I don't read all of the press releases put out by the Democrats - there are far too many to keep track of. However, it seems to me that one of the issues that Democratic candidates should be highlighting as the mid-term elections approach is that of civil liberties.
I want to hear from my candidates as to how they will handle the secret wiretapping of phone calls in-to and out-of the U.S. I want to hear that they will, if elected to a majority in either house of Congress, put a stop to the collection of domestic phone calls by the NSA. Our liberties are too precious to allow them to be trifled with by the Federal government.
To my simple mind, even FISA sounds like a violation of the U.S. Constitution. There need be no provision for tapping phone calls involving American citizens without a court order - even 3-days is too long a grace period to allow the powerful among us to have that much control over our personal information. Once the calls have been listened to, it is too late to undo the damage.
From United Press International - click here to read more...
Federal lawyers have asked a San Francisco judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming AT&T broke federal and state laws by cooperating with warrantless wiretapping.
The Justice Department filed the motion Saturday, arguing that the lawsuit would expose matters too sensitive for public discussion, The Los Angeles Times reported. The filing was supported by statements from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and National Security Agency Director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander.
Negroponte and Alexander said they could neither confirm nor deny specific allegations in the lawsuit without risking disclosure of secret methods. Longer versions of the documents were put under seal, where opposing attorneys said they would be unable to read them.
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