So, according to Yoo/the Administration's legal theories(as I understand them), the president has unlimited power to take whatever actions he believes are necessary to combat terrorism. Existing US laws not only do not, they CANNOT, limit his authority. There can be no "oversight" of the president's actions, because his power is absolute, right?

So what's to prevent Bush from authorizing warrantless wiretaps and searches on US citizens wholely WITHIN the US? If he "thinks" it's necessary to combat terrorism, he can authorize it. And, really, what's so magical about US-Foreign communications? I imagine there are many wholly domestic phonecalls made between terrorists. If the Administration thinks they can do ANYTHING, why wouldn't they? They don't believe that US laws limit their power in any way, when it comes to terrorism.

Can you say "tip of the iceberg"?...

At least try to be provocative. Your "points" are always so completely off the point, one wonders why you bother.

Why are illegal acts okay (and in quotation marks, yet) if the Cheney/Rove administration commits them? Is there an illegal act they could commit of which you'd disapprove? Can anyone in the White House commit illegal acts, or only some people?

Why are people "moaning" about having their privacy secretly and illegally invaded? Gee, I can't imagine.

Was anything done with the illegally-gathered information? We'll never know, dear Rodger, because that's the nature of secret, illegal invasions of privacy.

Clinton was responsible for 9/11? That would be news to just about everybody else on this planet. If your fantasy were true, is Bush such an idiot that he couldn't undo the problems created by such a supposed screw-up? He had nine months to keep us safe, but somehow that didn't happen.

Dumbya may not have had to "press a button to stop it", but wouldn't it have been nice if he paid attention to the intelligence that said it was going to happen, or left that classroom when it did happen about a month later? Or maybe didn't fly around the country all day like a frightened child? Or, I don't know, in some way behaved as a leader?

You dismiss the illegal, secret acts as "they heard you talking to your girlfriend" but then say we owe our very lives to the commission of this crime. How did illegally and secretly spying on conversations with our theoretical girlfriends manage that? Your first point, though, that these acts are not only secret and illegal but also pointless is well-taken. Bravo, Rodger!

I'll never understand why peace, prosperity, freedom and democracy are so hated by so many Americans, no matter how tiny a minority they may be, but I guess there are a lot of twisted, damaged people in the world.

OK, maybe they bent some rules to try to prevent further 9/11s. What are you moaning about -- they heard you talking to your girlfriend? Was any thing done with this "illegal" information that led to any thing you don't like, or is it just that you don't like Bush? Do you think if the Dems get in this eavesdropping will stop? It did under Clinton (Gorelik's infamouse non-required "Wall" between surveillance and investigation), and 9/11 was our reward (yeah, I know, all Bush had to do was press a button to stop it). You people are alive today, for all you know, because of US spying, and then you complain. Drop next bomb on you.

And when I think how the Republicans went after Bill Clinton for a dalliance with a White House intern...

George W. Bush deserves impeachment more than any president in our history--and I never thought I would see someone more worthy of impeachment than Richard Nixon. But the Republican majority in Congress is not the only thing protecting him from the fate he deserves. What Bush opponent would want to clear the way for Dick Cheney to assume the presidency? Our only hope in the short term is to demand that Congress screw its courage to the sticking place and open up investigations on the many abuses of power that are coming to light.

Bush and the Republican Party just go on and on, it's one illegal act after another. Yes, Bush will find a way to get around every law and every bit of the US Constitution. Moreover, every piece of information that goes into the intelligence community databases will also end up in the Republican Party databases and the databases of some US corporations before Bush leaves office.

It amazes me that members of congress seem to not realize that this includes information, both political and personal about each of them as well as information about each and every American citizen. Since I have a terminal illness and will probably die soon I just don't care that they have information on me. I can remain silent and passive no longer.

Being a 'preferred member' of Salon.com and writing these e-mail comments criticizing Bush, the Republicans and their endless, endless, endless lies and deceptions directed at the citizens and voters of America must surely put me in more than one of their databases. But I just don't care because being a patriotic American citizen is much, much more important to me.

Yes, I am intimidated by the idea that I am on their lists and in their databases. Yet 'I have but one life to give for my country'. If being vigilant and critical is the way I may serve my country than so be it. We Americans have let our vigilance lapse to a point where Bush,Cheney,the Republican Party,the Republican congress,the oil companies,Halliburton,Bechtel,the Republican Supreme Court etc. etc. etc can get away with all the atrocities they commit against our Constitution and the American people.

I do not blame or hold the military or the intelligence community responsible for these databases, they are just doing what our government orders them to do. They are serving our government and are sworn to secrecy. We the people must hold our Bush/Republican government responsible for the illegal and un-constitutional acts that are done in the creation and illegal use of these databases. The military and the intelligence community have been totally politicized by Bush and the Republican Party.

Bush and the Republicans have politicized so very many aspects of life in America including religion, gays, abortion, patriotism, the right to dissent, free speech, states rights, voters rights, protest, taxation, the media, reporters, libraries, books, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and many, many , many state and federal laws.

I am an independant, swing voter and have been for over thirty years. I have always considered myself a conservative humanist. I am neither Republican nor Democrat. But relative to the Bush/Republican/Conservatives I really must be a 'SUPER conservative'. I am worried for and care about the poor, the middle class, families, women, children, education, health care, our troops, our military, our intelligence community, our intelligence officers, our CIA, our NSA, our FBI, how our country is viewed around the world, our relations with other countries, our adherence to the Geneva Conventions, our Constitution, our Democracy and so very much more.

"Live free or die"

"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country".

Bob Cleveland, Ohio