On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:57:45PM +0200, AlunFoto wrote: > > So it's on that background I'm a bit puzzled as to why this (legal) > bill emerges now. It made me wonder if someone, somewhere, perceive > the current situation much more threatening (to the US) than I do from > up here in the Frostpit...
I think you're making more of this than it warrants. While it's possible that this is a blatant powergrab by extremists in the government, this view is largely espoused by the same folks who, six months ago, were claiming that GW was going to invoke some wartime emergency powers to suspend the constitution so he could serve a third (and fourth, and ...) term in office. My take in it is that it probably started out as a response to some earlier attempt to coordinate interception of VOIP calls or the like, where it was found that existing legislation didn't really address the issue (having mostly been written before the internet came along, let alone VOIP, text messaging, and so forth). Then the lawyers got hold of it, and the scope was broadened excessively so that almost any forseeable circumstance would be covered. The wording of the proposed bill is rather troublesome in parts, but mostly it doesn't offer any new powers that are not already available to the president in a declared emergency. And any extensions will need to stand up to constitutional challenge before the supreme court, which has generally not been over-eager to favour imperial presidency. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
