The disgraceful right-wing distortion on the domestic spying issue

The other day in the spying thread, one of the ditto-heads repeated the fox news spin that democratic legislators knew about the domestic spying program. Its getting to the point now, where I can not only smell the lies, but I can taste them too. They taste like [censored].
This morning, I listened to fox and friends like I always do and they kept repeating that the dems knew about it.

Bob Graham, the former chair of the intel committee,
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said in interviews Friday night and yesterday that he remembers "no discussion about expanding [NSA eavesdropping] to include conversations of U.S. citizens or conversations that originated or ended in the United States" -- and no mention of the president's intent to bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"I came out of the room with the full sense that we were dealing with a change in technology but not policy," Graham said, with new opportunities to intercept overseas calls that passed through U.S. switches. He believed eavesdropping would continue to be limited to "calls that initiated outside the United States, had a destination outside the United States but that transferred through a U.S.-based communications system."

Graham said the latest disclosures suggest that the president decided to go "beyond foreign communications to using this as a pretext for listening to U.S. citizens' communications. There was no discussion of anything like that in the meeting with Cheney."

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The re-spin on this one is that he 'misremembered the meeting'. Good one. Too bad nobody takes as detailed notes as he does.

It boils down to the fact that the Bush Cheney and Rumsfeld have nothing but contempt for the consitiution and will do everything in their power to weaken it. They want to consolidate all the power in the executive branch, cutting off any oversight from other branches.

[Nepa]

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This morning, I listened to fox and friends like I always do and they kept repeating that the dems knew about it

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It really doesn't matter if they knew about it. The Senate doesn't give legal advise to the President.

Here is the main question that I have.

Did G.W. spy on John Kerry and his staff during the election?

[BillUCF]

In a time of war the executive branch has the power to do anything it wants. The only way to stop the executive branch from a specific course of action is for congress to become organized and pass a bill to stop the executive branch.

I am grateful for such a committed leader in this trying time. The U.S. military is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing; fighting the war on foreign soil. Since 9/11 when was the last attack on American soil? That is the only real issue at stake during wartime.

In a time of war I hope the executive branch wiretaps anyone they perceive to be a threat to national security. A failure to do this would be negligent.

I am not sure but I do think it was an executive decision in WWII to round up all the Japanese into camps. That was accomplished by a democratic president.

[BluffTHIS!]

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Here is the main question that I have.

Did G.W. spy on John Kerry and his staff during the election?

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If he did he must have been overjoyed at the fact that Kerry's campaign was so poorly run and incompetent in crafting a winning message. But then again, that was obvious to all so there was no need to spy. There's your answer.

[Nepa]

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Here is the main question that I have.

Did G.W. spy on John Kerry and his staff during the election?

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If he did he must have been overjoyed at the fact that Kerry's campaign was so poorly run and incompetent in crafting a winning message. But then again, that was obvious to all so there was no need to spy. There's your answer.

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I didn't ask if there was a need! I'm asking if he did!

[BluffTHIS!]

Sorry, it's classified.

[Nepa]

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Sorry, it's classified.

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I don't care if it does stay classified. Do you have a problem if the Senate looks into this issue?

[BluffTHIS!]

I have no problem if they do so in closed session so as not to expose our intelligence gathering capabilities. But I do have a problem if they seek to prevent what the president has authorized since it would hamper our ability to track those foreigners in American who seek to commit or aid terroristic acts, which has of course been shown to happen.

[andyfox]

That was accomplished by a Democratic president.

FYP.

[Nepa]

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I have no problem if they do so in closed session so as not to expose our intelligence gathering capabilities. But I do have a problem if they seek to prevent what the president has authorized since it would hamper our ability to track those foreigners in American who seek to commit or aid terroristic acts, which has of course been shown to happen.

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I don't have a problem with the wire tapping.

There is a system in place where a wire tap can be placed and within 72 hours they would have to get this approved by a secret court. These aren't exact numbers but I'v heard there have been something like 12000 wire taps since 1980 and the court has turned down like 9.

Here is where my problem is. Why did the president order wiretaps then never take it in front of the secret court? Is there something to hide?

Would the court have disallow these wire taps? Were they spying on foes of the Bush admin? ect. ect.

Did Bush go to far this time?