Q: Warrantless *domestic* wiretaps OK? AG: "I'm not going to rule it out"

[Xiahou]

nevermind. I though this was for international calls. I have a bit of a prob with solely domestic calls. We need judicial oversight for domestic calls. I'm as much of a hawk as anyone here, but I think we draw the line here.

Well, if it's non-citizens, I could care less if its domestic. If domestic means between citizens- that's not so good unless there's judicial oversight.

Should there be an exception in exigent circumstances? I find that reasonable and prudent. These things do take time and on rare occasion there may be situations requiring immediate action.

Im sure the administration would tell you already that they wouldnt do that unless it was an extreme circumstance.

[Major Robert Dump]

This is what happens when shortsighted, knee-jerk, naive people make laws with lines like "...to investigate terrorist activities" followed by the little phrase "....or other criminal behavior."

[Ice]

or other criminal behavior."

They always managed to fit that part in, eh?

[yesdachi]

If they want to hear me talk about how my kid was at daycare or what we need at the store or why I think Lone Wolf and cub was a better series than Blade of the immortal go for it I got nothing to hide. Of course I would hope they would be a little more focused than just wiretapping the country but if they wanted to I really don’t care.

I would like to point out that I really wouldn’t care if it was an R or a D in office wanting to do this but I think some people would. Just like some kids wont do something their mom asks them to do but they will when grandma asks.

[solypsist]

i think the point of all this is that with this system in place, there'd be nothing to legally stop the current admnistration (whoever that may be) from, for example, listening in on phone calls of its political opposition, or popular political figures.
the other side - and us citizens as well, of course, wouldn't have that option available to us.
it's hard to have a democracy when the ruling government is able to have every advantage on what is supposed to be a "level playing field." explain to me how this policy is different from fascist policies of government.

[yesdachi]

i think the point of all this is that with this system in place, there'd be nothing to legally stop the current admnistration (whoever that may be) from, for example, listening in on phone calls of its political opposition, or popular political figures.
the other side - and us citizens as well, of course, wouldn't have that option available to us.
it's hard to have a democracy when the ruling government is able to have every advantage on what is supposed to be a "level playing field." explain to me how this policy is different from fascist policies of government.

As long as the goal of the wiretapping is to find terrorist activities I don’t see how listening in on their political opposition would be acceptable, as a matter a fact it would be a clear break in the law unless there is some reasonable doubt that their opponents were fraternizing with terrorists (not likely). I would hope there would be some checks and balances built into the system just like there is currently. One cannot just pick a number and start a tapping now, I don’t see how it would be any different when/if it were expanded from international to domestic.

[Blodrast]

So then you wouldn't mind the cameras in your houses, either, would you ? (As it's been suggested by, what was it, Dallas or Austin's chief of police ?)
I mean, since you have nothing to hide and all that, why would you mind ?

Better yet, perhaps sometime in the future an agent to not-so-subtly check up on you every couple of hours, to make sure you're not harboring any evil thoughts... I mean, it's really all in the interest of deterring terrorists, y'know.

Better yet, why not have the government know _everything_ about you _all_ the time, like what you eat, what time you go to sleep, and so on - this way we can identify potentially "dangerous" individuals earlier - which will all make for a better society for all of us

What is that, I'm exaggerating ? Of course, we'll take it one small step at a time, don't worry.
By the time enough people wake up, it's always too late.