NSA Hearings Breakdown

Noah Feldman breaks down the NSA Wiretap Senate hearings down pretty well in this NYT Magazine article from yesterday.

The main reason that the issue before the committee looks so confusing is, paradoxically, that the facts are basically settled. The Bush administration has acknowledged ordering the N.S.A. to listen to conversations between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad without getting warrants first. (It would be fascinating to know whose conversations were overheard and how many wiretaps proved useful, but the answers to such inquiries may be classified, and a public accounting is unlikely.) This leaves the legal status of the listening-in as the most likely topic of conversation, and maybe the only one.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 requires warrants for eavesdropping on conversations involving anyone in the United States — so on the face of things, it looks as if the domestic spying program violated the law. Yet the administration argues that another law, the Sept. 18, 2001, Authorization for Use of Military Force, superseded FISA: by giving the president the power to make war against Al Qaeda and its supporters, the argument goes, the law implicitly authorized the customary activities of war, including a wide variety of intelligence gathering. When challenged on this point, the administration's next line of defense is the Constitution: the president's responsibility as commander in chief and his executive power over foreign affairs are said to entail the authority to listen to conversations across borders that are relevant to national security. In a final constitutional twist, critics of the administration argue that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the people the right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures, perhaps including warrantless wiretaps.

It's about a page long or so, a quick read. Read the whole thing here.

And on a happy note, W wants more money to fight this war on terrrrrr'rrr. And by "more money" I mean a $2.77 TRILLION budget. Cut Medicaid. Mmmmmmmm. Fucker. On a related note, Exxon Mobile Corp is trading at $62.29 [up 1.47%] and Halliburton is trading at $78.18 [up 1.01%].