NYT Op/Ed: "Spying On Americans" FISA-gutting bill is ' a dishonest measure, dishonestly presented'

[Hissyspit]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/opinion/02wed1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Editorial
Spying on Americans

For more than five years, President Bush authorized government spying on phone calls and e-mail to and from the United States without warrants. He rejected offers from Congress to update the electronic eavesdropping law, and stonewalled every attempt to investigate his spying program.

Suddenly, Mr. Bush is in a hurry. He has submitted a bill that would enact enormous, and enormously dangerous, changes to the 1978 law on eavesdropping. It would undermine the fundamental constitutional principle — over which there can be no negotiation or compromise — that the government must seek an individual warrant before spying on an American or someone living here legally.

- snip -

Mr. Bush’s motivations for submitting this bill now seem obvious. The courts have rejected his claim that 9/11 gave him virtually unchecked powers, and he faces a Democratic majority in Congress that is willing to exercise its oversight responsibilities. That, presumably, is why his bill grants immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated in five years of illegal eavesdropping. It also strips the power to hear claims against the spying program from all courts except the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which meets in secret.

- snip -

The measure would not update FISA; it would gut it. It would allow the government to collect vast amounts of data at will from American citizens’ e-mail and phone calls. The Center for National Security Studies said it might even be read to permit video surveillance without a warrant.

This is a dishonest measure, dishonestly presented, and Congress should reject it. Before making any new laws, Congress has to get to the truth about Mr. Bush’s spying program. (When asked at a Senate hearing yesterday if Mr. Bush still claims to have the power to ignore FISA when he thinks it is necessary, Mr. McConnell refused to answer.)

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[Marr]

1. Is there a currently a congressional investigation into this? I seriously want to know

exactly *who* the Bush Administration has been spying on for the last 7 years. They've already admitted that their illegal surveillance began months before 9-11, shortly after they took office, in fact. And they clearly weren't paying any attention to terrorist threates prior to 9-11, so just who were they spying on?

[GregD]

3. Try this one on for size...

How did the sender of the anthrax know who to send their special gifts to?

Maybe they were wiretapping all of Congress and the MSM...

[gratuitous]

2. So many things to do, so little time

I think the 2006 election results caught these bandits completely off-guard. Here they are, five months into the new Congress, and Bush is trying another end-run around the Constitution, as if Congress was still his little bitch. Well guess what, George? You're not in total control anymore. And that bill you just vetoed? Cuts off the funding for your lousy little war as surely as anything in the world. No money, no war. Didn't Daddy explain that to you?

Here's wishing you a miserable 20 months, you murderous asshole.

[Hissyspit]

4. .

[shance]

5. What is more disturbing is the neighborhood watches ("Citizen Corps")that have been used to spy.

and harass individuals, often on a daily basis.

It's also becoming apparent there has been widespread "organized stalking" of activists and harassment by groups ofindividuals hired by corporate entities and "others" associated with groups like Citizen Corps and neighborhood watches.

Operation TIPS, like Cointelpro has apparently never been disbanned only placed under the radar of speculation and open observation.