Frankly, this day-before-the-hearing crap is just like the drunken frat boy doing his term paper from The House Files in the last few minutes remaining on his extension.  A disgusting mess.

It's clear that the threat of oversight managed to get some "movement" - real or illusory - from the Admin.  Which means, then, that (a) they're weak and everyone knows it and, more importantly, (b) More Oversight and more threat of oversight is just the thing to get More movement out of them.  

It's a momentum thing, y'know.  "Big Mo", I think Poppy called it.

Hopefully, the new plan will involve more than just mere rubberstamping by FISA judges.

But I have to admit that my second thought was: Wait a minute here, why is Gonzales doing this, especially in a letter to the Judiciary Committee the day before he appears before them over other concerns about oversight circumvention (US Attorneys)?

And my third thought was: Get the ones they know will be approved rubberstamped, and continue to wiretap without FISA approval others anyway.

How would anyone know? These people have waved smoke and mirrors and deception in front of the worlds eyes for so long now it must be second nature and ingrained habit for them. I don't trust them for a second. Especially Gonzales. I think he'll do anything to please his boss.

In my perfect country, the FISA court would be replaced by a civilian review board of average joes and janes.

One example -- they agreed to pay 2 millions in damages to B. Mayfield for what the FBI did to him despite strong objections from that agency. That was highly unusual given that the US government almost never compensates victims of its own misconduct.

The political winds are blowing the other way and they are adjusting accordingly.

On the fundamental level however the DoJ remains an aberration that this country will have to do something about sooner or later. There exists NO other modern European democracy where a government agency dealing with "justice" would be as politicized as our own DoJ.

If you have any doubts read letters Alito wrote to Meese when he was trying to land a job with DoJ.

Ideological servility of the most unprincipled, untolerable kind.

Or consider the fact that there exist no effective way to prosecute high level members of US  security apparatus in this country --  Hoover, Mueller and like are outside the reach of any US attorney -- and contrast that with recent successful prosecution (including arrests!) of such people in Italy.

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Bringing some elements of domestic spying/survailance systems under a nominal control of FISA court is  unquestionably a step in right direction.    

The Congress however should make that control meaningful, under present legal/statutory regime the control is illusory, FISA judges are EXPLICITLY prohibited from investigating or even questioning anything the FBI/NSA/DoD/SS etc submit in support of their applications.

Administration officials "have convinced a single judge in a secret session, in a nonadversarial session, to issue a court order to cover the president's terrorism surveillance program," Ms. Wilson said in a telephone interview.

In other words "a sleight of hand" as frazed by Josh.