"I Must Be Missing Something"

FISA prescribes procedures for requesting judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States on behalf of a foreign power. A special eleven-member court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court adjudicates requests.

The president believes that he has the constitutional authority as well as other reasons to ignore FISA. There are however many Americans who believe that the president broke the law, and I am one of them. Sadly I am not the attorney general of the United States.

Democrats and some Republicans threatened to support a fuller inquiry if the White House did not disclose more about the program to Congress, but an agreement worked out between the vice president and the Republicans eliminated the Democratic hopes of starting a full committee investigation. "The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House," said Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is vice chairman of the panel.

Spying on our citizens in violation of existing statutes and the Constitution is apparently unimportant to many of the same legislators who were up in arms about Clinton's transgressions. They are apparently happy to accept the Bush violations and to allow this president to get away with it.

Congress seems to be prepared to just move on with an amended system. Why in heaven's name will it be any different then the old one if the president believes he has the authority to do as he pleases? Will he make a commitment that he will obey this law? I am sure the president will violate it IF HE CHOOSES.

Compare this to the Clinton issues of Whitewater, the travel office, the missing files, and Lewinsky. Had Clinton been found guilty during his impeachment he would have been removed from office.

As a street kid growing up in the Bronx, we had a couple of ways to peacefully settling disputes in our games. You could call a "do over."

I never heard anyone shout for a "do over" as it pertains to past violations of the law.

If the president of the United States commits a crime, it should be investigated, and there should not be a "do-over" in government. The president should not be above the law.

In the motion picture "A League Of Their Own," Tom Hanks says to a distraught player something like "...there is no crying in baseball."

While I understand that there is no crying in politics, I just want to sit down and cry anyway.

Norman Horowitz

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