Here’s Sen. Russ Feingold explaining the problems with the expansion of FISA:

I’m not really too worried about the government reading my emails today, and I suspect that most Americans are the same way. This isn’t about that, at least not to me.

This is simple, and I wish politicians would have the guts to make the real worst case scenario. The way “warrantless wiretaps” work means that there is no longer any oversight on the spying done by the executive branch (the NSA reports up through the DOD to the President). That means that when, say, Democratic Congressmen are overseas and using email, it can be spied on by the government without any oversight. No underling or whistleblower would have any reason to question the data collection.

For Democrats, do you trust this administration not to abuse this power under any circumstance? Even if, say, they felt that some piece of legislation or spending was critical to the national security of the country?

For Republicans, would you trust a President Clinton to not abuse this power under any circumstance?

We have laws so that “the greater good” justifications don’t lead to abuses. All this law requires is some government functionary fills out some paperwork and shows it to a judge within 3 days of data being collected. For the cases where the agencies want broad based collection in place, most of the proposed changes allow for that.

None of these need telecom immunity, nor do they need the complete removal of oversight. I don’t have enough time to explain the different bills and amendments out there. Take a look at Greenwald’s latest on this. It’s long, but it’s a good summary of the relevant issues, the different bills, and the various amendments that might make a palatable change.