"Happy New Year--There's a lot to do!"

January 9, 2006- "Happy New Year--There's a lot to do!"

"We begin the New Year facing enormous challenges in Washington, where public policy continues to be shaped by an Executive branch, a Congress, and a Judiciary all controlled by a single party. The Alito hearings have just begun and are providing insight into how the Supreme Court is shifting away from the practical conservatism of Sandra Day O'Connor to the prisms of ideological purists. The President just signed a bill intended to end the illegal practice of torture, issuing a signing statement that appears to indicate his intention no to follow the law he just signed. And the exposure by the New York Times of unease at the National Security Agency over being asked to spy domestically without getting a warrant has livened the holiday conversations of many Americans."

"I believe that 2006 will be a very eventful year as the American public assesses whether the time has come to check the current experiment in one-party national governance. Last week, hundreds of my constituents packed a forum we held in Lexington with the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center to explore the issue of spying without a warrant. It is apparent to me that the patriotic spirit is alive and well in the 7th District of Massachusetts. We adopted the Fourth Amendment in the Constitution of the United States as a check on the warrantless searches of our homes by the troops of King George, and we don't intend to let any president to do an end-run around the Constitution no matter the motive.

"Happy New Year - there's a lot to do!"

Ed

http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=875&Itemid=87