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White House Wants Phone Records Without Oversight

Posted by timothy on from the our-right-as-elected-americans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Obama administration's Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the US without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy."

5 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. LOL, you got GWB again! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    LOL, all of your presidents and their administrations are the same.

    1. Re:LOL, you got GWB again! by NatasRevol · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Those of us who aren't so partisan realized this a long time ago.

      Each side has a few variations, but getting more power & money is the focus of both the Dems and the Reps.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    2. Re:LOL, you got GWB again! by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The thing is that the voters reward that kind of behavior. If he wasn't doing it and something did happen, do you really think he'd get any credit for adhering to the constitution? Which is really unfortunate, at this point one really has to hand it to him, while it's not easy to avoid this, it is his problem at this point.

      But by the same token, no President would be able to get away with it if there weren't a significant number of voters that are scared by their own shadows and willing to throw everybody else under the bus to get a modicum of safety.

  2. Re:meet the new boss by conspirator57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the same era's supreme court also upheld slavery and later provided us with Dredd Scott. So tradition is no defense against a facial violation of the Constitution. If we want unwarranted searches in certain conditions, we ought to do this thing called "amend" the constitution to allow it and enact laws in accordance with those amendments. that is what we call the "rule of law". We certainly shouldn't want to drift further away from being a nation of laws. Look at Zimbabwe for an example of our eventual destiny should we continue down the cult of personality road.

    Moreover, while the old precedent was bad, it is notably made worse by other, more recent encroachments that the supreme court is trying desperately not to hear because they clearly like having a king-like president but don't want to admit it.

    We used to, as a society, value the idea of improving our country and its governance to more closely resemble our ideals. Sure there were setbacks, but Americans in 1990 were notably more free than in 1950. 1950s Americans were notably freer than 1900s Americans. 1900s Americans were notably freer than 1850s ones. I think it's pretty obvious that 2010s Americans are notably less free than we were in 1990. I want us to return to the positive trend. I don't want a president encouraging dictators (*cough* Egypt *cough*) because they're our toadies and are more predictable and require less work and upkeep. I want freedom and self determination for all.

    --
    "If still these truths be held to be
    Self evident."
    -Edna St. Vincent Millay
  3. Re:meet the new boss by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But I think we must also realize there are legitimate real-world problems that they have to contend with - for example, terrorism threats

    Yeah, it worked. You are afraid. Step one of becoming a model citizen is done.
    Being afraid is good. Sorry that we had to focus from communism to drugs to terrorism. Uh, I mean, we have always been at war with terrorism.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.