Here's another whopper of a tale about the ever-expanding CIA counter-terrorism intelligence efforts.
Here are some courageous Brits ready to stand up against Britain's more Draconian anti-leak laws to keep a torture/rendition story alive for all of us -- and the world -- to see. Kos is keeping it alive too.
The most interesting thing about this WaPo dissection is how it reveals Bush to be what he is: a petty, weak man used by others to write their political dream stories. What's left -- since Bush as president could actually make decisions -- is a legacy of war and tax cuts leaving the U.S. with little to pay for it. Grover Norquist would be proud, but few else. After all, Grover is the great destroyer of federal governments. He's nearing his goal.
The prosecutors in the Abramoff cases are amping up the pressure to get Abramoff to roll over before his January trial in Florida. The WaPo has a story of his rise and fall that makes pretty interesting reading. I liked the line, "This could be the Enron of lobbying." I'd hate to think what is if this isn't.
...but it doesn't make it right. Raw Story has the report of how we expanded our surveillance of U.N. Security Council members as the vote for a resolution recommending war in Iraq approached in early 2003. If you recall, the Bushlings cancelled the vote when it was obvious that we couldn't win it, especially because of the defection of Mexico and W.'s great friend Vicente Fox.
Here's a message to the Bushling message machine: The press may want to control the message now that it's found a little courage. How long can our "free" press stand up to the withering assault?
It's Christmas eve, just thought I'd add some Christmas cheer.
According to the NY Times:
In previous posts I pointed out that something like Total Information Awareness, the supposedly killed-by-Congress ultimate data collector, was really behind the NSA warrantless wiretaps. Now the true story everyone should have anticipated comes out, that every international phone call and email by every U.S. citizen is likely being intercepted.
George W. Bush has maintained -- and so has his Justice Dept., from Alberto Gonzales to the much-heralded John Yoo -- that the Afghanistan Use of Military Force resolution gave the president the power to do practically anything. I think the term that has been used is "plenary," which means complete, total.
It's an American issue. Here are a number of conservative opinions that do not support the Bushling view of unfettered presidental power:
Here's a shot at the links right now on the front page of WaPo, online version:
Joe Conason, also of salon.com, frames the impeachment argument quite well, not as a gun drawn hastily by leftie bloggers and an overly partisan minority party and pointed at the head of a wartime president but rather as a necessity for the ages of our republic to come -- if Bush will not back down from the precipice to which he's driven the nation.
Two Op-Eds in the WaPo, one by a mere commentator and another by a federal judge I just blogged about.
Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit has just published an Op-Ed piece in the WaPo that couches Bush's illegal acts in euphemisms while recommending changes in national security surveillance laws.
This interesting WaPo in-house blog/column points out that, yeah, Bush is out of control -- read too in control -- on the NSA spying but that the Bushlings need a complicit Congress to pull this off.
MSNBC's got a more expansive take of Jack spilling his guts.
The best I can come up with from the New York Observer is that the Times finally ran the story to prevent getting trumped by its own reporter's pending book.
...and the message is: Bush is violating the law. Otherwise, what?
Ouch! for Congress: Jack Abramoff is getting ready to roll over, according to the NYT.
...and while we're at it, knock down the NYT a bit. Here's a staggering line-up of breaking news and revelations:
Finally, some good news. The judge in the Dover, PA "intelligent design" case rules that teaching ID is unconstitutional.
Josh Marshall blogs over at TPM that some technology is at the root of the NSA story.
First, the Pentagon carries on extraordinary surveillance of U.S. citizens.
Senator Barbara Boxer becomes the first member of Congress to indicate that impeachment may be warranted in the NSA wiretap case.
A couple of days back we speculated about what new, formerly secret Bush-administration horror might come out. I speculated about death squads. Some may have thought that a bit dramatic. For those who thought so I offer a less freaky, albeit still chilling alternative: Total Information Awareness never really died. Its technology is actually at the center of the NSA wiretapping scandal, and that's the real reason why the Bushlings wouldn't go to the FISA court.
Ann Althouse seems to think this is a conflict between the Congress and the Presidency that need not be sorted out by the courts. She asserts that "Congress can decide if it stands in opposition to intercepting these phone calls without a warrant."
The Bushlings will unleash a monster that may be difficult to stop. The Pentagon is meant to serve the foreign policy needs of the United States. Soon it may be serving us up to ourselves.
Here's what W. said in his press conference:
...but Sen. Russ Feingold knocks that down forcefully and correctly.
The National Security Agency began to spy on Americans, illegally, before Bush authorized it.
The New York Times, whose complicity in the illegal NSA wiretaps clouds the validity of its position, at least steps up strongly will an editorial with real teeth in it. Quotables:
The Pentagon is spying on antiwar activists.
As the New Normal wants to focus on, there's something new and abnormal in what has transpired during the Bush years. Now, just as the torture debate gets taken off the front burner another pot begins to boil, that full of domestic spying by first the Pentagon and next the National Security Agency.
...and Steven Clemons of The Washington Note knocks it out of the park in analyzing what is wrong with the current system of sharing intelligence between the executive and legistative branches.
This makes for some dark contemplation: Bush taps U.S. citizens' international calls, without obtaining warrants, and when the New York Times finds out, it delays reporting for a year.
Franklin Foer of the New Republic Online makes a good point when he says we bloggers — on the left particularly — should avoid attacking the mainstream media.
The Raw Story points us to this very disturbing revelation that the Bushlings have secretly been screening our international calls. This feels incredibly unconstitutional.
McCain is a hero again. I guess that stuff runs deep.
Happy times at HuffPo and Andrew Sullivan over W.'s cave-in to the McCain torture amendment, and I'm happy, too, almost. But we're not there yet.
I have been far from a fan of W.'s jockish, arrogant tone all these five years now. I've always found it offensive. Next comes his policies that have either been fiscally irresponsible or diplomatically and militarily unsound, as well as the initiatives undertaken in his name by the Pentagon, the Justice Dept. and the CIA, most of which has harmed American interests at every turn.
I wrote my congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-01) the other day, and this was he reply. Obviously, I'm gratified to have this kind of representation in Washington:
Should the New Normal include Ford excluding gays from their customer base? No. And it turns out enough of us emailed them to convince them it's bad business.
Like a lot of liberals, I've never been all that in love with abortion. I always felt that Bill Clinton's doctrine that abortions should be "legal, safe and rare" was a wise and reasoned goal.
I hope citizens will be shocked that the Defense Department is spying on peace activists, but we've certainly forgotten how the FBI spyed against both antiwar protest groups and civil rights activists back in the '60s and '70s.
This John Burns report in the NTY shows that Americans want to take a stand against Iraqi torture by security forces that we paid to train, by the way.
Sucker punch! We sorta, kinda, wanna institutionalize torture. Bushlings just don't get it: America will opt out of the torture game. But not before the administration pushes the limit.
Before this thing is all over, everybody is going to be sleeping in the same corruption bed. The vast majority will be Republicans, but some Dems will buy it, too. If they were bought, throw them out with the GOoPers.
When you get used to expecting bad news, you're often rewarded. There's nothing rewarding, however, about Condi's other shoe dropping. In our self-created world of torture, we knew actual truth — not spin — would be forthcoming; we knew she would spend a week of American capital overseas only to have a mouthful of the story come wretching back. This is Mondo Condi because she broke it and she'll buy it, but we won't:
Recently a reader of this blog commented that America hasn't been a "shining beacon of freedom" for decades. I believe this reader didn't catch my irony when I employed the phrase. But those of us who were raised here in the U.S. grew up to want our country to be something like the America of the history books, the country that came to Europe's rescue twice in the twentieth century.
As confusing as it is to develop a coherent notion of what is going on in Washington or Iraq, and as doubtful as most Americans seem to be of Bush's daily line, it's shocking to think that the administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars hiring private contractors to engage in psychological operations, otherwise known as propaganga, dished to news outlets across the Middle East. And where else?
I don't recall a president who has spent more time on the road selling his policies. Where does he develop these policies? Are they emailed to him by his speech writers? When does he have time to attend to the actual duties of state? On Air Force One between speeches?
That's not hard to figure out when it cuts taxes for the very rich — to the tune of $95 million — and cuts health care, food stamps and student loans — to the tune of $51 million.
I don't want to judge too quickly. Still, the NYT description of a man trying to get off a plane flies in the face of the idea that air marshalls are supposed to protect planes, not shoot someone in the back as they run off of one.
It's clear by now I rely on humor to focus on the absurdity of the administration's "stands" on certain policies, but from time to time a real gut check is needed. What galls me the most about what has been taking place is that, in reaction to falling poll numbers, we see the president and other members of his administration mount a charm offensive that more often obscures the facts rather than elucidates them.
Daily Kos tips us off to HuffPo's Larry Beinhart. If the Dems can't come up with a coherent position of their own, then run against the GOP record. It is bad.
Rice's charm offense to be less cruel. We never did it, and we'll never do it again. Talk about flip-flop.
TNR's David Corn puts it right: Condoleezza Rice can sell our no-torture stand to Europe, but only if they buy our definition of torture. Chances are Europe will be polite and when Condi leaves they'll be tut-tutting behind her back.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman may feel patriotic, but he's way off point. His "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril" comment is absurd on its face.
Valerie Plame Wilson exits the CIA. So much for patriots. Ah, who needs 'em?
By voting your strongly held beliefs, by voting your conscience, by voting the way your constituents would have you vote.
Europe can hide it head in the sand, little girl. Catch your CIA prison in Europe, that's the end-a, little girl.
Okay, this is it. I'm finished with Hillary Clinton. I declare that unless she recants, she will be recognized as exhibiting disnormal behavior. The middle is the middle, for chrissake, but did you have to go this far??
I love my country. I grew up American, in America.
Condoleezza Rice goes to Europe to say we don't torture, we don't engage in rendition if we think there's going to be torture, and then claims our techniques have made Europe safer, so back off. Cool. How to win friends and influence Europe.
Conrad Burns, R-Montana, did about-face after receiving cash from uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Jonathan Alter points out buying propaganda makes us look bad. Duh.
The Bushlings try this from time to time. Hopefully, we're all getting wiser. Here's a general rule: Clear Skies, we're getting tooled. Healthy Forests, trees are getting tooled. Homeland Security, we're likely to get re-tooled. Got the reality template?
Tom Delay's reapportionment plan that brought an additional 5 Republicans to the already burgeoning House Republican majority in 2004 was rejected by Justice Dept. lawyers, who were then overruled by senior officials.
Former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed is under growing scrutiny over the Abramoff affair.
By voting your strongly held beliefs, by voting your conscience, by voting the way your constituents would have you vote.
Okay, I've been watching this re-emerge all day. Embedded reporter from Time reports that the president lied about the Iraqi units taking the lead in the Tal Afar battle.
It's all well and good to criticize an administration that has, by anyone's measure, failed in almost all departments. But does the Democratic Party have anything better to offer?
