Not satisfied with warrantless wiretaps, Bush has now reserved for himself the authority to read your mail without a warrant as well "under emergency conditions" in a signing statement appended to a postal reform bill.

[url]http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/485561p-408789c.html[/url]

My position on the warrantless wiretaps has been pretty fully vetted here and I won't repeat it now, but I will say that although I disagree with it, I can at least understand the argument that there may be circumstances where an exigency would make getting a warrant prior to conducting a wiretap unwieldy. I fail to understand, however, what sort of exigency could ever present itself as it pertains to mail where getting a warrant would really be that big of a deal.

FFS, it's [B]mail[/B]. If you're sitting in the postal office and a piece of mail comes to you that you believe is suspicious, there is no exigency -- just don't deliver it right away!!! It's just laughable. There is no legitimate reason to avoid getting a warrant, and no sane judge would ever deny such a warrant.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

... and you know part of what gets me so whipped into a froth over this sort of thing is the fucking bravado and ego behind it. If you really think in good faith that, in the interest of national security to prevent a truly imminent threat, something needs to be done and needs to be done right now, without anyone ever knowing about it, then just fucking do it -- but don't pretend that you can give yourself the authority to do it or that it passes constitutional muster.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

not only am i onthe same page as you with this, i might actually be in the same sentence. i would actually accept it more if bush juust came out and said "muslims are trying to kill you, we're just gonna lock them all up", hell there is mroe truth to that than checking mail, and it would propbably be more preventative.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

land of the free... yeah whatever

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

[QUOTE=thesightless;428650]not only am i onthe same page as you with this, i might actually be in the same sentence. i would actually accept it more if bush juust came out and said "muslims are trying to kill you, we're just gonna lock them all up", hell there is mroe truth to that than checking mail, and it would propbably be more preventative.[/QUOTE]

Although I appreciate the solidarity, I want to clarify that I'm not in favor of locking up all Muslims. I'm also not in favor of giving the government carte blanche to do whatever it deems necessary [B]in the name[/B] of "national security" -- I'm just saying that if it came down to a situation where [B]in fact[/B] lives were on the line and something had to be done that wasn't by the book, I'd prefer that it just be done rather than pretending that there is constitutional authority for it -- there clearly isn't.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

T ... they will always have carte blanche, it is another thing if we know it or not.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

i'm cool with domestic spying, as long as the public can do the same to elected and appointed leaders. i've got no problem with the american population peering into the innerworkings of the federal government. in fact, fuck you Bush, let's put a goddamn webcam in your bedroom.

and your daughter's bedrooms.

heh. you're never too young to be a dirty old man.

Re: Domestic Spying, Continued

[quote=KinKyJ;428683]land of the free... yeah whatever[/quote]

land of something...for sure.