Bush administration defends emergency mail inspection

[rodeodance]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-04-mail-inspection_x.htm?csp=1
Bush administration defends emergency mail inspection
Updated 1/5/2007 10:12 AM ET

By Mimi Hall and David Jackson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday defended a policy allowing the government to open mail without a warrant, despite criticism that the crime-fighting tactic might lead to privacy breaches.

ON DEADLINE: Whose mail do they plan to read?

Bush administration and Postal Service officials said citizens' mail remains constitutionally protected from unreasonable search and seizure. But White House spokesman Tony Snow said the United States needs to have the power to inspect mail in emergencies.

The mail controversy erupted Wednesday after a report in the New York Daily News that President Bush on Dec. 20 attached a so-called signing statement to a new postal law. The statement grants the government the authority during emergencies to bypass a law forbidding mail to be opened without a warrant.

Snow said Bush was simply reiterating authority the government already has under the law.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Thomas Day concurred. "The president is not exerting any new authority," he said.

Snow did not say what emergency circumstances might warrant inspections of the mail.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. Orwell may have been off by about twenty years . . .

. . . but he sure as hell nailed it.

[baldguy]

2. What's the "emergency"?

Bush's crimes are about to be exposed for the world to see.

[izzie]

4. Bush's number are down. Must be a rat around someplace.

So lets look at what people are saying. Please you people who do not live alone check under your bed tonight. Bush is their with his flashlight.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Like wiretapping, how friggin' long does it take to go to a judge

that Bushco handpicked to be in his office to provide a rubberstamped warrant?

[TheMadMonk]

7. Because evpen a bought and paid for judge isn't stupid enough to commit suicide.

Plus a warrant equals a paper trail which might prove embarrassing at a later date.

[ananda]

5. Sounds like another one of those..

.. crazzee we have to violate your freedoms to protect them defenses.

Orwellian and V-an both!

[SharonAnn]

6. It's indefensible. That's all there is to say about it.

[IndianaGreen]

8. This should be an impeachable offense, why isn't it?

The Constitution is more important than polls and focus groups. Bush is well on his way to becoming the first American tyrant. Bush is as much a tyrant now as King George III.

What are we waiting for, the gas chambers?

[tsuki]

9. What kind of an emergency could you have with the effing mail? A lot

of mine is returned to sender because they cannot find me.

[annabanana]

10. GET A GODDAM WARRANT!!

Then you can open whatever the f*ck you want fer Chissake.... What the hell problem does this guy have will obeying the LAW?? He doesn't even want to when he CAN..

(I need a "just shoot me now" smiley.)