Spying

From the New York Times:

Stepping up the Bush administration's defense of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today cited a long history of military surveillance conducted without warrants, going back to George Washington's reading of captured mail between the British and Americans during the Revolutionary War.


According to the AG, there are four reasons why this program is just perfectly okay.

First, the president is supposed to protect the country.
Second, the authorization for use of force in Afghanistan and elsewhere implicitly allowed it.
Third, it doesn't conflict with FISA because FISA can't conflict with the president's military powers, and because it allows for conflicts with other statutes (see items 1 and 2, above). Also, even retroactive approval is too cumbersome.
Fourth, it's not a violation of the Fourth Amendment, because warrantless actions occur all the time.

The breadth of their ability to practice the big lie, to nitpick, and to just ignore inconvenient laws is breathtaking. I suppose we should consider ourselves fortunate that he lets Congress stay in session -- and the minute that there is a Democratic majority, if he is still around, I suppose that's in jeopardy. You know -- for the good of the country.

Sheesh. Makes me wish for a good sex-with-the-intern scandal.
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I thought about this some more last night. I still disagree both with the action and with the glib explanation of why its okay (which seems to boil down to 'because I'm the president and I say its ok) but I have to back off on one thing. The first item of defense -- that one's true.

Okay, thats it.