How Bush Gained the Power to Spy on You without Security Justifications

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/59190/

After enduring weeks of blistering criticism for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's inartful elisions about the National Security Agency (NSA) spying activities, the Bush Administration has successfully forced on Congress a law that largely authorizes open-ended surveillance of Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mails. How did they do it?

The Protect America Act of 2007 -- the title alone ought to be warning that unsavory motives are at work -- is the most recent example of the national security waltz, a three-step Administration maneuver for taking defeat and turning it into victory.

The waltz starts with a defeat in the courts for Administration actions -- for example, the Supreme Court's extension of the rule of law to the US military prison at Guantánamo in the 2004 case of Rasul v. Bush, or its striking down of the military commissions in 2006 in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The second step does not follow immediately. Rather, some months later, the Administration suddenly announces that the ruling has created a security crisis and cries out for urgent remedial legislation. Then (and here's the coup de grâce) the Administration rams legislation through Congress -- the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, or the Military Commissions Act of 2006 -- that not only undoes the good court decision but also inflicts substantial damage to the infrastructure of accountability.

This time, the sordid dance began with a bad ruling for the government, a ruling that demands some context to be understood.

[aquart]

1. I don't care how. I don't care why. I WANT IT GONE.

[WidowsSon]

2. This the biggest problem with not impeaching Bush

These powers will be passed directly on to Hillary, who I'm sure will use them to their fullest extent. I, personally, don't want a Democratic president with these powers anymore then a Republican president.

How about you?

[Perry Logan]

3. Some correctives from Joe Cannon:

"People who have never read the Act keep spreading the rumor that it allows Alberto Gonzales to listen in on all electronic communications without a warrant. That is simply not true. Virtually everyone, left or right, who has read the law will confirm this point.

The new law permits warrant-free eavesdropping on foreign-domestic conversations. But so did the 1978 law.

The update gives Gonzales the ability to initiate warrant-free wiretaps. But guess what? So did the 1978 law.

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/08/have-we-been-played.html

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. Friday kick