Gotta love the commenters at Free Republic.

Via Glenn Greenwald, a hilarious 2000 Free Republic article on the dire threat to American civil liberties posed by Bill Clinton’s use of "a secret court" that has "authorized all but one of over 7,500 requests to spy in the name of National Security." The court in question is, of course, the FISA Court. The freepers are outraged:

This is beyond frightening. Thank you for this find. . . .

Franz Kafka would have judged this to wild to fictionalize. But for us – it’s real. . . .

Any chance of Bush rolling some of this back? It sounds amazing on its face. Why didn’t Wen Ho Lee just "disappear" into one of these Star Chambers, never to return? . . .

This is one of those ideas that has a valid purpose behind it, but is wide open to terrible abuse. And there’s no way to check to see if it is abused.

Like all things that don’t have the light of day shining on them, you can be sure that it is being twisted to suit the purposes of those who hold the power.

Today, of course, the restrictions of the FISA Court are far too onerous and the president should have absolutely unchecked power to do whatever he wants.