without any direct evidence of wrongdoing...

Saturday newspapers...always something interesting in there

NYTimes
Washington
Terror Plan Would Give F.B.I. More Power
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: September 13, 2008
The Justice Department released a plan to expand the tools the F.B.I. can use to investigate suspicions of terrorism inside the United States, even without any direct evidence of wrongdoing.

http://tiny.cc/pgCa3

The last authoritarian gasps of the Bush regime.

no coincidence that it was reported 2 days after the 11th.

Bush Countdown:

4 months 8 days 7 hours 15 minutes 58 seconds

cccc wrote: Bush Countdown:

4 months 8 days 7 hours 15 minutes 58 seconds

Palin/McCain will do the same sh*t

Boygabriel wrote: [quote=cccc]Bush Countdown:

4 months 8 days 7 hours 15 minutes 58 seconds

Palin/McCain will do the same sh*t
I haven't seen an Obama statement on this yet, but given his recent votes on such issues I would expect the same of him.

Having said that, not _all_ of this seems like such a bad idea to me. If you are investigating something to do with the IRA, for instance, why _shouldn't_ you be able to consider Irish people? It seems a bit silly to not allow the consideration of that factor in such an investigation.

Some of the other stuff is obviously crap, though.

I really want to hear what the exact parameters of this plan would be. I agree it makes sense to investigate for certain groups among their ethnic neighborhoods. However, there is a difference between maintaining close ties and awareness of a neighborhood (a beat, for lack of better word) and wiretapping, monitoring people at the FBI or any other agency's discretion.

The usual standards of reasonable suspicion, warrants and oversight simply must apply. Nothing short of that is acceptable.

No way in hell an Obama Administration comes anywhere near the ways in which McCain/Palin would continue the same lawlessness of the Bush-Cheney administration.

How could anyone ever trust that either Bush or McCain, with Bush's cronies, will use this power responsibly?

It amazes me that half this country is naive enough to believe the garbage the McCain campaign is putting out. The republicans believe that if they keep repeating their lies, such as that Palin was against the "bridge to nowhere" from the start or that Obama wil raise taxes on all Americans, that people will start believing it. Unfortunately, it looks like they are right.