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President publicly admits to authorizing illegal wiretaps.
Investigation to come...


Only the investigation is about who told the press about the "top secret" illegal wiretap program...

Our local newspaper just held an online poll that asked if the president should be able to wiretap anybody he wants without congressional approval, and 59% of these gomers thought it was a great idea.

Just so you know, it's a bad idea. The wiretaps the president said he authorized would have been authorized by FISA. I know the right-wing doesnt think we should use our traditional legal system against people it deems "enemies of the state," but these are precisely the cases that it is most important to follow the rule of law. Arbitrary imprisonment by the executive is something expressly forbidden by the constitution.

Now, because these illegal wiretaps were used against some of our enemies, we have made it more difficult to do away with them. The system favors those of us who follow the law. (it's set up that way to protet us from an overzealous executive. Brilliant, really.)

It's hard to change the constitution, but it can be changed through the amendment process. It takes years and a wide consensus of public opinion to get it to happen, but it can happen. If you think you can sustain public support for unlimited executive power for as long as it takes to ratify an amendment to the constitution, go ahead and try.

But for now, follow the law.

So the story is that the president decided to do something illegally that could have been done legally? Unlikely. More likely is these retreads from the Nixon administration are up to their old tricks again. I would love to see the actual list of peoople who were spied on, of course that's probably top secret too.

There have always been people who sought our destruction. There have always been those with the will and the power to injure us. Giving up our traditions of liberty and privacy will not aid our defense, they will make it both more difficult and less important.

And FURTHERMORE,

To the listeners of right-wing radio everywhere:

FISA can approve wiretap warrents retroactively, so there is never a waiting period or backlog of requests. There is never a reason for the government to say it didn't have time for a warrant.

Oh, and your supreme court judges, the ones who know the "original intent" of the framers of the constitution? Don't you think they'll have a problem with this?

What are you made out of? Sugar candy? One attack in 60 years and you're ready to wet yourselves, and toss away your liberty to the first strongman who offers you protection?

And most important for you to remember-
Hilary Clinton could be president someday... do you want her to have all these new powers, too?