FISA, fear, and Democrat frauds
Everything you need to know about the 9/11 Democrats is here from Andy McCarthy.
President Bush lambastes the Democrats on FISA again:
President Bush on Monday lobbied again for an intelligence law allowing government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, as the tone of the dispute between the White House and Congress over terrorist surveillance grew increasingly sharp.
“To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they’re saying, and we need to know what they’re thinking, and we need to know who they’re talking to,” Bush said at the start of his annual meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House.
“This is a different kind of struggle than we’ve ever faced before. It’s essential that we understand the mentality of these killers,” Bush said.
The law in question targets foreign terrorist threats and allows eavesdropping on communications involving people in the U.S., so long as those people are not the intended focus or target of the surveillance. The latest version of the legislation expired on Feb. 16, and the rules reverted to those outlined in the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Bush and Congress are at odds over whether to give legal immunity to companies that in the past helped the government spy on customers without court warrants…
…Democrats, in an op-ed piece Monday in The Washington Post, accused Bush of resorting to “scare tactics and political games.”
“It is clear that he and his Republican allies, desperate to distract attention from the economy and other policy failures, are trying to use this issue to scare the American people into believing that congressional Democrats have left America vulnerable to terrorist attack,” said the article.
The piece was signed by Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Democratic Reps. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; and John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
White House press secretary Dana Perino responded to their op-ed with her own statement. Perino said that Bush is not using scare tactics, but rather repeating the concerns of the intelligence community about the risks to the nation. “Unless this threat is taken more seriously in Congress, the ability to obtain the intelligence we need will be at risk, and with it our national security,” Perino said.
Later, speaking to reporters, Perino said the Democrats’ use of the phrase “scare tactics” must “be like one of their favorite words — it must poll very well, because they use it almost every time. What we have done is state facts.”
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Categories: FISA
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This is the most ridiculous debate in the history of the U.S.It merely demonstates the depths that the Democrats will sink to gain or hold onto power.If anyone is so stupid as to believe that the Dems are fighting for “rights of privacy”,I’ve got a bridge I’ll let you have cheap.Of course,grandma’s cookie recipe is more important than national security./sarc
Scare tactics? Well if we have another terriorist attack I hope to heaven ALL America holds the Democtats liable. I can not tell you how I detest that bunch in DC. They have a lot of the information on how the enemy is out to whop our heads off, but they want to use the same old, same old crud to get elected, give themselves pay raises, use lobyisits to fatten their wallets, not do a blooming thing to help our country,and work two months a year.
L.
I guess it will take a plane flying into the Capital Dome to get these clowns to wake up. The one thing we can say about Bush, he has kept us safe on this front. No easy task when the dems block and stonewall his evey effort.
Imagine if this was WW2. Ultra would have been as secret as Britney Spears escapades. Right after Midway, we would have sued for peace. “Bring the troops home!!” Jane Fonda would have been sweet-talking Hitler, manning an 88 to shoot at our bombers; coming home to no interference. Colleges would have been offering Japanese as the new language. The OSS wouldn’t be doing anything other than being before Congressional committees. Buddhist shrines would be popping up everywhere and the Jews would be placed in camps. Congress would demand all POWs be released. French would be defunct replaced by German. Euros would exist…as deutchmarks. Such is our country today.
But Letget,they’re Demcrats,they can’t be held liable for anything.After all they are just doing what FEELS right.What a bunch of dipsticks.
There, fixed it for ya
The bipartisan bill that Sen. Rockefeller and his panel authored, and 67 of his colleagues joined him in supporting, would make a fine law. It includes the vital tools our intelligence officials need to track in real time the movements of those who would seek to do us harm and kill untold innocents.
The Senate bill also contains common-sense legal protections for telecommunications companies that assisted the nation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
These companies did for their fellow citizens what any patriotic American would do if asked to help bring to justice the terrorists responsible for plotting the deaths of thousands of innocents on American soil. But now they face a barrage of big-dollar lawsuits over their actions.
The 66 trial lawyers behind those suits have given $1.5 million in campaign contributions to congressional Democrats - and those lawyers want the Senate’s bipartisan compromise killed so that their cases can proceed.
It’s pretty clear why House Democrats have refused to take up the Senate bill: Facing intense lobbying pressure from their political patrons, they’ve put the interests of trial lawyers before a bipartisan bill to effectively combat terrorism.
House Democrats face a stark choice: They can continue on the political course they have embraced - or they can prove that their complacency was but a momentary lapse of judgment, and give the bipartisan Senate bill the up-or-down vote it deserves.
Well, I certainly wish them luck in passing the Rockerfeller Bill. They may find it rough to get through, there in Rome…uhh..Washington D.C.. Sorry, I tend to confuse the two; they have so much in common. Ancient Rome and Washington, D.C.. Got to stop reading those old history books.
The democrap’s lust for power has gone from the insane to just flat out dangerous. They, as a party, are willing to risk another 9/11 type attack if it will bring them a victory over their arch-enemy, President Bush. Of course sane people know our real enemy is radical islamic jihad but insane, lustful people cannot see straight.
Call your congressman. Do it now. I have.
THe word Intelligence should not even appear in the same paragraph with Democrats. Just saying….
We have met the true enemies.
Last line of it says it all:
#7, that’s the bottom line. Sell out your country for money…
If we get hit again and it can be proven that it could have been avoided if the dems didn’t play games, then I say we try them for treason.
Before retirement, I worked as an investigator for a large law firm. Out of 10 attorneys, one was Conservative.
One of the Lib attorneys and I were debating the upcoming 2004 election.
I was winning point after point.
The attorney stood up, said;” Sometimes you have to vote with your wallet” and left.
When will someone in Bush’s Justice Department start legal proceedings against the 66 trial lawyers that have bribed congressional Democrats to commit this latest act of treason? Probably about the same time they start going after employers of illegal invaders. After all both are a clear and present danger to the security and safety of American citizens. How many must die in the next mass casualty attack before these lying crapweasels in DC start doing their jobs?
The democrats complained loudly that we didn’t connect the dots - and now they are making sure that we don’t have any dots to connect.
Graysonret - I’m running a wargame where Roosevelt was out of office after two terms, and the ensuing fight over his not being allowed to serve a third gave us a Republican president. I’m using a parallel as to how the left is fighting the president in this war for the left back then.
The dark days of WWII just got a whole lot darker.
Boomer…when the enemy is banging on the front door. That’s when they will put their wallets away, and their power ideas aside. By then, it will be too late. The only thing they will have left is their reasons why it is everyone else’s fault but their own. We are at war, and they can only think…”What in it for me?” Hellava way to run “a railroad”. Old midwestern saying.
and given TWO court dates. One criminal and one for punitive and compensatory damages to be paid by the US taxpayer.
Kinda like in ‘comment guy’s’ real live version occurring as we speek TODAY!
Andy McCarthy is thoroughly beyond parody in his campaign towards “uninhibited” government powers. And Bush is thoroughly beyond shame with his remarks. If these FISA changes are so vitally important, you think he would have been willing to allow retroactive immunity for lawbreaking telecoms off the table. (Again, I note that if they had acted in good-faith, they would already have immunity — Bush is seeking immunity for intentional lawbreaking.) Either Bush isn’t being honest about the importance of these FISA changes (and he thus felt comfortable playing a game of “chicken” with Democrats, knowing that it would jeopardize this legislation), or he’s really afraid of what might come out if lawsuits against telecoms for illegal intercepts are allowed to continue. I suspect the latter, considering that his “terrorist surveillance program” was ruled to be illegal.
Wait a second…the gaping hole in security is Bush’s open borders policy, so it is rather illogical to attribute security concerns to Bush.
Also, is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know that our government is monitoring communications legally and illegally? What kind of worthwhile intelligence is to be gotten from illegal monitoring then?
Seems more likely that the motive for monitoring the communications of all U.S. citizens is control and intimidation of the people, finding the sources of newspeople, and such activities.
If you believe everything Bush says, I’ve got some WMDs to sell you.
You are learning why telling the truth is a good idea. If you get in the habit of lying, people get into the habit of ignoring you. That’s why people ignore Bush now, people with any sense anyway.
I see that the conspirocy theorist have stopped by. Claims that the government has and is already snooping on the American citizen. LMAO!!!!!
Yes we have a great amount of tech that would enable the government the abuility to do this. The problem is not a supposedly violationof international law. The problem is in provideing protection to those who do the right thing and cooperate in the intelligence gathering from the money hungry trial lawyers.
These whale slime, pond scum , ambulance chasers are a real threat. If they see a chance to make money they will sell off their living mother to make it.
Sure the defense department has and is prepping to “spy” or better mphrased suvale certrain communications. However as anyone who has served knows. The military is the last to get the go ahead on anything. Oversight commitiees and buerocratic red tape placed in the way can and does bring the military to its knees.
To those who think and say it is the Republicans and Bush who are playing games with this issue I say …
BULLSH&^. Get your head out of that dark warm hole it is in. That thinking is a copout.
I pray that no one is hurt in the next attack on this country because these IDIOTS can not see the forrest for the trees.
Oh yeah and to LGM. I doubt you would know the differance in a WMD and a pile crap.
To democraps that put politics and power above the safety of the citizens of the US, shame on you and a pox on your house.
To those who believe penalizing US companies that cooperated with the US government to make all of us safer you need to think about your priorities IMHO.
If there are 66 lawyers involved lets have a public list of these vultures so they can be remembered when the next terrorist act happens.
Could it be because some senators (little s intentional) served in both bodies?
Can you imagine how long it would take to read all those messages? Daily? Much less “interpret” them? I have Arizona beach front property for sale for those of you that think we have the time, resources, and where-with-all to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing.
Sho is a lotta stupid people out there.
LGM,,,,, I hope your city isn’t involved in the next attack. I wonder if you live out in the suburbs, but once again they may surprize us and hit the burbs. Do you think the Muslims and Al Queda are not telling the truth when they want the west destroyed? They tell us this daily and even after 9-11 we have those who don’t believe their threats. I probably would not have believed 9-11 myself if I was forewarned. I believe the demos have ears who can’t hear and have eyes that cannot see. What a way to run national security. I hope LGM enjoys Sharia law.
Can’t get much more ironic than that.
Noooo, trolls live under bridges.
A company of gnomes heads for work at AT&T “secret rooms” hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in one of it’s various city offices.
Did you get them from Saddam? All this time, I thought they were shuttled out to Syria or the like.
Perino said the Democrats’ use of the phrase “scare tactics” must “be like one of their favorite words — it must poll very well, because they use it almost every time. What we have done is state facts.”
My wife and I just had a discussion with our daughter on liberals, socialism, etc. tonight. Of course, we made it around to FISA and how the liberals are wanting to kill it under the guise of infringing upon peoples privacy.
She was pretty astute for a teenager. She couldn’t see what people were afraid of the Feds running across, if you don’t have anything to hide. When it was explained even farther to her that they are only looking for calls to or from known or suspected terrorists she got this look of amazement on her face and asked what their problem is with that.
I told her, “I really don’t know, Sweetie. But, don’t question their patriotism, they really don’t like that.”
That should have been quoted. I guess that’s what I get for typing too fast, huh? LOL
Someone please help me understand when the enemy is calling, why isn’t there a cruise missile heading in that direction and hitting them before they hang up the phone?
Moreover, what prevents securing a warrant and collecting the needed intelligence? Just follow the law. Who has a problem with following the law?
What is scary is that Pres Bush wants to understand the mentallity of these killers. You have got to be kidding me. If you don’t already know that by now you have got serious problems.
As for the Democrats, they are being too cute by half in adding comments about the economy and other policies. They should focus on what is necessary and unnecessary to collect intelligence … and, that is simply a warrant. Having a warrant protects the phone companies. And, both sides should be specific when talking about domestic and foreign surveillance.
As for the past actions of the phone companies, exigent circumstances should be an element in this arguement and Pres Bush snould consider doing what he did for Scooter Libby. The phone companies helped and Pres Bush should stand by them, even it means being a witness on their behalf in a court of law.
Good post Mark.
“To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they’re saying, and we need to know what they’re thinking, and we need to know who they’re talking to,” Bush said at the start of his annual meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House.
Sorry, this is not blunt enough. That is the problem.
The only thing that concerns me about all this wire-tapping, is when enough is enough. Governments have a very bad track record when it comes to infringing on rights. The expression, “Okay, I have nothing to hide”, is exactly what the government wants to hear. First, against terrorism, then against any form of “crime”. “Okay, I have nothing to hide.” Like in England, “Want to come in and check my place without a warrant or cause? Okay, I have nothing to hide.” Question is, when is enough enough? Government history shows, once they get a foot in the door, it swings open all the way. 20 years from now, are we going to hear that the government will subject all cell phone/landline phone conversations to random review, for security? At the same time, will we hear, “Okay, I’ve got nothing to hide” too? I’m not against this tool against terrorism, but it’s like holding an angry dog by the tail. You can’t hang on, but you sure can’t let go. (not a sermon, just a thought)
Would someone list the “66 lawyers” who have contributed 1.5 mil? IT would be very very interesting… Yah?
Wow, the Dims really have their priorities straight, don’t they? Instead of taking national security seriously, it’s become more about terrorists’ civil rights. With a snoozing American public enraptured in Obamamania, it’s the perfect situation to cry fear mongering!
Thanks for putting politics before national security as usual, Dims. Oh, and to use telecom immunity as your chief defense against signing any legislation is a red herring. I’m glad we got that figured out.
Lgm:
I guess since you can’t debate on the REAL substantive issues at hand, let’s bring it back to that old WMD canard. Redirection is always the favorite tactic of dems.
Yeah, lgm, you really know what the truth is. No, you disagreed with the war and in your eyes it was a lie. I really wonder how YOU tell the truth from a lie- when it suits you or when it doesn’t? Perhaps, this is why you are routinely ignored and derided.
Have you renounced your membership in the Troll Liberation Front yet?