Decisions Have Consequences

Especially when the politicians are liberals:

Comments

[seekeronos]

Frightening indeed.

[IslamoLlama]

Wait, does that mean conservatives aren't especially impacted by the consequences of decisions? (Disregard Nov. 7th 2006)

Also, its worth noting that Bush's wiretapping actually began before 9/11.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/48/16920
And if you want to bust out the way-back machine and really think about how to fight terrorism, addressing the "Bin Laden Determined To Strike America" memo might be a big first step.

Let's assume for one brief instant that we leave Bush's wiretapping in place. Has it been responsible for a single thwarted terror attack? The Madrid bombing? The London bombing? Capturing Osama Bin Laden? Locating rogue WMDs? ... anything??

The Bush Wiretapping debacle has been nothing but an exercise in wasted resources and violated civil liberties. Resources that could have gone to securing our docks and harbors, protecting our food supplies and toys from tainted Chinese imports, and predicting and preparing against natural disasters instead go towards Watergate-style eavesdropping.

Your tax dollars at work kids. Sleep with one eye open, cause Bush isn't making anyone any safer.

[Wahoo Willie Sez]

This, of course would have been OK:
"Clinton said he wanted increased wiretap authority "for terrorists who are moving from place to place," adding: "Where they are flexible, so must we be."

CNN

July 29, 1996

[Wahoo Willie Sez]

Of course Echelon was just dandy too:The NSA runs Echelon with Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand as a series of listening posts around the world that eavesdrop on terrorists, drug lords and hostile foreign governments.

But to find out what the bad guys are up to, all electronic communications, including those of the good guys, must be captured and analyzed for key words by super computers.

That is a fact that makes Frost uncomfortable, even though he believes the world needs intelligence gathering capabilities like Echelon. "My concern is no accountability and nothing, no safety net in place for the innocent people who fall through the cracks," he tells Kroft.

As an example of those innocent people, Frost cites a woman whose name and telephone number went into the Echelon database as a possible terrorist because she told a friend on the phone that her son had "bombed" in a school play. "The computer spit that conversation out. The analystwas not too sure what the conversation was referring to, so, erring on the side of caution, he listed that lady," Frost recalls.

CBS News/60 Minutes
March 2000

Ah, when was that election?