The New York Times today: http://tinyurl.com/yuokqx

Editorial

Limiting Power’s ‘Natural Tendency'

Published: November 21, 2007

After a long and frightening period of acquiescence, Congressional Democrats are standing up to President Bush’s assault on civil liberties — demanding an end to spying on Americans without court supervision.

[snip]

Here are some red lines for this debate:

SUNSET The law must have an expiration date.

[snip]

COURTS AND WARRANTS Any new law must include real supervision by the special FISA court.

[snip]

AMNESTY The telecommunications companies must not get amnesty. Lawsuits against them must be allowed to proceed, in the interest of the rule of law and also to force disclosure of the nature and extent of the lawless eavesdropping that began after Sept. 11, 2001. (continued)

Those who are enamored of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations tend to forget Adam Smith also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

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Also from the NY Times: http://tinyurl.com/29zh2l

Wiretap Issue Leads Judge to Warn of Retrial in Terror Case

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: November 21, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — A federal judge warned Tuesday that if the government did not allow lawyers to review classified material on possible wiretapping of an Islamic scholar convicted of inciting terrorism, she might order a new trial for him.

The unexpected development is the latest legal complication involving the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program, which has produced challenges from criminal defendants as well as civil lawsuits against the government and phone carriers....

Given that the regulars here tolerate me with a good deal of 'charity,' they'll be *more* than pleased to have you.

Welcome aboard! I look forward to your thoughts and ideas.

Unclaimed Territory was Glenn's original blog at: http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/

Not quite sure how he decided on that particular name; doubtless, someone here knows. But, I submit that unless we get this next election right, Unclaimed Territory is likely to be the epitaph on our Constitution.

As the thread winds down and we drift off towards Thanksgiving...

I hadn't seen this before, but it's a good laugh. Thanks to Jane Hamsher at FDL for resurrecting it.

Just Shoot Me

Joe Klein jumps the shark.

Charles P. Pierce | February 24, 2006

The American Prospect

http://tinyurl.com/32pdrv

Or, you should be able to click on my signature.

Have a great holiday, All.

This old NY Times Magazine article appears to support your point. Yanking a couple of graphs out of the first page:

REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift

By STANLEY KARNOW; STANLEY KARNOW'S MOST RECENT BOOK IS ''IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICA'S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES,'' TO BE PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH BY RANDOM HOUSE, FROM WHICH THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED. Published: March 19, 1989

...Marcos constantly - sometimes desperately - sought American approval. And for years, though he abused human rights and, with his wife, Imelda, plundered the country of billions of dollars, the United States coddled him for the sake of its Philippine bases. As Franklin D. Roosevelt had said, justifying his support of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, ''He may be an S.O.B., but he's our S.O.B.''

Ronald Reagan, by contrast, genuinely cherished the Marcoses. In 1969, Governor and Mrs. Reagan visited Manila, where Imelda's opulent parties dazzled them. From then on, Reagan, impressed by Marcos's exaggerated stories of his exploits as an anti-Japanese guerrilla, counted him among the world's ''freedom fighters'' in the struggle against Communism. In Reagan's eyes, as one of his aides mused later, Marcos was ''a hero on a bubble-gum card he had collected as a kid.''...

http://tinyurl.com/ywqs86 or, click on my signature