I want a terrorist to his this country as much as the next guy, which is to say, not at all. I also want our country to have something important to preserve - freedom, lawful institutions, law and order, democracy, silly little things like that. For the past 6 years those concepts have given way to doing away with the evildoers. I'm glad to say that freedom and democracy took a large step forward today with Federal Judges opinion striking down the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program as an unconstitutional search, and in general, an unconstitutional seizure of power by the Presidency over the other co-equal branches of government. The article's here. Talking Points Memo's Muckraker has some choice quotes here.
Really good stuff. Freedom, democracy, due process and the American way has reasserted itself.
5 comments:
The program is not unconstitutional and not wiretapping. It is also not new with this administration.
This decision will soon be stayed and then reversed by the 6th Circuit.
Well, gee, if an anonymous poster says it is not unconstitutional, then I guess that answers it.
I am willing to admit the slight possibility that the legality of the NSA program is debatable, but for the administration (Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, et al.) to stand up and say that it is clearly legal is just ridiculous. If a multitude of legal scholars and judges think it is illegal, then it cannot be "clearly legal." That's just dumb.
Good for this judge. I'm sure the right wing will soon be calling her Judge Osama.
How can anon say it's not "wiretapping?" Of course it is. It is done without a warrant. And it's been done through FISA in the past, so it hasn't been done before this administration.
Republicans posited this ridiculous theory in hearings that presidents since George Washington have done this - that's absurd.
Most importantly, this is not a war, and if it is, then we have always been, and always will be at some form of war or another. Certainly, the Cold War was one, and this happened right after the Cold War. According to the administration, this will last for decades.
Decades of War? Sounds like a NeoCon wet dream to me.
I think the value of liberty should not be exchanged for security. Remember this country went through hell in order to shout to the world that we are the champions of freedom,liberty and equality. Let us not let some paranoid administration take these away from us.
These are great comments.
I think that the recent swing in the political pendulum shows that this administration has gone too far. It's comforting to know that when that is the case, eventually the system will purge itself of the extremes to which we've resulted in order to find balance again.
In a way, I suppose that is the order of nature. Perhaps the order of politics as well.
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