The Real Pat Roberts Returns
The Real Pat Roberts Returns
This morning, the New York Times reported that Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was breaking ranks with the White House and demanding that Bush’s domestic surveillance program be overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court:
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Friday that he wanted the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program brought under the authority of a special intelligence court, a move President Bush has argued is not necessary.
He stuck by his guns for less than 24-hours. From the AP:
[Senate Intelligence Committee's majority staff director, Bill Duhnke] Duhnke said Roberts is looking at changes within the federal law but not necessarily involving the approval of the court.
“The senator remains open to a number of legislative and oversight options,” Duhnke said Saturday.
That sounds more like the Pat Roberts we’ve come to know.
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Sounds like the same Pat Roberts who has stonewalled the Phase II investigation into the uses of Iraq intelligence.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:28 pmAll these questioning minds quickly changed so easily. Sounds like the domestic wiretapping(blackmailing) is paying its dues already.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:28 pmI'll believe it when I see it! Too much talk from both sides of their mouth for me to believe them - sorry. I also know way too much with what has been going on for years too.
It's possible that what's surfacing is an understanding of how serious the public is taking this.....That who sides with something that smells so seriously bad may personally end up smelling worse later!
At this point, I'm remembering a comment made by Bush Sr. where he somewhat stated that "If they knew what we were doing, they'd chase us down the street and lynch us"!
What's beyond the Wiretapping?
February 18th, 2006 at 4:40 pmWhat a stench the performance of each and every one of these psychophants pretending to be statesmen has left. None more disheartening than reliably disingenuous Arlen Specterm here leaving Gonzales to speak without being sworn in.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:47 pmHe's from Kansas;this is what happens with intelligent design: only god knows what he'll do next.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:48 pmdidn't Rove openly threaten blacklisting any (R) who broke ranks on this one?
February 18th, 2006 at 4:55 pmSounds like a dodge to get US people to feel better about things and go away for the weekend after all..... I'm cancelling my plans and staying right here at the phone.
People For The American Way has phone numbers for Roberts and others. Keep 'em ringing until further notice.
If there is a way to call (the world is) "Flat Wrong Rumsfeld" 's bluff and invite Kofi Annan to Guantanamo, I will pitch in a contribution.
February 18th, 2006 at 4:57 pmthe same guy who won't finish the investigation of pre-war intelligence...
February 18th, 2006 at 5:02 pmRove has become the new J. Edgar. Bush has been wiretapping anyone he wants, so he's got the goods on his policital friends and foes alike, and blackmailing them to do what they want. This must be the kind of democracy they want to spread across the middle east, no?
February 18th, 2006 at 5:03 pmThe hooks must be set pretty deep if the guy who gets blasted at close range by Duck! Cheney! can come out and say he feels bad about what the shooter AND his family has been thru.
February 18th, 2006 at 5:09 pmRough week, Duck? Any one else in those circumstances would be looking at a rough few months, if not years.
OT, will the thinkprogress podcast from Friday be made available?
February 18th, 2006 at 5:09 pmDorothy will tell him the score pretty soon, hopefully.
February 18th, 2006 at 5:10 pmYes, and I'm so mad I'll be right behind her,but I'll be in the front rows at the demonstration tomorrow
February 18th, 2006 at 5:13 pmI suspect he got such a flood of calls and email that he reconsidered. (Hint to all the Kansans on line)
February 18th, 2006 at 5:19 pmWell well well! Maybe he can do a good thing after all..
R2K
February 18th, 2006 at 6:42 pmSenator Roberts is completely in bed with the Bush Regime! Bush probably had him wiretapped first to get dirt on him, so now he is compromised and can never stand up for Bill of Rights! Shame on Pat for being a Bush toady!!!
February 18th, 2006 at 6:43 pmAt the very least the Democrats could be flooding the airwaves with the message that the Republicans continue to break the law because they know there won't be hearings.
This is a fundamental flaw with our system.
Pat Roberts is not representing the people.
We can't wait for elections to correct this.
It is a lie when Republicans claim that Americans support Data Mining.
February 18th, 2006 at 6:45 pmAs badly as you guys hate Roberts and DeWine, the Democrats are the real problem here.
PFAW is not enough. Contact the DNC.
Democrats.org
February 18th, 2006 at 6:49 pmFlip flop? Flip flop?
February 18th, 2006 at 7:02 pmI guess we wont be seeing the phrase flip-flopper used in the upcoming elections........
February 18th, 2006 at 7:08 pmIt is interesting that while the press was demanding facts on the shooting of Harry Whittington, old grumpy Dick Cheney was calling up GOP Senators, and threatening them to stop investigating the NSA Spygate Scandal, so what did Dick say to them?
Why would any senator be scared of Cheney when he was on the verge of being forced to resign for that hunting accident??
This is very odd because senators should have told Dick to f--k off, so what does he have on them to make them jump???
February 18th, 2006 at 7:09 pm"Why would any senator be scared of Cheney when he was on the verge of being forced to resign for that hunting accident??" - - Oh please, stop engaging in fanciful, wishful thinking. Cheney has the staying power of a cockroach and if Bush is the only person left in the US that wants him around, then he'll be here until icecaps melt. Oh, wait...
February 18th, 2006 at 7:28 pmSo clarification by Roberts (as described in the AP report) is flip flopping? What do you call the criticism of Guantanamo Bay by people who have never visited the place? Psychic phoenomenon??? Tarot cards?? Astrology????
February 18th, 2006 at 8:22 pm"What do you call the criticism of Guantanamo Bay by people who have never visited the place? Psychic phoenomenon??? Tarot cards?? Astrology????" - - I've never been in a Turkish prison but I trust first hand accounts by many others. The International Red Cross has visited Gitmo several times and characterized it as "tantamount to torture."
February 18th, 2006 at 8:29 pm#23 - ma,
February 18th, 2006 at 8:33 pmPictures are worth a thousand words or visits. Do you have a concept of what the surface of Mars looks like? When did you last visit?
Will we see this headline?
"Times Punk'd Again"
February 18th, 2006 at 8:34 pmThe International Red Cross???? Badmoodman, seeing the "objective" references employed at this blog - Democracy Now!!, Nation, NYT, Amnesty International, Guardian, People for the un-American Way, BBC, LeMonde and that paragon of institutional honesty, the UN - you just might want to take a sail. Believe me, I have an Uncle who survived Bataan and Gitmo is a paradise. Just a suggestion - you might not be in such a bad mood if you quit the whine routine.
February 18th, 2006 at 8:47 pm"I have an Uncle who survived Bataan and Gitmo is a paradise." - - Ahh, then you've no doubt been to Gitmo since you say it's a paradise. Book a tour package there and bon voyage!
February 18th, 2006 at 8:51 pmShut your pig vomitt mouth Jeffrey(MA) We now know who you are and where you lurk. Quite few matches on People Finders but we'll narrow it down.
February 18th, 2006 at 8:53 pm“How do you get that monitor, keyboard, both arms and your head up your rectum?â€
Comment by WaltTheMan — February 17, 2006 @ 8:55 pm
******Dear Walt - I simply watched the way you managed the same manuever - but you’re such a big a$$h*le, it was easy for you.
But good news - if they pick up any suspected terrorists, we’ve made a deal with Halliburton and all of their subsidiaries to drop Islamofascists off at your house
February 18th, 2006 at 8:53 pm#29 - Dear XOXOXOXOX - Never bring a knife to a gun fight - but in your case we'll make an exception. HA!! Off to another Repub fund raiser. Sweet dreams!!!
February 18th, 2006 at 8:56 pmNever met a right winger that wasn't a fruit Jeffrey Any time, any place, anywhere and sooner than you think! Now go back to your husband Bruce. You fem, and come up with a new line once in a while.
February 18th, 2006 at 9:01 pm#30 - ma,
February 18th, 2006 at 9:13 pmI can't even get the mouse in. Didn't even try - physics degree - you know. But yet again, you are committing character suicide. You should be the careful - the penalty for suicide is death.
The only fascists in the world today are in the Cheney administration. I'll have no visitors.
#30 MA are they related to the christofacists
February 18th, 2006 at 9:17 pmma - FYI:
February 18th, 2006 at 9:30 pmSome of the public debate on the treatment of “Islamofacists†by our own “Christofacists†centers on the issue of fundamentalism relating to the separation of church and state. Recently there have been social trends that have blurred the fine line that kept the two separate and complementary. The issues of morality, values, where they come from and what should they be, have been co-opted by the fundamentalist religious right flexing their political muscle. The debates over terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, have become increasingly belligerent by the “Christofacists†who’s ultimatum of, “You are either with us or against us!†is a cognitive distortion of reality. “All or nothing†thinking is typical to fundamentalism where issues are a simplistic, right or wrong, black or white, good or bad, in or out, faithful or infidel, etcetera. Thus, the people in between the warring factions lose their humanness in the broad brush of fundamentalist certainty and become just “collateral damage†of the pogrom, crusade, or jihad.
#35 - ma,
February 18th, 2006 at 9:37 pmI posted this as a favor so you would not continue in the fray with empty chambers (As did our honorable? VP).
Harman and Rockefeller are the only reason this spying thing isn't exclusively a Republican scandal.
Americans DO NOT agree with Data Mining.
February 18th, 2006 at 10:45 pmStop the lies.
Will the real Pat please stand up?
R2K
February 18th, 2006 at 10:52 pmFunny that the Bush lovers who post on this thread can't defend George or his stooge Roberts, so they call everybody crazy names on here, or try to divert the subject to anything else > lol.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:15 pmWe need proof it is the real Pat Roberts. Once he stops spinning, somebody take his picture.
February 18th, 2006 at 11:33 pmpat roberts,pat robertson....what's difference?...both have puppet strings out of the back of their head,pulled by the scum rove.
February 19th, 2006 at 12:53 amAll the president's bag men...
NYT: "Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up?"...
February 19th, 2006 at 2:18 amWhat ever happened to that jar of "MEMORY PILLS" that roberts waved at the cameras on russerts show? I guess he just used them up or - that he is full if shite! Is there anyone out there that this phony bastard and nationally recognised WH bagman is not lying for the umpteenth time?
February 19th, 2006 at 8:37 amPuhleeze! billjpa@aol.com
I watched and listened to him on Meet The Press last week and he was very stern and commanding that from his position he knew best as to where the issue stood, that there was much We The People were not privy to, and that The People should somehow feel better, not knowing what they dont know.
February 19th, 2006 at 8:40 amI say, why have commitees and courts hearings and reviews then only to see that no one is advised and consent is not required, yeah right Hitler , Mussoulini, Stalin, all liked it that way too...............
Look Bush/Cheney isnt the personification of all those, but they certainly are running roughshod and dont think thay have to answer to anyone in this war on terror.
But I must ask what war on terror, or is it rather illegal acts being framed as a war to attain "status" of war?
I mean really think of it , conventional thinking says war is made between nations. Iraq fitted that nicely. But of course there were ample examples of flawed rational?
Us declares war on poverty? Which nation should we target next?
Nation declares war on bird flu? Which nation do we target next?
nation declares war on Aids... etc etc
So every time we feel we have to get tageted objectives through the Fisa act do as we please?
can you spell Machiavelli?
Keep e-mailing Pat Roberts and voicing your disgust with his treason...
It's obviously reaching him, but we've got to break these traitors down...
...then move in for the kill (politically speaking)...
February 19th, 2006 at 9:19 amRoberts is why the Senate is full of crap and NO longer represents the people! It is now just a Rubber-Stamp group of thugs who help Bush, and bow down to Military-Industrial-Complex CEOs, as well as doing anything the Oil-Cartels desire! About 75 of the Senators are totally compromised and the other 25 are too frightened to do anything about it!
February 19th, 2006 at 9:21 amRoberts is not to be trusted. I once thought he had some integrity, but I was mistaken. He is a party operative under direct influence and control by the White House. When all is said and done, regardless of what he says, his actions never reflect anything but partisanship.
February 19th, 2006 at 10:55 amI find it kinda sad/amusing that the hopeful people on this blog can alays find a way to scrape up hope for a member of the GOP who addresses the press with a modicum of sense, and then later are so suprised, disgusted and disappointed when he shows himself to be what he ALWAYS was, a Republican. They say reasonable things, sometimess, to the press but always turn tail and run as soon as the cameras stop rolling. They don't 'cave in'. They never really stand up in the first place. They perform a little dance and crawl back into their holes. Jesus said, "judge a tree by it's fruit."
February 19th, 2006 at 1:26 pmcheck out cursor.org........they're actually managing to keep track of all the brutal permutations of the Bush Admin and it's impact on the world. Every day there are a series of sites listed to investigate. I'm sure I'm not alone on this; the more that comes out about all this horror, the more I wonder if America isn't already dead, not just sickened to the point of anemia so bad that it's fallen on it's face. How are the people who truly care about this country and the beauty of it's now trounced ideals ever going to take the country back? In other words, your average american....After the last two presidential elections, I don't believe there will be a way to get away from rigged results. I don't believe for a moment that bush/cheney aren't capable of martial law, even if they weren't rigged.
February 20th, 2006 at 4:11 pmI find it kinda sad/amusing that the hopeful people on this blog can alays find a way to scrape up hope for a member of the GOP who addresses the press with a modicum of sense, and then later are so suprised, disgusted and disappointed when he shows himself to be what he ALWAYS was, a Republican
Comment by Solitaire #48
Solitaire,
It's either this...
...or "going postal" on a HUGE scale...
...treason is taxing...
...and can be dangerous...
February 21st, 2006 at 12:02 pmSolitaire,
It’s either this…
…or “going postal†on a HUGE scale…
…treason is taxing…
…and can be dangerous…
Comment by big papa
Left wing losers going postal, now that is funny. Can I send you a stamp?
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:03 pm