Retroactive immunity for the telecoms, and the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence are empowered “to authorize warrantless surveillance of foreign parties whose communications pass through U.S. switches, even when they are communicating with Americans.” Is anybody surprised? No? Right. Does anybody care? Why?

What if Congress didn’t pass the law? The administration has spent the last seven years authorizing warrantless surveillance of foreign parties and U.S. citizens, so why would it stop just because Congress decided not to pass a law authorizing it to do so? The fundamental principle of the Bush administration’s theory of executive authority is that the U.S. Constitution, Article 2 grants the President unlimited power to carry out his various duties to the Union, the most important of which is to Protect America. The administration has acted on this theory plenty of times. The Supreme Court gave them a few mild scoldings and wrist slaps. Congress ought to have started impeachment hearings years ago, but it hasn’t done that or anything else, except pass a bunch of laws granting the administration dictatorial powers. These laws are formalities, since the administration already claims its unlimited Constitutional authority. So maybe Congress will end up rejecting the Senate’s bill in favor of the House’s slightly less awful bill, the RESTORE Act, which does not grant retroactive immunity and allows the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence to spy on us only after they’ve obtained a warrant from some stupid court which if I recall correctly has never rejected a warrant in thirty years. And President Bush will either veto it or just ignore it. So who cares what Congress does?

Oh, sorry, the FISA court has rejected five warrants since 1979. In 2006 it approved 2,224 warrants.

By the way, RESTORE stands for Responsible Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective. Jack Kirby is alive and naming House bills!