John Ashcroft was hospitalized with severe pancreatitis caused by gallstones, not because he was having an appendectomy. Based on the experience of several people I know who suffered from pancreatitis, it is severely disorienting due to extreme pain. He was hospitalized on March 4, and his gallbladder was removed March 9. He was released from the hospital on March 14, and returned to work on March 31. This incident took place on March 11. It seems reasonable to me that he would have been disoriented 2 days after surgery that required more than 3 weeks to recover from. Tony Snow is a monster and a liar.

I agree with those who have stated that the value of predictive data that can be mined from the reams of information that the maladministration seems bent on collecting on everyone approaches zero.

However, the value in its use to find usable information about a known individual is high. If they have all of your internet/phone/financial records, what could they do with it?

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.(via brainyquote)

Of course, with this administration, we would need two lines, tops, from any of them.

violate law, or ignore it just because he thought somebody's life was in danger.

Personally, and after having served in the military for this reason, I would rather lay down my life then have anyone break any law what-so-ever. The oath of Office I took, and the oath that Bush took, was to defend the US Constitution. It says nothing about lives.

Without law, and the rule of law, life is really not worth very much, is it. A pound of flesh, no more, no less....

I am indeed "one of those guys" who think it's O.K. for the President of the United States to protect American lives whatever the cost, even if it means his impeachment.

Careful, son. Selling your soul for pocket change invariably leaves you shortchanged.

Besides, its not George W Bush or his crew who are actually 'paying the price' for their poor decisions; its the rest of us.

But you don't think that way, do you? Your eyes are fixed on The Afterlife, aren't they?

The Comey story is the lead story in today's NY Times. Their headline is, "Bush Intervened in Dispute Over N.S.A. Eavesdropping". There's also a color photo of James B. Comey on the Times front page.

According to "Today's Papers" @ SLATE, other national newspapers didn't lead with the story but did put it on the front page.

The top 3 stories at Memeorandum as of this moment are
1. The Republican presidential candidates
2. "Comey's tale" (and Glenn Greenwald's commentary)
3. "War czar" Douglas Lute

The U.S. Attorney story built, built, built because of the drip, drip, drip.

But now what? Will the press educate the public about what the OLC is and what it means when the OLC says there's no legal justification for a program? Or will the warrantless wiretapping story just fade away? After all, noted legal scholar John Hinderaker has pointed out that

It's an interesting story. But, based on what we know, it is not clear that there is anything discreditable anywhere in it.

So, obviously, it would be foolish of the media and/or the Congress to try to clear up this muddled (by the White House) story. Don't you know there's a war on?

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10882
The Case for Bombing Iran
Norman Podhoretz

Wag the dog, anybody?

Didn't Specter conclude that Comey was saying that the program wasn't illegal? Comey didn't appear to be willing to say either way but it's certainly implicit that it wasn't legal under any recognized legal theory.

Specter is a hack.

What limits his behaviour then? If he can break the law at will to "protect americans" who gets to oversee that he really is making reasonable judgments about what is needed to "protect"?

I mean, how aggressive should the defence be? Killing every Muslim would really solve the problem wouldn't it? Or locking them all up. Japanese Internment camps are regarded as a severe blight on FDR.

Finally, what makes you think the US faces anywhere near the threat posed by Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union?

The combined military power of every majority Muslim country on earth couldn't seriously threaten the United States.

Even if terrorists got a nuke, that wouldn't comprise an existential threat to the entire country.

Action and reaction must be in accordance. FDR was facing a meglomaniac who had proved capable of conquering the entire world left unchecked. Osama can't even show his face in public lest a cruise missile find him.

It's all hype.

Finally, you seem to accept prima facie the notion that it is necessary to break the law in order to protect americans. Why? What necessitates this? Why can't the programs be under warrants? And if not, why isn't the president requesting actual changes to FISA to make the programs legal with solid rationale and good example cases of where the law would actually result in undue risk to US lives.

Just because he says so is not good enough for us. Accepting the statements of leaders blindly on faith is something fascists do. It is the antithesis of a democratic value (small d). Bush is ruining everything that makes the US worth defending in his defence of it. The ultimate Pyrrhic victory.

"But the fact is that there were strong protections in there, this program has saved lives and it's vital for national security and furthermore has been reformed in a bipartisan way."

Beginning a sentence with "the fact is" = hey, fellow RWAs, the following is a lie to placate smooth this over and continue operating our illegal cabal to transfer every cent of the treasury into your pockets.

"there were strong protections in there" = the law said not to do it, but we did it anyway.

"this program" = oh, if you only knew what we're doing in OTHER programs, heh heh heh.

"has saved lives" = some of our people would just die if the money train stopped cold.

"it's vital for national security" = it's vital for holding control over groups and individuals that could limit our power.

"reformed in a bipartisan way" = we steamrolled democrats and the media into signing off on it.