John Tanner's Tennessee FISA ad

It's one thing to demagogue the Iraq war to get elected, it's quite another to do so with a national security program the Senate overwhelmingly passed (without help from Obama and Clinton). But that's exactly what Tennessee Congressman John Tanner is doing. Here's his ad:



I just heard it driving home from work. He gave a number, so I called it. The office was closed (closes at 5pm eastern time), although it's doubtful the conversation would have been productive had someone answered. The question was going to be "what's John Tanner's alternative?"

Nobody likes the idea of phone snooping but the problem with this ad is the clear implication "Bush" is arbitrarily listening to private calls without warrants, when in fact the program is probably related to call matrixing, data mining and scanning internet instant messages and message boards, all of which involve telecom switching centers (to which the government was given drops during the Clinton era).

If the telecoms are not given immunity for previous cooperation after the biggest terrorist attack in our country's history then there's really no hope for America. Lawyers and liberal activists can't be allowed to run national security.

But it's funny how times change yet politicians don't. After 9/11 Congresswomen like Nancy Pelosi were asking the CIA if they were being harsh enough with the harsh interrogations, only later to turn the criticism around after the threat had died down (partially due to the success of Bush's programs). Think of it as consistency we can count on.

MORE 5/24/08

Wonder how Mr. Tanner would handle Kahlah al-Marri..

According to court documents citing multiple intelligence sources, al-Marri spent months in al Qaeda training camps during the late 1990s and was schooled in the science of poisons. The summer before al-Marri left for the United States, he allegedly met with Osama bin Laden and September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The two al Qaeda leaders decided al-Marri would make a perfect sleeper agent and rushed him into the U.S. before September 11, the government says.

A computer specialist, al-Marri was ordered to wreak havoc on the U.S. banking system and serve as a liaison for other al Qaeda operatives entering this country, according to a court document filed by Jeffrey Rapp, a senior member of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

And if indeed all of this was true al-Marri would have likely been triggered by whatever communication device the TSP plan is targeting, yet Tanner and like-minded individuals would as soon send telco execs to the pen.