Category: FISA/Wiretapping

  • Shining Shithole on the Hill

    The good thing about being an INFJ is you see patterns in everything all the time but stay quiet and introverted enough that you pack down your suspicions labeled as paranoia. I don’t blog much lately because everything I’m feeling is so hopeless. I guess that is a bit extreme. Things locally are wonderful. Ron […]

  • American Coup D'etat? Nope. But Erosion…?

    Harper’s got together a quartet of military experts to examine the eternal question: Could it happen here? UTTWAK: What about a situation in which the military was ordered to start a war that it did not believe could be won?… BACEVICH: The military would leak it to the Washington Post, and the war would never […]

  • Jack Cafferty on the NSA/FISA Ruling

    Must watch: Jack Cafferty on The Situation Room (Quicktime video from Crooks and Liars) Or at least must read: Cafferty: You know Wolf, it seems like were having this discussion about this judge’s ruling sort of in the abstract, as if there’s no precedent for what the judge decided. The judge in effect upheld the […]

  • US District Judge: NSA Wiretapping Un-Constitutional and Must Cease Immediately

    Okay – I’m supposed to be doing a mediafast. I KNOW. But this is huge huge huge: A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government’s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security […]

  • Congress Considering Adding MySpace to Data Retention Requiments

    Again, What about the children! and The terrorists will win! are invoked: In those meetings, Justice Department representatives went beyond the argument that data retention was necessary to protect children–and claimed it would aid in terrorism investigations as well. During Wednesday’s hearing, politicians also claimed that social-networking sites were not doing enough to verify that […]

  • HOWTO: Tell AT&T To Fuck Off

    From Metafilter: On the eve of its hearing on charges that it assisted in the government’s illegal spying on millions of Americans, AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, has changed its privacy policy to clearly establish its ownership of its customers’ personal account information. Because your records aren’t yours. They can do […]

  • Listening vs Datamining

    In all the hub-bub about the NSA, FBI and God knows who else spying on ordinary American citizens, peace groups and journalists, keep mindful of the use of ‘listening’ or ‘wiretapping’ – Bush says that the US is Not Listening in on Domestic Calls. The hair to split here is an active analyst listening to […]

  • NSA Expert: 'Be Terrified”

    Mmmm. Spread this on some toast: We should be terrified that Congress has not been doing its job and because all of the checks and balances put in place to prevent this have been deliberately obviated. In order to get this done, the NSA and White House went around all of the checks and balances. […]

  • Democrats Mum on Feingold Censure

    Russ Feingold’s censure of Bush for the FISA/wiretapping controversy is failing to find support among Feingold’s colleagues: Appearing on Fox News, Feingold said: “I’m amazed at Democrats, cowering with this president’s numbers so low. The administration just has to raise the specter of the war and the Democrats run and hide. … Too many Democrats […]

  • Alberto Gonzales Wasn't Under Oath

    Gonzales wasn’t under oath. That’s all you need to know about today’s hearings about President Bush’s ability to do whatever the hell he wants with no oversight, no waiting and no approval from Congress. There is no reason anyone shouldn’t not be under oath when testifying before Congress.