FISA votes near

The Senate will soon be voting on legislation to alter the FISA law.

The Bush Administration wants more warrantless wiretapping, and a group of telecom companies want immunity from violating laws that prohibited them from providing material to the government without a warrant.

The importance of requiring a warrant is that, without it, there is no way to make sure that the Administration is actually spying on our nation's enemies, and not their own enemies. Nixon, for example, felt justified on using the government's wiretapping capability on anybody who criticized his administration. That was why the FISA court was created to start with - because of Nixon's decision to spy on political opponents and rivals.

It certainly needs to be defeated.