Perspective: Invasion of Privacy from the Founding Fathers Viewpoint

  • Endorse this perspective:
  • Points:

NewsItems:

Platform:

After looking at the news of President Bush's wiretapping without FISA court warrants and the opening of private mail by the Homeland Security Department (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10740935/), it makes one wonder what kind of country are we finding ourselves in. Spying on American citizens in America is tantamount to the policies of the brown shirts in Germany in 1933. The interpretations of the executive branch over exactly what was voted on in the special resolution Congress passed post September 11, 2001 giving the president his option to use military force in Iraq are unfounded. Congress was not aware that the vote would also provide the President any authority to wiretap without warrants and otherwise abrogate or sidestep the FISA Act. Even though Congress unwisely abdicated their authority to authorize war in Iraq (and the U.S. and our soldiers are dearly paying for that cowardly legislative decision) they did not also intend to specifically allow the Bush Administration to sanction wiretaps on Americans within America without judicial review. The rationale that the President has put forward as justifications for his actions in spite of the FISA Act requirements are not persuasive. Even if his actions arose from capture of computers from Al-Queda operatives with many telephone numbers included in their data drives, the FISA court protections can and should still stand as the only acceptable means of wiretapping. It is questionable whether the President's repeated sanctioning of warrentless wiretaps over the period of several years are really related to capture of multiple Al-Queda databanks. The President has clearly stepped over the line, the rule of law must be enforced. The Administration broke the law and ruled the will of Congress null and void.

Edit Perspective:

  • Title:
  • Platform:

Be heard, PopularVoice.Org gives you the opportunity to present your point-of-view to those who are unfamiliar with it and the chance to win-over, through well reasoned argument, those who might be hostile to your ideas.

Listen, PopularVoice.Org is a source of news and current events as seen through the eyes of your neighbors. By reading the articles linked from PopularVoice.Org you can be sure that you are aware of the issues most important to the members of your community.

Search Headlines:

Things to do on PopularVoice.Org:

Fairness:

PopularVoice.Org provides a level playing field for debate and a free market for ideas. Think of the web site as a game. The rules of the game were carefully chosen so that they can be enforced entirely by a computer. That way the sites fairness is not limited by the bias of a human referee. You can participate by assigning your endorsement to one or more perspectives or you can create a new perspective and try to earn the endorsements of other readers by presenting links to articles on the Internet that best represent their views. The greater a perspective's share of reader endorsements, the more opportunity the editor of that perspective will have to present new material.