a lot on the Democrats for their spinelessness lately, so this is really refreshing:
“The president’s presentation this morning was, I think, basically dishonest,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader.
Intelligence officials could continue intercepting suspect communications even if the deadline passes, Mr. Hoyer said. In pushing so hard for immunity for the utilities, he added, the Bush administration is “very nervous about what might be disclosed” if the lawsuits against the companies are allowed to continue.
“To some degree, therefore, I think it is a cover-up,” Mr. Hoyer said.
And just this morning, I was complaining about the alarmist tenor of the press coverage, so this is refreshing too:
The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups for a year after the initial eavesdropping authorization for that particular group.
If a new terrorist group is identified after Saturday, intelligence officials would not be able to use the broadened eavesdropping authority. They would be able to seek a warrant under the more restrictive standards in place for three decades through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Notice how that first paragraph isn’t even preceded by “Democrats claim…” or some such. It just flat out states that the White House is basically wrong. Which is true, but usually journalists feel that objectivity requires them to give “both sides” of any debate, even if one side is obviously nonsense. We need more journalism like this, that calls a spade a spade.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.