A Wall Street Journal editorial calls out Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrat Presidential candidate Chris Dodd for "wigging out" on renewing provisions of FISA which would allow US intelligence services to monitor overseas communications of suspected terrorists.  The current authorization, which expires on February 1st, accounts for new technologies since the 1978 bill was first enacted and only applies to intelligence targets overseas, but Reid and Dodd seem content to let it expire.

That may be fine with some Democrats, who have always been more comfortable treating terrorism as a law-enforcement problem rather than a real war. But it's a tough political sell to say that America should respect the "civil liberties" of al Qaeda terrorists overseas. So instead, wiretapping opponents are vilifying corporations. "For the last six years, our largest telecom companies have been spying on their own American customers," says Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

USA Today reports on the Senate passing a funding bill last night which includes $70 billion to fund our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  While its a relief that the Senate has finally passed this funding measure, forestalling any DoD civilian layoffs and provided needed supplies and support for the military, this issue is expected to resurface in January since this is only a fraction of the full year's funding requested by President Bush.