NEWS FLASH: House Republicans Signal Rejection of Bush Warrantless Spying
---- Amendment IV to the United States Constitution
------------------------------
For the Supreme Court, President Bush and his conservative Republican supporters claim to desire justices who "interpret the Constitution to mean what the framers intended it to mean when they wrote it," per Amy Hess, About.com's US Conservatives Guide.
Just mention gun control, and most conservatives scream that the "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" is protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. And like it or not, they're absolutely correct.
Bush Republicans portray themselves as the primary guardians of our forefathers' values, and the ultimate protectors of our beloved Constitution.
But lately, mention Fourth Amendment protections for all Americans to "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures"...well, those same Repubs get strangely silent.
George Bush is not so enamored, it seems, with that part of the US Constitution. Guns, yes. His judicial choices, yes. His particular religion enshrined on courtroom walls, yes. Privacy for others...not so much.
Responding yesterday to the SOTU, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), in a passionate speech on the Senate floor, summed it up brilliantly....
"The President issued a call to spread freedom throughout the world, and then he admitted that he has deprived Americans of one of their most basic freedoms under the Fourth Amendment - to be free from unjustified government intrusion.
The President was blunt. He said that he had authorized the NSA's domestic spying program, and he made a number of misleading arguments to defend himself....
The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program." Read the entirety of Senator Feingold's well-crafted speech here.
Likewise, in January, Al Gore orated to a standing ovation, "...the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently. A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government."
And at least five Republican senators....Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Chuck Hagel (R-NE).... have publicly expressed deep reservations about the legality of President Bush's deliberate decision to spy on American citizens without judicial permission and oversight.
----------
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified in front of the Senate yesterday about Bush/Cheney warrantless spying....testimony that the New York Times describes as "a daylong display of cynical hair-splitting, obfuscation, disinformation and stonewalling."
On the heels of this ongoing unproductive Senate testimony, Raw Story reports this afternoon that "The Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has issued 51 questions to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on President Bush's warrantless wiretap program.
Combined with a move by the chairman of a House subcommittee on intelligence, and hearings in the Senate, the move is likely to signal that Republicans are not going to swallow the President's justification for the surveillance, and may be a precursor to hearings in the House. "
When the President George Bush loses the blind-and-deaf loyalty of the Republican-led House, he has a very serious threat to his administration on his hands....
------------------------------
Related Articles
-- Conservative Insider Magazine Says White House Preparing for Impeachment Hearings
-- Bush Impeachment Buzz Gains Momentum
-- US Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat with Courage of Convictions
-- Landmark Speech by Al Gore on US Constitutional Crisis Created by President George Bush
------------------------------
Technorati Profile
Comments
No comments yet. Leave a Comment