Congressional Democrats, under pressure from the Bush administration, today proposed a six-month compromise that would expand the government's authority to conduct electronic surveillance of overseas communications in search of terrorists.
So after all that whining about how the President's "warrantless surveillance" was against the law and un-American and how the Patriot Act is taking away our freedoms, the Democrats are going to allow the program to expand. That's right, expand.
So what fig leaf are they going to try to use to cover their obvious change of heart?
The proposal, according to House and Senate Democrats, would permit a secret court to issue a single broad order approving eavesdropping of communications involving suspects overseas and other people, who may be in the United States. That order "need not be individualized," according to a Democratic aide.
That's right. They're going to allow a court--incidentally, the same court that already ruled the President didn't need a warrant to conduct the surveillance that was being conducted--to issue a blanket warrant. In other words, a carte blanche.
If my liberties were at risk before, I don't see how they're any safer now.
The Dems got this one right, but it sure looks like they should be eating crow about it.
I don't think they had a "change of heart," so much as a "lack of balls."
ReplyDeleteSo how come it's okay now to expand this program? Either it was wrong before and should never have been implemented OR it was NEVER WRONG and the Democrats knew it. I am tired of political hacks playing games with the security of me and my family. And this does bleed over into immigration because without a controlled border, we have no idea who is here. And maybe that shocking reality, that potential terrorists may already be here is what tipped the balance. It makes me wonder what the Democrats know now that they didn't know before.
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