Top House Democrats postponed a vote to reauthorize parts of FISA, when party Progressives and Republicans aligned to revolt against the bill. Trump added another nail in the coffin by tweeting his intention to veto the bill if it crosses his desk. They shouldn’t reauthorize or veto, they should kill it.

Nancy Pelosi is having a hard time controlling her people. Maybe living outside of their DC bubble is the reason for Progressive Democrats refusal to toe the line and reauthorize expired parts of the FISA bill. Republicans are refusing to support a bill that has been used as a weapon against the president. Whatever their motivations, FISA review shows a program rife with examples of abuse. Trump would do America a service with a permanent veto.

Nancy Goes Full In to Push Surveillance

Pelosi should be ashamed by her push for renewal. But she audaciously defends it on PBS News Hour. Going so far as to say,

When we take the oath of office, we raise our right hand and we vow, take an oath to protect and defend the American people, the Constitution of the United States.”

Oh Nancy, that’s rich! Botox paralysis is the only way you said that and held a straight face.

Representatives Weigh-In on Opposition

“The Hill” reported Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) said,

 “We just formally announced a whip against it because, number one, it’s not going to become law. Number two, there are still so many questions that need to be answered about real abuses that happened in the FISA system,”

His sentiments were echoed in a statement by Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI)

“We have grave concerns that this legislation does not protect people in the United States from warrantless surveillance, especially their online activity including web browsing and internet searches,” said CPC Co-Chairs Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Congressman Mark Pocan. “Despite some positive reforms, the legislation is far too narrow in scope and would still leave the public vulnerable to invasive online spying and data collection.”

Nancy has finally brought consensus to the House. Against her ramrod approach to pushing a FISA renewal. Congratulations, you coordinating mask and pearls wearing gargoyle!

Only a Politician Named Pelosi Would Think FISA is Constitutional

Today Fox News quotes Speaker Pelosi saying,

With a FISA bill, nobody is ever really that happy …  But the fact is … we have to have a bill. If we don’t have a bill, our civil liberties are less protected.”

Without a bill “outlining” how the government is allowed to unconstitutionally spy on American citizens, our civil liberties are LESS protected? Oh sweet baby Jesus, it’s no wonder Congress is a mess. This sort of circular logic is confusing.

In Nancy-verse, it’s better to make everyone unhappy, and “protect” our civil liberties by outlining how the government can illegally spy on us.

Do they drug test in Congress? Someone needs to hand her a cup and send off a urine sample, because she’s obviously high.

Trump Takes to Twitter to Sound the Veto for FISA

If any President has familiarity with the receiving end of the FISA process, it’s Trump. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano writes in “The Washington Times”,

Now, we have seen in a case involving the president of the United States, a material alteration of a document, reliance on unverified allegations, substantial omissions, agents duping one another, applications signed by senior DOJ and FBI folks who never even read, much less questioned, what they signed — all done with the false comfort that their misdeeds would not come to light.”

It’s little wonder that Trump wants some answers before allowing the bill to pass.

If the FISA Bill is passed tonight on the House floor, I will quickly VETO it. Our Country has just suffered through the greatest political crime in its history. The massive abuse of FISA was a big part of it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

Real people faced life altering consequences based upon FISA warrants full of bad intelligence. The unmitigated hubris of officials sworn to uphold the Constitution, before violating it, is egregious. It’s frustrating and maddening. If the people trained in the law feel no shame using the cover of darkness to violate the civil rights of citizens, the cover needs to be removed.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it well in a press briefing,

“It’s very personal to the president when it comes to FISA. This is an important tool in the intelligence community. He knows that. But he also knows it was used and abused and politicized, …  FISA was not used appropriately when the Steele Dossier full of lies that was, quote, ‘salacious and unverified,’ in the words of Jim Comey, was used as the basis to get a FISA warrant and attested to as if it were truthful and a reason to spy on Carter Page. … The Fourth Amendment rights of several Americans were violated, and a political campaign was spied upon, so any FISA concerns the president has? They’re real. They’re personal. And they should be considered as we move forward to reauthorize this critical tool.”

Trickle Down Protection

The average citizen has no idea when they are being surveilled under a FISA warrant. The indiscriminate collection of data based on happenstance associations is massive in quantity. A cited association can be so far removed that it borders on absurd. But how would you know? You wouldn’t. And if the feckless Democrats hadn’t been fired up to impeach Trump, we wouldn’t have repeated confirmation about exactly how corrupt the process has become.

The Editorial Board at the “Orange County Register” writes in “Rampant FISA abuses demand overhaul“,

At a time when government’s powers are increasingly unrestrained, it’s more important than ever to sound the alarm when safeguards to our liberty are routinely ignored. … Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has found serious problems with the FBI’s process for seeking warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In a review of 29 applications for secret warrants to conduct surveillance of United States citizens or green-card holders, the IG found an average of 20 errors in each of the applications. …The IG’s office looked at warrant applications over a five-year period and found that the FBI was routinely failing to comply with its own process for verifying the accuracy of facts in the applications for authorization to conduct surveillance.”

It took an attempted takedown of a sitting President to illuminate the darkness of the FISA process. I’m thankful the Democrats overplayed their hand, because now we can start to pick apart the rats nest of the FISA process. Something that wouldn’t have happened if the accused was Donald J. Smith. Though his motivation for answers to his own case are the underlying motivation for Trump’s veto threat, I’m fine with it. At least he’s motivated to uncover the dark corners where officials feel comfortable violating constitutionally protected rights. If he gets to steamroll over Pelosi in the process, so be it.

Veto it all, Mr. President!

Featured Image: US Air Force License: Public Domain Image Cropped: 400×400