Posted on 05/12/2006 5:57:25 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
May 12, 2006 — Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized.
Lending support to the administration's defense of its anti-terrorism intelligence efforts, 63 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the secret program, disclosed Thursday by USA Today, is justified, while far fewer, 35 percent, call it unjustified.
Indeed, 51 percent approve of the way President Bush is handling the protection of privacy rights, while 47 percent disapprove — hardly a robust rating, but one that's far better than his overall job approval, in the low 30s in recent polls.
This doesn't mean privacy intrusions aren't a concern. Nearly half the public, 45 percent, say the government is not doing enough to protect Americans' rights as it investigates terrorism. This concern is far higher than it was in 2002 and 2003, closer to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — but slightly down in this poll from its level two months ago.
Despite such concerns, however, the public continues to place a higher priority on terrorism investigations than on privacy intrusions. Sixty-five percent say it's more important for the government to investigate possible threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy, than for it to avoid privacy intrusions if that limits its investigative ability. It was the same in January, although higher still in 2002 and 2003 polls.
The phone-records program, moreover, is not broadly seen as intrusive. Two-thirds of Americans say it wouldn't bother them if the National Security Agency had a record of phone numbers that they had called. A third would be bothered; fewer, about a quarter, say it would bother them a lot.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
bttt
Patrick Leahy is deeply saddened.
VS the Nonsense of the shrill Democrat party.
Democrats lose again.
Those who oppose this sort of surveillance should be more closely watched.
But all the MSM keep telling me I should be upset.
They have been blasting the airwaves with this story for the past 36 hours and the sheeple are not alarmed.....only ones who are alarmed are the Dim Congresscritters and the Media. Hmmmm.........
When the MSM does polls, isn't that a form of monitoring? What right does the MSM have to know my opinion? Why are they trying to engage in surveillance of the people?
But Chrissey Matthews said I should be upset.
This is why the RATS believe that the voter should not be allowed to make any decision on their own.
Vote DemocRAT...It beats having to think for yourself!
Democrats hitch their wagon to another turd
Maybe Specter is afraid that the cat is out of the bag on his bazillion speed dial calls to leaky leahy.
Listening to local radio talk this morning, I must admit I was surprised at how many people really don’t care or think it’s a good thing. I’m usually surprised at the how sheeple blindly go along with everything, but this one got me.
What this means is that more articles and investigative pieces need to be done until the sheep are scared into the other direction.
"I've just been laughing myself silly at the false indignation from the folks who are all in favor of the loss of privacy when it comes to furthering the cause of social engineering."
Yep. Like I said on another thread, try not paying your child support or taxes. They will burn the woods and sift the ashes (electronically speaking) and they WILL find you.
"Those who oppose this sort of surveillance should be more closely watched." ~ muawiyah
So should the rest of our enemies within who take their money to make sure the walls between law enforcement and defense agencies stay up.
Democrats Join Suit to Ban Terrorist Surveillance
NewsMax ^ | 5/12/06
Posted on 05/12/2006 8:54:13 AM EDT by areafiftyone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1631023/posts
Until now, Democrats had insisted that they didn't want to end President Bush's terrorist surveillance program, saying instead that the law merely needed to be changed to make terrorist surveillance inside the U.S. illegal.
On Wednesday, however - even before USA Today's bogus report about the NSA's phone number data collection program - 71 House Democrats signed up to sponsor a move that would make it illegal for the NSA to continue to monitor terrorist phone calls.
The liberal web site Raw Story reported Thursday:
"The 71 Democrats and one independent filed an amicus brief in two federal courts reviewing challenges to the warrantless wiretapping program in Detroit and New York, joining the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights."
"Both suits demand the program be stopped."
Predictably, Michigan Democrat John Conyers led the charge: "As our brief makes clear, this Congress dealt with this issue authoritatively almost 30 years ago - warrantless spying on American soil is flatly prohibited," he railed.
Or his S&M dominatrix.
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