Chris Christy vs Rand Paul

They got into a shouting match on the Thursday night TV debate over cell phone surveillance.   Rand Paul insisted that investigators need to get a court issued search warrant before the telephone company would turn over  phone records.  Christy wants to continue current practice by which NSA scarfs up all the phone records of every one and keeps them for ever.  Christy claimed the current system is crucial for security. 
   On this issue I find myself siding with Rand Paul, even though I have serious reservations about a lot of things Paul says.  When I think of a future Lois Lerner going over my telephone records, identifying those I called, and scheduling them for IRS audits, I get very scared.  I am an extremely low level Republican party official, I serve on a town committee in a small town, which is as close to the bottom as you can get.  That future Lois Lerner would have to be out of her head to bother about me and my friends, 'cause we are too small to be worth it, especially when there are bigger and more important targets to be hit.  Like my US rep, my senator, my governor. 
  But, I don't like the idea of democrats getting access to phone records.  They could easily find and harass every Republican in the state.  They may say that NSA would never let the democrats into the phone records.  And you can believe as much of that as you like.  I would feel a lot safer if the phone records were not kept on everyone.
   Investigators ought to go before a judge, a real judge not that rubber stamp  Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), and show a real cause to snoop the phone records.  If the judge goes along with the investigators, he issues a search warrant, the investigators take the warrant to the phone company, and the phone company causes its computer to print out the suspects phone records.  We stop the NSA bulk collection of every phone call made in the USA (and over most of the world as well)  This matter is currently before the courts, lower courts have ruled one way, appeals courts have ruled the other way, and the matter has yet to make it to the Supremes. 

Take the fifth, loose your job.

Lois Lerner,  IRS official, exact rank unknown, was the lady in charge of the tax exempt approval department.  That's the department that decided to stall any organization with "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their name.  Yesterday she refused to answer questions before a Congressional Committee, citing the fifth amendment, which protects citizens from testifying against them selves.  Up until now, only Mafia figures, and one Nixon Administration official used the fifth amendment in court.  Every knows you don't take the fifth unless you are actually guilty. 
  For taking the fifth, Lois ought to be fired from the IRS.  I don't want someone that guilty having anything to do with anyone's taxes.  I understand she is on "administrative leave" with full pay.  She ought to be fired, for good, and her cushy civil service retirement canceled. 
  The way to prevent this from happening again, it to make things unpleasant for everyone we can catch.  While we are at it, Lois's superiors ought to be fired, as well as her principle subordinates.