[lugsoul]

You should be well-aware that no one has to "wait" to get a warrant. FISA allows the Feds to tap and seek a warrant within 72 hours. Any 'immediate' need for a tap is already covered.

So your point fails completely.

We do not invest any public official with the authority to simply do whatever they think is right. We are a government of laws, not of men. Those here who so slavishly worship the President and think that whatever he does must be okay need to pause and think about giving those same powers to a very different President.

[pissant]

I can't even IMAGINE that Washington and the Continental Congress would not intercept British communications this way.

Or Lincoln intercepting Confederate telegraphs.

Or Wilson and FDR not monitoring phone calls to Germany.

It's no different now. If I call Zarquawi or he calls me, there is no reason the CIC needs to get permission to listen in.

[Binghamton_native]

My understanding is that these are NOT wiretaps (as was done for example in past years against Mafia figures, etc). It is instead surveilance of electronic conversations in the ether.