Someone needs to start talking about why warrant-less domestic spying is wrong.
On Hardball, Judge Posner, a former NSA analyst, and the Repug governor of Colorado all tried to justify domestic spying.
Nobody will take them on. The dems were strong, but they would have been much, much stronger if they acknowledged and focused on the harm that Americans are actually suffering.
Apologists all scream "national security." They argue that this power is necessary, and it's not a large encroachment on civil liberties. This is merely a legal-brief side of a large and complex legal and civil issue. First, they do not know how big the civil liberty intrusion is because there is absolutely no oversight on this secret program. Second, there is no emergency justification for this power-grab because you have 72 hours after a wiretap to get a warrant. Warrants are VIRTUALLY NEVER denied. There is no need for the wiretaps that are described.
That leads to the REAL issue here, since there is no need for the wiretaps described in their defense, then is the wiretap described(the one for national security emergencies) really what they are? Nobody seems to grasp or acknowledge the civil liberties combined with separation of powers issue. We cannot have unchecked invasion of civil liberties because THEY MIGHT NOT BE USED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES.
We must ask a question that nobody asked yet. Are these wiretaps even limited to international calls? How do we know? Without a check, how do we know that they are not spying on US-to-US calls? This is the reason for judicially-issued warrants.
Everyone who engages in this debate, even the dems, assume that the wiretaps are being used for legitimate purposes. The WHOLE REASON FOR HAVING THE JUDGE REVIEW THE SURVAILLENCE is to assure the purpose is legitimate! We all know this administration's reputation for honesty, competence and drown-your-mother political tactics. There is a high likelihood that these wiretaps are not being used just for national security emergencies. NOBODY KNOWS what they are being used for.
Oversight is ABSOLUTLEY NECESSARY, EVERY TIME the executive intrudes into civil liberties. Bush listened to OUR phone calls and did not tell a soul that could speak up. You don't have to be a genius to guess why.
The alternative is pseudo-dictatorial rule.