Thursday, March 30, 2006 4:07 PM
4 Comments »
Geez, pick up a newspaper once in a while, Mr. Wrenn! Where have you been?
Since you’ve somehow managed to miss the avalanche of words from the administration so far on this topic, allow me to summarize it for you: Article II of the Constitution grants the president power to act as Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Throughout our country’s history, courts have held that this means the president has the authority to use the security apparatus of the U.S. to conduct operations against our enemies. In other words, he can order the Army to attack here, the Navy to defend there, the Air Force to bomb over there, and so forth. Neither Congress nor the courts have any constitutionally mandated role in these operational decisions.
The National Security Agency’s intelligence gathering programs are a part of that war-fighting effort. As such, the president has complete authority to order our intelligence services to spy on our enemies–period. The unfortunate fact that our enemies sometimes have friends with whom they wish to communicate, who are physically located in the U.S., should have no bearing on this at all. ALL of the enemy’s communications are fair game for our intelligence gathering efforts, and Congress has the same role in ‘oversight’ of this program as they do any other military operation. It can hold hearings (in executive session when need be) and it can consider legislation affecting the FUNDING of the operations, but it can’t start trying to play Commander in Chief (spy here, don’t spy there, bug that guy, but not that one).
Some confused wag will chime in here and say, ‘Well what about the Fourth Amendment?’ The Fourth Amendment did not repeal the president’s powers as Commander in Chief. It simply states that the government will not engage in ‘unreasonable’ searches and siezures. I can’t wait to hear some ACLU lawyer arguing before the SCOUS that when his client called, faxed, emailed, or wrote a letter to his Al Queda friend in Afghanistan that he had a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy.’
There’s tons more that’s been said and written on the impracticality of getting timely FISA warrants, but that’s a moot point as far as I’m concerned. The program is constitutionally sound and producing results as is. God help us if Congress butts in now.
Comment by Jim Stegall — February 12, 2006 @ 1:32 pm
We need some candidates like Rhode Island’s Carl Sheeler here in Carolina.
***********************************
U.S. Senate Candidate Sheeler: “Bush lied. People died. It’s time to be tried.”
Sheeler wants Rhode Island to lead the Bush impeachment effort. In addition to asking Rhode Island’s U.S. Representatives to “show the leadership that over two-thirds of our citizens want” and “support John Conyers, not because he’s a Democrat … it’s the right thing.” Sheeler has also called for members of the Rhode Island General Assembly to exercise their right under Section 603 of the United States House Rules to initiate impeachment proceedings by transmitting charges to Congress in a joint resolution.
This press conference will be held in Providence on Wed, Feb. 15 at 12:30 p.m. in the Rotunda of the State House. To confirm your attendance or to request additional information, contact Sara Pearson at (401) 397-4618, or sara@carlsheeler.com. For more information about Carl Sheeler please visit our website at www.carlsheeler.com.
Comment by Bush Lied, People Died, It's Time To Be Tried — February 13, 2006 @ 2:41 pm
The last thing we need in Carolina is another crackpot. We have a crook disguised as the Sleazer of the NC House, we have a “Hear no evil, see no evil, I’m a big fan of evil” Attorney General, we have Federal prosecutors getting promotions to the bench for putting state officials in jail, we have a lottery scandal before we’ve sold even one lottery ticket, oh yeah, this situation screams for the intercession of a crackpot like Sheeler.
Comment by JohnB — February 20, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
The WHite House ought to be clear about this, but lets get this straight: The wiretapping program is not about domestic spying. The program is about spyuing on people in foreign countries who sometimes make or receive a call to and from Americans. Whenever you see the word “domestic” in regards to this program it is a lie.
Comment by Harry — February 23, 2006 @ 10:26 pm