Republicans Kill Request for Spy Program Inquiry
posted by
Wally
11:38 AM
Proving once again that they have no use for the Constitution, the rule of law, or the separation of powers, Senate republicans have once again decided that the law doesn't apply to the Bush administration. Rather than investigate and punish Bush for flagrantly breaking the law and then bragging about it, they've decided to simply change the law to make it legal for him to continue to do what he's been doing.
WASHINGTON - Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday defeated a Democratic push to investigate a domestic espionage operation authorized by President Bush, but pledged to increase scrutiny of the controversial program through a newly created subcommittee.
(snip)
Emerging from a closed-door session in which Democrats lost two party-line votes, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the vice chairman of the committee, said the outcome pushed the panel "further into irrelevancy" and reflected the influence of the Bush administration.
(snip)
Nevertheless, Republicans said they would move forward with crafting legislation explicitly authorizing the spying program. The GOP approach centers on a proposal from Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) that would allow the government to place a suspect under surveillance for as many as 45 days without a warrant.
(snip)
"My feeling was that an investigation was not what was needed," DeWine said. "What was needed was oversight."
(complete article)
"Oversight?" Oversight?! Then what the hell is the FISA court for? The FISA court was created specifically and explicitly to provide oversight in exactly this situation. Over the years, it has become a rubber stamp warrant machine for the president, but even that isn't enough. This administration is too lazy (or corrupt, or sneaky, or criminally arrogant) to even wander down to the FISA court with a stack of requests to be stamped. And the republicans in Congress, rather than say "follow the law" are going to rewrite the law so that it the illegal activity being conducted by the NSA is now legal. How nice must it be to have the police change the speed limit whenever they catch you speeding. What does this administration have to do before the republican leadership, or the democratic leadership for that matter, decides enough is enough? We know that breaking the law is no problem. We know that shooting a man is no big deal. Do they have to eat live babies in the Rose Garden before the republicans will finally stand up to them and tell them to stop? Or will the republicans simply comment on their nice table manners?
Permalink
::
0 comments
::
|
