Totally beyond pathetic

i have just added congress to my list of those who have to go...

House Approves Wiretap Measure
White House Bill Boosts Warrantless Surveillance

By Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 5, 2007; Page A01

The Democratic-controlled House last night approved and sent to President Bush for his signature legislation written by his intelligence advisers to enhance their ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners without a court order.

The 227 to 183 House vote capped a high-pressure campaign by the White House to change the nation's wiretap law, in which the administration capitalized on Democrats' fears of being branded weak on terrorism and on a general congressional desire to act on the measure before an August recess.

if i suspected that congress wasn't really dedicated to upholding our constitution before, there is absolutely no doubt now... with everything that's come out about the bush administration, for congress to hand over sweeping new powers to the white house without even the hint of a fight, is completely despicable...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

I will continue to bang on this drum

what else is there to be done...?

kagro x at daily kos on the congressional spying sellout...

This is a fundamental failure not just of politics, but of the framework envisioned by the Founders, who felt sure that the immutable precepts of self-interest would be the engine that drove the checks and balances that protect our freedoms and forestall the creep of tyranny. While the political motives of elected officials were always open to question, it was beyond doubt that personal ambition and the jealous guarding of power would be all the motivation necessary to keep any branch from ceding its powers to another.

That this could ever turn out not to be the case is simply astounding, and it is a measure of just how much damage the George W. Bush "administration" has inflicted on our Constitution. While we are all too well aware of the political constraints involved in remedying the situation, the fact is that his continuance in office endangers the future of our system of government as every one of you have understood it to date.

and THAT is the understatement of the day...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

More on the Dems spying sell-out

crooks and liars has the video clip from olbermann talking to jonathan turley about the fisa "modernization" bill...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The headline and the content show us just how pathetically impotent our Congress really is

Senate Votes To Expand Warrantless Surveillance
White House Applauds; Changes Are Temporary

By Joby Warrick and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 4, 2007; Page A01

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

naturally, the wapo story blathers on and on and on about the "clashes" between the white house and the democrats, portraying the whole thing as some sort of petty partisan quarrel where the dems, unconcerned for the safety of their country, only want to make life difficult for bush and his cronies, and, in the process, manage to ignore most of the context that the average citizen should know about this awful measure... thank god we have alternative sources like TPMmuckraker...

[U]nder the bill, the primary role for the FISA Court is in issuing generalized surveillance warrants for "persons reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Those warrants don't have to name their targets, nor locate where the surveillance will take place if the attorney general shows that the surveillance methods used will mostly exclude U.S. citizens and residents. Such warrants will be approved, according to section 105(c)(1)(C), if the FISA judge determines that collecting "foreign intelligence information" is merely a "significant purpose" of the AG's request.

What happens to U.S. persons who may be tapped? There isn't any requirement for a probable-cause-derived warrant to continue surveillance on them. Instead, the attorney general would only have to create "guidelines" for surveillance on people in the U.S. as the result of one of the aforementioned warrants. Every 60 days the Justice Department's inspector general would have to report to the FISA Court and to the Congressional intelligence committees on compliance -- including handing over a list of names of those U.S. citizens and residents under surveillance during that time period. Nothing in the bill indicates any power for either the court or Congress to do anything about any American caught in the surveillance web.

Additionally, for reasons that aren't explained, the attorney general gets one last dalliance with warrantless surveillance: he can authorize surveillance for up to 15 days after the bill's passage if he says there's an "emergency situation," and the court can bless an extension of not longer than another 30 days.

after all that's come out, it's completely astonishing to me how the dems - or the r's either, for that matter - can go along with this... we know our president is a liar... we know alberto gonzales is a liar... we know that the white house has no respect for the rule of law... we know that the bush administration has, for all practical purposes, neutered the constitutionally-mandated separation and balance of powers... we know that warrantless domestic surveillance circumventing fisa has been taking place for years... what in god's name is the white house holding over the heads of our congressmen of both parties that gets them to go along with this kind of abomination...? it must be some shit, that's all i have to say...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Perhaps a "deep throat?"

a comment from mettle in an earlier post...

go to: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003805.php

find the mystery poster that posts long detailed posts anonymously (with no name).

see if they make sense. I dunno who it is. people are raving.

fleshing that out a bit, i found this on kos...

[A] blogger on TPMMuckrakers that is deep-throat-esque, ... has sensitive information regarding Bush and Co.'s lies and obfuscation of FISA, TSP, NSA, and warrantless wiretapping investigation.

Said blogger, one who is anonymous, can be found here. He/she has posted around a dozen entries of profound insight to the inner workings of the Total Surveillance Program (TSP) and the FISA investigation happening now in Congress. The depth and detail in the blogger's posts suggest he/she is in a high level cabinet position. His/her intent is to expose the WH and its cronies, and to shine the light of day on the ongoing deception within the Executive Branch.

interesting stuff... i can only hope that it's a real whistleblower and that tpm follows up, something i'm relatively sure they will do...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A domestic spying timeline

TPMmuckraker, always in the thick of it, offers a reader's narrative timeline of the domestic spying program for the period october 2003 through june 2004... it's a good backgrounder for what's getting the reality-based community up in arms today...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A clean elucidation of the "fuck you Congress" theory

from tony snow...

The executive branch is under no compulsion to testify to Congress, because Congress in fact doesn't have oversight ability.

from markos...

Interesting Constitutional theory.

It's also the cleanest elucidation of the "fuck you Congress" theory Bush has operated under the past 6 years.

it's certainly not news to any of us who have paid attention...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Where's the paper trail documenting the discharge process?

TPMmuckraker rightly points out that, if the us attorneys were fired for performance reasons, there would and should be an extensive paper trail documenting the performance issues... but, guess what...? there isn't one, at least among the already-released documents...

i have spent numbers of years supervising others and i know from vast experience that, when an employee is being let go - and it makes no difference whether it's an exempt or non-exempt employee and whether or not they're serving under an employment contract or simply employment-at-will - you ALWAYS document, document, document... ALWAYS... it's called covering your ass against the possibility of a wrongful discharge suit...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments