Category Archive

Grover Norquist, father of the neo-conservative movement, leading anti-tax advocate, and extreme war-on-terror hawk, commented on Bush’s "terrorist surveillance program" vs. upholding civil liberties : "It’s not either/or. If the president thinks he needs different tools, pass a law to get them. Don’t break the existing laws." Ouch.  Why does Norquist hate America? UPDATE:  Guess what?  This is my 2000th … Read More

January, 2000 — Alberto Gonzales Confirmation Hearing: SEN. SPECTER: Judge Gonzales, would you now stand for the administration of the oath? Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before the Senate Judiciary Committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? MR. GONZALES: I do. … Read More

Newsweek has an investigation into brave people within the Justice Department — Bush appointees — who took quiet but strong issue with the excesses of the Bush Administration in surveillance.  A snippet: The rebels were not whistle-blowers in the traditional sense. They did not want—indeed avoided—publicity. …They were not downtrodden career civil servants. Rather, they were conservative political appointees who … Read More

I’m glad it’s being said: The Bush administration’s distortion, for political purposes, of the Democratic position on warrantless surveillance is loathsome. Despite the best efforts of Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, to make it seem otherwise, Democrats are not opposed to vigorous, effective surveillance that could uncover terrorist … Read More

One of the most annoying things about the blogosphere, in my opinion, is the over-inflated sense that many political bloggers believe of their impact.  But the gumshoe research by blogger Glenn Greenwald shows that, in his case, the praise he is now getting is 100% justified. That’s why, when I first read Glenn’s revelation two days ago, I blogged "This … Read More

I saw a re-run of "The West Wing" from the first season recently.  That would have aired in 1998 or 1999.  In it, one of the characters says the following, which I paraphrase: Josh, if there’s one thing that history has shown us, it’s that the real theat to democracy doesn’t come from radical lunatics.  It comes from those in … Read More

This is big. Again, Glenn Greenwald scores a hit.  As noted below, the Bush Administration (through Hayden) now explains that the reason that wiretaps were sought outside FISA was because it couldn’t meet the "probable cause" standard. Glenn discovered an historical, documented problem with this argument. In June, 2002, Republican Sen. Michael DeWine of Ohio introduced legislation (S. 2659) which … Read More

Political Wire: "The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress," Insight magazine reports. "Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." Said the source: … Read More

One of the reasonable defenses of the NSA wiretapping — perhaps the only reasonable defense offered by the neocons — was that the "wiretapping" simply wasn’t "wiretapping" as we know it.  According to conservative pundits, what the NSA was doing was emplying novel technologies which enable our intelligence boys to do "data-mining", where thousands (if not millions) of phone calls … Read More

The White House has defended its warrantless-search program with essentially two silly arguments: (1) Congress’ 9/11 resolution ("Authorization to Use Military Force") empowered Bush to do this, and (2) Congress was briefed so oversight requirements had been met. Two weeks ago, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service rejected the administration’s first argument. Yesterday, the CRS rejected the second: The Bush administration … Read More