My Snoopgate LTTE - please critique

[NewJeffCT]

Clinton did it, too! That seems to be one of the Republican talking points in the Shades of Hitler domestic spying scandal. If Laura Bush came home and found her husband cheating with Condi Rice, could George justify his infidelity to her by saying, "Clinton did it, too!" Somehow, I don't think that would fly, as two wrongs do not make a right. Besides, the warrant-less spying authorized by President Clinton was specifically targeted to non U.S. citizens, and had to be certified as such by Attorney General Janet Reno. Bush has gone way over the line in allowing spying without a warrant on American citizens. I would hope Republicans could at least come up with facts to support their side, but it seems almost impossible these days.

[savemefromdumbya]

1. you may be right about

Condi Rice though!

:evilgrin:

[BOSSHOG]

2. Whether someone else committed a crime

is totally irrelevant. Do republicans now want murderers to use that defense? Others have committed murder so what's wrong if I did? The conservative hatred of Bill Clinton is on full display once again. Obviously they think spying is wrong otherwise Clinton would not be part of the conversation. To ask a conservative republican to base their allegations with proof?

Sophomore High School debate - he who asserts must prove. And I was a sophomore in high school 36 years ago.

[PWRinNY]

3. And don't forget...

Their argument is completely invalid. Clinton did NOT spy on Americans without a warrant.

The Clinton administration program, code-named Echelon, complied with FISA. Before any conversations of U.S. persons were targeted, a FISA warrant was obtained. CIA director George Tenet testified to this before Congress on 4/12/00:

"I’m here today to discuss specific issues about and allegations regarding Signals Intelligence activities and the so-called Echelon Program of the National Security Agency…

"There is a rigorous regime of checks and balances which we, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI scrupulously adhere to whenever conversations of U.S. persons are involved, whether directly or indirectly. We do not collect against U.S. persons unless they are agents of a foreign power as that term is defined in the law. We do not target their conversations for collection in the United States unless a FISA warrant has been obtained from the FISA court by the Justice Department."

[zbdent]

4. Loved listening to one Rush-wannabe Bob Golic

one night, trying to pin this on Clinton/Carter.

"Democrats did it too."

My thought . . . proof?

"Yes they did."

"Yes they did."

""Yes they did. It's just that no-one knew about it." - :wtf: If nobody knew about it, where's the proof?

[NewJeffCT]

5. only Bob knows

he's a deep deep cover secret agent masquerading as a moron

[zbdent]

6. It's like the Sam Malone situation

(Frasier Crane ponders if Sam is truly that stupid, or if it's an act . . . if it's an act, Sam would have to be extremely intelligent to play that stupid . . .)

[H2O Man]

7. I would suggest

that you consider changing "Shades of Hitler" to "Shades of Nixon." I say that for this reason: a good LTTE is an attempt to reach a specific segment of the paper's readers. There are three groups: {1} those who support Bush's spying; {2} those who recognize it is unconstitutional and violates federal law; and {3} the undecided. Your LTTE is aimed at group #3. It attempts to give that group reason to agree with group #2, and disagree with group #1.

"Hitler" causes an emotional reaction, and one that group #1 can use to distract and discredit your LTTE with group #3. Switching it to "Nixon" strips them of that ability. Plus, it is far more accurate.

The goal of the democratic left should be to get the "undecided" Americans to view Bush and Cheney as being Nixonian in nature. Right now, many polls show that much of group #3 is siding with group #1 on the NSA part of spying. That's okay: we need to get them to associate the FBI and state/local police spying on domestic anti-war groups with the NSA policy. Group #1 has worked hard to separate the two. We need to work harder.

Keep up the good work. I admire people who write LTTE, one of the most important things that citizens can do. Your efforts are always impressive. Thank you.

[NewJeffCT]

8. Thanks for your input

It's always appreciated. I wish I had more time for reading DU lately, but my job has kept me busy and off the internet too much.

I write LTTEs when I have a few minutes of downtime here & there...