FOX News Poll: Homeland Security and Wiretapping

A majority of Americans think the president should have the power to authorize eavesdropping on domestic phone calls with suspected terrorists without getting a warrant, though many say they are concerned government efforts to track terrorists are harming civil liberties.

Last month, President George W. Bush acknowledged that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks he approved a warrant-less domestic wiretapping program. A new FOX News poll finds that a majority of Americans believe the president should have the power to authorize such a program.

By 58 percent to 36 percent, Americans think the president should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States. Furthermore, six in 10 say they are personally okay with the NSA monitoring their international telephone calls.

These results are parallel to those on related questions about the Patriot Act, which after receiving a short-term extension in December is now set to expire in early February. Overall, a 53 percent majority of Americans think the Patriot Act is a "good thing" for the country while less than a third (30 percent) think it’s a "bad thing."

Similarly, 59 percent of Americans think it has helped prevent terrorist attacks, and 57 percent support extending the act.

Republicans (81 percent) are significantly more likely than Democrats (44 percent) to believe the Patriot Act has helped prevent terrorist attacks, and are more than twice as likely to support renewing the act (85 percent Republicans and 40 percent Democrats).

Once Constitutional prohibitions are overridden they tend to stay that way.. and from thereafter the government acts as though such prohibitions never existed..

The right to keep and bear arms being a perfect example of such liberalism by both the feds and the state...

Whatever they do today they will do tomorrow...and tomorrow brings leaders even more power hungry than today's...

"Those who give up liberty for a little safety deserve neither liberty or safety" - Ben Franklin

Islamic terrorism is a real threat but it is also a type of Reichstag fire useful to the NWO..which is the ultimate threat

imo

Come on Republicans, this isn't political dribble, this is fundamental US Constitution. Either the government has bounds and law hold _everyone_ to them or the result will be eventually a government completely above the law.

This is what our fore-fathers and fought for in the Revolutionary & other big wars. To create a nation rules by law & then defend against nations wanting to move it to _back_ to government can do anything it wants.

Your quote is right-on (joesnuffy).

These come to mind also

"My kind of loyalty was to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death." --- Mark Twain

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else." --Theodore Roosevelt

"Our peculiar security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly." --Thomas Jefferson to S. Kercheval, 1816.

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." --Thomas Paine

"Let no more be heard of confidence in men, but rather bind them down by the chains of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson

We aught not move to changes that change _fundamentaly_ our form of government. For those that think what has happened throughout history (totalitarian regimes) cannot happen here, you need to think again, or perhaps you know more than the people that created your country; right... Power corrupts, period. Governments change from reasonable to tyranny unless the fundamentals are defended every step of the way.

Most of the posts on the page appear to be completely unaware of our heritage or the re-occurring history of mankind.

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