Nonsense. Any one of the members could have leaked. The real question is why they didn’t. I think you losers ought to write your congressmen and senators and ask them why they allowed the civil rights of terrorists and traitors to be so sorely abused.

Comment by Jerry #28

Sorry to burst your bubble Jerry but Bushiva (after that photo op with McCain) secretly inserted a caveat to that torture bill immunizing himself and his ’subordinates” from having to follow its mandates…

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider #34

Wayne and Marie,

That’s what the “loyal opposition” is for. We the progressives need to keep the pressure on the DNC and DLC, the Howard Deans, and Harry Reids to get infront of the television cameras and tell the truth. Everytime a democrat or opponent of the criminal Bushite junta gets face time on television or in the print media they ought to get unplugged. Watching some woman named Conif i believe it was against that scurvy right wing, cundt mona charon on C-Span the other day i got an ulcer. The conif woman was so polite and let Mona run all over her a*s.

Dems gotta get real (Katrina Vandenheuvel real)…

Let the people know just how infected this government is with gangrenous conservatism that’s eventually going to lead to amputation…

But, we have to e-mail/call the DNC, our congress persons and Senators demanding they get on the ball and stop being so freaking polite, and also they’ve got to get rid of our red state traitors!

Comment by Marie — January 10, 2006 @ 9:19 pm

That’s always been the big question. Well, how about letters to the editors and local TV and radio stations for starters? Try to educate more people about the abuses going on behind their backs, on their asses, and in their names (supposedly.) [I'm not much of an "organizer" for these kinds of things, so I'm just winging it. I'm sure there are others who are better at this than me.]

Then I suppose some local level organizing has to be done. Perhaps some door-to-door on-the-step teaching of your neighbors (where it always has to start.)

And some pressure on our current batch of so-called “Representatives” wouldn’t hurt. Remind them of their constitutional oaths and that their Code of Conduct requires them to put aside party affiliation and examine the facts which include that this president has overstepped his authority too many times.

After that I’m like Ned Flanders’s beatnik parents (”We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.”)

Oh, and we really just need to change the House. They have the power to impeach the president and then the Senate will try him, and they have to do it. They can’t ignore the charges. And I believe that even if the Democratics don’t regain control of the Senate, I think they will at least pick up a few seats thus lowering the Republican majority. And there are some older senators who really don’t like the way this president is abusing executive authority. I think they would be more interested in restoring constitutional balance of power. I think they don’t like having the institution of the United States Senate ignored. In their minds, they’re US Senators, and you don’t treat US Senators the way this president has treated them. But without the House bringing charges (impeachment), they can do nothing on their own. Which is as it should be.

Ha ha!

Harry Reid single-handedly shut down the senate some time ago to protest a lack of progress in investigating the use of pre-war intelligence. This is the type of power that I am writing about.

And what good did it do? Still no progress. Haven’t heard much about it in quite “some time.”

John McCain was recently able to get the pres to sign onto a defense auth that included anti-torture provisions that the pres was formerly opposed to.

McCain is a Repub. Doesn’t count. Besides, read my last paragraph.

The pres agreed to changes to the No Child Left Behind act that were proposed by T Kennedy and his dog splash.

Pres dropped his social security reform proposals when faced with stiff opposition.

These last two…no, the entire list, is baby sh*t compared to the issue of ordering the NSA to wiretap without warrants. No one involved in the situations you list was involved in a veil of secrecy…nor were the situations themselves.

Harry Reid single-handedly shut down the senate some time ago to protest a lack of progress in investigating the use of pre-war intelligence. This is the type of power that I am writing about.

John McCain was recently able to get the pres to sign onto a defense auth that included anti-torture provisions that the pres was formerly opposed to.

The pres agreed to changes to the No Child Left Behind act that were proposed by T Kennedy and his dog splash.

Pres dropped his social security reform proposals when faced with stiff opposition.

I could go on and on. I’m not byuying what you are selling …

There was no need for anyone, senators or NSA whistleblowers, to break the law or oaths to do something about the program.

As has been stated, the NSA has a specific program to protect those who want to reveal perceived lawbreaking within the agency. Whistleblowers who went to the NY Times broke the law, but they didn’t have to.

And as I pointed out, Senators have enormous power to influence the administration without breaking ther law or their personal oaths. Those dem senators who were informed about the program either didn’t see anything wrong with it, or they don’t understand the capabilities of their position, which is pretty pathetic. I wonder how long the dem power structure is going to stick with the incompetent Jay Rockefeller…..? he has really let them all down.

I imagine the excuse most repubs would use (who were briefed) would be that they ‘kept silent’ because they didn’t see anything wrong with the program. (It has not been universally agreed that there was anything illegal going on.)

And when you ask why the repubs aren’t ‘getting a load of crap …” are you just making a joke? They’ve gotten so much crap it would take a truckload of pampers to contain it all!

1) Pull the Senate into secret session and complain about a classified program without offering details. Continue until something changes.
2) Place blanket holds on all appointments until something changes. No details of the program need be revealed.
3) Stall all legislation until something changes. No details of the program need be revealed.
4) Demand closed hearings with the Chairman of the Sen Intelligence Committee. Go ahead and express your concerns here – reveal all you want. For cryin’ out loud – any of the dems on the sen intell comm could have done this at any point over the past two years and they never did. Doesn’t that tell skeptics here anything?
5) Refuse to fund intelligence activities. Tell your fellow congressmen that you can’t reveal details but are requesting that all of your associates fail to vote for cloture on the Defense Auth Bill. – simple.

etc. etc. I’ll betcha Robert Byrd could come up with 100 more ways to influence the admin with congressional action, even when it involves classified info.

This is BS claiming they couldn’t do anything because they couldn’t talk about it. There are plenty of ways to talk about a classified program without revealing classified information. And if classified info had to be discussed, it could legally have been discussed in a closed meeting of the Sen Intell Committee.

Basicaly the problem here is one of two things:

The dem congressmen did not think there was anything significantly wrong with the program, sufficient to exercise any of their power.

or

The dem congressmen are such dolts they are not aware of any of the many parliamentarian moves they could have made to influence and modify this program.

It is a fact that the informed congressmen were willing participants in the program and did nothing to hinder it. They should be ashamed if they thought the program was illegal but did nothing. In fact, they should be impeached if that is what they now proclaim, “I knew it was illegal and destroying our civil rights but it was secret so I couldn’t do anything.” This is so preposterous it is laughable.

Also they were informed that they could tell no-one about anything told to them in secret, so a kind of Catch-22!

In a way they were blackmailed to remain silent!

Did one of them leak to the press? I doubt it because they did not know all the facts and were cowed into silence too!