Perhaps I’m cynical, but take a look at this AP article and tell me if you can’t feel the pain that it caused the author to have to type that the Supreme Court denied the ACLU’s appeal on their lawsuit against the Terrorist Surveillance Program. I’ll snip the parts out for quotation here that actually tell you some news.

The [Supreme Court], without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

…

The Terrorist Surveillance Program no longer exists, although the administration has maintained it was legal.

The ACLU sued on behalf of itself, other lawyers, reporters and scholars, arguing that the program was illegal and that they had been forced to alter how they communicate with foreigners who were likely to have been targets of the wiretapping.

A federal judge in Detroit largely agreed, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs could not prove their communications had been monitored and thus could not prove they had been harmed by the program.

Good thing we all use computers to write these days, I’d hate for the poor boys over at the AP to have to re-type because of all the tear stains on the first few copies.

The federal judge in question was appointed by the pleasant peanut farmer himself, Jimmy Carter, and according to California Conservative, has strong ties to the ACLU.

Here’s a graphic reminder of what wiretapping does and doesn’t cover.

I don’t know what else to say about this beyond we need to listen to terrorists so that we can find out what they are up to. Do we need to put this in large print for our baby boomer population or perhaps print it on a Cuban flag for our country’s college students? I’m at a loss about how we can make this any clearer. This isn’t about the right to privacy or big brother. This isn’t about that twenty minute call to your aunt where you told her about all the great sales at Target this week. The government doesn’t care about your mundane crap. Get over yourself.

If you want to be offended about something the government is doing to interfere with your life, perhaps you should do a little reading about our tax system, or the proposed taxes from the Democratic candidates? That’ll scare you more than the phony phone boogeyman.

More from the article…

The administration announced in January 2007 that it would put intercepts of communications on U.S. soil under the oversight of that court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The ACLU, in urging the justices to consider its case, said that because the administration voluntarily ended the warrantless wiretapping, it could easily restart it.

The administration acknowledged the existence of the program in late after the New York Times published an article about it.

The White House said the monitoring was necessary because the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act left dangerous gaps in the government’s eavesdropping authority.

Last August, Congress made temporary changes to FISA that made the warrantless wiretapping legal in some instances and also extended immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies that help with the intercepts.

Those changes expired over the weekend, amid disagreements between congressional Democrats and President Bush over the immunity issue.

Existing wiretaps can continue and any new surveillance the government wants to institute has to follow the FISA rules, which could require court warrants.

So here’s my prediction for the expired FISA modifications and the disbanded Terrorism Surveillance program. If George Bush believes that we aren’t doing everything we can with the reforms that the Congress has been willing to pass and maintain, he will restart the program or a fresh incarnation of it. I’m not legalese-minded enough to know how to best phrase it, but I do know that Bush is willing to put his neck out there to defend this country.

So while I am outraged at this blatant disregard that the Democrats show for our National Security, I’m not losing sleep over it. George Bush will do whatever he needs to do, secret or not, to keep us safe.

FullosseousFlap’s has a great series of posts detailing the progression of this case and the controversy around it.

Michelle has more background.

Dr. Rusty over at The Jawa Report quotes a Reuters article that hints at the same thing I am.

The administration abandoned the program about a year ago, putting it under the surveillance court that Congress created more than 30 years ago.

The high court’s action means that Bush will be able to disregard whatever legislative eavesdropping restrictions Congress adopts as there will be no meaningful judicial review, the ACLU attorneys said.

Rusty:

Maybe we don’t need this new FISA law after all. I wonder if the White House had been tipped as the to way the Court would rule, thus explaining why President Bush hasn’t called Congress back into session to push through the new legislation? I’m guessing, though, that today’s ruling will prompt Pelosi and company to act.

As I said, I go a step further and bet that those evil neocons up on Pennsylvania avenue have already been planning for this.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 5:41 AM and is filed under Foreign Policy, Nutter Butters, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.