Republican Don Stenberg is trying to separate himself as the craziest candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska - and he’s doing a pretty good job.
Bush eavesdropping deserves thanks, Stenberg says - Omaha World-Herald
“Instead of criticizing and threatening to impeach the president,” Stenberg said, “Democrats and Republicans alike should be thanking President Bush for his energetic efforts to protect us from terrorist attacks here at home.”
Politicians of both parties have raised questions about whether Bush had legal authority to order monitoring of phone calls and e-mail messages on American soil without a warrant. Bush has vigorously defended his actions as constitutional and within his rights as commander in chief.
Stenberg agreed.
“Communications from foreign terrorist enemies to their fellow terrorists in the United States are acts of war,” he said. “Dealing with those acts of war is the responsibility of the president, not the courts.”
Yes, let’s be thankful our civil liberties are slowly being chipped away for national security purposes.
Soon, Stenberg will announce his plan to “roll-back” the first ammendment because terroritsts are abusing this right and he considers it an act of war.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security.”
Politically, this is a wise stance by Stenberg. In the three-way GOP Senate primary, Stenberg’s only hope is to win the hard right wignut votes, and let Kramer and Ricketts split the moderates, resulting a Stenberg primary victory. Remember, primaries are generally decided by each party’s “base.”
Ricketts has been making a vigorous pitch to the hard right wingnuts, but also being careful not to go off the deep end, which would cost him votes among GOP moderates.
As for Kramer, he clearly is focusing his pitch on GOP moderates. Sure, he trots out the usual “values;” “faith” and “family” talking points, but he is gambling that he will win if he gets the majority of the moderates and steals 10% of the wingnuttery from Stenberg. Unfortunately for Kramer, Ricketts’ financial advantage will undermine Kramer’s strategy.
If the primary were held today, Stenberg would win. Stenberg is crazy, but he knows how to do politics.
Stenberg is right. It’s worth noting that Franklin was talking about liberty, not privacy. There is a relationship between the two, but it’s strange that no one bothers to quote Franklin when we’re talking about the liberty to choose how our children are taught. Where is your sense of patriotism? What happened to people that would do anything to defend their country? Freedom is not a right, it’s a privilege that was obtained through the hard work of PATRIOTS.
This terrorist surveilance program requires that one of the two parties being watched is out of the United States. A call or email has to be coming in or going out. It also requires that the suspects have involvement or suspected involvement with al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups that wish destruction on the United States. If the two parties involved are inside the United States, they are not watched. I fail to see how there is a problem here. Why would you advocate that this program be stopped when it is being used to monitor terrorists and is only doing so with overseas communication? In fact, this is just the government doing its job and protecting us. It makes absolutely no sense to allow terrorists to operate in our country and not put them under surveilance. This whole arguement against the program is entirely petty and ridiculous. Standing up for terrorists who would rather you be dead is a sure sign that you have lost common-sense.
Mr. Paine,
One of the parties to the call IS in the United States– that’s the problem. I’m not advocating getting rid of this program; just get a warrant first. The FISA court was set-up with the specific purpose of expediting warrants for this purpose. The argument of this administration is that laws are inconvenient and we need to avoid them for national security purposes. That’s ridiculous, and when this goes to the court system, you will see that this is unconstitutional.
We have a concept in America called “innocent until proven guilty.” If you bypass the FISA court then innocent people could be spyed on without having to prove any type of connection to terrorism.
To Bill and Thomas Paine:
Guys, you are missing the point. No one is arguing that wiretaps should not be used. The problem is that Bush and his administration are breaking the law in the way they are conducting the surveillance. This is flat out illegal.
All Bush had to do was ask the GOP House and Senate to amend the FISA laws and procedures to give him the flexibility Bush thinks he needs. In failing to do so, Bush and the admin. have broken the law. This is indisputable.
9/11 did not change the Constitution. To argue otherwise is a slap in the face of every American who has ever fought for this nation. If you don’t believe me, I offer the 20th century as Exhibit No. 1: Two World Wars (one against the threat of global fascism) and a cold war against the Soviet Union that represented a TRUE THREAT to our way of life. While there were some excesses in WWII (internment of Japanese-Americans), in none of these conflicts did the United States react by (1) giving the president extra-consitutional powers or (2) rolling back constitutional civil rights.
I do not understand why some on the right are so paralyzed by the threat posed by Muslim extremists. 9/11 was a horrific atrocity that shocked all Americans to their core. But so was Nazi fascism and nuclear-armed communism. In those situations, America said, “Hell, no,” and fought with a purpose. With al-Qaida, it seems that the right is simply frightened to death of a bunch of men hiding in caves.
The bottom line is, in fighting an ideology, we have to accept that our government cannot eradicate all threats. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to prevent further terrorist attacks on our soil, we will be hit again. Our nation has endured under threats in the past, and will endure again if we grow some b—s.
I leave you with these “old sayings” that have even more meaning for me than when I learned them as a child:
“Give me liberty or give me death.:
“Land of the free, home of the brave.”
Believe it. Live it.
Paine, how do you know that the calls being monitored were made by people with ties to terrorists? How do you know that one of the callers was outside the U.S.? Because the president said so? Without court warrants, HOW DOES ANYONE KNOW?
Which brings us to Don Stenburg’s maniacal comments, and their real meaning. Without any judicial oversight or accountability, the NSA can spy on anyone it chooses, saying “We’d like to tell y’all who we’re spying on, but we can’t give up any secrets to our enemies.” As I wrote on my blog, OWHRetort, what Stenberg is really saying here is that the FISA court is just a nuisance, and that the president should be able to spy on whomever he wants, wherever he wants, for as long as he contends that we’re at war.
Would Ben Franklin approve of that?
The point is, clearly: If we’re only spying on those who wish us harm, then why not inform the FISA court and get a warrant?
Either the Bush administration is so brazenly arrogant that they don’t believe they need a warrant, or they aren’t just spying on terrorist suspects. Either way, it’s pretty well established that they’ve been spying on American citizens without a warrant. I’m baffled as to how any American can possibly defend these kinds of actions.
HA that was my humor for the day… I’ll make sure to thank Bush for raping america. I saw this guy holding a sign outside of Planned Parenthood the other day that said “Planned Parenthood is Terrorist” WTH? so looks like abortion is an act of terrorism… better revoke that right too!
OH yeah… Paine…. I just checked my email… got an email from a chinese email address…. bet my mailbox was flagged as terrorist…. (but maybe google is protecting me since they sold out to China)
We are all probably being monitored. Get used to it. The whole problem is checks and balances. Bush and his cronies do not understand democracy 101. There are three separate branches that check each other out so neither of them control everything. Bush has democracy and dictatorship confused.
liberalism: so open-minded your brains have fallen out.
Mr. Oracle,
That was a pretty creative joke you just made there. I would appreciate a little more originality, however, next time you try to sound intellectually superior to us. Thank you for your time, and may I suggest that you read a book. You may learn something about the world.
The Oracle: A cretinous assclown who enjoys watching animal porn and making vague, unorignal insults.
Thank you for wasting our time with your senseless comment “wise one”, next time have something to contribute to the blog
Already made my contribution. Where’s yours?
Hmm, lets see, considering I have been a part of the wonderful college democrats for two years now, I believe I have made plenty of contributions and do not need to prove it to you.