(Updated with a post that totally proves my point) She of 18-hour support wonders, along with the Mighty Glenn:

At last, Glenn Greenwald has gotten down to the nitty-gritty and discussed what no one is saying about the original FISA legislation that was introduced in 1977 - that it was an outrageous ceding to government of the power to violate our Constitutional right to privacy (yes, privacy) as clearly spelled out in the 4th Amendment.
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Indeed; the most liberal position in the public discourse is this: that it’s okay to take our time on constructing a new, more invasive FISA law, because the original law will cover us adequately in the meantime. But virtually no one is arguing that no updating at all of the original law has ever been necessary (except me and a few security geeks), and no one at all is pointing out that FISA itself is and always was a bridge too far. When the authorities violate the 4th Amendment, they should be put in jail, not given greater latitude to spy on us under a legal fiction of national security.

Am I the only one who thinks that we really don’t live in a nation of laws anymore? That this whole discussion is mostly one for wonks who love detail? Because it seems to me that between the AG refusing to do his job, and the “Constitutional scholar” and “experienced lawyer-stateswoman” both wimping out on major Senate debates about the Constitution, talk like this misses the point. I’m not harshing on A or GG, christ no. But I’m asking for a better way to frame the question. Right now the Constitution is a beautiful dream, but it’s clearly not “in force.” The law of the land is: who is closer to the security-military-contractor-prison complex, me or thee? If I am, I win. If you are, you win. This rule applies in confrontation, business, “the economy,” and across most elements of the social environment. And if you have enough of a connection to the MIC, you can get away with anything, anything at all…  Read more 

Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here.
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Several years ago, in the pages of my first blog, ddjangoWIrE, I wrote an essay with the same title. When Blogger “accidentally” deleted my account, relegated ddjangoWIrE to a stripped archive, and “lost” some of my posts, the piece converted to disconnected bits in cyberspace and the essay was gone.

I’m really not going to use that disappearance as the primary excuse to post another brief essay on the same subject. Given the state of our nation, our democracy, and the inattention, malaise, and downright selfishness of its people, there are quite enough reasons to revisit this territory.  Read more 

You’re not surprised. Hat tip to Blondesense, for making me get pissed as I pack.  Read more