One of our favorite bloggers, Patrick Frey, aka Patterico, says,
NSAâ??s controversial surveillance program has been ruled unconstitutional by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, an ideologue Carter-appointed judge who has a documented history of bending the rules to obtain the leftist result.
Patterico notes that Judge Taylor stayed true to form in this case,
…but a limited sampling of reaction from intelligent lawyers across the blogosphere suggests that she did indeed twist the law, as I predicted she would.
Patterico also notes that many intellectually honest legal scholars disagree on the NSA program. However, the reasoning behind the decision appears so weak that it is uniting both sides.
It should be noted that some of the above commenters have expressed strong doubts about the programâ??s legality (like Volokh) or conclusive opinions that it is illegal (like Kerr) â?? yet they are still utterly critical of the courtâ??s reasoning, or lack thereof. The fact that intellectually honest people agree with the result but are so critical of the reasoning is damning indeed.
I’m not a lawyer, but it seems insane to me that we are tying our hands in such a manner, especially in light of what we just learned about the London terror plot, and the critical role intelligence and surveillance played in monitoring, tracking and preventing that massive attack.
From America’s newsman, Brit Hume on the grapevine,
Jimmy Carter Slams Israel’s Attack on Lebanon
Jimmy Carter says he’s concerned that Arab hatred of the United States will only continue to grow given the Bush administration’s support for what he calls Israel’s “unjustified attack” on Lebanese civilians.
Carter tells Germany’s Der Spiegel: “I don’t think Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.”
He adds: “What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza.”
Jimmy Carter has a long history of cozying up to terrorists and tyrants. He called the 20th century’s greatest terrorist, Yassar Arafat,
“a powerful human symbol and forceful advocate”
In a New York Times column titled “America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace”, Carter plainly took Arafat’s side and attacked Ariel Sharon. He was essentially arguing that the United States should cut off funding to Israel because they had the nerve to defend themselves.
We have said it before, and we’ll say it again, Jimmy Carter’s record demonstrates that he is a champion of human rights abusers, not human rights.
And to think, like his good friend Yassar Arafat, he too has a Nobel Peace Prize on his mantle.