Regardless, the President is not deserving of this trust you give him because he has repeatedly misrepresented this program- I don’t know who he is spying on. As the resolution cites:

(1) on April 20, 2004, that `When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.’;

(3) on June 9, 2005, that `Law enforcement officers need a federal judge’s permission to wiretap a foreign terrorist’s phone, a federal judge’s permission to track his calls, or a federal judge’s permission to search his property. Officers must meet strict standards to use any of these tools.’

I’m curious, do you similarly believe it is permissible for the President to send the FBI to conduct warrantless searches of the homes of Americans who make overseas phonecalls?

Preston — I am in complete agreement with you that unregulated spying on Americans is bad.

However — spying on international calls between a person in America (who may or may not be an American citizen) and another person in another country (who may or may not be an American citizen), where at least one of the parties in that international call are suspected or known al Qaeda (or any other terrorist group) operatives? Well, I fully support that and don’t think it’s “bad”.

President Bush wasn’t tapping the phone of a guy from Menominee who was calling his buddy in Sheboygan to talk about whether or not the Chippewa Indian tribes in up-state Wisconsin should have un-restricted, no-season/no-limit hunting rights, while they are restricted to trapping fur bearing animals only between October 20 – April 15 each hunting season.

They were tapping calls coming in from places like Pakistan, made to American phone numbers, which were found on recovered terrorists cell phones.

You do understand that there’s a difference, right? And that out-of-country terrorists calling America aren’t covered by our Bill of Rights. You understand that, right?

Well, it’s sad that many believe that liberty was good for our grandfathers but not for ourselves as if the world suddenly grew dangerous on September 11 and that these rights hadn’t sustained us as we fought Nazis and Communists.

We used to agree that unregulated spying on Americans was bad. Now when Jimmy Carter referred to the dispicible practice of the FBI wiretapping Martin Luther King’s telephone it was widely regarded to be a criticism of President Bush. However, I’m of the opinion that if you don’t want to be compared to J. Edgar Hoover you don’t behave like J. Edgar Hoover.

It’s 2006, not 1776.

Alas, it is no secret that large portions of the public have been willing to cede the rights that the founders fought for. Luckily the authority of the Constitution remains even if the citizens are unaware of its protections.

And, of course, everyone is in agreement that the President must do everything in his power to thwart the ambitions of terrorists.

Democrat bucks party line to vote with GOP in Clinton hearing
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/01/28/feingold.01/