Am I too cynical in believing that anything the New York Times "leaks" about the administration is a transparent political ploy without merit? Its not really a case of being unable to believe anything negative about the Bush administration, but rather of absolute assurance that the New York Times has a relentless bias against Republicans.

The NSA leak was a shoulder-shrug for me, and the polls seem to bear out that most Americans felt the same way. I may not agree with every Bush policy, but after 5 years, I trust the guy on national security (and my mistrust of the Democrats grows from day to day...). Its rather sobering that Osama bin Laden lifts the DNC talking points in toto when he wants to pull our collective chain.

The Raw Story had the Justice Department memo leaked to them, no doubt to coincide with bin Laden's reminder to the American people that there actually still is a war on terror going on.

The memo is thick with legalese but it isn't to hard to follow the argument: Basically Congresses authorization for the president to use any and all necessary force to prevent future attacks on the U.S. was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004. An important concept here is "tradition". Warrantless wiretaps weren't invented by the Bush administration, they are in fact "traditional" in time of military conflict. No doubt there is considerable historical documentation on this fact. Being traditional, it is covered by the 2001 Authorization of Military Force (AUMF). For it to be illegal, Congress would have had to specifically exclude it from "all necessary force".

What about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)? Wouldn't that be the specific exception? Well no. FISA provides an exception by statute--precisely what the SC ruled the AUMF was.

Case closed. Read the whole thing.

The Jawa Report has some legal history on tap to support the "traditional" nature of warrantless wiretaps.

Stop the ACLU

The Discerning Texan hears rumors that Jay Rockefeller is a target in the NSA leak investigation. Macsmind appears to be the original source for the report.