Whacko Left Can't Believe Polls

Live by polls, die by polls. Committed hard-core civil liberties fanatics simply cannot fathom how the American people do not reflexively react in a paranoid fashion when the government takes measures to protect national security. For an extreme view of the lawyerly left on this subject, take a look at how Glenn Greenwald reacts to the good sense of the American people.

Maybe living in NYC has convinced this privacy fanatic that big govt listens:

Let's have a few days of debate over whether Americans actually want the Government to maintain a permanent data base of every call they make and receive -- to their girlfriends and boyfriends, their doctors and lawyers, their psychiatrists and drug counselors.

Then, as all lefties do, he goes on to lie big-time:

As the debate over the NSA scandal became more informed and more Americans understood the issues at stake, virtually every poll thereafter showed that a majority or plurality of Americans oppose warrantless eavesdropping and/or believe the President broke the law, and some even show that a plurality favors the Censure Resolution. Opinions change when people stand up and explain why what the Government is doing is wrong and dangerous, and Americans respect politicians who are willing to do that even when -- especially when -- they are not guaranteed by the consulting class ahead of time that they will win.

This creepy left-winger demonstrates why the ultra-left is regarded with such disdain by Democrats who want to win the Presidency. The fact is that the American people approve wiretapping in principle. Like a true lawyer, he neglects the big picture to niggle over a flawed FISA system, as the REPORT OF THE JOINT INQUIRY INTO THE TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 9/11 by the House Permanent Select and Senate Select Intelligence Ctes. noted in 2003:

12. Finding: During the summer of 2001, when the Intelligence Community was bracing for an imminent al-Qa’ida attack, difficulties with FBI applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance and the FISA process led to a diminished level of coverage of suspected al-Qa’ida operatives in the United States. The effect of these difficulties was compounded by the perception that spread among FBI personnel at Headquarters and the field offices that the FISA process was lengthy and fraught with peril.
"If not addressed, these weaknesses will continue to undercut U.S. counter terrorist efforts." [xvi]

No matter that the FISA system is flawed and perhaps not even constitutional. First Amendment lawyers supposedly know better about how to defend the country against terrorists, sure, and you can be sure that they will also line up to defend the terrorists after they commit their crimes against the American people.



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