Comments on: Critics blast bill proposing NSA spy changes

Civil liberties advocates say a draft bill developed by the Bush administration and a Senate Republican is a "sham."

[zanzzz]

Unconstitutional No Matter How You Spin It

So one of the very few feeble Republican voices to raise any question with the outrageous abuses by the Bush regime joins the long list of enablers. Should we be surprised that these Republicans that were so concerned about a blue stained dress and decades old financial transactions by a Democrat should have little interest in a growing list of probable war crimes and constitutional violations. Hypocrisy is too kind a word for this group.

[pmfjoe]

See I knew there was a simple solution....

If it's not constitutional just make it constitutional. Problem solved.

[Richard G.]

Is this the Enablement Act?

The Enablement Act simultaneously granted all authority to the Chancelor while cuting any roles and responsibility to the legislature. I thought the (un)Patriot Act came pretty close, but it looks like this new legislation is the real deal.

[techned]

The Specter draft is a good smokescreen for the common man

I just finished reading parts of the Specter draft and it has many questionable spots regarding the need for warrants and the Judicial review by the Foreign Intelligence Court of warrants.

One of the things I hate about the Law is that it is written not to be direct in its explaination but made to be in sequence with previous legislation making it not only hard to understand but than you have to research previous referenced legislation to make sense of it.
The Specter draft is no different than ony other pieces of legislation in its complexity - thank God for PDF format were you can search for any type of significant word or group of words to find any form of significant "meat".

In my examination of the PDF of the Specter draft, using the word "warrant" as my search criteria there are nine instances where "warrant" is used - there is no instance where it is explained that a warrant has to be used in any type of Federal wiretap operation, only in the regard of domestic Law Enforcement.
Using "court" as my next search string, I found that in those instances the Federal Intelligence Sureillance Court has jurisdiction to review the wiretap operations in question but it is not mandatory for them to do so or that the draft supports any form of review or warrant granting process involving the Court for the federal wiretap investigation - in effect, this just makes it clear that regular (local) law enforcement must abide by the rules of protecting a suspect's Civil Liberties but that the Federal Government has the ability to sidestep those same rules in regards to operations involving International repurcussions.
A further examination of those area hilighted by my variable "court" search also reveals that the draft in affirming the Federal Surveilance Court's ability to review any form of Electronic Eavesdropping operation allows Congress to give The President broad powers to protect the USA, whatever means necessary, while protecting the rights and liberties "we cherish".

This draft is complete crap, it does not do anything to stop the President from disregarding our Constituional Rights in regards to prosecution and privacy, which the Presidential eavesdropping activity violates. The draft basically gives the President the Congressional "green seal of approval" to do whatever is deem necessary to protect the country, without obeying The Law that protects citizens from government abuse.

To anyone who does not have relatives in a Third World country, it's hard to imagine that America can ever become a dictatorship but the truth is that it is possible - more legislation like The Specter Draft will make it possible for America to follow in the footsteps of countires like Liberia, Philippines, and Iraq, if we just let it happen and give complete trust in our government and leaders.

My Two Cents,
Ned

[tnt1954]

the planet that died w/its rights on

with the kinds of high tech weapons, that
are available now, and the ones to come in
the future from our vast military-industrial-space-artistic complex, i don't really see
the common sense of 'civil liberties'.
the constitution has to be thoroughly amended.
even its so proudly we hailed, bill of rights,
first ten amendments. fundamental reorganization
is recommended or we won't be here to talk
about it.

[wtortorici]

So, Specter has been just bending with...

the wind when he raised concern about NSA spying. It just shows how devious the Republican party is. By the time Bush's term expires he will declare himself Emporer, declare marshall law and suspend the Constitution and Bill of Rights.