Dear Neocons, this is so you can't say "Dems never offer solutions."

[rpgamerd00d]

OK, clearly, we want the US to be able to conduct wide sweeps of all electronic transmissions in order to be able to catch terrorists.

We ALL AGREE on that.

The Dems issues are as follows:
1) Having someone innocent (an American) caught in such a sweep, and possibly have their info misused or accidentally disseminated.
2) Abuse of the system to tap political enemies of the administration for nefarious purposes.


Solution

Modify FISA. Add a whole new section governing communications interception on a wide scale. Details as to how its done can remain secret, however, the results of the sweeps and what happens to the data, etc. can be detailed in a secret document which is validated by a closed session of congress, and reviewed by the FISA Court (which is also secret). Account for HEAVY REVIEWS of this type of monitoring, including HEINOUSLY STRENUOUS reviews on who gets to see the data, what data they see, and what happens with that data AT ALL TIMES until it is VERIFIED to be DESTROYED.

Furthermore, if this type of sweep uncovers a potential target, the statute MUST FORCE any further monitoring of that subject back through EXISTING FISA (i.e. you need a warrant), with a 72 hour leeway period, as it exists now.




Now that we have a way to make this all legal, we can focus on Impeaching Bush for violating the law as its written now.