Politics of Fear: GOP Ad on FISA

I've spent a lot of time on this blog, harping on the "Protect America Act," and the President's efforts to install retroactive immunity for telecom companies. To date, no satisfactory answer has been given to answer why this is necessary. One response is that if telecoms can be sued, they'll be less likely to help the government. The obvious answer to that is, if they can be sued, they must be doing something for the government that is illegal.

The Republicans--allegedly the "rule of law" party--shouldn't want retroactive immunity for anything, unless it leads to cracking down on even bigger illegal activity. So far, they have not demonstrated any such thing. They have come up with an advertisement to illustrate their view. It does nothing to answer why we need this immunity in the law. But it trowels on the fear in big heaping glops. Take a look.