Citing Four-Day Old Surveillance Law, Bush Seeks Dismissal of Lawsuit Challenging NSA Spying

These guys are just unbelievable. They really plan everything out and go for all the angles, don't they? At least when it comes to political maneuvering anyway. When it comes to planning stuff in the real world, like occupations and recovery from catastrophic events, they're not so good.

Who is/are the planner/s? Cheney? Rove? Addington? I can't see Gonzo and the Shrub having the brains to think this stuff through.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/09/3075/

by Ted Rall

NEW YORK–”This is not a crime about thought,” says the assistant U.S. attorney. Then what is it? Mahmud Faruq Brent, a 30-year-old D.C. taxi driver, is about to spend the next 15 years behind bars for “conspiring to support a terrorist organization.” No one, not even prosecutors, believes that the Ohio-born Brent planned to attack the United States. Brent was convicted of supporting Lakshar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group in Pakistan, and of attending one of its training camps.

“This defendant took action and he offered himself to a terrorist organization,” explains the prosecutor. But all the “action” took place in the would-be jihadi’s brain. There was no terrorist act. There was no crime.

[...]

much more at the link

This is all really confusing and will take Glenn and others to sort out, but just reading some of the motion that Wired linked to, these stand out to me, anyway:

Indeed, now that Congress, in returning to the balance it generally struck when it enacted FISA in 1978, has expressly clarified that surveillance directed at individuals reasonably believed to be outside the United States does not constitute electronic surveillance as defined in FISA, Plaintiffs cannot claim that any alleged surveillance directed at individuals outside the United States violates FISA, the Administrative Procedure Act, or the separation of powers doctrine.

anonymousliberal.com wrote about the above today.

Also, there seems to be some kind of coverage for whatever programs this new law covers that were in effect at the time the update was enacted:

Finally, the statute expires 180 days after the date of enactment, although authorizations for the acquisition of foreign intelligence information pursuant to the statute shall remain in effect until their expiration, and the Government has the option during the 180 days to continue to seek the FISC’s authorization or reauthorization of surveillance under the provisions of FISA as they existed on the day before enactment of these amendments.

http://wonkette.com//politics/tests-bush-can-pass-dept%27

President Healthier Than Dollar

The President’s medical history was released today — and he’s in considerably better shape than us.

[...] Apparently he had Lyme disease last year? No one told us!

Where the hell is this guy coming into contact with a tick, though? Doesn’t he have people who are supposed to jump in front of ticks for him or something?

- - wonkette.com

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/151/11/1571

The American Journal of Psychiatry; November 1994

Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:1571-1583
Lyme disease: a neuropsychiatric illness

BA Fallon and JA Nields
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York.

[...] Up to 40% of patients with Lyme disease develop neurologic involvement of either the peripheral or central nervous system.

[...] A broad range of psychiatric reactions have been associated with Lyme disease including paranoia, dementia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, major depression, anorexia nervosa, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

- - The American Journal of Psychiatry; November 1994

This is the most disingenuous stuff I've seen in a while:

Washington PostPresident Bush was treated a year ago for what appears to have been Lyme disease, the White House said yesterday in disclosing the results of his annual physical exam.

A report of the president's recent medical examination said his case had "complete resolution" and was "without recurrence" since being treated last August. The illness, an infection carried by deer ticks that is prevalent in the Northeastern United States, had not been previously revealed.

While untreated Lyme disease can cause arthritis, an abnormal heart rhythm and problems with the nervous system, those complications usually can be prevented by taking antibiotics at an early stage of the infection. The medical record did not describe the details of the president's therapy.

Up to 15 percent of people treated for Lyme disease later complain of symptoms such as fatigue and muscle pain. Whether that is a consequence of the infection is uncertain and a matter of controversy. Chronic pain and tiredness are extremely common in adults; whether people who have had Lyme disease suffer from those problems in higher numbers is unknown.

This is being cited in Froomkin in the context of the fact that President Bush has been having attacks of vertigo in recent weeks, which are being attributed to recovery from an upper respiratory tract infection.

How interesting that (as Jim White's example points to) not one word about the fact that protracted Lyme disease has cognitive problems and deficits as one of the symptoms -- problems with the nervous system indeed! Or that what looks like a "complete resolution" is sometimes an illusion. Why bring it up during the current vertigo if it is totally unrelated?

Is this like Reagan? After he's out of office you find out he isn't mentally all there?

Has he ever been there? Did the serious people think it was good of him to allow Ctheney to choose himself as veep (a conversation I had with some people prior to Nov. 2000)?

Just asking.

Two days ago I posted a comment wondering about the transmissions of electronic intelligence via humans, this just happens to be human collection devices instead. Didn't expect to be vindicated so soon, but I told you guys you needed to think like an algorithm developer.

Here's the advanced algorithm developer part: The Supremes already ruled that Guantanamo wasn't in a foreign country. So this gives you an idea as to what they think is "foreign intelligence" and who can reasonably be outside the U.S. -- like maybe the person who told the Guantanamo prisoner the information over the phone that the U.S. interrogator wants to know.