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Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
| Time |
Event |
| 12:24a |
Marxist collective suicide watch
Severely depressed, paranoid and hallucinating Marxists still can't believe the only viable form of their strange necrotizing fasciitis actually aligns in all important respects with anarchism. Various death-cults called ' council-communists', 'Ultra-leftists', 'Autonomists', ' Situationists', ' Luxemborgists' and ' Libertarian Marxists' have all been given sun-glasses and introduced to the other members of their family who were raised outside of the cellar. Prognosis negative. | | 1:29a |
Last dick standing
"Mr. Cheney is the only one left, the only likely suspect to have ordered the leak," said Rep. Robert Wexler, Florida Democrat, citing to a note obtained during the legal proceedings against Mr. Libby. "The vice president's own hand betrays him and Libby and implicates the president of the United States. These facts and your testimony, Mr. McClellan, are more than enough, in my view, to open up impeachment hearings."
McClellan gives evidence in leaked CIA document hearing
Posted Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:12pm AEST
Five years on, the Bush administration is still being haunted by one of its biggest scandals - the leaking of the identity of an intelligence officer.
A House of Representatives committee has questioned former White House press secretary Scott McClellan about recent revelations.
In a best-selling book he says senior White House officials steered him into lying to the public about their roles in the leak case, and he has suggested that President George W Bush and his administration continue to cover up their involvement.
As Mr Bush flew to Florida for a Republican fundraiser, Mr McClellan was appearing under oath at the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill.
The focus of the hearing was the 2003 effort to blow the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose husband had accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war.
Mr McClellan has had harsh words for those still within the White House.
"Despite assurances the administration would discuss the matter once the special counsel had completed his work, the White House has sought to avoid public scrutiny and accountability," he said.
"The continuing cloud of suspicion over the White House is not something I cannot remove, because I know only one part of the story.
"Only those who know the underlying truth can bring this to an end. Sadly, they remain silent."
An investigation into the leak led to a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was Vice-President Dick Cheney's top aid.
But Mr Bush commuted the sentence, sparing Scooter Libby from serving any jail time. | | 6:27a |
You kill me Just one has to die '...Clay's example of the DLC vs. the Netroots is not just two ideological factions at work. What's most interesting about the Netroots has been that it has helped to seamlessly organize around issues that previously fell below his "Coasian floor." Two good examples of that are the organizing around Net Neutrality and the 2005 bankruptcy legislation. As Art Brodsky noted today, Rep. Donna Edwards took office yesterday on a campaign that was driven by enthusiastic support from net neutrality advocates, and by her critique of the incumbent, Al Wynn, for his vote on the Bankruptcy bill. You can be damn sure that when Wynn decided to vote with his organized, cash constituents on these issues he had no idea that there would ever be an organized force on the other side, much less one with the political power to help defeat him...' http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/20/politics_below_the_coasian_flo/Coasian floor = killing floor. Taking the hint beats taking the hit Mr wanna-be president. ( My 2c) | | 6:38a |
Up the IRISH! Helping keep the stupid in check Havana, June 21 (IANS) Cuban dissidents have termed the European Union (EU)’s lifting of its 2003 diplomatic sanctions on the communist country “unwarranted”, saying there was no change in the rights scenario of the island, EFE reported Saturday. The EU Thursday called off the diplomatic sanctions it had imposed on Cuba in 2003 to protest the arrest of the dissidents known as the Group of 75 and said it would initiate a dialogue with Havana. The situation that had led to the EU sanctions - the jailing of 75 opposition activists in April 2003 - has not changed, prominent dissidents told EFE. “I don’t understand why they lifted them (the sanctions) now, if the reasons why they imposed them haven’t changed,” Martha Beatrize Roque said. Roque, the only woman in the Group of 75 and among those freed for health reasons, stressed that 55 of those who were convicted are still in prison and those released are technically on probation. “For us it doesn’t change a thing. We’re going to keep fighting for changes to a democracy. What we do know is that we can’t count on any countries of the European Union,” Vladimiro Roca told the news agency. Madrid maintains that its policy of engagement with Cuba has already borne fruit, such as the release of several political prisoners earlier this year and Havana’s signing of a number of UN rights conventions. The foreign ministers of the 27 EU member-states said they were lifting the sanctions to facilitate a political dialogue that is “reciprocal, unconditional, non-discriminatory and oriented on achieving results” within the framework of the “changes begun by President Raul Castro”, who replaced ailing elder brother Fidel in February. The decision to scrap the sanctions will be reviewed in 12 months. The Bush administration, which has tightened the 45-year-old US economic embargo against Cuba, expressed disappointment with the EU decision. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/lifting-of-eu-sanctions-on-cuba-unwarranted-dissidents_10062719.htmlThe EU not only doesn't need any more power to make stupid decisions like this...it needs active discouragement from seeking more power. Some EU bureaucrats and Sarkocrats need killing. | | 6:46a |
Over here No apparently congress is not only not willing to impeach them but instead wants to grant them immunity in the FISA issue. Talk about adding insult to injury. It's like telling the rapist he can go free because he gave you something (whatever that may be) that you wanted. How are the american people supposed to feel as the victims of these perpetrators. Right now, because of the FISA bill, I am furious with the congress, the democratic leadership, and this administration. I am writing every senator this evening. Any other suggestions? I am looking for real answers about alternative ways we can hold officials accountable besides having to wait until election day? Posted by lbrillante Alternative accountability software that was nominated for the Chrysler design prize and is Beta-tested and bombproof. http://cryptome.quintessenz.at/mirror/jdbfiles.htmSee also http://www.nex.com/innews.htm | | 7:35a |
Concentration camps for Iranians
'If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."
UN nuclear inspector
Well as there is a heightened risk of a strike this year maybe some camps for Western Iranians will be required. These could start with the MEK types and other Marxist morons. Hey it was good enough for FDR! | | 7:41a |
Fingering Cheneys henious acts could lead to swinging Dick
Off the Yardarm
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney should testify before Congress about his role in the leaking of a CIA agent's identity, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan told members of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.
"The vice president has information that has not been shared publicly," McClellan said in response to a question from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, about whom Congress should question in connection with the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's name to the media.
"You could go down the list: Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer ..." McClellan added, referring to President Bush's former political adviser and first White House spokesman.
McClellan said he does not think the president knew in advance about the Plame Wilson leak.
Earlier, he told the committee that suspicion still surrounds Cheney's office because of unanswered questions about the leak.
McClellan also also said he could not rule out that Cheney had ordered his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to leak Plame Wilson's identity. A later investigation showed that Libby, in fact, had been involved in the leaking of the CIA operative's name.
The FBI and a federal grand jury later investigated the leaking of Plame Wilson's identity. No one was convicted for the actual leak, but Libby was later convicted of perjury, lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice in 2007.
"I think that [special prosecutor] Patrick Fitzgerald stated it well when he talked about the cloud that was remaining over the vice president's office because of Scooter Libby's actions that led to his conviction on four counts, I guess," McClellan said Friday.
"But there's a lot of suspicion there because there are questions that have never been answered, despite the fact that we said at some point we would address these issues," he said.
"I do not think the president had any knowledge" of the revelation of Plame Wilson's identity, McClellan said. "In terms of the vice president, I do not know."
McClellan also testified that he was asked at the behest of Bush and Cheney to provide assurances to the media that Libby was not involved in the leak of Plame Wilson's identity.
"I was reluctant to do it, but ... I talked with [former White House chief of staff] Andy Card," McClellan said. He also talked to Libby.
Libby "assured me in unequivocal terms that he was not, meaning the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity to any reporters, and then I contacted reporters to let them know about that information," McClellan said. "But it was Andy Card that had directed me to do that, at the request of the president and vice president." Video Watch McClellan detail his talks with Libby » CNNN
McClellan said the White House is still concealing information about its role in the CIA leak affair. Video Watch McClellan say 'the American people deserve better' »
"This matter continues to be investigated by Congress because of what the White House has chosen to conceal from the public," McClellan said. "Despite assurances that the administration would discuss the matter once the special counsel had completed his work, the White House has sought to avoid public scrutiny and accountability.
"I do not know whether a crime was committed by any of the administration officials who revealed Valerie Plame's identity to reporters," he said. "Nor do I know if there was an attempt by any person or persons to engage in a cover-up during the investigation. I do know that it was wrong to reveal her identity, because it compromised the effectiveness of a covert official for political reasons."
Two senior administration officials say the White House decided not to invoke executive privilege to stop McClellan's testimony because "there's nothing new."
Members of the House Judiciary Committee believe that McClellan, who was the president's press secretary before leaving the White House in 2006, would be able to provide valuable insight into the leaking of Plame Wilson's name as well as a number of issues that the committee is investigating.
In his book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan said he was specifically lied to about White House staff members' involvement in the leaking of Plame Wilson's identity -- including Rove and Libby -- in 2003. Read excerpts of McClellan's book »
"When I was knowingly misled but only learned that much later, that's really when I started to become disillusioned at the White House."
Libby was convicted of lying to investigators and a grand jury about his involvement in the CIA leak case. Bush commuted his sentence.
"I'm glad to share my views," McClellan said. "I think I've made them very clear in the book. ... Essentially, everything I know on that leak episode is written in the book -- what I was told by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby."
The committee is also looking into the use of prewar intelligence and whether politics was behind the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006.
As White House spokesman, McClellan defended Bush's policies during much of the war in Iraq, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the scandal that followed the leak of Plame Wilson's identity.
He said that the latter episode was a "defining moment that caused me to become dismayed and disillusioned with the way things were going in Washington, D.C."
McClellan's critics say he was not in a position to know details of the innermost workings of the White House, particularly as he was deputy press secretary for domestic affairs in the time before the Iraq war.
In his memoir, McClellan says the administration became mired in "propaganda" and political spin and played loose with the truth at times | | 7:47a |
Dark star "State of Darkness: US Complicity in Genocides since 1945" rigorously proves US guilt in 8 genocides: Iraq, Laos, Indonesia, East Timor etc. Iraq meets the criteria of the Genocide Convention where 2 million have died, 5 million displaced, virtual destruction of the infrastructure. Read more @ AMAZON http://www.juancole.com/Sy Hersh - Kissinger | | 8:14a |
Max appeal
TAMPA, Fla. — Attorneys for adult producer/performer Max Hardcore have filed a petition for retrial after a jury returned guilty verdicts on all federal counts of obscenity earlier this month.
"Some of the grounds had to deal with sufficiency of the evidence in some of the charges," attorney Daniel Aaronson, who represented Hardcore's company MaxWorld Entertainment during the trial, told XBIZ. "Five of the counts were 'mail counts,' as they're called, using the mail for the distribution of obscene materials. Part of the charge requires that somebody be responsible for the mailing. Our belief is that the evidence showed that, in fact, MaxWorld Entertainment, Inc. — or Paul Little [Hardcore's real name], neither one of them — did any of the mailing, so they shouldn't have been found guilty of that."
Aaronson also told XBIZ that the motion said that the government did not show or prove "community standards." Also, a juror was fired from her job during the trial and the legal team was not informed of that fact — which may have affected the juror's vote — by the trial court, and another juror had comments made to them during the trial which may have affected the outcome of the trial.
"There was a communication from one of the jurors to us saying that 'this juror does not want to watch all the movies.' This was never delved into by the trial court as to whether the other jurors felt that way, whether they had discussed the case prior to the time they were allowed to deliberate and whether this juror had, in fact, infected the other jurors with his beliefs prior to the time of deliberation," Aaronson said.
He added that the jurors did not view all the movies in their entirety, "and we believe that that violates the Miller standard, which requires that everything to be taken as a whole."
The petition was filed earlier this week. Aaronson said that the government would respond to the petition and there would either be a ruling before Hardcore's scheduled sentencing on Sept. 5 or a hearing at that time. - X Biz | | 8:28a |
Backstabber
"Well, a new poll shows that less than 1 out of 4 Americans now think President Bush is doing a good job. 1 in 4. So that means when President Bush is having dinner with his wife and two daughters, he's the only one at the table that thinks he's doing a good job." --Jay Leno
"President Bush says he plans to publish a book once he leaves the White House. We have an advanced copy here. This won't be out till January. It's 'Iraq on $100 Million a Day.' It's a travel book." --Jay Leno
"John McCain revealed his energy plan today. He wants to build 45 nuclear reactors. I think it's a good idea. We'll need that extra power to get him up and down the stairs." --Craig Ferguson
"And in political news, Barack Obama was endorsed by Al Gore at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit yesterday. I tell you something, you could feel the excitement in the room. It was unbelievable. And then Al Gore walked in." --Jay Leno
"This week, residents of a Romanian village decided to reelect their dead mayor rather than vote for the younger man running against him. Yeah, when he heard about it, John McCain said, 'That's a good sign.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Al Gore has endorsed Barack Obama for president. How about that? Political experts say this is great, because it gives the Obama campaign a much-needed shot of boredom." --David Letterman
"Barack Obama says that he will visit Iraq, or as John McCain still calls it, Mesopotamia. ... Barack Obama announced this week he'll visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the election in November. He said he wants to see an area that's been overrun by violent extremists. So, sounds like he already misses his old church." --Jay Leno
"And now, of course, going head-to-head you have Barack Obama and John McCain. They're already putting together debates. Here's how it will be. Barack Obama says after each question, he wants a one-minute response. And John McCain says after each question he wants a five-minute nap. That's the way that's going to go down." --David Letterman
"Speaking of Barack Obama, yesterday, Barack Obama said, if he becomes president, he will replace the White House bowling alleys because it's something he would never use. That's what he said, yeah. Yeah, apparently, this is the same reason President Bush got rid of the White House library." --Conan O'Brien
"This weekend, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be attending the same conference in Florida. Yeah, they're going to be going to the same conference. Yeah, the conference is sponsored by the National Association of Men Who've Been Attacked by Hillary Clinton." --Conan O'Brien
"Gay marriage is now legal in California and yesterday, a lesbian couple who are 83 and 87 years old got married. Witnesses are describing the ceremony as 'beautiful' - and the honeymoon as 'horrifying.'" --Conan O'Brien
"It's already having a ripple effect, this gay marriage thing. In fact, since it was instituted yesterday, marriage proposals to Liza Minnelli have dropped 65 percent." --Jay Leno
Scotty McClellan is testifying while the House passes the Bush Enabling Act. Scotty says his family is well and should remain healthy even if anything happens to him.
The Constitution has provided Congress with all the tools they need to control an excessive Executive. It is called impeachment! Even if they have no hope of conviction, an Executive under impeachment proceedings limits the Executive's ability to pardon his co-conspirators, thus maintaining the ability to pressure them to sing in order to save their own sorry asses.
I don't get some of the yellow-dog Democrats in this congress. They promised to stand firm on this. They have the majority in both houses and the country is firmly behind them, yet they still cower like a mangy mutt when the naked emperor pounds the podium.
WTF?
To Nancy Pelosi:
TIME to leave your position in disgrace - YOU are a disgrace to your office and your gender. You were the FIRST to break that glass ceiling and you have become a joke. Your standard to ANYTHING that is morally correct or ethically right is to take it "off the table" or make it "not an option".
The BILL YOU put through today is ONE MORE NAIL in the COFFIN of the Constitution...One more death rail of the dying country.
Your buddy Steny has proven to be just another Renfield for the Vampiristic cabal in the white House.
You have both broken your oath to your office...That oath to PROTECT and DEFEND the CONSTITUTION from all enemies foreign and domestic.
Now who will protect that holiest of holies, the basis from our country, from you?
Posted by Cosmic Surfer | | 8:50a |
Last of the Obamohican's
Barry Obama announced he doesn't want $84 million in public money. This means that even if you already gave the limit to Barry, you get to give even more! He's looking into offering a direct deposit system to take it straight out of your paycheck.
Wanna get near Barry? Better black it down a little first, okay? Keffiyeh? I didn't even kiss her.
MoveOn Closing 527 In Response to Barry - joining holy first church of the blessed Barackers.
Small change we can believe in. Barry adopts Michelle slogan ' Get behind the fist'.
Soros warns of superbubble - 2 hours ago - Barry fundraising machine slows down - 1 hour ago
Barry says new health plan will encourage keyhole surgery - thats where they go in through your wallet/purse.
NATO declares Afghan city safe - Washington DC ' Highly dangerous'. Secret Service re-designate Barry as
' Prime Rump'. | | 2:53p |
It's legal when the people do it
Alternet knows: Maine Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War
The good news, which [the Bangor Daily News] reported on April 30, is that six peace activists were acquitted on charges of criminal trespass for failing to obey a police request that they abandon their sit-in outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Maine.
The defendants, Doug Rawlings, Henry Braun, Jimmy Freeman, Dud Hendrick, Rob Shetterly and Jonathan Kreps -- dubbed the Bangor Six -- were arrested in March 2007 for protesting Bush's proposed troop escalation and Collins' continued support of funding for the war. According to Rawlings, "Our case was pretty simple: We argued that we believed we had a right and an obligation to stay in that federal building until Collins heard us out and agreed that the war is not only immoral but illegal under international law." | | 3:41p |
Cover your arse With approval of the Democratic run congress lower than Bush, It would have been smart politics for Obama to dis the Democratic "leadership" that shoved this crap down our throats. Instead, he went for the rookie mistake of Democratic "unity" (an illusion at the best of times) Here is the rub: The Republicans are trying to get out the idea that Obama is corrupt. Its a very easy piece of propaganda to put together: Obama is a Democratic politician from Chicago. All Chicago politicians are corrupt. Therefore, Obama is corrupt. Anything that reinforces that propaganda is bad for Obama. Obama embracing this FISA sell-out will allow the Republicans to nod their heads and say... we knew it all along. He's as corrupt as we are. And as everybody knows, given the choice between two corrupt politicians, they will pick the Republican one every time. spiny Jeebus. It's going to be a long couple of years if Dems are going to be unconditionally supporting Obama no matter what fracking stupid idea he decides is a good one. I thought watching the stupid Republicans march in lock-step with their "Boy Wonder" for the last eight years would have taught people a lesson. But apparently not - apparently we're all supposed to shut up while Obama gets his turn to piss on the Constitution. Screw that - despite not being surprised by this turn of events whatsoever, this Obama voter is severely disappointed in Mr. Hopey McChangealot right now. "Change you can believe in" my left nut. He could have taken a number of different tacts in this situation - and he chose to ENDORSE the solution that shreds our Constitution and sets the precedent that if the government asks you to do something - no matter how illegal it is - you better fracking do it or else. Nice...' "...Attorney General Alberto Gonzales repeatedly made references to the "Gang of Eight" when being questioned about the warrantless surveillance/domestic spying while testifying at the Justice Department Oversight hearing held July 24, 2007. AG Gonzales' testimony may be retrieved from CSPAN online" (see Wiki "Gang of Eight"). Current members of the "Gang of Eight" include the following Democrats, who were fully briefed on Bush's illegal warrantless electronic surveillance program at its inception and sworn to secrecy: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House; Harry Reid, Democratic Senate Leader; Silvestre Reyes (D), Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; John D. Rockefeller, IV (D), Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; The Democrats insist that they were only following the orders of the President -- a defense that doesn't pass the Nuremberg test -- when they were, in fact, willing accomplices to a sweeping program that included multiple and serial and ongoing criminal violations of the Fourth Amendment and the 1978 FISA Act by President Bush and his senior administration officials. And yet these Democrats, by their own admission, elected to remain silent and obedient captains in Bush's "War on Terror." EXCERPTS from Jonathan Turley's interview with Keith Olbermann on Countdown, Thursday, June 19, 2008, which suggest cui bono in the extreme: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25283004/"OLBERMANN: And, also hidden in here behind this headline - if you immunize the telecoms, are you not also immunizing the president, the Bush administration and, to some degree, the Congress that went along with all of these crimes in the last seven years? "TURLEY: Well, there‘s no question in my mind that there is an obvious level of collusion here. We now know that Democratic leadership knew about the illegal surveillance program almost from its inception. Even when they were campaigning about fighting for civil liberties, they were aware of an unlawful surveillance program as well as a torture program. And ever since that came out, the Democrats have been silently trying to kill any effort to hold anyone accountable because that list could very well include some of their own members. "And, I‘m afraid this is Washington politics at the worst. And, so, I think that what you‘re seeing with this bill is not just caving in to a very powerful lobby, but also caving in to sort of the worst motivations on Capitol Hill since 9/11. You know, the administration was very adept at bringing in Democrats at a time when they knew they couldn‘t refuse, to make them buy in to this program, and now that investment is bearing fruit. "OLBERMANN: So, it‘s self-protection is the answer to the question of why Congress didn‘t let FISA, this bill, at least, go sunset and do this in the next administration. The answer is really self-protection? "TURLEY: I‘m afraid it is. And I also don‘t understand why they didn‘t let that happen, because what you would be left with was, would be judges who would have to look at whether there was a basis for engaging a surveillance. What‘s so horrible about that? The old FISA law, by the way, had a provision that said that if there was an emergency, you didn‘t have to get an immediate FISA approval, something that the president continually omits from his comments, making it sound like you would have to stand there knocking on doors before you could chase al Qaeda. That was never the case. "OLBERMANN: So, this is not FISA, this CYA...' | | 4:15p |
Heavy fallout
There have only been two Presidents who have ever willingly walked away from guaranteed power: George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt, and Roosevelt ended up wishing he hadn't. Any ideas on why the dems keep caving to the most unpopular, most criminal president in american history?
Bush is incompetent meme gets short schrift - Bush gets $162 billion with no strings attached for his twin debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the House passes the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which gives the executive branch expanded powers to spy on Americans without warrants or any serious showing of probable cause -- because if the president says "It's okay" then it's perfectly legal -- and retroactive immunity for the giant telecoms.
If that makes Bush terminally incompetent then what does that make the democrat party?
I don't want you reading my personal stuff..."
~~George W. Bush (April 2005)
During a presser before the White House press corps, Bush admitted that he does not send personal emails because of concerns for his own privacy.
But not to worry! The Bush Crime Family took care of that problem by delelting the White House emails and destroying the computer hard drives on which they were sent and stored, and then they diverted the really important emails through the Republican National Committee Headquarters and its private servers inside the Beltway.
"Barry does say that if he wins, he promises not to abuse the power it gives him, so I guess we should feel good about that."
......wtf. What is this, East Germany?
How can Obama seriously claim to want to "change the way Washington works" and then support a bill that highlights all the worst aspects of "the way Washington works."
And what about the Constitution: Article I, Section 9, Clause 3:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed
The ammnesty provision is explicitly ex post facto. By definition.
Trust is not the basis nor foundation of constitutional order.
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams
After all the reading and thinking it really seems to me the only reason the House leadership--and Obama--might have for capitulating on FISA is to protect all the Blue Dogs in the House. This is what happens when you elect a bunch of DINOs. They're really just centrist republicans, and have to be protected from their right=wing brethren. Until we elect more and better Democrats, the political math will always favor the Blue Dogs, because they will vote with the GOP.
This is a consequence of Hoyer and Pelosi being UNABLE TO CONTROL THEIR OWN CAUCUS. Strikes me this is totally inadequate leadership. Competent majority leaders and whips get their troops in line with threats and bribes and apparently House dems don't have the balls for that. Or the competence. Or something.
Bet your last buck, the Blue Dogs are DIRECTLY responsible for what happened today and the only solution is to get rid of them. Had the Blue Dogs not been in the House, this abomination of a FISA bill would never have come up for a vote.
Did anyone hear Pelosi's denunciation of the telecom immunity? Then she voted for the bill.
Christ. They're every bit as bad as the GOP. Lie, prove by your own actions that you're lying, and get away with it.
I don't think Obama can tell them shit. Pelosi and Hoyer have power too, and they will aim to keep it in any Obama administration. Although, if all they're going to do is give in to the GOP every time they have a chance, maybe they should give way to leadership with a backbone.
Maybe Obama will push them to the left. But not until after the election.
It's also worth repeating, I suppose, that this country really has gone very far to the right. It's going to take a very delicate dance to move the "mainstream" back toward the center, and I can see where the FISA thing is one example of how far the country has shifted. The GOP, and the Dems, knew they could get away with eviscerating law made in the 1970s to protect our constitutional rights, after our last would-be right-wing dictator, Richard Nixon did, essentially, what Bush has done.
We're right back there again, folks, and we'll have to fight just like an earlier generation did to overturn the consequences of letting the savages get hold of the controls.
LL
Obama supporters will employ this with gusto over the next few weeks. We will hear things like "the bill wasn't that bad" or "he knows what he is doing".
Obama sold out the whole blogosphere. He sold out his fundraisers and everyone who has every given money to him, he sold out the progressives, and he sold out his volunteers.
But worst, he sold out the Constitution.
I voted for the man. It was a mistake. I am sorry. I am sorry he is the nominee. I'm sorry he is a member of Congress.
When someone does something so vile, so disturbing, it does no good to deny it.
To me, this is a deal breaker. For generations of Americans who will look back at this time and see the end of the America that represents liberty and justice, this was the time when America needed people to stand up.
"1993-2004 Visiting Law and Government Fellow, then Senior Lecturer, in Constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School."
What was Obama teaching in that class in Constitutional Law?
How to sell out?
Democrats more or less agree with Republicans on everything, at least as far as foreign policy, national security, and economics goes. The evidence kind of supports this theory too. Rather strongly.
So Obama’s support for this should surprise only those who fooled themselves into believing he was some radical departure from the norm. He isn’t, or he would have faced far stronger resistant in the primary than he did.
The passage of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 is the death of the Fourth Amendment and makes this country a nation of men and not laws.
Surely, Barack Obama -- who taught courses on the U.S. Constitution at University of Chicago Law School -- knows very well that this legislation eviscerates the Fourth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, and his support for this badly-written bill (I have read it) is an egregious betrayal of the public trust and his oath of office.
The stage is set now for political theatre at its very worst -- and we've seen this bad movie before -- in which Harry Reid will allow an opponent or two of retroactive immunity for the giant telecoms -- perhaps Russ Feingold or Barbara Boxer or Bernie Sanders or Patty Murray or Byron Dorgan or even Barack Obama or Chris Dodd -- to introduce an amendment stripping the telecom immunity provision from the bill and then allow the amendment to proceed to the floor for a vote.
The amendment will, of course, go down in flames, thus paving the way for smooth passage of the bill, including retroactive immunity for the telecoms, before the Senate adjourns for the 4th of July recess. Expect the DINOs to cross the aisle in droves -- in a craven show of "bipartisanship" -- to lock arms and march in lockstep with Bush and Cheney and the GOPers and the telecoms to give the worst president in the history of this country yet another "major victory" for his legacy, as the Villagers will certainly proclaim.
When a member of the House or Senate wantonly sells out the very Constitution that he or she swore "to support and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic," it's always best to do so in a bipartisan manner, vis-à-vis the unconstitutional Military Commissions Act of 2006, in which the Dems joined with the GOPers to kill habeas corpus.
I am on the Obama email list. I clicked the unsubscribe link and found that it includes an optional comment field where one tell the campaign why one is unsubscribing.
I wrote:
The Senator has caved in to Mr. Bush by accepting Telcom immunity in the FISA bill. Now is the time for leadership. Now is the time to stand up for our Rights. I had thought that Mr. Obama was capable of being the leader we need. I now believe that, while Mr. Obama *speaks* of "real change in Washington", he will not act.
I would like to be proved wrong in this belief, but Mr. Obama has only days to prove me wrong by rallying his fellow Democrats in the Senate to stop this subversion of the rule of law.
The U.S. Congress is comprised of the craven, the mentally unstable, and the criminal. I had no idea that fascism would have such a convincing argument that elected officials would abandon the Constitution and betray the American people this easily.
Wisdom in Congress is in very short supply, and now it has the power to bury the result of their ignorance and arrogance. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions and only a few recognize it as such. It is a "tipping point".
Thanks for the feel around Senator but you are going to have to put a bit more lube on that one.
Date Rape.
Welcome to the party, Progressives.
I'll be keeping my money. No more cash for any DEM...period...and as far as my vote in November, lets just say NOBAMA...FUCK HIM. And about the House, if you can't get results, get revenge. We can still work to destroy the political careers of some Vichy House Democrats.
And if we succeed, we can then figure out how to destroy their post-politics-careers in the private sector. | | 4:41p |
The sound and the fury
The only difference between McCain and Obama is that McCain doesn't use Vaseline.
Have I mentioned yet tonight how much I hate these people?
I wrote a letter yesterday to Obama's campaign headquarters expressing my disappointed with his decision: There were three huge issues for me in this election: Iraq War, dismantling of the Geneva Convention and the illegal wiretaps!
I had intended to be active in his campaign at the local level; but now there will be no knocking on doors, no bumper stickers, no yard signs, no registering new voters and no money. The leader of the democratic party, Obama has caved in with the rest of the spineless, gutless,leaderless, clueless, democrats, to the lame duck administration of Bush/Cheney, and corporate America.
I'm going to become a spectator in this 08 election.
cleve
People who were inspired by Barack Obama's formerly common and now occasional E plabnista form of rhetoric, the apotheosis of which is the "Yes, we can!" chant, now may feel disoriented and disillusioned. It was guaranteed to happen. I don't blame Obama for this, but people ought to be trained for immunity to that kind of "inspired" feeling. I trained myself and when I hear such speech I feel "nothing".
There is a proper form of inspiring speech, however, and lately Glenn Greenwald has been practicing it with great skill. Note that Glenn does not say "Yes, we can!" without having something for us to do.
Glenn has inspired me to go pour money into the the fund to ruin the careers of the worst of the worst.
Barry Schwartz
Barack Obama lost my vote today. I'll be voting Green in November. If that helps McCain win, so be it. Fuck Obama and fuck the Democrats.
Annie Haygood
The House Democrats who voted against New FISA and the Senate Democrats who prevent it from reaching the floor or who defeat it or who at least vote against it are the Real Democrats who will be the core of a Real Democrat Party which will rise like Phoenix from the ashes of the Democratic Party. Just as soon as we can burn the Democratic Party down to the ground.
So any Real Democrat deserves to be
voted for AND supported, and any Vichy
Democrat deserves to be voted against AND opposed.
So, when does Obama scrub this statement from his web site?
"I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty. There is no reason why telephone companies should be given blanket immunity to cover violations of the rights of the American people - we must reaffirm that no one in this country is above the law.
"We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties. That is why I am proud to cosponsor several amendments that protect our privacy while making sure we have the power to track down and take out terrorists.
"This Administration continues to use a politics of fear to advance a political agenda. It is time for this politics of fear to end. We are trying to protect the American people, not special interests like the telecommunications industry. We are trying to ensure that we don't sacrifice our liberty in pursuit of security, and it is past time for the Administration to join us in that effort."
What a load.
The Dunnyrats party
At times like this I don't know why I ever put faith in this party. Hell, Republicans won't need to worry about suppressing the vote this election with our weak-kneed Democrats doing it for them. I'm not going to bother going to the voting booth to support more of the same politics as usual prettied up by empty speeches. I'm sorry but when poll after poll -- for years now -- has shown the public supports "liberal" policy and we go out of our way to pass more legislation that guts the Constitution, there is something very wrong with our politicians. Fuck them, and fuck this party. Everything that these people ever said about taking back our government was utter bullshit.
joe m. | | 5:19p |
We're going to get these motherfuckers
Professional con artists who run telephone boiler rooms to sell people bogus stocks have a term of art: "reloads".
Once the boiler room have found a prospect, made the sale over the phone and fleeced the poor schlub, they will sell the mark's contact info to another boiler room as a "reload". That new crew of crooks will call up and pose as an asset recovery operation, and tell the mark that they can get his lost cash back from the scammers. They just need a little bit of earnest money up front... And many marks will bite down on this immediately, losing even more.
Democratic primary voters = political "reloads". Taken for a ride, over and over again.
Obama: He's not the absolute worst possible candidate! So there!
Hey, I'll even buy that bumper sticker - Lather, rinse, repeat.
My gods! Is that what Stained Whore looks like?
He's like Brickley Paiste from "Bob Roberts."
.
Grand Moff Texan
Today Hoyer and Pelosi spit on the graves on those who fought and died for the Constitution including the 4th Amendment. Revenge is a dish best served cold. They will eventually get their just desserts.
As retch-inducing as this is, I take comfort in the fact that the internet has for the first time made it possible to have a ringside seat to the capitulation to corporate interests that have FOR DECADES gone largely unremarked by an overwhelming majority of the American people. The fact that a substantial number of people are able to begin discussing when and how to remove these traitorous fucks from both sides of the aisle before the fix is even fully in is really a remarkable thing.
iconoclast
293 anti-American Quislings. Each of their constituencies need to be informed that their representative thinks the Constitution and laws based on "equal justice" and precedent is no longer relevant. The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, and this sham of a FISA law are three of the worst pieces of legislation in U.S. This is not because they disrespect the American people, though they do, nor that they are aristocrats subject to different laws than other Americans, though they act as if they are, it is because they are crippling by eliminated justifications for patriotic fervor. People must respect principles and laws to maintain a civil society, but to do so they must believe that the government respects them.
I do not know who has convinced representatives that fascism is preferable to a democratic republic, but whoever it might be is an enemy of the American people, and the people must recognize their representatives for what they are.
293 of them revealed their contempt for our system of government, and their disturbing selfishness and laziness as it relates to our lost civil liberties.
Currently, the U.S. shares the distinction of four other nations in being the most intrusive on privacy, China, Russia, England, Israel.
I say sites like Kos etc. need to actively target not only Republicans, but also democrats who bend over for them. I never thought I'd see the day where legislature like this would be passed, by Democrats of all people, in the U.S. This is absolutely insane.
Obama didn't even have to take a public stand against this. All he had to do, a couple of weeks ago, was to call up Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi on the phone and tell them: "I'm the Democratic party now. If you bring this to the floor, you are dead fucking meat in my administration." He didn't do it. We have a bipartisan consensus that the Constitution is toilet paper and the Nuremberg defense is policy.
Ms. Pelosi,
Your oath of office includes this phrase"... to defend and protect the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic..."
Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution states:
"No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
Which means that by voting YEA on the FISA bill you violated your oath of office by passing an illegal and UNCONSTITUTIONAL bill -- and therefore you are guilty of treason. Meaning you are a traitor to the United States of America.
I will do everything I can to help Cindy Sheehan kick you out of office. You are a disgrace to this country.
I noticed another interesting demographic while perusing the votes on this horror.
There are 50 Dem women and 22 Rep women out of 435 reps.
37 Dem women voted against this stupid bill. Of course all the Reps voted in favor. Of the 13 Dems voting in favor, they include Pelosi, Jane Harman and a couple other mostly high-profile (read high seniority, leadership) positions. The ones who actually DID know what was going on. This actually says a couple of things to me. The leadership IS trying to CYA.
And women have a better track record on this bill than the men do.
It may be an anomaly, but I don't care. Elect MORE WOMEN - after all, we make up more than 50% of the population - why aren't we 50% of the Reps???
lokywoky | | 6:20p |
Living on floodplain considered harmful
Weather Reports Are Missing the Story
Saturday, June 21 2008 @ 02:28 PM CDT
Contributed by: Admin ( @ Infoshop )
Views: 115
North AmericaThe floodwaters are rising, swamping cities, breaching levees. Tens of thousands are displaced. Many are dead. No, I am not talking about Hurricane Katrina, but about the Midwest United States. As the floodwaters head south along the Mississippi, devastating communities one after another, the media are overflowing with televised images of the destruction. read more (778 words)
Surely our beloved reverend-leader isn't missing this story? ChuckO don't go bankrupt on us! | | 6:30p |
Cindys millstones Cindy Milstein: Hope in a Time of Elections: Movement Building at the Summer Conventions Authored by: Admin on Friday, June 20 2008 @ 11:03 AM CDT I can provide one irrefutable reason why it is so important for anarchists and other people to protest these conventions: because the U.S. government has spent millions of dollars to keep us away from these events. These conventions may be a pointless spectacle, but they do provide a significant stage for our movement to make our voice heard. If the government doesn't want us to be there, than the simple act of being at the counter-convention events is a significant act of defiance. Some of us in the Midwest recently found out more information about the government's significant effort in 2004 to keep a few dozen Midwest anarchists from even attending the conventions in New York and Boston. The government correctly understands that one good way to disrupt and disappear a movement is to make its members think twice about even attending protests. Counter-convention protests organized by anarchists in past years have led to significant gains for our movement. There are idiots out there who don't understand this and try to depress people about the state of our movement, but past convention protests have always led to longer lasting strengths for the U.S. anarchist movement. The anti-DNC protests in Chicago in 1996, for example, forged relationships and networks between anarchists who later organized the Seattle and post-Seattle protests. The 1996 Active Resistance conference met with quite a bit of police repression, including a raid on one of the conference sites. If you simply attend the upcoming counter-convention protests, you are collectively putting a big thumb into the eye of the U.S. government. If you stay at home, you will feel even more isolated and marginalized. Chuck0 [ Reply to This | # ] Cindy Milstein: Hope in a Time of Elections: Movement Building at the Summer Conventions Authored by: HPWombat on Friday, June 20 2008 @ 11:21 AM CDT It should also be pointed out that the organizers of these protests have come up with something different than a typical protest. Organizers have encouraged "swarm" and "cluster" tactics, picking sectors of activity for direct actions, smaller groups without necessarily following the protest march model. If anything, its a great way to experiment with the possibilities of alternative protest forms. --- Towards a more critical discussion http://midwest.azone.org/forum/23I just provided two solid reasons *why* people should attend these protests. If you can't read what I wrote and understand my points, there is no reason why I should have any exchange with you. This is why I don't waste my time with political discussion boards and lists these days. You can make a fucking obvious point and some person has to start arguing with you for the sake of being a pain in the ass. I'm pretty sure that Cindy would agree with my two reasons. As a long time anarchist activist, she understands that the most important reasons for doing a protest are not always the popular ones. Our movement needs to be more visible right now. I hate to put all of our eggs in the convention protest basket, but if our movement doesn't step up this year, it will probably retreat more into sectarianism and become marginalized. The state understands that. If we don't understand that, we are a bunch of collective jackasses who have no business talking to people about our vision for a better future. If the government is spending millions to stop your movement, the proper response is to give them a defiant finger and work harder to turn out people. That is the best reason I can think for why these protests are so important. We also owe it to comrades who have been persecuted over the past years for being prominent organizers of summit and convention protests. If you follow the Eric McDavid case, you should understand that the state is picking off radicals and railroading them into prison in order to scare people away from activism, or simply having radical views. Again, this is *why* people should turn out for Denver and St. Paul. Another good reason is that the convention protests provide a large platform for anarchists. Let's remember that the media did lots of features about anarchists at the conventions in 2004. If anarchists want to make political points about the U.S. political system, the convention protests give us a venue to make our words heard by a broader audience. Militant protests themselves contribute to our visibility in the years after the event. This is a lesson we learned from the post-Seattle movement. The media wasn't banging on the door of the RCP; they wanted to talk to anarchists. If you are one of those who is skeptical about talking to the media, please be aware that a visible protest movement brings people to our groups, our infoshops, and our websites. One of the main reasons why traffic to this website declined a few years ago is because anarchists took their black flags and went home to pout. If we aren't out there, organizing strikes, organizing direct action or protesting, we are out of people's minds. People don't give a flying fuck if we have the world's best political statement or group. They get interested when they see anarchists doing something, hopefully something that people can relate to. I agree with Cindy that this is one of those moments which have lots of potential for anarchists. Americans are greatly alienated by the U.S. political system. They are hostile towards other institutions. In the past, the right wing stepped in to exploit these feelings. This year, Americans will vote Obama into office because they desperately want somebody "different" in office. But starting next year, they will find out that Obama represents business as usual. Anarchists should be out there talking about our ideas in relation to the zeitgeist of Americans. We are fools if we keep arguing over obvious points or engage in stupid sectarianism. Chuck0 http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2008milstein-2008elections#comments | | 6:36p |
Destroy all Globocops Athens - Arson attacks by left-wing anarchists in Greece continued Friday, with overnight attacks on three branches of a Greek fast food chain, two branches of a Korean car company, a sport shop and two banks in the capital and the northern port of Thessaloniki. Twelve cars were badly damaged, as were the facades of the businesses, the fire service reported. Nobody was injured in the attacks, which involved several household gas bottles tied together that were then set alight. Left-wing groups and anarchists have been carrying out repeated attacks of this type in recent times, with more than 20 since the beginning of the year. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/212133,several-arson-attacks-carried-out-in-athens-and-thessaloniki.html | | 6:49p |
Far be it for me to...
...prolong the miserable life of the Vichy Democratic-socialist movement in the Anglosphere.
But surely the problems are obvious now in America, Au and the UK. A relatively small combine of lunar-right, Corpse media and collaborators/traitors/rats-in-the-ranks.
Now if democratic-socialists can't deal with this then they clearly can't deal with external threats.
Weak and worthless doesn't begin to describe Brown, Rudd and Barry lately.
After 100 odd years its time they hung up the shingle because it doesn't even mean spit anymore.
Can't bowl, can't catch and can't fight. Hasta la vista all you poncy pretenders.
Stand back and let a real libertarian socialist pitch. | | 7:01p |
Darfur background http://www.amazon.co.uk/Khartoum-Ultimate-Adventure-Michael-Asher/dp/0140258558Best book on the Sudan campaigns by far, 23 May 2006 By cousineerie "cousineerie" (Venezuela) - See all my reviews This review is from: Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure (Hardcover) What makes Michael Asher's book superior to all the other books covering the British military experience in the Sudan at the end of the 19th Century is his knowledge of the Sudanese side of the conflict. He is able, therefore, to paint a much more complete picture of both sides of the war where previous authors have tended to stick to the European sources and have lacked the first hand experience of the Sudan itself and its many, varied tribes. Asher has a slightly unusual (but convincingly argued) take on many of the personalities of the story, especially senior British military figures. For instance, he is very critical of Fred Burnaby and Redvers Buller but has a high opinion of Charles Wilson who was made the scapegoat for the failure to break the siege of Khartoum. Again this is an example of Asher's own professional experience allowing him to sidestep the contemporary prejudice for and against these men - Asher served in both the Paras and the SAS and clearly has little time for the amateurish, if colourful, attitudes of many Victorian officers. Written in a gripping style and about as complete an account as you could hope to find Khartoum cannot be recommended too highly for readers interested in 19th Century history. - AMAZON review I'm only half-way through but its pretty good so-far. Names like Buller and Burnaby ring a bell. | | 7:07p |
Night of the Hunter
Why Do We Care About FISA?
by Hunter
Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 06:45:10 PM PDT
So, why have activists spent so much effort opposing retroactive corporate immunity as part of new FISA legislation, when there are so many other things in the world to be outraged about? Why do so many people care so much about a mere technical issue such as whether such-and-such is legal or illegal?
I can count three reasons.
1. It goes to the heart of illegal actions by this administration. The Bush administration has broken law after law, and been enmeshed in scandal after scandal, and been met with no substantive actions. There are investigations that never end; there are stern letters that are never answered; there are subpoenas that are simply ignored. So to respond to a clearly illegal act by, of all possible things, writing legislation that offers retroactive immunity for those acts, maintains the secrecy of those acts, and declares that the Bush administration itself will be responsible for the future integrity of those acts -- it is patently asinine. It is an insult. It demonstrates a complete lack of regard for the law, and for the very responsibilities of each branch of government. In this, it is symbolic of the entire current Congress, which has proved itself all but nonfunctional when it comes to checking abuses by the executive branch -- or even by their own branch.
2. It is a Constitutional question, and of a sort that the administration has fought long and hard to cripple. Among the more basic premises of the Bill of Rights is the notion of probable cause; your government may not conduct searches or seizures without a warrant, and the judicial branch shall judge the merit of those warrants. But the Bush administration wishes simply nullify that entire concept, if those searches are electronic in nature. It takes no imagination at all to observe that once one type of widespread, warrantless, causeless electronic search is deemed to be outside of 4th Amendment protections, an entire series of other electronic searches will follow. That is, after all, the entire reason the Bush administration pursued these searches illegally, rather than attempting to change FISA law in advance; they have every intention of creating a precedent for future searches, and they now have been given exactly that.
3. It was easy. I mean, Jesus H. Christmas, it has been the easiest thing in the world -- all they had to do was not do it. It's not freakin' rocket science -- but thanks to the efforts of a number of Democrats, not just Rockefeller and Hoyer but people like Reid and Pelosi, they just couldn't not put immunity in. We were never told why it was so all-fired important -- they would never grace us with any non-childish, non-condescending, non-flagrantly-insulting explanation. But instead of just not passing bills granting immunity, we had Reid treating Dodd more shabbily than he ever treated any Republican, and Hoyer apparently going around Pelosi, and all manner of prodding and dealing by Democrats to get immunity for these acts. It is baffling, and the only rationale available seems to be the most cynical one -- it is merely doing the bidding of companies that provide substantive campaign contributions. No other explanation would seem to suffice.
So those are the reasons. Because of all the issues we've faced, in the last few years, this one was an absolute no-brainer, the one thing that the Democrats, no matter how stunningly incompetent, humiliatingly ineffective or bafflingly capitulating they may be, could manage to win simply by sitting on their damn hands. But no; it took serious work to lose on this one. Serious, burning-the-midnight-oil work to manage to quite so cravenly negate their own oversight duties.
And that is why this will not be forgotten anytime soon. A caucus willing to go to these lengths to satisfy the illegalities of the Bush administration is not one that can easily be defended. It is understandable that it would take a great deal of courage to enforce Congressional subpoenas. We can understand that voting against funding for the war could be risky, if we were to presume that Bush would simply keep the troops in the Iraqi desert to rot regardless of funding.
But this one? This petty, stinking issue of granting retroactive immunity to companies that violated the law, such that they need not even say how they violated the law, or when they violated the law, or how often, or against who, and the whole thing started before 9/11 so it is clear that terrorism wasn't even a prime factor for doing it -- that whole mess is now absolved, no lawsuits, no discovery, no evidence allowed to be presented?
No, that one is indefensible. It is indefensible because it requires not just passive acceptance of a corrupt administration performing illegal acts, but legislators actively condoning those acts with the stroke of a pen. The Democrats are determined to set themselves as partners in committing crimes, then absolving them; there should be nothing but contempt for such acts.
* Permalink ::
* Discuss (401 comments) KOS | | 7:26p |
Barry rang
Barack Obama Thinks You're Stupid
by Hunter
Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 08:45:08 AM PDT
We'll include Barack Obama in the mix of politicians that apparently think all you who were following the FISA debates are as dumb as day-old pill bugs, and it's depressing as hell to have to do so. He may be the Democratic nominee, but he can still write a milquetoast, self-congratulatory justification for choosing the easy way out with the best of them.
You know, I don't mind politicians not agreeing with me much of the time. Or most of the time. And at this point, I'm more than used to various parts of our Constitution being considered strictly optional, and being given away like beads at Mardi Gras.
But it does grate, immeasurably, when they feed us bull and tell us it's candy. I had hoped that, given the length of time it took Obama to come up with a statement, they were going to come up with something substantive. Instead, it appears they were using that time to come up with an assortment of logic-insulting bunk.
[...] Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over.
No. It will not be "over", it will just be made retroactively legal so that it can continue. I suppose technically the "illegal" part of it will be over, so it isn't technically the baldfaced lie it sounds like -- so kudos for bending the language like Beckham, but that's not really what most people would consider that phrase to mean.
It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance – making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future.
No, it really doesn't. Because FISA never went away -- it doesn't need "restoring". FISA is FISA. It was FISA, it is FISA. The only reason FISA would need "restoring" is if we are all willing to accept that it had been invalidated entirely by the president's actions -- that the president was not only able to simply break the law, but managed to erase it from the books entirely on his own say-so.
That's absurd. That's asinine. A law does not need "restoring" when it is violated, it needs enforcing. And given that the Democrats have latched onto a piece of legislation designed explicitly to prevent that from ever happening in any meaningful way, there is nothing to be the slightest bit proud of. It is complete acceptance of an illegal program, dressed up as hard-fought victory, and by God the Democrats responsible for it and voting for it, Obama included, naturally presume that if they type up some lovely-sounding bullcrap about it, they'll be able to pretend it is something other than strategically planned and executed cowardice in the face of lawbreaking.
It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.
It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. [...]
The glowing embrace of the right-wing and administration logic used to foist corporate immunity to lawbreaking upon us: President Bush is so terribly put upon that he cannot possibly follow existing law in conducting espionage against American citizens, and nobody should expect him to, so we must urgently change the law.
But FISA was not expiring. FISA was not falling into a legislative black hole. It continued to exist, as the exclusive means for electronic surveillance of the American people, and all it required was a warrant, and all the warrant required was probable cause. That's it. That's what this entire, months-long parade of panic, bluster and torn hair has been about, that it was just too damn difficult for the administration to be asked to show two sentences of probable cause to a judge in a secret hearing before collecting whatever electronic information about you, your neighbors, your family, your friends, everyone in your town, everyone in your social organizations, everyone in every restaurant you've ever been to, etc., etc., etc. they wanted to collect.
And if you object to it, then even Barack Obama will hold the threat of imminent Terror over your head as justification for why we should ignore past violations of Constitutional rights and declare a massive, flag-waving, star-spangled do over that simply declares there's no more problem.
Oh, but don't worry. The Bush administration is charged with coming up with a "thorough review" of what the Bush administration did, in order to tell us all about whether or not they did anything wrong. Yes, let's all stand in awe that, after all that has happened the last seven years, there are still entire collections of Democrats who think that having the administration investigate itself will solve the problem. I'm not sure whether to laugh, to cry, or to simply throw my hands up at the whole thing.
I'm not sure which frightens me more, the thought that the people leading my nation could be so damn gullible, or the thought that they aren't -- but they're counting on us to be. If the Democrats are going to be so fired up about demanding that they be allowed cave on basic protections, lest the Republicans treat them cruelly in future elections, they could at least have the decency to not insult our intelligence while they're doing it.
That is my primary objection, here. Democrats: if you're going to cave, just cave. Don't draft up flagrantly insulting talking points that pretend you've gotten something in return -- you haven't. You haven't gotten squat, except for the knowledge that the illegal is now legal, that past illegalities will be swept under the rug, and that future illegalities will be met with no action more substantive than a few harshly worded reports.
We all know how much money the telecommunications companies spent "lobbying" you for this legislation; fine. So just come out and say it -- you can't piss off corporate contributors that are that important, so the Fourth Amendment can go suck eggs. We all know you don't have any confidence you can both stand up for the rule of law and get reelected in the face of conservative demands that our laws be considered obsolete in the face of our own pants-wetting fear; fine. So just say that, and quit painting us as rubes who won't know any better if you shove a few noble-sounding sentences our way.
It's beyond insulting.
* Permalink ::
* Discuss (1078 comments) KOS | | 7:35p |
You know...
You know
If someone wants to defend propaganda-of-the-deed... at Anarchoblogs ...or anywhere, more power to them.
However if they're reasonably articulate and knowledgeable, is it to much to ask that they join in regular polemics with dim light-bulb Platformists on the side of anarchist praxis?
As anarchists you and I both well know that activism-for-activisms-sake is no vice - just so rewriting anarchist history is no virtue. Diversity-of-tactics is anarchy by other means. If you believe in that then for fucks sake stand behind all yr fine words. Stand up, stand up for anarchy.
You know | | 8:01p |
The torturers code
Tempting as it is to hark back as far as that code-for-torturers, the Hammurabi code, we might confine ourselves tonite to the set of torture approving lawyers of the last 90 years. These lawyers did not fall from the sky and indeed many regarded or seem to regard themselves as salt-of-the-earth types.
Or at the very least in close touch with proletarian types like Malinowsky and Stalin.
So we quickly see a close relationship or thread running from Lenin - through Schmitt - the 'worker-lawyers' of the Leninist and Nazi states, Kissinger, Che, Mitchell, Meese, Dershowitz, Instapundit, Yoo, Bagaric, Volockh and etc...the law is not just an ass. Its a clear and present danger. | | 10:25p |
Mummy Mummy! The anarchists are picking on me! http://www.leftwrites.net/2008/05/28/masocialistprayermeeting/'...Comment by Dave Latham June 21, 2008 @ 9:28 pm I suspect the reason why Marxists ‘babble’ about history is because they have been implicated in the horrors of Stalinism and wish to distinguish themselves from that monstrosity. Anarchists has never had to defend their politics in the same way because they have rarely troubled the ruling class and certainly don’t today. As for the claim that there is a present to be dealt with, that’s a valid point but hardly a revelation to Marxists. Few anarchists today, except the rare coin like abloke, bother themselves concretely with ‘class struggle politics’ in any meaningful way. Carping on about class politics does not a class fighter make. I suspect the reason is that abloke’s anarchism is of the syndicalist stripe, whereas most anarchism today is lost to the dead-end of trendy identity poliics...' Another cheerful nail in Gregs ( ablokeimet) coffin. Carry on embalming. | | 10:32p |
Socialist day school
Bob Gould
'...What we really face is a period of public discussion among socialists with a minimum of exclusions, directed towards a rational regroupment of socialist forces.
To this end, I have very modest proposal. What’s to prevent us all holding some kind of socialist day school on a Sunday in the major cities: say Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth initially? In a carefully organised way, with plenty of discussion from the floor, the different point of view could be put. Just one day of prepared discussion on socialist organisation and history, possibly with written contributions beforehand.
Such discussion could include Socialist Alternative, Solidarity, the DSP and RSP, the Socialist Party, representatives of the anarcho syndicalists, socialists working in the Labor Party, the Greens and the trade union movement, and even smaller groups in cities where they exist.
Such a serious discussion might just be the beginning of a useful clarification of ideas and orientations. The deal should be that the groups that agree to speak should make a serious effort to get their members along.
That’s my modest proposal. What do people think?...'
I think we should limit this to the last ninety years - ie within living human memory - and maybe start with the CHEKA repression of the anarchists in April /May 1918, Petrograd and Moscow. Comrade Bob?
Yr thoughts on this rational regroupment? |
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