New Meme: He didn't need a warrant, he just needed to document it after

[Ian David]

The president has the authority to conduct wiretaps without a warrant on anyone he wishes for three days.

The only catch is that after three days, he has to document it by filing the paperwork with the FISA court.

Why is Bush conducting illegal, unconstitutional:

a) undocumented wiretaps?
b) under-the-table wiretaps?
c) wiretaps without a paper trail?
d) wiretaps that he is afraid to document?

[JeffR]

1. We've seen the quality of his paperwork

Like the note asking Condi if he could go to the bathroom.

[Ian David]

3. His warrants were all scribbled with a black sharpie. n/t

[tridim]

2. Because the court wouldn't issue warrants

for spying on journalists, politicians and other Democratic groups.

That's my guess.

[yourout]

6. Ding, Ding, Ding.

We have a winner!

They bypassed FISA because they knew what they wanted to do was ILLEGAL!

[Hosnon]

7. Well I've seen that with the court, all transcripts from the domestic

end of the conversation had to be blacked out.

This is what Bush was trying to avoid - legit to me to want to avoid but not legit to simply not ask Congress to amend the law.

[Trillo]

4. Doesn't filing it after the fact

grant the warrant? Perhaps the way the FISA law is structured, it's still allowing elements of preemption. Practically, this must mean that warrants do not need to be shown to get the desired data. So would a telecom just have a feed always going to the NSA or related agency? Where's the practical oversight in that?

"Trust us while we don't trust you."

[Ian David]

5. MCI/Worldcom routed calls through Canada so the NSA could monitor them

And now with so many jobs outsourced to Pakistan, all your tech support, travel freservation and customer service calls are "international."