They Must be Lonely...
... these rational, law-abiding Republicans.
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REP. DANA ROHRABACHER, (R) CALIFORNIA: First of all, let us note that all this eavesdropping on Americans were that, there were some people living in the United States, whether they're American citizens or not -- we don't know how many are American citizens -- that were involved with contacts overseas. This is eavesdropping on people who were doing international calls and the list that we got, came from what -- came from an al Qaeda cell that we broke up in Pakistan.
I am very pleased that our president didn't wait around but, instead, ran right forward immediately to try to follow up on this and find out what they were planning. I believe he probably thwarted several major attacks by doing that.
With the Administration's track record, how can anyone be pleased that the President is rushing into anything based on "evidence" that we only have at his word? How do we know this broken up al Qaeda cell is any more real that the yellowcake in Niger? He has no credibility.
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BOB BARR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, gee, I guess then the president should be able to ignore whatever provision in the Constitution as long as there's something after the fact that justifies it.
ROHRABACHER: Bob, during wartime, you give some powers to the presidency you wouldn't give in peace time.
BARR: Do we have a declaration of war, Dana?
ROHRABACHER: You don't have to do that.
BARR: We don't? That makes it even much easier for a president.
ROHRABACHER: No, you just have to make sure that the people of the United States understand that we are at war. They understand that al Qaeda slaughtered 3,000 of our citizens -- more people than the Japanese slaughtered at Pearl Harbor.
I've seen some great leftie blogs comparing the behaviors of Bush apologists and Neocons to those of cult members and sociopaths. When you have these people saying the President has these powers to break the law in times of war, and that we don't need an actual declared war to give him these unchecked powers, I can see what the writers of those blogs mean.
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BARR: And the Constitution be damned, Dana?
ROHRABACHER: Well, I'll tell you something, if a nuclear weapon goes off in Washington, DC, or New York or Los Angeles, it'll burn the Constitution as it does. So I'm very happy we have a president that's going to wiretap people's communication with people overseas to make sure that they're not plotting to blow up one of our cities.
Another thing I love coming from Republican Bush apologists! The threat of a nuclear weapon! To paraphrase Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and all the other administration officials who had the same talking points memorized, "We must allow the president these powers, or the proof that it was wrong to stop him from breaking the law will come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Nice hypothetical threat there. How hard is it for them to get it through their stupid, slavish, warmongering skulls that no one is advocating for terrorist rights. They could have done all the spying on American citizens they wanted, as they've described it (limited, and only on communications between US residents and suspect contacts abroad), and still followed the law. Get a warrant and start spying, or start spying right away and get your warrant up to 72 hours after the fact.
The president should act, by all means, to protect the American people. But he cannot act in the shadows against the law. And he and his followers should stop claiming that the revelation of his illegal program's existence is helping the terrorists; they know our intelligence agencies wiretap, they know there's somebody listening to them, which is why they often speak in code. What difference does it make to our enemies that it was being done in violation of the legal procedures? None. That doesn't help them. It helps us to know that our leaders are criminals.
Impeach this president!
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REP. DANA ROHRABACHER, (R) CALIFORNIA: First of all, let us note that all this eavesdropping on Americans were that, there were some people living in the United States, whether they're American citizens or not -- we don't know how many are American citizens -- that were involved with contacts overseas. This is eavesdropping on people who were doing international calls and the list that we got, came from what -- came from an al Qaeda cell that we broke up in Pakistan.
I am very pleased that our president didn't wait around but, instead, ran right forward immediately to try to follow up on this and find out what they were planning. I believe he probably thwarted several major attacks by doing that.
With the Administration's track record, how can anyone be pleased that the President is rushing into anything based on "evidence" that we only have at his word? How do we know this broken up al Qaeda cell is any more real that the yellowcake in Niger? He has no credibility.
************************************
BOB BARR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, gee, I guess then the president should be able to ignore whatever provision in the Constitution as long as there's something after the fact that justifies it.
ROHRABACHER: Bob, during wartime, you give some powers to the presidency you wouldn't give in peace time.
BARR: Do we have a declaration of war, Dana?
ROHRABACHER: You don't have to do that.
BARR: We don't? That makes it even much easier for a president.
ROHRABACHER: No, you just have to make sure that the people of the United States understand that we are at war. They understand that al Qaeda slaughtered 3,000 of our citizens -- more people than the Japanese slaughtered at Pearl Harbor.
I've seen some great leftie blogs comparing the behaviors of Bush apologists and Neocons to those of cult members and sociopaths. When you have these people saying the President has these powers to break the law in times of war, and that we don't need an actual declared war to give him these unchecked powers, I can see what the writers of those blogs mean.
***********************************************
BARR: And the Constitution be damned, Dana?
ROHRABACHER: Well, I'll tell you something, if a nuclear weapon goes off in Washington, DC, or New York or Los Angeles, it'll burn the Constitution as it does. So I'm very happy we have a president that's going to wiretap people's communication with people overseas to make sure that they're not plotting to blow up one of our cities.
Another thing I love coming from Republican Bush apologists! The threat of a nuclear weapon! To paraphrase Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and all the other administration officials who had the same talking points memorized, "We must allow the president these powers, or the proof that it was wrong to stop him from breaking the law will come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Nice hypothetical threat there. How hard is it for them to get it through their stupid, slavish, warmongering skulls that no one is advocating for terrorist rights. They could have done all the spying on American citizens they wanted, as they've described it (limited, and only on communications between US residents and suspect contacts abroad), and still followed the law. Get a warrant and start spying, or start spying right away and get your warrant up to 72 hours after the fact.
The president should act, by all means, to protect the American people. But he cannot act in the shadows against the law. And he and his followers should stop claiming that the revelation of his illegal program's existence is helping the terrorists; they know our intelligence agencies wiretap, they know there's somebody listening to them, which is why they often speak in code. What difference does it make to our enemies that it was being done in violation of the legal procedures? None. That doesn't help them. It helps us to know that our leaders are criminals.
Impeach this president!