so what do you want to do?
I’m not against monitoring on an as needed basis.
If a person attends meetings known to be very problematic as it relates to terrorism, step up the surveillance. Get a court order and snag anything you can get.
I would make the bar higher than being a member of the Tea Party. I don’t know of one instance where a Tea Party groups has carried out any violence or made any threats. Tea Party leaders do criticize government officials, but they advocate for legal remedies. Other groups don’t. Those are the types of groups whose members and affiliates should be under scrutiny.
If a real active terror threat is under way, I also support the snagging of any real-time info prior to a court order, with the provision that supporting documentation must be filed with the appropriate oversight court within 24 hours to back it up.
These measures should give us all the protection we can expect to have.
It doesn’t require us to snag information on every person on U. S. soil to do it.