Warrantless Domestic Wiretapping

“Warrantless Domestic Wiretapping” -- Just the name screams, "Are you kidding me?" Unbelievably, however, there actually are people who think George Bush has done no wrong with his illegal, court-dodging wiretaps. Color me amazed that there are actually people out there oblivious and blind enough to think this is anything but a terrible breach of FEDERAL LAW and civil liberties.

Honestly, I don't have a problem with domestic wiretaps. I wouldn't have a problem with Bush using them (as long as he had sufficient evidence to prove that they were needed). I wouldn't even have a problem with Bush using them before getting a warrant from the court set up to give such a warrant... as long as he followed the law and applied for a warrant within 72 hours. "[E]mergency provisions in the current law governing such surveillance -- FISA -- ... allow the administration to apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a search warrant up to 72 hours after the government begins monitoring suspects' phone conversations"*. Instead, the taps have gone on since just after 9/11 with no warrant and no attempt to get one.

Seriously, folks, it's not as if this system regularly denies the president's will. I've found different numbers on the court, but as far as I can tell, the denials to approvals ratio is somewhere near 3:8000. The court, from its inception up until 2003, never denied a request**. Not sure of how many requests there had been up to this point, but that seems like a sure bet to me. Admittedly, the Bush administration has run into a little slow-down from this usual pace, with 6 denials and 179 modifications to its 5,645 requests (most of these changes/denials coming in '03 and '04**), but this should not be surprising. One site that I found (published in 1997, 19 years after the inception of the court [1978***]) stated that the TOTAL number of requests to that point was just over 9,600****. That means that in his 6 years as the president of our country, George Bush has made more than half as many surveillance requests as in the first 19 years of the court. Seems to me like if there was ever a time to start actually reading these requests, this is it. In addition, please, don't tell me that they're just doing it because it's Bush, because he was in office for 3 years before they denied any requests.

Therefore, what we can see here is that Bush's NUMEROUS requests weren't going as smoothly through the stamping line as before, and he simply decided to change the rules. Except he didn't change them, he ignored them like a 6 year old on a playground. In addition, for those sites and news outlets using this as an excuse, the incidence of denials is not an excuse, because this program has been going on since before he had any requests denied (post 9/11 to 2003).

Another thing that bothers me about this issue is that I've heard numerous people and news outlets saying that because a significant number of people think domestic wiretaps are ok, the warrantless wiretaps are therefore OK. Are you serious? Since when are "wiretaps" and "warrantless wiretaps" the same thing? Hell, I'M for wiretaps -- but only if there is significant evidence for it and a warrant is issued by the court that was set up to issue it.

I guess my problem is that this administration seems to have a knack for dodging the rules. I see this going on, I see measures passing through Congress (and similar sentiments from G.W.) that permit states to ignore same-sex marriages granted in other states. Both are clear violations of long standing laws. One is a violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the other of the CONSTITUTION! ("Full faith and credit" clause - It's the reason heterosexual marriages are universally recognized). Since when was this OK?

Where the hell did everyone's balls go? People were all for impeaching Clinton for having sex in the White House and lying about it, but when President Bush and his party/allies ignore the Constitution and federal law... they're OK with it.

Grow a pair, people (figuratively, or literally... you decide). Take off the red, white and blue headband (proudly purchased 9/12/01!), turn off the Toby Keith CD, pull the darts out of the Dixie Chicks poster and look at what the hell is going on before it's too late.

* = http://mediamatters.org/items/200512240002
** = http://uspolitics.about.com/b/a/207543.htm
*** = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act
**** = http://www.refuseandresist.org/big_brother/081097caq.html