Turley: It’s ‘A Very Inconvenient Fact Right Now’ To Say Bush Committed A Felony With His Wiretapping Program
Turley: It’s ‘A Very Inconvenient Fact Right Now’ To Say Bush Committed A Felony With His Wiretapping Program
Last night on MSNBC’s Coundown, George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley noted that just this week, a federal judge rejected President Bush’s claim that his “constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped” the FISA wiretapping law. Judge Vaughn Walker explicitly stated that the President is bound by FISA:
Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted. Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.
In other words, when Bush contravened the FISA law by authorizing warrantless wiretaps through the National Security Agency, he broke the law. Turley said last night that this is an “inconvenient fact” for many in Congress to admit:
Nobody wants to have a confrontation over the fact that the President committed a felony – not one, but at least 30 times. That’s a very inconvenient fact right now in Washington.
Watch it:
Bush has acknowledged that he reauthorized his illegal wiretapping program “more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks.”
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July 9th, 2008 at 11:15 amThey’re more than willing to wage a war, but no one wants a confrontation?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:17 amWTF!?!
Nobody wants to have a confrontation over the fact that the President committed a felony – not one, but at least 30 times. That’s a very inconvenient fact right now in Washington.
Yeah, I bet, especially when impeachment has been taken off the table.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:18 amBush has acknowledged that he reauthorized his illegal wiretapping program “more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks.”
Only the authoritarian, unitary executive believers consider Bush’s actions to be legal.
This has been one of the most frustrating aspects of Washington politics today, we’ll impeach a president for lying about extramarital sex, something that affects no one, but we give a free pass to a self admitted felon who has violated one of our most cherished rights, the right to privacy.
Makes me want to move to Canada.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
July 9th, 2008 at 11:18 amNot shit sherlock.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:19 amBush has acknowledged that he reauthorized his illegal wiretapping program “more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks.”
______
Neglecting to mention, of course, the inconvenient fact that he authorized the illegal wiretapping BEFORE the September the 11th attacks…
July 9th, 2008 at 11:20 amBush has acknowledged that he reauthorized his illegal wiretapping program “more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks.”
How many BEFORE 9/11?
As a voter, are you OK with your congressmen & congresswomen supporting a FELON? A FELON with more than 30 law violations?
Felons need work, too. Vote Republican!
July 9th, 2008 at 11:20 amThe overriding purpose of the executive branch of the government right now is to keep Bush, Cheney, et al, out of Jail through Jan 20, 2009.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:22 amHeckuva job Dumbya, ya fcuking imbecile.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:25 amAnyone who votes for this bill is spineless.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:28 amIt highlights how far we have fallen. There are two different set of laws and it is disgusting.
Not to mention the bill appears to have been written by a fifth grader.
What do you do when the Congress and the President refuse to uphold the Constitution? Isn’t there something about that in the instructions?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:31 amFederal
July 9th, 2008 at 11:32 amIdiots
Screwing
All of US
This isn’t the first inconvenient truth to raise its head during this administration.
Irony switch / on
July 9th, 2008 at 11:35 amBob says;
What do you do when the Congress and the President refuse to uphold the Constitution? Isn’t there something about that in the instructions?
Yes, Bob there is. It’s called revolution. It’s in the Declaration of Independence. When the government does not respond to the needs and freedom of its people, then the people have the right to alter or abolish that government.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:36 amFor the Bush Administration, all facts are inconvenient.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:37 amSic Semper Tyrannus!
Death to tyrants!
July 9th, 2008 at 11:37 amThe overriding purpose of the executive branch of the government right now is to keep Bush, Cheney, et al, out of Jail through Jan 20, 2009.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am
the phucquers are golden til jan, 09…it’s the post 1/20/09 immunity they’re working on now…
if they get retroactive immunity for the telcoms, they establish their own innocence–cuz if the telcos dint do any wrong, then neither did the busheviks, 32 tines…
July 9th, 2008 at 11:38 amYou all need to quit your whingin about this; yes, he broke the law, he will do it again, guaranteed, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone of you can do about it.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:40 amCongress is committing Misprision of Treason. I wonder if they are individually culpable?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:41 amYou forgot to add “nyah nyah”, authoritarian troll.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:42 amaurorasurferinak Says:
You all need to quit your whingin about this; yes, he broke the law, he will do it again, guaranteed, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone of you can do about it.
You forgot to add “nyah nyah”, authoritarian troll.
I’m as far from being authoritarian as you can get; my point is, Bush has been pulling this crap since he got into office, and no one has done anything about it. What makes you think anything CAN or WILL be done about it??
July 9th, 2008 at 11:45 amYes, and he also admitted to ABC news on 4/11/08 that he approved torture. So what are the Democrats going to do about it?
Not a damn thing, and why?
Because they are all sucking off the same mammary gland – the corporations that actually run this country.
The only thing you can do now is get over it.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:49 amNixon was a liar.
Reagan was a buffoon.
Bush is a FELON.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:50 amAmerica….R.I.P.
Welcome to AmeriKKKa, the Torture Nation, compliments of George Bush and the Fascist Theocratic Party (formerly known as the GOP)!
Please check your civil liberties at the door.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:51 amThis is completely insane. It’s “inconvenient” to admit that our current president is wantonly committing felonies, but it sure seemed to be d*mn convenient to go after Clinton for lying about his sex life to a grand jury.
And I’d like to point out that while Clinton DID attempt to get away with using EP (failed, and rightly so), he never tried to get legislation passed to make perjury about sex legal, let alone make it retroactive to cover his butt.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:51 amUncle Ho Says:
When the government does not respond to the needs and freedom of its people, then the people have the right to alter or abolish that government.
Ok, I say we abolish it altogether because what they’re doing now is altering it. They’ve been altering it by changing the law so that bush is no longer breaking it. Aside from that, corporations have way too much power and their rights cannot trump individual rights. Hey, this government isn’t working: it is time for real change.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:51 amCorrect me if I am wrong, but wasn’t much of the BushCo rationale to remove Saddam because he was a criminal? Like invading other countries, taking away his people’s freedoms, making billions off the backs of the people, responsible for thousands of deaths?
Sound like anyone else we know?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:55 amYet it was entirely convenient to impeach Clinton for lying about a BJ. Says something not so good about congressional priorities.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”
-Thomas Jefferson
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.”
-Patrick Henry
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
-Harry S Truman
“… a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
-John F. Kennedy
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
-Robert M. Hutchins
“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.”
-Clarence Darrow
“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us – and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.”
-Carl Sagan
Wise men, all. Unfortunately they are all gone. Apathy will be the ruination of this once great Country. Corporate payoffs(bribes) and illegal surveillance on members of Congress (blackmail) have succeeded in bringing this Nation to it’s knees. This Administration that will stop at nothing to achieve power and further it’s neocon agenda will be seen by future generations as a cancer that was so obvious and they will wonder how we could possibly have allowed this to happen. It is truly shameful and this is a sad day for anyone who cares and loves America. Thank you Administration criminals, your eager henchmen on the Hill and capitulating Democrats for putting your own selfish interests so far above the American citizens who voted you into an office that you do not deserve and above any respect for the laws which this nation was founded on and so cherish. May you all be haunted for the rest of your pathetic lives by the ghosts of our founding fathers and every soldier who gave his life protecting this nation from exactly the kind of injustices that you have supported. To have a leader who diregards the laws that he swore to protect and uphold coupled with branch that possesses oversight authority and does nothing is something that the framers of this Nation could not have imagined. I hope you enjoy all that telecom money, their short lived bribe to you has cost this country more than you could ever admit to yourselves.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:01 pmI can’t help but think a real investigation of 9-11 could put ALL of this crap to bed, get our laws & rights back in place and the real criminals hung.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:02 pmIt could be a good starting point.
If there is any justice, President Dinkledonk will suffer greatly in this life or after.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pmBush is in office because republics love criminals when they are the criminals, and congress seems to have been in on most of this, so they do not want the light shining on the fact that they knew and did nothing about it.
Most all of our government seems to corrupt at this time in history.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pmI object to the language “since the September 11th attacks” because it has clearly been shown that the unlawful communiction intercepts started well before 9/11. TP has been sloppy in how it has characterized these events in this case.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pmYes Bush broke the law but we only have the Democrats to blame. If we did not have spineless, dishonest, worthless Democrats in the House and Senate, this crap would not happen.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pmAfter the votes are done and the WH and many on the Hill finish slapping each other on the backs for this abortion of justice I hope someone brings forward a lawsuit contending illegal surveillance BEFORE 9/11. A case like this could bring down the whole house of cards.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pmtoasterhead Says:
Neglecting to mention, of course, the inconvenient fact that he authorized the illegal wiretapping BEFORE the September the 11th attacks…
I would like to see some referance or sites on this one. This is new to me and I thought I followed it closely.
Thanks
July 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pmchomot Says:
I would like to see some referance or sites on this one. This is new to me and I thought I followed it closely.
Thanks
Here…
July 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pmDefinitions of ambiguous at Dictionary.com. … Ambiguous indicates the presence of two or more possible meanings
What would the second possible meaning be? Of course mccmovealong wants this to be a non-issue…..how can it possibly be explained?
July 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pmThe Republicans have played a very clever game of chicken. The Democrats have failed to respond with our constitution, democracy and liberties forfeited in response.
Do not blame this on the Democrats being in bed with the corporations. Turley was right. The President’s actions are an inconvenient truth which would lead to nothing less than impeachment and criminal charges. It was something impossible to do while the Republicans were in power. The Democratic leadership sold the option away during the ‘06 elections. In one sense I can understand the election tactic. The Republicans did an effective job of selling that a vote for Democrats would cause impeachment. The full extent of the administration’s malfesance was not on display.
The entire Bush administration has been predicated on secrecy and confrontation. From the beginning, the Bush administration has cloaked its actions in secrecy. When its inappropriate actions became visible, they were more than willing to stiff arm the system and Congress. They understand the disruption and destruction that would be wrought by an impeachment. They invite it safe in the assumption that the Democrats would not risk the destruction and division of this nation over such an impeachment.
Impeachment is the only option to save our democracy. There really is no choice now. We cannot avoid the confrontation and battle. This really has become about whether we live in a democracy or an authoritarian society governed by a strong president under a one party system. There is no other way of phrasing our dilemma. We fought back the Republicans with Nixon. However, with Iran Contra, the Democrats avoided confrontation to preserve the republic. We only emboldened the enemies of democracy. A small scandal under Reagan has become a way of doing business under Bush. The precedent has been set under two presidencies. Unless there are serious repurcussions, it will only continue with the next Republican elected.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:21 pmDon’t worry, the “Get Out of Jail Free” card is about to be turned up by our “Democratically Controlled” Congress.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:10 pmAnother link to evidence wiretapping began before 9/11.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/qwest-ceo-not-a.html
July 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pm#45 Very good post, Thank you for posting..May I just add, it may not matter who we put in office at this point..Granted the rep’s are the worst but, dare I mention we now have dem’s that are block and tackler’s for the reich wing,,,,,The cancer both partie’s are infected with goe’s way beyond our worst nightmare’s, indeed we only have 30% in both houses that might be counted on…The recent FISA mess kind of proove’s that point…Never mind the fact they claim to be Dem’s, they are not…Many proved today they are traitor’s to our country and have now become enemies of the domestic type to our constitution…Blessings
July 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pmMy vote in the 2008 general election will go only to those who did NOT support FISA immunity for telecoms.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:38 pmFor Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, it’s far more serious than merely “inconvenient” if Turley’s right and the wiretapping was a felony. His little handwritten lovenote to Dick Cheney proves that he was complicit in that felony around mid-July, 2003.
If they prosecute Bush for torture (as he’s admitted), they’ll have to prosecute Rockefeller for that as well, because he was fully briefed as early as 2002 and not only kept his mouth shut, Rockefeller actually was one of only 12 Democrats in the Senate to revoke habeas corpus and make torture legal!
He was on the Senate Select Oversight Committee for defense intelligence when the full, un-redacted, pre-Iraq invasion National Intelligence Estimate was made available him, and to only a select few in congress. That assessment made it abundantly clear that Hussein’s weapons capabilities were nowhere near what the White House advertised. He could have put the brakes on the Iraq war had he but chosen to speak out, but instead he voted to let Cheney fire up the most poweful war machine on earth against a tiger that was essentially toothless. His platitudes on the floor of the Senate regarding that NIE rang quite hollow back in June.
John D. Rockefeller IV is my senator, as is Robert C. Byrd (D-WV). Only one of them will vote to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms and help Bush dodge prosecution for his felonious activity. When he does, he will violate his oath of office to protect and defend my constitutional rights in order to cover for his own complicity in the cover up.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pmI think you meant, “If there is any justice, President Dinkledonk will suffer greatly in this life and after.”
July 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pmSo if a corporation is considered a person by law, then how can it be legal for persons to spy on other persons?
I mean, me your average Joe out there, can’t just go and place a glass against your house window….I will obviously have the cops called on me and charged for numerous felonies.
Sooooo, why are corporations allowed to do this???
Sooo, let me this…Republicans love the notion of private property…but not when it applies to corporations now?
Real conservatives would never support this bill.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:19 pmThis kind of stuff just makes me so mad!! What’s worse is that this is the least of his crimes.
At this point I’m torn about who to vote for, the successor to the Evil, or the ones who have let the Evil get away with it.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:24 pmThe fact is a great many of us do care. It is simply that most that don’t are in Congress and the Senate.
This criminal administration is aided and abetted by the Democrats. They have been since the beginning of this regime been willingly complicit in all that has happened. None of this breaking the law and subverting the Constitution could have taken place without the help and cowardice of these legislators. Never has any dictator of any country been so fortunate in it’s so called opposition. Bush has been very fortunate because as he once said.”the constitution is just a goddam piece of paper.” And what do you think? The Congress and Senate agree.
The Democrats hope and believe that all this has taken place so far from November that the collective amnesia will be there. And usually they would be right. Americans are shockingly apathetic and ill informed. And in an age of nothing but sound bites, with no free press to prod the recollections of Americans, it may be that way again.
The cynicism and disregard for anything approaching accountability by either the administration or the Democrats does make me wonder. Just what backroom deals were made last election? Just what did all that illegal spying uncover with the Democrats themselves? What did the administration learn regarding the business or personal lives of the Democrats that make them so vulnerable? The things we have seen for the last eight years do NOT make this a paranoid question.
We need to get new Democrats in office. Whatever secrets they may be hiding will still be there no matter if Obama is in or not. They can still be pressured into voting as Republicans.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:29 pmOther then a handful of Congress or Senate, these are the most unprincipled, cowardly legislators imaginable. They are violators of the oath they took and the Constitution they swore to uphold.
haha
July 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pmAnd before 9/11, Bush was breaking the law, too.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pmYeah, but Congress will do nothing to hold them accountable.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:17 pmTo Impeach before Nov 4, Do Something Different, Quickly!
The only way to force My Cowardly Democratic Congressmen to hold Impeachment Hearings or have the slightest respect for their oath or Our Constitution
Is To Do Negative Campaigning Against Them.
The Democrats will win control of both houses of Congress again and the presidency.
The loss of a few Congressmen over their failure to support impeachment hearings will strengthen our hand with the next Congress and might help us get hearings before November.
Our Congressmen only care about getting re-elected. Get between them and their constituents.
We can make them listen but we will have to un-elect a few of them first.
John H Kennedy, Denver CO, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to our county convention and organizer of
Impeach Colorado Coalition
Time to get mad people…..
..
July 9th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
THE LINK ABOVE IS BROKEN – This works
To Impeach before Nov 4, Do Something Different, Quickly!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:09 pmAs terrible as it is, they would be signing their own tombstones if they did not grant immunity. That would open the telecoms up to civil suits and likely lose. However, the telecoms would then resort to appeal on a federal level and claim they had no choice because congress passed the patriot act which enabled these wiretaps which the ftm says is in violation of another law (FISA). If they did not comply with the Patriot Act, higher ups would be personally prosecuted on trumped up charges by the gov’t for sedition and their companies lose any and all federal money. See QWEST’s latest headlines. Since the patriot act was voted in by all of these congressmen, they would have to defend the repercursions of their actions when the spotlight gets turned on to them. This is c.y.a. for congress.
G
July 9th, 2008 at 10:35 pmCan someone remind me why I should get off my butt and go vote for Obama in November? He ok’ed this farking bill. I am taking my Obama sign down tomorrow. Fcuk him.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:07 pmIt is becoming more and more apparent that it matters not which complicit politician or party is in power. Nothing is gonna change except for that it’s just gonna get worse.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:09 pmOh how I hope that I see the day that anarchy reigns and I can string every one of you communists on a tall pole with a short rope.
Until then, modern society dictates that I put up with your ridiculous and outlandish versions of the truth. While I don’t agree with NOT gibbetting you wastes of carbon atoms, I am relatively powerless to stop it. Therefore, I can only sit idly by why you waste your lives and the few remaining brain cells that have escaped the marijuana induced haze you perma-carved into your brains.
TLDR version since I know you canned hams can’t read, let alone form coherent sentences: I wouldn’t piss on your ashes, untermenschen.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:04 am