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That's exactly the problem, that the NSA has legal authorization to do this. Jon Oliver had a perfect rebuttal to this statement the other night on "The Daily

That's exactly the problem, that the NSA has legal authorization to do this. Jon Oliver had a perfect rebuttal to this statement the other night on "The Daily Show" which I will recite below: "Mr. President, no one is saying you broke any laws. We're just saying it's a little bit weird you didn't have to." -Jon Oliver

anigbrowl 13y ago
Bear in mind that the President is sworn to execute the laws, not modify them. The appropriate target of people's ire is Congress.
- GigabyteCoin 13y ago
  I don't know much about the US legal system, but can the president not veto any law he sees fit to?
  - Twisol 13y ago
    He can veto a proposed law approved by the House and the Senate, but in turn, they can override the President's veto with a 2/3s majority vote.
  - anigbrowl 13y ago
    Only at the time it is passed, not later; and a law passed with a 2/3 majority (such as the Patriot act) is veto-proof.
- twoodfin 13y ago
  Huh? For the record, I have not been bothered by these programs under either of the past two administrations, but if you don't like national security surveillance programs, you should be mad at the President. He could absolutely order any of them stopped tomorrow. And short of cutting funding for intelligence agencies generally, it's not clear that Congress could order the executive to stop or start such a program, any more than they could order the President to fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- smokeyj 13y ago
  Why could he not veto the patriot act?
  - Vivtek 13y ago
    Because he doesn't have a time machine?