Nathan

TAPPED: December 2005 Archives: "This is honestly just dumb. The story we're all talking about isn't a story about how, in September and October 2001, the president authorized some kind of illegal program on a temporary emergency basis before getting things sorted out. That would arguably be forgivable, depending on the details of the hypothetical. The story we're talking about is that today, on December 27, 2005, more than four years after 9/11, the president is still authorizing some sort of illegal, secret surveillance program. The administration has had ample time to make his case to Congress -- if necessary, in a secret closed-door session -- and ask them to re-write the law to say whatever he thinks it ought to say. If the program is really so wonderful, there's every reason to assume Congress will approve it. If the White House really has no intention of abusing whatever it is they've implemented, then they have nothing to fear from the implementation of some oversight or safeguards. There's no excuse for the way they've behaved, and it's grossly premature to just assume they're doing something useful and innocuous when they won't explain to anyone what it is that's going on. "