The Illegal Wiretaps - Make that Unconstitutional

[In the continuing effort to rebuild my blog, here's another previously posted message.]
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Illegal Wiretaps - Make that Unconstitutional For the most part I am a rather conservative person politically. I've been reading LittleGreenFootballs for years. I prefer Foxnews to MSNBC. But I have a splitting of the ways with both our current Attorney General and some of the more conservative style blogs.

(Normally, when I participate in debates online, something I've been doing for 25 years, I chase down lots of references and direct quotes. That's not happening tonight. I'll try to do better in the future. On the other hand, encouraging you to learn to do your own searches is useful for your own personal growth.)

I've read in a few places where writers have chastised the NY Times for revealing the unconstitutional wiretapping program. And the Attorney General, not denying that the warrentless taps were either illegal or unconstitutional, decried their unveiling because they were so useful in the war against terror.

Both sides are missing the point - if a government agency had gotten warrents before putting the taps in place then there would not have been unconstitutional tapping to reveal and the usefulness of the data sources would have been preserved.

Nobody said that the war on terror was going to be easy. In fact, if we are to act as Americans, governed by law, everyone of us, then we are going to be fighting with what may seem like one hand tied behind our backs. But thats okay because we can beat the terrorists with one hand tied behind our back. We must, or the terrorists and extremists that wish to destroy our society will have won. Remember: "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety".

As much and as often as I may dislike the left wing bias of the stories and op-ed of the NY Times in publishing the news of the misappropriation of powers is why we have a strong First Amendment. Now if only the NYT would support the 2nd amendment as strongly. :)