Blowing the basic facts

Julian Sanchez has a great post up on FISA and some of the issues related to it, all in the course of demolishing the errors and idiocy of Matt Continetti and his editorial in the Weekly Standard. I commend it to your attention.

On of my favorite quotes in Sanchez' article is this bit of twaddle from Continetti:

Nor was it at all clear whether or not FISA superseded the president’s plenary, constitutional authority to “protect and defend” the United States from attack. No court has ever said so.

Readers of this blog--or, dare we suggest, of the Constitution--will be well aware that the President is sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, not the people from attacks. What a concept that would be! Evidently Mr. Continetti has not read the Constitution. I recommend it to all who would opine on political matters.

The drivel Mr. Sanchez deals with is substantial (in volume of nonsense, not in the sense of substance, since much of it is false or unsubstantiated).

It's a good article for dealing with "conservative" talking points.

h/t to Gleen Greenwald for pointing me to it.
--the BB