LAT: SPYING BY ANOTHER NAME-"Only Appeasers stand up for Constitution"

[kpete]

EDITORIAL
Spying by another name
WITH POLLS SHOWING THE American public increasingly skeptical about the need to abridge core constitutional freedoms to wage the war on terrorism, the Bush administration launched a major PR offensive this week to justify its decision to conduct warrantless wiretapping within the United States. The White House deserves credit for at least making its case. Unfortunately for the president, it's a weak case, and repetition doesn't make it any better.

Indeed, the administration's marketing team may be more adept than its legal theorists. All White House references to the National Security Agency's eavesdropping now call it a "terrorist surveillance program." That sounds far less objectionable than the media's blanket term, "domestic spying program." After all, it's hard to support domestic spying, but who wants to oppose "terrorist surveillance"? Maybe the Los Angeles Police Department could suspend the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches by launching a "criminal surveillance program."

Semantics aside, the administration's legal case remains wobbly, which may explain President Bush's churlish attitude toward his critics. On Wednesday, Bush defended the need for the program at NSA headquarters in Maryland. "Now, I understand there's some in America who say, well, this can't be true that there are still people willing to attack," he said. He then referred to Osama bin Laden's latest threatening audiotape.

Get it? The president is equating concerns about the legality of bypassing the courts to obtain a warrant to eavesdrop on Americans with a lack of appreciation for the threats posed by Al Qaeda. In Bush's world, only appeasers stand up for the Constitution.

............

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-nsa26jan26,0,7338877.story?coll=la-home-oped

[mrcheerful]

1. Yeah those Quakers are going to blow up american land marks, after all any

group that calls for peace is extremely dangerous.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. and those vegans!

scary!

[Toots]

3. Here is what Bush* had to say in April 2004

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." G.W. Bush*

[kpete]

4. Impeached - Yeah!!!