It's the "he hit me first" defense. Which stopped working, for me, when I was about five. I don't know why it still works in politics.

It's people who defend the wiretapping of citizens without a warrant by saying that Clinton did the same thing. F

Not only is this untrue, but it's a blatant lie, a blatant attempt to confuse people.

Here’s Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the Larry King Live show last night:

I would say that with respect to comments by the former vice president it’s my understanding that during the Clinton administration there was activity regarding the physical searches without warrants, Aldrich Ames as an example.

I can also say that it’s my understanding that the deputy attorney general testified before Congress that the president does have the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in physical searches without a warrant and so those would certainly seem to be inconsistent with what the former vice president was saying today.

The issue with the Bush’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program is that it violates a federal criminal law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Despite what Gonzales is implying, the Clinton administration never violated FISA and never claimed they could violate FISA. Here’s why:

1. Prior to 1995, FISA did not cover physical searches. (With Clinton’s signature, the law was expanded to cover physical searches in 1995.) The search of Aldrich Ames home occurred in 1993. It did not violate FISA.

2. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified in 1994 that the President could conduct warrantless physical searches, before FISA required physical searches to be conducted pursuant to a warrant. Gorelick was arguing that the President could conduct warrantless physical searches in the absence of Congressional action. At no time did she suggest that, after Congress required the President to obtain a warrant, the executive branch could ignore the law, nor is there any evidence the Clinton administration failed to comply with FISA.

The fact that the Attorney General of the United States is resorting to such obvious deception shows that they have no real answers. The administration is getting desperate and grasping at straws.

Fucking wankers....

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Second, if Clinton did the same thing I somehow think that the congress that spent years and millions upon millions of dollars investigating some possible shady accounting in a land deal that went down a decade before he became president, might, just might investigate something like wiretapping citizens without a warrant.

Yes, but they got sidetracked by investigating the blowjobs, remember.

Aldrich Ames? But wasn't he with the CIA and turned? I mean that doesn't seem quite the same as an ordinary citizen. Couldn't they come up with a better example? When you sign up with CIA doesn't that kinda open you for that sort of thing from the government if they get suspicious of you?

Yes, but they got sidetracked by investigating the blowjobs, remember.

But you'd think they could have fit in some investigat'n between the investigatation of misusing the whitehouse christmas card list and the blowjobs.

Parvo killing wolves in Yellowstone.

So sad.

What could be more offensive to the American Way than illicit blowjobs? I mean, really.

Illicit blowjobs they weren't getting invited to.

Not to mention that if you get physically searched without a warrant, YOU FUCKING KNOW ABOUT IT.

I think I just saw an ad where they scrape shaved ice off of a corpsicle. I'm not going back to check. These are the things FF is supposed to protect you from.