Joe Klein's article from 1/8/06... NSA and liberal Democrats.

[TheresNoMoney]

Democrats are not against wiretaps. They are against illegal wiretaps. And what this article conveniently leaves out is that wiretaps of foreigners falls outside the scope of the FISA regulations.

The U.S. can wiretap foreigners w/o judicial approval, so wiretapping suspected foreign terrorists has never been in question. The U.S. can wiretap American citizens as long as they get judicial approval within 72 hours of the wiretap.

The media does a great job of spinning information in a way favorable to Republicans. It's quite a shame.  This article is a joke and an example of lazy and biased reporting at its worst.

[TheresNoMoney]

Don't blame the media for the lack of a coherent message from your party.  The media's job is to report, not to provide a balancing message against the majority party.

The problem with the article is that it misrepresents the facts in order to arrive at a biased conclusion.

The writer has the right to offer whatever opinion he wants, but the rest of the article is highly inaccurate.

[TheresNoMoney]

The article consists of opinions on news reports.  What facts were misrepresented?

The article paints a picture of Democrats wanting to suspend wiretaps of foreign terrorists when "There is evidence that the information harvested helped foil several plots and disrupt Al-Queda operations....."

The FISA regulations called into question by the Democrats have nothing to do with the wiretaps of foreigners. These fall outside the scope of the regulations. Democrats have never opposed or called these into question! The executive branch does not need judicial approval to wiretap suspected foreign terrorists.

 What the Democrats called into question was the illegal wiretaps of American citizens. If Democrats ought to support illegal wiretaps of American citizens, why have any laws at all??? Why not just give the executive branch complete and total power to do whatever they damn well want?

The whole premise of the article is intellectually dishonest and little more than a coordinated smear.

[TheresNoMoney]

Well, first of all, while outside the regulations, it might not be illegal.

Wiretaps of foreigners are perfectly legal. I never said they weren't.

Like I said, the issue is the illegal spying on American citizens. 

[TheresNoMoney]

I guess thats where the emergency 72 hour provision comes into play.  72 hours to gather whatever information you need, but after that you must get a warrant.

You're close.

You can wiretap an American citizen without a warrant at first, but you must get one within 72 hours.

[TheresNoMoney]

The problem is that there are Democrats who believe the President has the power to authorize the program, and there are Democrats who think it is an illegal abuse of power.

Spying on American citizens without a warrant is an illegal abuse of power. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.