Upholding the Constitution is a bipartisan cause.
By on Feb 7th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Upholding the Constitution is a bipartisan cause.
Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), “whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program. … By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why.”
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HOW NICE , WILL THIS BE THE FIRST TOWARD IMPEACHMENT ?
February 7th, 2006 at 11:31 pmI’ll see it before I believe it.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:35 pmI’m still shell shocked. Must be a dream.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:35 pmI don’t trust any of the thugs. Not one.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:42 pmThe Church fires are of Rovian design, more to come, wait and see.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:49 pmDrip…drip…drip…
February 7th, 2006 at 11:52 pmWe’ll see if she follows through before Rove reels her in……
On a side note: The adminstrations reaction to the exposure of this program is highly highly suspicious (i.e. unwilling to work with congress, unwilling to stop the program, aggressive propaganda campaigning, etc.) I really do think there is something in the program their trying to hide. I wouldn’t be suprised that we find out in the coming weeks that the program was used to spy on political enemies.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:59 pm#8 Or political allies to keep them in line, blackmail is so political
February 8th, 2006 at 12:02 amAny inquiry should be extended to cover the DOD and the FBI and their surveillance of anti-war groups and demonstrations.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:09 ammr ho says congratulations Senator.
perhaps the old guard fiscal conservatives have arrived….
February 8th, 2006 at 12:24 amcause ol george is quacking like a duck.
Heather Wilson was also one of the few Congressional Republicans to return contributions from To Delay’s ARMPAC.
“We already returned all $10,000 after the indictment,” Wilson said. “It was a personal decision on my part.”
February 8th, 2006 at 12:42 amOff-topic: Did anyone else just hear Brit Hume say “This is self-censorship” right as they were going to commercial and he must have thought his mic was cut? Not sure what the story was about, just wondering if I was hearing things..
February 8th, 2006 at 12:44 amThey sat idly by as Bush drummed his way into this unjust and illegal war. They parroted talkig points as corruption, incompetence, and malfeasance snowball at a record pace.
Now, as their reelection approaches, they torch the liability that they once so closely embraced.
Cowards.
I strongly urge against placing too much confidence in these sudden attacks of conscience. They know the polls.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:48 amOkay, how many Senators does it take to start a Congressional Inquiry? One? Or like more than half?
Looking.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:49 amDid anyone read Feingold’s speech today on the Senate floor? It’s available on Raw Story.com.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:58 amPerhaps his words will embarrass a fewe others to stand up and fight for what is right.
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/ americasupportsyou/ states.aspx
Public Military Support and Support letters and stories
February 8th, 2006 at 1:06 amWilson is a Repug stalking horse for all her fellow party members who have to run next November. They’re clearly not going to ride in on Boy George’s coat-tails.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:17 amMarie,
I just finished reading Fiengold’s Speech. Wow!
This is a little long, but I went and got all of the sources, because this is something important that Russ pointed out.
There was a second occasion that Bush asured the nation that he was getting court orders for his wiretaps.
Raw Story
Febraury 7, 2006
Amidst flurry of Bush attacks, Feingold hits Congress wiretaps: ‘Congress has lost its way’
Besides the already popular:
White House
April 20, 2004
President Bush: Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security
Feingold gave us a new one:
I went and got the whole thing for ya.
White House
July 14, 2004
President’s Remarks at Ask President Bush Event
Yesterday in his unsworn in “testimony” Alberto Gonzales said that when Bush was talking about getting court orders, he meant roving wiretaps only.
Washington Post
February 6, 2006
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Holds a Hearing on Wartime Executive Power and the National Security Agency’s Surveillance Authority
Clearly, the new quote that I have provided here states “In other words, the government can’t move on wiretaps or roving wiretaps without getting a court order.”
Busted!
This would be why he wasn’t sworn in. He just lied.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:33 amI forgot the ultimate piece in Russ Fiengold’s speech.
This is some very increminating stuff. Russ Feingold is the man.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:41 amExcellent reporting spudge_boy, you should be working for the MSM. If they ever decide to hire you, maybe you could talk about the 9-11 discrepencies and how much they relate to everything this administration does in order to “protect us”.
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/PressRelease30Jan2006.html
February 8th, 2006 at 2:42 amChewing on the fine points of Bushian mendacity is strictly tail chasing time. We are living under a fascist dictatorship that will make its full intentions clear as soon as Cheney’s concentration camps ($400 million taxpayer dollars working for you!) are up and running. Placing your faith in running dogs like Fitzgerald and Feingold is ludicrous. Time to start looking at the larger picture.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:53 amFrom the NYT:
George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters’ access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word “theory” at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.
Ratted out by other members of the Texas A&M student newspaper? What were they thinking? Don’t they know a journalist’s first duty is to cover for the administration?
February 8th, 2006 at 5:48 amThey’re not going to go very far in today’s “new” media.
as a Republican, reading Senator Feingold’s speech was chilling.
kudos to Mr. Feingold for getting it right and backing it up factually…that’s the kind of argument I like.
February 8th, 2006 at 5:50 amRep.Heather Wilson Needs Thank You’s from all of us in the blogsphere . Everyone who has spoken out against this Adminstration anti-Constiutional Tactics needs to know that we as American Citizens will not allow a runaway drunken ego driven insecure adminstration turn us into a controlled state of dispair ,no hope for our children,serfdom..
February 8th, 2006 at 6:57 amDon’t get too excited about this. Wilson is trailing slightly in the polls in her district, which is leaning Democratic, and seems to be a competitive race.
She’ll put on a dog and pony show, but in the end it won’t accomplish anything but to gain some goodwill with independent voters. I’ll put money on it.
February 8th, 2006 at 7:51 am#31 I agree. She’s in a very tight political race and she wants to win over people.
Folks, this is a Republican-controlled House of (Corporate) Representatives. There is no way in hell that anything will come of this as long as Karl Rove is in the White House threatening members of Congress. (He’s working over Senate Republicans for now, but if it looks at all like this thing could gain any momentum, he’s going to come down hard on Speaker Hastert and new Majority Leader Boehner to put an end to it.)
I’m not trying to be pessimistic. Just realistic.
Now, if we can all somehow shame the Republicans into trying to defend not pursuing this, then maybe something can happen.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:17 amTalking Points Memo has a piece on the Wilson dealio worth reading.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007627.php
February 8th, 2006 at 8:23 am#20 Spudge_Boy - I assume you mean hearings. You know, this has already been done in the House by Conyers. Thing is unless the majority thugs are on board hearings need to be held in the basement without Subpoena power during spare time. Same could happen in the Senate. Slightly different rules but still the thugs are able to block almost everything. Nothing gets to the floor unless they say so. Look at what Arlen was able to do just as Committee Chairman. Same with the Special Prosecutor question. I understand the Impeachment question can be forced to the House floor by the popular vote of one State.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:39 amGreat research Spudgeboy, You could give journalists a lesson or two! Just give you a football and you run all the way downfield with it.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:22 amscotty says this is a time of ‘WAR’
and that gives Bush an out to warrantless spying
I guess scotty forgets his history
because it was a time of ‘WAR’ when NIXONs Spying was caught as well.
care to try for a NEW ‘WAR’ Rationale Scotty?
SEVEN DAYS IN DECEMBER:
ESPIONAGE AND TREASON IN THE WHITE HOUSE
In a scenario that seems straight from the pages of a Hollywood screenplay, the events that played out during seven days in December 1971 revealed that the Pentagon had poised itself against the White House. The Pentagon’s Chief Investigator W. Donald Stewart remarked: “When we broke [Yeoman Charles E.] Radford that night, that’s where I got the Seven Days in May idea. I said Jesus Christ, here’s the military actually spying on the President of the United States . . . this is a hanging offense.”
Even Nixon himself declared that the Joint Chiefs had committed “a federal offense of the highest order.” Oval Office meeting 12/21/71
Discovery of the spy ring and not the Watergate break in was the beginning of the end of the Nixon presidency.
Authors Len Colodny and Tom Shachtman provide the framework with which to understand these seven pivotal days. While an article cannot explore the great details regarding this historical event, this site provides documentary evidence in print and streaming audio and video. These resources present the military spy ring from its discovery through its cover up and beyond — providing a comprehensive understanding of this unprecedented event in American history.
http://www.watergate.com/stories/spyring.as
February 8th, 2006 at 9:23 amPen Traps spudge
they ‘easy’ to get as well..
To this point what we have been considering are technically called “intercepts” — listening to phone calls and recording the information they contain. Most phone taps in the U.S. aren’t conducted that way at all. On top of the approximately 3,500 CALEA and FISA intercepts conducted each year, there are another 75,000 domestic phone taps called “pen/traps” by the telephone company.
While interceptions capture the voice portion of a telephone call or the data portion of an electronic communication, such as the content of e-mail, pen/traps capture just the outgoing digits dialed (the pen register portion of the technology) and the numbers of the incoming callers (the trap and trace portion of the technology). In CALEA terms, these are “call-identifying information.”
Court authorizations for interceptions are difficult to obtain for many reasons. Pen/traps are easy to obtain. While the government has to obtain court authorization to install a pen/trap, the role of the court in this review and approval procedure is merely “ministerial” — primarily a form of record-keeping. The government has a very low hurdle to meet to obtain judicial approval for pen/traps, and if that hurdle is met, the court MUST approve the order. Pen/traps are very useful in a criminal investigation, and inexpensive compared to a court-approved interception. So, it is not surprising that there are so many more pen/traps than there are interceptions.
to consider…..
February 8th, 2006 at 9:31 amso that put us squarely back into the Patriot Act
Executive Summary
Chief Concerns
The EFF’s chief concerns with PATRIOT include:
1. Expanded Surveillance With Reduced Checks and Balances. PATRIOT expands all four traditional tools of surveillance used by law enforcement — wiretaps, search warrants, pen/trap orders and subpoenas. Their counterparts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allow spying in the U.S. by foreign intelligence agencies have similarly been expanded. This means:
February 8th, 2006 at 9:37 am1. Be careful what you read on the Internet. The government may now monitor the online activities of innocent Americans, and perhaps even track what Web sites you read, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is “relevant” to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has done.
2. Nationwide roving wiretaps. FBI and CIA can now go from phone to phone, computer to computer without demonstrating that each is being used by a suspect or target of an order, or even specifically identifying the person targeted. The government may now serve a single Title III wiretap, FISA wiretap or pen/trap order on any person or entity nationwide, regardless of whether that person or entity is named in the order. The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal investigation. In the pen/trap or FISA situations, they do not even have to report where they served the order or what information they received. The EFF believes that the opportunities for abuse of these broad new powers are immense. For pen/trap orders, while ISPs or others who are not specifically named in the order do have the legal right to request certification from the Attorney General’s office that the order applies to them, they have no right to request such confirmation from a court.
3. ISPs hand over more user information. The law makes two changes to increase how much information the government may obtain about users from their ISPs or others who handle or store their online communications. First it allows ISPs to voluntarily hand over all “non-content” information to law enforcement with no need for any court order or subpoena. §212. Second, it expands the records that the government may seek with a simple subpoena (no court review required) to include records of session times and durations, temporarily assigned network (I.P.) addresses, and means and source of payments, including credit card or bank account numbers. §§210, 211.
4. New definitions of terrorism expand scope of surveillance. One new definition of terrorism and three expansions of previous definitions also expand the scope of surveillance. PATRIOT §802’s definition of “domestic terrorism” (amending 18 USC §2331) raises concerns about legitimate protest activity being prosecuted as terrorism, especially if violence erupts, while additions to three existing definitions of terrorism (int’l terrorism per 18 USC §2331, terrorism transcending national borders per 18 USC §2332b, and federal terrorism per amended 18 USC §2332b(g)(5)(B)) expose more people to surveillance (and potential “harboring” and “material support” liability, §§803, 805).
2. Overbreadth with a lack of focus on terrorism. Several provisions of PATRIOT have no apparent connection to preventing terrorism. These include:
1. Government spying on suspected computer trespassers with no need for court order. §217.
2. Adding samples to DNA database for those convicted of “any crime of violence.” §503. This provision allows collection of DNA for terrorists, but then inexplicably also allows collection for the broad, non-terrorist category of “any crime of violence.”
3. Wiretaps now allowed for suspected violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This includes anyone suspected of exceeding authorized access to a computer used in interstate commerce and thereby causing over $5000 worth of combined damage.
4. Dramatic increases to the scope and penalties of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. These include: 1) raising the maximum penalty for violations to 10 years (from 5) for a first offense and 20 years (from 10) for a second offense; 2) ensuring that violators only need to intend to cause damage generally, not intend to cause damage or other specified harm over the $5,000 statutory damage threshold; 3) allowing aggregation of damages to different computers over a year to reach the $5,000 threshold; 4) enhancing punishment for violations involving any (not just $5,000) damage to a government computer involved in criminal justice or the military; 5) including damage to foreign computers involved in U.S. interstate commerce; 6) including state law offenses as priors for sentencing; 7) expanding the definition of loss to expressly include time spent on investigation, response, damage assessment and restoration.
3. Allows Americans to be More Easily Spied Upon by U.S. Foreign Intelligence Agencies. Just as the domestic law enforcement surveillance powers have expanded, the corollary powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have also been greatly expanded, including:
1. General Expansion of FISA Authority. FISA authority to spy on Americans or foreign persons in the U.S. (and those who communicate with them) increased from situations where obtaining foreign intelligence information is “the” purpose of the surveillance to anytime that it is “a significant purpose” of the surveillance.
The Buzz out there seems to indicate that the Republicans may have more to fear from this illegal wiretaping as they attempt to jump off the bandwagon or distance themselves from this administration. They must be “gathered up NOW”.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:37 amAs I am sure many know it is CIA procedure to induce people that work with them, or for them, to break some personal moral code(extra marital affair etc.) or law so as to control them(Blackmail) for the future(sounds like a gang innitiation come to think of it).
Yet Bush was spying before the Patriot Act.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:39 amSoooo..Get Busy you Lawyer bloggers =)
Does it really matter why she’s doing this (i.e., for her own political interests)? Isn’t it more important that she’s doing it?
February 8th, 2006 at 9:50 am41. Agreed
you are correct. Between the corruption Misleading media, propaganda, WMD hoax (wilkersos), Warrantless tapping, katrina funding, underfunding NCLB, Backloaded taxes, Fiscal responsibility doesnt exist any longer. I applaud her for Standing up. Its pretty bad when we have groups in the white house that put their “CLIKS” above the people.
Not only that Franklin/AIPAC, Journalists promoting Bush war rhetoric, Armstrong Williams..
And thats not even all. Yeah I applaud this Representative for this administration has clearly losts its moral compass
February 8th, 2006 at 9:59 amhttp://www.watergate.com/stories/spyring.asp
I had left p off asp of link above..sorry :^x
February 8th, 2006 at 10:03 amI agree: The RNC and DNC can unite against the President on this issue: The Constitution is above the President. I came up with some suggestions on how to communicate these important issues for voters. [ Click ]
February 8th, 2006 at 4:38 pm