Comments on: Breaking: FISA court will rule warrantless surveillance legal

By: There's My Two Cents

There's My Two Cents — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:10:30 +0000

Uhh…Gitmo…Wiretapping…Torture…Uhh…Hope!…

Barack Obama has kinda-sorta deftly re-arranged the goalposts (translation: he lied) on one of his signature campaign promises: closing that hotbed of virulent American torture, Gitmo….

By: ex-Democrat

ex-Democrat — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:37:10 +0000

Unfortunately, Mr. Buckley is no longer around to show what class meant.

SteveMG on January 15, 2009 at 2:17 PM

Astroturfer?

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:00:51 +0000

In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August of 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications, according to the person familiar with the ruling.

Ah, so they’re only talking about the legality of the 2007 Protect America Act that Congress passed… not Bush’s unilateral spying without Congressional approval from 2001 until the passing of the Protect America Act.

This doesn’t validate Bush at all. It has no bearing on anything that happened before the Protect America Act passed in 2007.

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Missed this part!

But, the court ruled, “this is little more than a lament about the risk that government officials will not operate in good faith.’

Purely a hypothetical risk, to be sure! Power corrupts, absolutely, unless you’re a friend of our heroic father-leader Bush, who is a Good Person™ and thus beyond reproach in everything he does in the name of keeping us safe.

Whoever in the court said this would have flunked fifth grade civics class. Our entire government is structured to defend against the inevitability of abuse of power. Checks and balances are in place to prevent any one branch of government from getting too much power — say the power to spy on Americans for any reason, without having to justify each instance of spying to anyone outside of their circle of friends.

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:34:54 +0000

Ed, would you be lining up to apologize to gun control activists if the Supreme Court were to rule that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect individual ownership of guns?

Amazing how the Right has moved from “we don’t don’t torture” to “torture is necessary!” and from “we don’t spy illegally” to “all spying is legal, so it’s fine!”

By: DL13

DL13 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:08:55 +0000

Yes!

By: byteshredder

byteshredder — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:52:02 +0000

The New York Slimes have done insurmountable damage to our government and country. I can’t wait for the day when this aiding and abetting our enemies news paper is padlocked, and
it’s staff and management are frog marched to GITMO.

By: The Bush Legacy Restoration Begins «

The Bush Legacy Restoration Begins « — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:44:06 +0000

[...] Ed Morrisey points out that the effectiveness of this program has probably been diminished by the NY Times’ leak about the program. [...]

By: Yakko77

Yakko77 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:05:39 +0000

Good news. I’ll take it when I can get it.

By: FISA Court To Provide A Public Ruling Making The Cheney-Bush “Wiretapping And Data-Mining PROGRAM” Legal | THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:48:01 +0000

[...] FISA Court itself, is “LEGAL”. Mr. Morrissey begins his column with the words, “Hmmm. This should really enrage the Left.” My response? “Hmmm. This should really enrage the [...]

By: Baxter Greene

Baxter Greene — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:53:18 +0000

Another “DUMBA$$ LIBERAL CONSPIRACY THEORY” bites the dust.

By: Warrantless Surveillance legal! - TurboBuick.Com

Warrantless Surveillance legal! - TurboBuick.Com — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:48:29 +0000

[...] Surveillance legal! Hot Air Blog Archive Breaking: FISA court will rule warrantless surveillance legal __________________ Messiah supporters……Now what can that red flag be that they are [...]

By: Wiretapping Ruled Legal « Jane Q. Republican

Wiretapping Ruled Legal « Jane Q. Republican — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:34:43 +0000

[...] Ed Morrisey blogging on this development. [...]

By: FISA Ruled Legal, Progressive Skull Implosions Anticipated « American Glob

FISA Ruled Legal, Progressive Skull Implosions Anticipated « American Glob — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:06:36 +0000

[...] Morrissey at Hot Air makes the excellent point that someone may owe George W. Bush an [...]

By: christene

christene — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:52:48 +0000

Amazing how much the democrats put Americans in danger for personal agenda, or hate for President Bush.
Wait for that 6 month “test” Joe was talking about.

By: madmonkphotog

madmonkphotog — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:27:23 +0000

Of course, Hussein will do the same, but on political enemies, just like Clinton and the FBI files.

By: Asher

Asher — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:21:54 +0000

This should really enrage the Left.

No, not really. Oh, the rabble rousers will make a little noise, but the only thing the Left was enraged about was Bush.

By: HornetSting

HornetSting — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:08:03 +0000

When Bush does it, its bad. When Obama does it, its good.

What the heck are we coming to.

Ryan Gandy on January 15, 2009 at 3:06 PM

Socialist Amerika led by dear leader.

By: Ryan Gandy

Ryan Gandy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:06:23 +0000

I don’t know why I ever thought the Democrats were somehow interested in bi-partisanship, now or ever.

When Bush does it, its bad. When Obama does it, its good.

What the heck are we coming to.

By: Hey, turns out that the wiretapping thing’s constitutional after all! - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:05:34 +0000

[...] Hot Air) You know, I was going to come up with all sorts of snark directed towards the people who are [...]

By: jp

jp — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:01:16 +0000

don’t forget the far-right/anarchist crazies: i.e. paultards

By: Moe Lane » Hey, turns out that the wiretapping thing’s constitutional after all!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:59:05 +0000

[...] Hot Air) You know, I was going to come up with all sorts of snark directed towards the people who are [...]

By: Mallard T. Drake

Mallard T. Drake — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:57:20 +0000

Plenty of people owe him a big apology — and the New York Times and Eric Lichtblau are first in line.

Those sounds you hear are crickets mixed in with files being closed for several “Bush is a war criminal” investigations.

Watch for the NYT to come out with the “legal doesn’t mean it is right” explanation for their actions.

By: jp

jp — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:56:59 +0000

actually, we should make an effort to call out Eric Lichtblau publicly on this, O’Reily should attempt to get his sorry butt on tv.

and THEN, they need to point out the dangers this report put the country in.

By: jp

jp — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:53:58 +0000

You can make a constitutional case that the FISA courts themselves are Unconstitutional and the POTUS has the inherent authority in the constitution to do this stuff in National Security area with out running to a secret court.

it was done so here, in a debate at the Federalist Society:

http://www.fed-soc.org/debates/dbtid.13/default.asp

lots of Founding father examples to site as well.