Aug 19 2007
Did Dems Deliberately Miswrite FISA Law For PR Gain?
This Democrat Congress has been a stark reminder of why it was a good move to remove the Dems from power in 1994, after decades of incompetence and relying on a compliant media to keep their waining power intact. I tend to find it hard to believe people who can traverse the complications of political life (I know it well having grown up in the suburbs of DC) can make simple mistakes one after another. After a few rounds it becomes clear the supposed mistakes are deliberate acts to sabotage our government for media gains. I think we may be seeing another example of faux incompetence for PR gain.
Ed Morrissey notes a truly stunning coincidence of poor congressional editing on prime national defence legislation which is – surprise, surprise – becoming an issue for Democrats!
The new FISA legislation winds up granting the executive branch powers it never requested, thanks to poorly-managed edits to the originaly language of the bill by Congress:
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said. …
Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of “electronic surveillance,†the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States.
Amazing! The Democrats gave Bush more powers than he requested and now left leaning organizations are alerting us to the fact these broad new powers pose a risk to this nation (and not to the terrorists trying to attack this nation). Well, this is one wild theory of mine which can be figured out quite quickly. When were these amazingly broad definitions placed into the legislative language and by whom? As Morrissey points out, the Dems had MONTHS to work this and get it right. I am highly suspect they only now detected the bad language. Looks like a PR stunt more than another round of incompetence from a disasterous Congress.
The fact is we need to detect attacks coming at this country from our enemies abroad and leftists and some wildly speculating conservatives are batting at ghosts of Nixon and not looking at the threat from Bin Laden’s organization. The laws are designed to balance personal freedom and the protection of this country. Abusers can and will abuse any law – so we can build laws to try and limit opportunities of abuse. Abuse must be detected, investigated and proved in a court of law. Trying to stop it by limitiing our defences is a mindnumbingly naive path to attacks on this country. Stop fearing these american-boogey men and focus on terrorists who have sworn to die killing as many of us as possible.
AJ
Maybee it was intentional in that maybe one or two of them finally got around to reading the NIE’s they have available to them or something like that. Perhaps they really understand the threat we face and could connect the dots as to where we have to go to counter the threat.
But they will be the last to publicly admit it and walk and squawk in front of the microphones in high octaves because their panties are in a bunch.
A rule of thumb I try to follow: never ascribe to cleverness that which can be explained by stupidity. In human affairs (and especially politics!) the latter is far more common than the former.
These claims show Pelosi and Reid to be complete idiots who ram through bills they’ve never read and don’t understand because they think the politics of the moment necessitate it. I don’t think it helps them if any supporters of theirs claim that they MEANT to look like that for even baser political reasons.
That bill is really a beautiful turnaround on the issue for Bush – as it stands now it’s a can’t lose situation for him and his administration, and it’s a can’t win situation for Reid and Pelosi. And the funniest part is that they did this to themselves!
Well, can’t they read???
I think that maybe some Democrats began to look at the whole issue of Executive power differently once they realized a Democrat might actually end up in the Oval Office.
We need to double down on this one. Ask for MORE leeway, not less. And, in the process, claim the Democrats are trying to tie our intelligence agencies’ hands behind their backs.
Hope you guys like it when Hillary decides to send the Feds to search all of your homes, offices, computers and Blackberry’s in a series of warrantless physical searches now allowed by that FISA you loved so much.
Big Sister is gonna get down with total control of your lives.
I think Big Sister might want to worry about the skeletons in her “own” closet.
Soothiesou the Banshee, I’ve got nothing to worry about, do you?? And you should be ecstatic, by your predictions there will be a dem in the white house, and the only people who have to worry would be her enemies…. Dramatic music, thunder an lightning, quick switch to black and white on / Dun dun dunnnnnnnn / Dramatic music, thunder an lightning, quick switch to black and white off. If this is true that means the BusHitler TM will be able to use it against all his enemies on the left until he’s out of office. Maybe he can use it to justify martial law and guarantee 20 years of BusHitler TM just like your lover boy Chavez is doing???? You guys should be flocking to BushHitler TM once he starts acting like lover boy Chavez, you’ve all been corrupted by the commies since the 60’s anyway, this is what you want, this is what you have wet dreams about, well that and US servicemen deaths. GHOUL!!!