A Few Words on FISA

"Well, we had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me, for which I'm grateful."
--President Bush, Jan 15, 2005

Here in Oregon, we had a rare snowstorm that blanketed the ground with a dense four inches, effectively shutting the city down for two days. Thus have I been lounging. However, this little bit of news did manage to register on my drowsy radar:

The Bush administration said yesterday that it has agreed to disband a controversial warrantless surveillance program run by the National Security Agency, replacing it with a new effort that will be overseen by the secret court that governs clandestine spying in the United States.

It turns out we did have an "accountability moment"--it just came in '06, not '04. The drumbeats of this moment have only begun, but it appears Bush is taking no chances--he's trying to scurry back to the right side of the law. Maybe it will work. He's a crook, but the legal accountability now rests with the Congress who, for six years, have let the President break whatever laws didn't tickle his fancy. My cynicism prevents me from regarding this with a lot of hope.

Take what we can get, I guess....