[zipo]

>>The "slippery sloap" thing is just an overused scare tactic.<<

It's not a 'tactic' - it addresses a reality that our founders were acutely aware of, namely that 'power corrupts'. That is precisely why they devised an elaborate system of checks and balances on power. The fact that our experiment in Democracy has been so successful is a monument to their wisdom - and that wisdom should not be carelessly dismissed or discarded IMO.

>>The only reason to temporarily not follow normal procedures is because the demands of war time intelligence have a greater urgency and the FISA process is actually longer than 72 hours<<

As I pointed out earlier, current law grants the Executive the right to use NSA assets for domestic surveillance *without prior approval*. They do need to present their evidence and rationale to the court after the fact.

Now, if for some reason the current system is too unwieldy, slow, or 'bureaucratic', why not change or adjust the law to streamline the process? No attempt was made to do this. The president simply, unilaterally, decided that law did not apply to him.

Honestly, plenty of people - patriots, liberals, conservatives - are deeply troubled by this development.