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Wiretapping For Dummies
February 7, 2006Famous quotes to live by:
“ Give me liberty or give me death.” (Patrick Henry)
“ Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.” (Benjamin Franklin)
“ God gave rock and roll to everyone” (KISS)
“ Yeah, but uranium is heavy metal, and dude, I don’t think that’s what God meant.” (PurpleThink)
The polarizing debate has reached fever-pitch on Capitol Hill. Republicans say Democrats advocate a “Terrorist Bill of Rights,” while Democrats label the White House as “Fascist Felons.” As usual, the truth lies in the middle and both American safety and liberty may be the casualties. PurpleThink is on the cutting edge, analyzing this from a rational and reasoned perspective instead of jumping on either bandwagon.FISA (The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) spells out specific rules for conducting electronic surveillance of alleged terrorists. Have you read this thing? It’s pretty darn clear that the President cannot unilaterally do anything. Whenever an American citizen is involved, the Court must also be – period.
The problem lies with the interpretation of Presidential wartime authority as spelled-out in both Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution and the War Powers Act. In both instances, the Congress is vested with the authority to declare war. However, there is ongoing debate on the extent to which Congress (and the FISA court for that matter) must be involved in the daily execution of a war.
The White House is in a historically unique pickle. Ike and Lyndon Johnson muddied the waters with Korea and Vietnam – never declaring a war, but used the term “police action” to keep from abdicating any authority to Congress. Enter George Bush and “The War on Terror.” Bush drones on endlessly about this being a war – not a police action. Yet, Congress never declared a war. The White House points to Congressional authority to hunt down terrorists after 9/11, but does that authority last indefinitely?
Enough background – there are far better sources out there than this website. Bottom line is that we’re in new territory. Traditional war doesn’t apply. The question becomes whether or not liberty needs to be reassessed in light of this new warfare. The answer is most certainly “no!” We don’t stop playing baseball because of steroids – but we do start drug testing -- adjusting the rules to ensure steroids don’t destroy the game. Likewise, we cannot sacrifice liberty and our way of life because some among us would use that liberty as a weapon. George Bush is our team’s Designated Hitter, and we’re not advocating he stop playing -- it’s just about time somebody makes him pee in a cup.
No one should be free to ignore the law. Bush is concerned that seeking FISA Court authority would bottleneck our efforts to fight terrorism. Fine. Then change the law. In the meantime, while the law is being debated, go ahead and do what needs to be done in order to protect American citizens from terrorism and send requests to the FISA Court retroactively to ensure a record of executive power.
PurpleThinkers have no problem with the President making the call on this one. By all means George, get Jack Bauer and CTU to find out where Marwan has the nuke (TVs “24”). Don’t let us stop you. However, we PurpleThinkers do have a problem with all power resting in the Executive Branch indefinitely. George, George, George, you won’t let us forget this is a new kind of war we’re fighting. Let’s treat it as such and change the laws so we can continue to protect not just American lives – but also what Americans are living for.
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