Weblogsky: Life during *permanent* wartime

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Life during permanent wartime

Jonathan Alter hits the head right on the nail:

...his is not about whether it's right or wrong to wiretap bad guys, though the White House hopes to frame it that way for political purposes. Any rational person wants the president to be able to hunt for Qaeda suspects wherever they lurk. The "momentous" issue (Alito's words) is whether this president, or any other, has the right to tell Congress to shove it. And even if one concedes that wartime offers the president extra powers to limit liberty, what happens if the terrorist threat looks permanent? We may be scrapping our checks and balances not just for a few years (as during the Civil War), but for good.

jon posted this at 5:50 AM
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Comments

I agree. This is part of a power play by Bush and Cheney. Why not ask Congress to lengthen the 72-hour period to get a warrant from FISA?

The problem the Democrats have is that they'll continually couch it the 'civil liberties' argument which is a non-starter for many when it comes to terrorism. But no one is forcing administration to why they are not working to change the FISA court aspect.

I expect the change to be permanent - and it is wrong.

Posted by: Jonathan Trenn | February 7, 2006 9:56 PM