Comments on: Bush Asks Congress To Expand Surveillance

Seeks To "Modernize" Wiretapping To Match New Technologies; Critics Warn Of Unchecked Privacy Invasion

[bennyblack1]

lastdance2; you're a waste of time. I shouldn't have to educate you to have a decent conversation.

[toolmangler-2009]

as he signed the Patriot Act on October 26, 2001, the president stated that existing law "written in the era of rotary telephones" was now updated to allow surveillance "of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet, and cell phones."
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[davidchery]

The invasion of Iraq is what took away Mr. Bush's credibility on these issues. With Hussein held under a no-fly zone, our actions against terrorists would have been more effective. You see, he never put up with that type of thing. He would just have them killed. We could focus on Afghanistan & Pakistan. If we were doing that, the president could just say, no comment, or we're doing this for national security. They blew up the two biggest buildings in America. He would have no problem. But when you have lied and deceived as much as this crew has, eventually people get fed up. In America now, the people's email and cell calls are ok for the govt to monitor, but the people aren't allowed to monitor the vice-president's email and cell calls. That's nazi behavior right there!

[abbe91]

The more I think of it, I cannot help imagining that the most likely targets of "unwarranted wiretapping"
would be peace activists, people like the 911 widows, potential whistleblowers, doctors involved in the Tilman case, etc ... the people this administration needs to monitor in case that would dig out something compromising for Bush and Co ...
If I were Cheney or Bush, I'd like to know ahead of time when the next scandal is going to get to the surface. They need warrantless wiretapping to protect their ****es

[abbe91]

"In an emergency, the warrant can be obtained the next day.
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 01:52 PM : Jul 29, 2007"

... which takes us back to the question: what have they got to hide, that they cannot afford asking for a warrant ? I can see only one reason, wiretapping
totally terrorism-unrelated, watergate-style.

[iceman_1960]

"If there are good reasons for wiretapping, I don't see why the law shouldn't be followed and no warrant issued."
- Posted by abbe91 at 09:20 AM : Jul 29, 2007

In an emergency, the warrant can be obtained the next day.

In the unlikely event that the judge disallowed it, that only means it couldn't be used in court. The agents would still be aware of what they heard, in terms of future plans or threats.

Those who argue against warrants, should point out where the need for warrants ever impeded an organized crime investigation.

Rudy Giuliani led successful Mafia prosecutions in New York before he was mayor. He never said they slowed him up in the least.

[donnie900]

.. they put ******** bags over their heads.

.. they pile them up in ******** pyramids.

.. they ffffart in their ******** underwear, and then they take it off and put it on their heads.

... they hook people up to car batteries.

Sound familiar? It should. Its a god damned punk kid president, and his cronies. Who, the last ******** thing on this earth they are, is "professional". And its not their fault.. they ain't got no other place to go.

[donnie900]

Why you get paid the big bucks, buddy.. is why you don't need to spy on people. Why you don't need to stare at people in their private homes.. in their private bedrooms. You go to school for that! You get trained for that! Doncha?

4 ******** years! To be a cop.. 12! To be a FBI agent! And those guys get 30, 40, 50, 80 thousand bucks a year! TO BE CALLED PROFESSIONALS!

You ain't gotta bug nobody. And if ya do? Yer fired!

[donnie900]

Whats remarkable about terrorism to me is how the lack of drastic measures seems to facilitate. In other words: 9/11 could have been prevented by a locked cockpit door. No wars with anyone.. Ask yourselves: "Why did they not have locked cockpit doors in the first place?" Even if it was made out of paper mache', the delay would have been long enough for the pilot to grab his pistol and win a fight against a guy with a boxcutter knife.

Where's the logic that says anger and madness and kneejerk national action is the appropriate measure to simple solutions? Pride? Patriotism? What? How many people have died for your anger? How many people have died for your kneejerk reactions? When all ya needed to do was lock the cockpit door?

Its amazing how something called "common sense".. and call it other things if ya want. Pragmatism.. Rationalism.. Whatever! But these things facilitate! They facilitate! For terrorism..

[donnie900]

I sincerely doubt terrorists would train their suicide missions to use emails and cellphones and even telephones. Its too broad a spectrum for that .008% that might be dumb enough. It steps on too many innocent people's toes. And besides that fact, I wanna know why FBI agents got PHDs. And why even street cops got 4 year college degrees. Why? If they need this stuff..

Too easily corruptible.