FISA, Finally

So it's come to this. Voting was put off on Tuesday, apparently so senators could pay their respects to a bigot who deserved no respect. Wednesday is expected to bring the actual vote on the FISA overhaul, and there's not a lot of expectation that it won't pass overwhelmingly (because who doesn't like a good warrentless wiretap, when it comes down to it?).

There's still some fight left, though. Blue America and ColorOfChange.org sponsored a full page ad (PDF) in the Washington Post today that spells out some of the details of what this bill does and doesn't do. As she's been doing all along, Christy Hardin Smith was organizing responses such as calls to senators. Glenn Greenwald also describes a few ongoing efforts to address the erosion of constitutional rights.

It's worth pointing out yet again that Barack Obama has come around to the side of warrentless wiretaps. We'll all have to decide for ourselves whether it's because he might want to take advantage of such extended powers if he gets into the White House. Regardless of his motivation, there's no reason to believe that attitudes will suddenly change when the new administration--whether Democratic or Republican--takes office in January.