Posted on 01/15/2006 9:42:01 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
A new Zogby poll indicates a majority of Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval.
Respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the following statement:
"If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."
The poll found that 52 percent agreed, 43 percent disagreed and 6 percent said they didn't know or declined to answer.
"The American people are not buying Bush's outrageous claim that he has the power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant," said Bob Fertik, co-founder of the left-leaning group AfterDowningStreet.org which commissioned the survey. "Americans believe terrorism can be fought without turning our own government into Big Brother."
The poll interviewed 1,216 adults in the U.S. from Jan 9-12, and has a 2.9 percent margin of error.
As one might expect, the respondents' political affiliation played a role in their answer, as 66 percent of Democrats favored impeachment, as did 59 percent of Independents, but only 23 percent of Republicans.
One month ago, one-third of Americans polled by Rasmuseen Reports said they believe Bush should be impeached.
Let's see how the numbers change when we ask it this way, "If President Bush wiretapped people living in the United States who were communicating with known terrorists overseas, plotting to kill Americans on US soil, and the President even advised Congress repeatedly of his actions, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.."
Did Zogby poll Arab residents of Detroit and Toledo or something?
Not if the law cuts off an executive power that a President has under the Constitution.
However it's not been proven that a Judge's approval was required prior to the wiretap orders being given.
I think the President concedes that there has been warrantless electronic surveillance outside of the confines of the limits set by FISA, "the law." The defense promulgated by the DoJ is not, "the activities are within the statutory limits of 50 USC 1801 et seq." The defense is that the President has the inherent authority, and that in combination with the Congressional Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) provides him the authority.
Furthermore, I would personally PREFER that the Government monitor ALL phone calls coming IN or going OUT of the Country.
In country calls are another matter.
If the government suspects Joe Terrorist, in the USA, of planning a terrorist attack, would you ignore calls between Joe Terrorist in the USA and John in the USA? Or would you figure Joe Terrorist is bad news, and want to know who is in his circle of bad guys, ESPECIALLY those in the US? RIght now that's a rhetorical question, but it may end up being a fair representation of the facts.
LOL!!!
Isn't Zogby a registered Democrat and doesn't he contribute to Democrats?
What is the point of this poll? President Bush hasn't wiretapped any American citizens without a warrant. All surveillance was conducted exclusively on calls outside our borders. No wiretapping was required.
It's shorthand. Go with the flow on this. Regardless of the technology, people operate under the illusion that the have privacy, and the Courts put some teeth into this illusion by excluding certain types of evidence from criminal prosecution.
If they have time to suspect Joe and Bob terrorist are communicating with each other within the confines of the USA, then they have time to get a warrant.
Yes, I would oppose ANY warrantless searches inside the US>
The Constitution is not negotiable.
Period
He announced that based on his polling he concluded that Kerry would win.
What do you do about people like me who give false answers to polls?
I got called before the 2004 election and said I supported Kerry when the reality is I voted for Bush.
24, btw, looks like it will be a blow-out hit this year. Would Jack Bauer object to wiretapping groups connected to terrorists?
We could have polls on:
A) Political correctness and whether it is an offense against the first amendment.
B) The idiot judge in Vermont.
C) Whether the media is reporting the Iraq war honestly.
D) Whether America thinks the judiciary thumbs its nose at Democracy.
E) Whether Christians are being treated as outcasts.
F) If Martin Luther King would have supported affirmative action.
But polls are never taken on any subject conservatives wish to discuss. They are used to stir up discussion on topics liberals want placed in the news cycle. There is no more to it than that. Polls are a propaganda tool.
From a research course in a master's program
Push poll!
"I'll bet money that Zogby did not ask:
Do you believe the U.S. should listen in on terrorist phone calls when the terrorist dials up someone in America?"
Bingo!
Of course there is a cabal of people here on FR that are thinking the exact same thing but of course none of them have the necessary anatomy to actually admit it.
it's a crazy poll, from Zogby, but I am CERTAIN that the likes of Pat Buchanan will point to it as factual......
Go visit LoonyPlace.org and you'll see that they're just drooling over this poll. Of course their ilk on FR are too but don't have the guts to actually say it.
screw them....
I don't need to read their stupidity. Let's remember that some of them are there because they couldn't hack it over here....
"Since Bush is already been proven guilty of an impeachable crime, will you be the one to obstruct justice and not support the call for impeachment by Howard Dean, John Conyers, and Al Gore?"
"Should George Bush be impeached for tapping YOUR phone without a warrant, violating YOUR civil rights, and the rights of all self-respecting Americans? What war?"
"Richard Nixon was driven from office for just thinking about implementing an enemies list. Will you patriotically condemn George Bush for doing something even worse, regardless that there is no comparison at all between the circumstances?"
And finally... "Bill Clinton engaged in unrestricted domestic spying on millions of Americans, and at that time, Bush's critics simply grumbled and made excuses for Clinton's actions as "an necessary evil." Should George Bush be allowed to get away with this, when Bill Clinton innocently did what Bush's critics claim he did?"
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