The ACLU has issued this call to action for special counsel:

President Bush broke the law when he secretly authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans. No American is beneath the law’s protection. And no one – not even a U.S. president – is above the law’s limits.

Congress should insist that the Department of Justice appoint a special counsel to determine if oaths of office were broken or federal laws were violated. Our system of checks and balances must be maintained if American democracy is to be preserved.

Unchecked secret domestic spying is wrong whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. The last time a U.S. president claimed the unilateral power to tap phones without a judicial order, that incident ended in national disgrace.

Congress needs to step up to the plate and show a nonpartisan commitment to the rule of law.

Protect our system of checks and balances. Contact your Senator and demand that the Attorney General Gonzales appoint a special counsel who can thoroughly and independently investigate whether the president violated the Constitution and his oath of office.

Contact Your Senators

Why should you do this?

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was passed by Congress in response to revelations that former President Nixon was using “national security” claims to spy on his enemies. The law specifically prohibits this abuse of power by the Executive Branch. Under FISA, federal agents are required to get court approval in order to monitor the communications of any person in the United States. FISA does permit the surveillance of people in the country linked to al Qaeda, but only with a court order. To do otherwise is a violation of federal law punishable “by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.”

Thus, when President Bush authorized, and then repeatedly reauthorized, the NSA to conduct electronic surveillance on people on U.S. soil — whether their calls or emails were from or to family, friends or business colleagues abroad — without a warrant, he violated both the letter and the spirit of FISA.

Because of Attorney General Gonzales’ involvement in the authorization of the wiretapping program, a special counsel is necessary to ensure that a thorough and impartial investigation is conducted into the matter. In the event that the investigation finds that criminal acts were committed by members of the Executive Branch, then those responsible must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

If they wanted to do it, they should have snuck even more into the Patriot Act(s). What they did is specifically prohibited. There is even a kind of back-dating they can do, in which they can request the warrent up to 72 hours _after_ the surveillance has taken place. They didn’t do that either. They intervened to prevent the story from breaking, and they tried to pressure at least one whistleblower to lie about it in a court hearing.

I heard an argument on Lehrer last night that the nature of surveillance has changed – that the person can quickly change IPs, phone bases, cellphones, and so on. Well, except for the internet issue, they could do that when the law was made too. So what? Make a list as you go, periodically submit the results for the warrant.

In my opinion, the President has just admitted to an impeachable offense.
And here’s how he views the Constitution:

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is little more than toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of power-mad despots have dumped on the freedoms that “goddamned piece of paper” used to guarantee.