Explain how it could be possible that the domestic spying is lawful?

[kentuck]

Bush and his spokespeople are saying that they need to be quick and fast to stay ahead of the terrorists. That is why they are unable to go to the FISA Court and get the warrants required by the law. Therefore, because he has to protect us from the terrorists, he has an "inherent" authority to bypass the FISA law. The FISA court has authorized the President 72 hours to come before them if there is an emergency. In other words, he has 72 hours to do whatever he wants to do to protect us. But, they say they have to be "quick and fast" against the terrorists? Are they slower than 72 hours? Do they need more time? I would like to see an explanation.

[Skittles]

1. it is not possible but these neocon bastards will spin anything

they wipe their asses with the Constitution

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Obviously all of their explanations are bullshit.

They are blowing smoke to obscure what they are really doing. This is not about 'wiretaps' as in some guy listening in on a phone call, this is about a computerized system called Echelon that basically chomps through all voice and data communications, for some value of all, looking for stuff that is 'interesting'. If and when we finally get to have a real investigation of their crimes, we will learn that they turned Echelon loose on domestic communications - you can't go to the FISA court and ask for a warrant to listen in on 300+ million people. They went around FISA because there was no way FISA would allow what they were doing.

There is also no reason to believe that they did not use the system for their political advantage.

[Webster Green]

3. Senator Bob Graham said they have up to 15 days in time of war...

He also said that the current "war" would qualify BushCo Inc. for the 15 day window. I believe he was one of the Senators who had a hand in writing the FISA law.

He said all of this the other day in an interview on one of the "news" channels.

[ddeclue]

4. That is the law but it doesn't cover the vast majority of Bush's illegal

wiretaps. This has been going on for 3 years+.

Doug D.

[ochazuke]

6. War?

It isn't a war. The war on poverty, war on drugs, war on organized crime, war on the English language. Whatever.

Congress hasn't declared war since Pearl Harbor. What's wrong with those people? They may as well declare Perpetual War Against Whatever Republicans Can Use to Grab More Power for Their Corporatist Masters and disband.

[shraby]

5. Read this earlier post. about ATT vs. WorldCom

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5669978>

[No Exit]

7. Just take it on faith. God has spoken.

And, hey, you little people out there, this can work for YOU, too!

It CAN??!?

Yes, since domestic eavesdropping is legal on a whim, w/o the approval of a neutral judge, then I guess that means PATRICK FITZGERALD can just put wiretaps on Scootie-boot's, and Pigboy Karl's, telephones, computers, blackberries, MP3's or whatever those damn things are, and on all the high-tech whatever-it-is thingies those guys use!

And... ditto for the Abramoff federal prosecutors! Hope by now they've bugged everything of Ney's from his big Office Suite to his luxurous bedroom(s).