My apologies for the lack of blogging the last couple of days - I haven't been feeling well and couldn't hardly keep a clear head to blog with any common sense. (Of course, some would say that by that standard, I haven't been feeling well since my first post. Feh.)
Now to the kerfluffle on the National Security Agency's (NSA) presidentially authorized monitoring of foreign communications involving American citizens.
In an interestingly-timed front page article, the New York Times "broke" the story: Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts. Interestingly timed because the story played a major role in the Senate's failure to renew aspects of the USA Patriot Act, and because a New York Times reporter had a new book coming out: "State of War" by James Risen.
Congressional moonbats responded in typical fashion, expressing outrage, shock, upset they were kept in the dark, blah blah blah. As usual, they weren't telling the truth, whether out of stupidity or deceitfulness- or both. The Times story on Friday, and their follow-up today, both mentioned that Congressional leaders have been briefed at least a dozen times since the NSA monitoring began after 9/11. The President made that point in his radio address this morning as well.
Former New York mayor (and 2008 presidential candidate?) Rudy Giuliani has an excellent opinion piece in today's Times, addressing the Senate's failure to renew parts of the USA Patriot Act. Just as the Bush Administration addressed concerns about the NSA monitoring brought up by a federal judge on the FISA Court and a Democratic senator, the bill currently being blocked by Senate moonbats addresses concerns about some aspects of the USA Patriot Act. Mayor Giuliani:
Concerns have been raised about the so-called library records provision; the bill adds safeguards. The same is true for roving wiretaps, "sneak and peek" searches and access to counsel and courts, as well as many others concerns raised by groups like the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The NSA monitoring program and the USA Patriot Act renewal demonstrate two things: (1) that the administration has acted to protect our national security and our civil liberties at the same time, and (2) that moonbats of both parties in the Senate find it more important to attack the President than to protect our national security.
In his dissent to the majority opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago (337 US 1, 37) (1949), Justice Jackson wrote the following:
This Court has gone far toward accepting the doctrine that civil liberty means the removal of all restraints from these crowds and that all local attempts to maintain order are impairments of the liberty of the citizen. The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.
If you replace "Court" with "Senate" or "Senate moonbats," you'll see the danger we now face.
As usual, Michelle Malkin is hitting this story eight ways from Sunday. Start your blog reading with her post from yesterday (frequently updated): Red Alert: Chicken Littles on the Loose. Then head over to Powerline and read Paul Mirengoff's post from this morning, and Scott Johnson's from yesterday. Hugh Hewitt compares the Democrats to Moby Dick's Ahab here and here. Pajamas Media has a paragraph each on the Patriot Act renewal and the NSA monitoring, but Michelle's coverage on both is much stronger.
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