Well, Miss Marple, apparently I have offended you because you are putting words in my mouth. I have never called Bush a dictator nor would I. If you want to see that go over to DemUnderground.
I think I made it pretty clear in my post that I am not just concerned with this President or this enemy that we currently face. I am concerned with the Hillary Clintons, the Howard Deans the Nancy Pelosis and Cynthia McKinneys and other nutjobs we have yet to be introduced to who might use this in the future.
I guarantee that if this were Al Gore doing this right now, you would find narry a Freeper to go along with it and that they do it now just to support this President is a bit sickening in my opinion.
My country comes before my party in my heart. My country comes before the occupant of the White House. Presidents come and go but the nation must endure so that freedom will endure. And if freedom has not survived then neither has a nation that has been founded upon it. Freedom must be zealousy defended. Zealousy.
This is where my allegiances lie. Everything else is secondary. Better to have al Qaeda cut my head off than to give up everything that makes life worth living.
But you can do what you want of course.
Well said, I concur.
My take is that there are legitimate uses and illigimate uses of this power.
Frankly, whether President Bush does this or not doesn't really matter if someone like Hillary Clinton is elected. Do you think she would obey a court ruling? Do you think the press would castigate her for violating citizen rights? Nope. Whether President Bush does this or not, if elected, she will do what she damn well pleases, and ignore the niceties of the Constitution, just like her husband did.
So, since it doesn't matter what precedents President Bush sets, I favor giving him the right to listen in on these calls. In fact, he can listen in on my calls to my daughter, in which we discuss whether or not we will meet for lunch tomorrow. I don't care.
Granting Bush this right does not affect what will happen in the future, except for protecting the nation while he is in office.
Now I must go watch my grandchildren. Any replies from me will be after 6PM Eastern.
It is not as if Bush is doing anything new or different than previous Presidents have done. Perhaps on a larger scale, but then again, we are at war.
Better to have al Qaeda cut my head off than to give up everything that makes life worth living.
Be seeing you on the next videotape I guess. Hope it doesn't hurt too much. Those folks who have had it done to them seem to scream a lot. I hope you do better.
ROFL! Congratulations. This ranks right up there with the most ridiculous thing posted on FR. But thanks for the morning belly laugh.
While that is true, you should NOT fool yourself into thinking that laws will prevent bad people from doing bad things. In this day and age anyone that thinks electronic communications of any kind are "secure" is naive. Being "just a small fish in the ocean" gives some anonymity, but with data mining you can still be singled out. All electronic means of communication should be considered as public for a realist.
"I guarantee that if this were Al Gore doing this right now, ..... to support this President is a bit sickening in my opinion."
There is no doubt that an Al Gore or Hitlery Clinton would also face substantial criticism were they involved in this fight against the Islamists. From both the right and the left.
However, using NSA (a military agency) to track communications to and from our Islamist (aka "al Qaeda")enemies *no matter where they are* would not be my concern.
The rise of transient and anonymous phone numbers, disposable email addresses, free personal cryptograpy, and widespread VoIP availability has made FISA a bit of an anachronism for certain types of operations (even with the 72 hour window).
"Better to have al Qaeda cut my head off than to give up everything that makes life worth living."
You and Craig Crawford have the same point of view, even ending your screeds with identical sentiments.
I suggest you buy a ticket to Kuwait City, outfit yourself appropriately, cross the border and join in the fight against the "al Qaeda of Mesopotamia". They *will* cut your head off, and they do not care about your liberties.
What about the lives of your children?
BTTT!
Cute. But this isn't about Al Qaeda trying to cut off your head, it is about AQ trying to murder thousands or hundreds of thousands of Americans in a single act. Those persons aren't yours to offer up as a sacrifice, but the President did swear an oath to protect and defend them.
But what are you giving up?
"I guarantee that if this were Al Gore doing this right now, you would find narry a Freeper to go along with it and that they do it now just to support this President is a bit sickening in my opinion."
I am confused over this. The President, any president, has plenary powers under the Constitution that are absolutely independent of Congress or the Judiciary. Under Article II he is Commander in Chief. As such any president has both the power and responsibility to intercept intel in the war on terror.
THIS president is using a system of checks and ballances well beyond anything required by anything. The program is reauthorized every 45 days, is extensively reviewed, and has been run by Justice. In addition, there are a host of federal legal decisions that support a foreign intel exemption to the 4th.
Unless one can explain to me how using a system that is not unlike my computers virus or spyware scans in some way equates with reading my mail, I will simply observe the issue is a tempest in a teacup.
The president has this power
The president has always had this power
Every president holds this power
Neither congress nor the courts can remove the power
The power has most assuredly NOT been abused
No one is reading millions of communications, instead they are scanned like a virus scan on a computer and only if such a treason virus pops up in the review, is anything really read at all.
Why not worry about eminent domain abuse, takings through regulation, or the IRS and BATF, all things that are filled with real abuse and that occur each and every day??
I don't know about that. I think conservatives are different than traitorous liberals because, in general, we rally behind even a Democrat in times of war when the enemy is real, as this one has been for many years.
I can't speak for other freepers, of course, but I'm offended by your claim. Your accusation that I would in any fashion seek to deny the President of the United States the right to collect the signals intelligence of the enemy during wartime, just because of the President's political part, COULD NOT BE MORE FALSE.
False premise, because a President Gore wouldn't take such a measure to fight a War on Terror.