9/11 Reforms Could Weaken Rights, Says White House

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-commish31jul31,1,1427280,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The Bush administration warned Friday that the two central reforms proposed by the Sept. 11 commission — creating a powerful intelligence chief and establishing a new counterterrorism center — may remove barriers protecting intelligence from political influence and undermine civil liberties.

The president and his senior advisors are drafting initial orders on some of the commission's recommendations that could be issued as soon as next week. But action on the centerpiece reforms deserves more consideration, a senior White House official said.

"We need to, in considering each of these recommendations, place a premium and real attention on how to protect civil liberties while better safeguarding our homeland," the official said.

Similar concerns were expressed by senators Friday during the first congressional hearing on the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations. The question of how to protect the independence of the intelligence community has become perhaps the most difficult dilemma for policymakers who are otherwise eager to embrace reform.

[goforit]

1. Here come the fascists.......front and center!!!!

[noahmijo]

2. Uhhh NOW all of a sudden he's worried with weakening rights

pathetic just pathetic....this is so unbelievable

[Kool Kitty]

6. My sentiments exactly.

What bullshit. All of a sudden, all this handwringing-ooh, we have to be concerned with civil liberties. Now they are worried about rights and privacy? Yeah, right-until after the election. But, hopefully, with Kerry in office, this won't be a concern.

[Eurobabe]

17. seems he always grows a 'conscience'

when he's campaigning.

Show Bu$h the door...

[0007]

18. ....show junior the door with a swift kick in the ass.

What utter tripe, these crock shuckers try to put on the America people.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Let's not have another Patriot Act Debacle

These reforms need to be considered carefully. Remember, it was J. Edgar Hoover who spied on elected officials and public figures like Martin Luther King Jr. We don't want a CIA or other TLA doing covert operations for negligent or nefarious or corrupt purposes inside the USA.

Perhaps this new found caution in the Whitehouse is due to a realization that the true conservative part of the Republican base is extremely annoyed at the Ashcroft-Bush-Cheney axis and the way they rammed through the so-called Patriot Act.

Work on the true conservatives who want to conserve civil liberties and conserve the environment. Pry them away from the ABC axis of evil.

[renegade000]

4. flippity-flop, extreme republican makeover

eom

[Zhade]

5. b*shco feeling concern for civil liberties...

...is like Hitler preaching against anti-Semitism.

It just. Doesn't. Happen.

[flordehinojos]

7. Undermining Civil Liberties IS what the Bush Administration has been after

all along.

Bush is the pRESIDENT of a tired old war waged on Iraq after Bush waged our own Reichstag upon us--the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission is just one of the effects of that. Implementing anything before the elections that will diminish our civil liberties is nothing Bush wants to do, but God forgive us all if Bush gets to have another 4 more years. He will have no qualms about establishing himself as the United States first dictator, that is after all, his admittedly preferred way of governing and we can all rest assured that 4 more years will become many more than just 4 more years, that freedom of speech will be completely wiped out, that our civil liberties will be a thing of the past and that the U.S. will become a place none of us has known before.

Are the mediawhores not even concerned? Will they continue to sell Bush and distort Kerry's record? Most importantly a great number of the American electorate is being emotionally manipulated by Bush, they are not basing their patriotism on rational thought, they are being sustained on an emotional kind of patriotism which is blind and irrational, it listens to no evidence and claim that among other things Clinton created the current deficit, that Kerry is a FLIP-FLOPPER that only Bush is strong on defense and, if you try to talk sense and facts with them, they simply just walk away, become insulting towards you, and/or turn up the inflammatory rhetoric towards Kerry and the democrats.

Push the emotional buttons and drive up their intensity is Bush's way.

A reasoned, thought through way based on fact is Kerry's way.

Sometimes in the heat and intensity of emotions, reason is the last thing to be heard.

I hope the people has started to listen to Kerry already. I hope that as Bush turns up the emotional intensity, Kerry's calmed approach to facts can grab the people's minds and eventually their hearts and their votes.

It will be a hard and arduous job. I hope Kerry is up to the task.
:hippie:

[hippywife]

13. A lesson that Kerry should have learned by now

Push the emotional buttons and drive up their intensity is Bush's way.

A reasoned, thought through way based on fact is Kerry's way.

Sometimes in the heat and intensity of emotions, reason is the last thing to be heard.


Funny thing about this is that while the first and second sentences are true, I distinctly heard Kerry say in his acceptance speech that if elected one of his first actions as president would be to enact every single one of the recommendations of the commission. Besides the stance he took on the war in his speech, this was one of the other statements that has stopped me from completely removing my nosepin.

While I agree that a Kerry administratiion would and should be better than the Bush administration, I think there needs to be some restraint and reason applied before enacting some of these recommendations.

We don't need another bad piece of legislation like the Patriot Act pushed through in the heat of passion and fear without the time needed to give it proper consideration.

[sandnsea]

14. It's the HOW of it

Kerry also has said a cazillion times that the aspects of the Patriot Act that violate civil rights need to be repealed. That seems to fly right by too many nosepin people. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out Bush's sudden concern is designed to get people to think exactly what you're thinking. Divide and conquer and they'll say anything to make it happen. I am constantly amazed at how often the left picks up the talking points of the right to bash Dems.

[hippywife]

15. Kerry made this statement

before the White House even thought about speaking to the press regarding these recommendations.

The same sniff test needs to be applied to both sides or we are no better that what we accuse the RW of being. I will not be a hypocrit on these issues like our Dem legislators were on the Patriot Act and I will call them on it when they are wrong.

Sorry but if there is to be no criticism of the nominee, then you are the one with the talking points problem, not me.

[Democat]

8. Is Bush worried about civil rights because he fears he may lose?

Why else would he care?

The media will suddenly care about having an "open government" once Kerry is elected too.

Suddenly everything we've been told by the right wing and the media for the last four years will completely reverse.

[Dover]

9. LOL! Good one....for a minute there I thought they said they wanted

to be careful to protect our rights............hahaha!

[The Shadow]

10. His Only Concern Is...

That somehow his civil liberties would be at stake and make him and his cronies vulnerable to investigation. This bunch could care less about civil liberties for you and me.

[WindRavenX]

11. ::scratches head:: since when have they given a rip about civil liberties?

This administration is just flat out crazy. One day he's the war time president, the next he's the peace president..wtf?

[puerco-bellies]

12. This flip will flop. n/t

[Zorra]

16. I don't understand this. The Bu$h administration is for protecting

civil rights? God bless them, and I mean this in all sincerity.

I am totally shocked. Fully, and unadulteratedly shocked.

For the first time in 3 3/4 years, the Bu$h administration is doing the right thing.

I am about to have a stroke. I'm comin' Elizabeth.

No Fucking Way! Although I am a lifetime Democrat, I will never criticize sensible policy.

Congratulations to the Bu$h administration! For the first time in 3 3/4 years, they have done something that may protect our civil liberties!

I'm a yellowdog Democrat. And for the first time in 3 3/4 years, I can say that the Bu$h administration has made a good observation!

That is, alas, a poor track record.

Vote for John Kerry.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

19. Who do they think they are trying to kid?

They're concerned with rights??????

:puke: