I’ve noticed a common theme among those who support warrantless wiretaps: they trust the government. Or, at least, they trust the current administration. While I have no problem with persons trusting government or individuals within government, I have a huge objection to being forced to trust the government by public policy. And that’s really what we have here, when we’re looking at warrantless wiretaps.
Countless times, it has been shown why the FISA court does not put any undue restrictions which would hinder the “war on terror.” The government can actually start a tap and get approval within 72 hours… that’s three days. They have three days to show why there’s a good reason for wiretapping certain international communications.
But, we are told there are good reasons, which the administration evidently can’t even fully tell congress about, for going around the FISA court. We should trust them.
Checks and balances do not work when a Republican majority vows to squash a censure motion without even hearing testimony about it. Then, when testimony occurs (from two Republicans, no less), they interrupt witnesses without even letting them finish and despite clear testimony about the illegality of the program… still say they’re going to crush the censure motion.
You can trust President Bush, that’s fine. But it should never be public policy that we have to trust our government when it comes to the civil rights of United States’ citizens. If a Democrat were President with a Democrat majority in congress, we would be hearing much more crying foul about such a program which clearly breaks the law. Orrin Hatch can say all he wants about warrantless wiretapping being authorized because we’re at war, he would not extend the same grace to a President from the other side of the aisle.
The precedent being set here, if this program continues unabated, will one day come back to bite the Republican’s in the ass. And unfortunately, I won’t even be able to enjoy it, because I’ll be too busy writing about how our civil rights are being violated and appearing like I’m on their side. I’m on the side of civil rights and responsibility with the most powerful military in the world. Both are fairing poorly under this administration.
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