This is my first diary. I hope I'm not violating any of the
rules, but if so, please be kind.
I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I'm happy to say that SLC is a progressive/liberal stronghold surrounded by a sea of red in the rest of the state.
That being said, there is always a copious amount of wingnuttery in our local papers' public forums. There are two main papers published daily in SLC:
The Salt Lake Tribune and
The Deseret Morning News. The "Trib" is considered the liberal rag and the D-news (which is owned by the LDS church) is considered more conservative. As far as readership is concerned, I'm sure it plays out that way.
For the past couple of years, I've submitted quite a few LTEs to both papers (but more to the D-news, they have more kool-aid drinkers). They don't all get published, but I've had my fair share. The latest, submitted today is in response to this gem: Spying on terrorists isn't bad in today's D-news. I don't know if it is okay to post the entire letter (it's short), so I'll just leave it as a link. Here's my response:
Allow me to take Steve McCurdy's straw man argument one step further. He says, "These are not phone calls in the United States between U.S. citizens, but calls from known and suspected terrorists overseas to individuals in the United States."
Well, what if it was two United States citizens who were in league with "terrorists who want to destroy America"? Would you want the NSA to spy on their domestic phone calls? I sure as hell would! But I'd want it done within the parameters of existing law.
The relevant argument isn't whether or not spying on terrorists is good or bad (it`s good), but whether it is done lawfully. The law says a warrant is required to conduct domestic searches and surveillance.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides for a check on overreaching executive power. It is supposed to prevent the president from abusing his executive powers. When President Bush authorized the NSA to ignore FISA, he violated the law. He must be held accountable for his actions.
They published another of my letters earlier this week: Bush is more like Nixon. Hopefully they'll go with this one as well.