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McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "While there have been shifting reports about McCain's view on warrantless wiretapping, nothing could be clearer than the latest comment by McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, who said, 'We do not know what lies ahead in our nation's fight against radical Islamic extremists, but John McCain will do everything he can to protect Americans from such threats, including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.' Article II, of course, is what Bush has argued gives the President virtually unlimited power during war, and McCain has already voted in favor of Telecom Immunity, though he sometimes mentions, to those asking for accountability, wanting to hold hearings about what the telecoms did."
It's worth noting at this point that while Barack Obama has said that he is against the wiretapping, he has stated that he is for the use of Signing Statements whereby a president issues his own commentary on a bill, and in the process, indicates what aspects of a law he will and will not follow. Bush has used these to circumvent bans on torture, among other things, and they would be a useful vehicle to override congress-enacted bans on the extension of presidential authority. McCain has said that he will not use them.
On this score McCain wants to extend the powers of the executive to spy without oversight upsetting the balance of powers among the branches. While on another score, Obama has said that he will extend the power of the executive to just ignore laws he does not like.
Two parties perhaps but I see no daylight between them.
don't worry, there is always global warming to be the next big boogie man.
Ok, seriously, two posts about American politics on Slashdot on the same day? Come on! News for Nerds please. At least, if you're going to post about American politics, spread the wealth for those of us north of the border - post about Canadian politics as well.
Oh yeah. Canadian politics are boring. Uh. Never mind...
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Wow, after wasting your mod points on me, NOTHING changed, my karma is still excellent.
Sucks to be made completely impotent when you're trying to shut me down, doesn't it?