Thursday, August 17, 2006

Court says warrentless eavesdropping illegal

I'm not well versed in the law so I'll leave the elegant interpretation of the legal ruling to the lawyers. As a simple layman, I'm going to reduce my take on the whole thing down to four simple layman sentences:
  1. Wireless eavesdropping isn't illegal... Warrentless wireless eavesdropping is illegal.
  2. If eavesdropping is required for the sake of national security, get a warrent.
  3. If technological advances have outgrown the law, it is the President's duty to lobby congress to change the law.
  4. Until then, the law is still the law and every excuse for bypassing it is just so much bullshit.
Some 220 years ago, a group of patriots gave birth to the democratic principles on which this country is founded. They understood that all men are equal under the law and that no man is above the law. They envisioned a government of checks and balances that would ensure that the government remained responsible to the people and that its power would be limited. Many men were willing to die -- and have died -- for those ideas rather than see them compromised.

The pants wetting weenies who are so willing to excuse this blatant disregard for our constitution in the hope that Big Daddy is gonna use his unchecked power to keep them safer should be ashamed.

Update: The Editors
makes me smile again, as usual. Founding Idiots, indeed!

4 Comments:

Blogger Senor Cheeseburger said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:08 PM, August 17, 2006  
Blogger Senor Cheeseburger said...

The same thing has been going on with every president in history. It has only become an "issue" when liberals, who are more concerned with winning an election then in preventing the deaths of thousands of their constituents, wanted to make it an issue to attempt to discredit your president. No, the mere fact that it has been going on since the invention of the telephone doesn't make it "right" but it ads context.

Similarly, the fact that the terrorsit plot foiled by the British and Pakistani officials was thwarted BECAUSE of a similar wiretapping program which grants their governemnt EVEN MORE freedoms to listen to calls from terrorist countries then our own program, make it "right."

However I think that these facts, combined with the fact that we are at war, and the president has constitutionally recognized, broad powers to protect the country during wartime, do make it right. In fact, it would be stupid not to do it.

Either way, whether the program is ultimately scrapped, re-tooled, or left unchanged (obviousl this is going to be appealed) the fact is that President should be applauded for his initiative and determination to do everything he can to protect us, the citizens of the U.S. not insulted and mocked and lampooned as some sort of mustache twisting madman... This is not some sort of Nixonesq plot, some illegal action for taken for his own personal gain, this is a calculated measure made on his and this administrations watch to take every reasonable precaution possible to prevent another 9/11 like scenario OR one we all celebrated being thwarted in England. One which in all likelihood WOULD have succeeded in the United States if the NSA wiretapping program is scrapped.

Scary.

11:09 PM, August 17, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The 4 items listed by Logic101 are pretty good.

Senor Cheeseburger post shows he doesn't get it...which is the whole problem...Bush supporters DON'T get it.

The U.K. program does use warrents. The U.K. in fact did get warrents so they could spy on the bad guys.

It was good solid old fashion gumshoe obey-the-law police work that undid the would be bombers.

Except that Bush probably ruined the case because he wanted a quick arrest while the U.K. didn't.

The judge is quite right about the NSA program being unconstitutional. I would go one step further and say that the "state secret privilege" concept is also not in the Constitution.

That idea is used for dictatorships.

In an open society, freedom, liberty is based on knowing, not hiding information from the public.

There is always a balance that has to be struck. But constantly hiding behind you can't know cause "state secret" means you are hiding wrong doing.

The idea behind FISA is to leave a paper trail in case of someone needing to go to court if the government screws up.

Which the civil servants seem to do alot of. It's hard to fine good help these days.

Bye!

4:03 AM, August 18, 2006  
Blogger Logic101 said...

Yeah, senor cheeseburger, those pesky laws sure do get in the way sometimes but I was always under the impression that the very basic tenets of the constitution you're so willing to chuck are exactly why my great-grandfamily traveled allllll the way from France, Ireland, Germany, England, and Sweden just for the privilege of living here (what can I say, I'm a mutt). Call me an idealist if you want, but don't blame my views on partisanship. In fact, if you really want to poke around and find the true partisans arguing the issue then I'd throw out just three words: President Hillary Clinton. Cause I'm sure she'd be all about the unchecked discretionary power. For your own benefit, of course.

8:51 AM, August 18, 2006  

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