No time to inform yourself of your civil liberties being taken from you, Mr. Klein? Spoken like a Good German. It is unfortunate that you have so much company in demonstating a lack of professionalism, but refreshing to see you called on the carpet at long last.

An intelligence community source who deals with the FISA court told me he believed the word "persons" could be interpreted by the court to mean individuals. A Democratic source from the House Intelligence Committee referred me 50USC1801(m), which defines persons as "an individual or any group, entity or foreign power." In other words, Al Qaeda is a "person."

Joe Klein

Joe goes on to debate this with himself. There are answers further down the bill that he quoted one paragraph of. It calls an individual quite specifically a "natural person". It makes special accommodations for the rights of those. The intelligence person doesn't seem to know this, even though that person is someone who deals with the FISA court.

So can we get that person's name, please? S/he's on the public payroll and reads as well as Joe Klein. Time Magazine I can refuse to buy, intelligence sources I can't. So I don't want my limited tax dollars paying his/her salary. A minimal requirement for an "intelligence source" would be literacy, or maybe simple honesty.

If you assume that Klein has an anti-dem agenda (and it's either assume that or assume he is an idiot) then, rather than wonder at his breathtaking lapse in journalistic standards, admire him for hitting one out of the park for his team. The story combined with the accompanying photo and caption in Time magazine is certainly a spectacular effort in character assassination, and to have done it in such a national venue indicates that Mr. Klein is not a terrible journalist, for it can be fair to say he is not a journalist at all, but an extremely effective operative for whomever he represents.

I can only hope I should be as successful in any endeavor I undertake.

I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who's right.

There are so many things wrong with this, but I am fascinated with the "who's right" part. It is not a matter finding the truth, but which side is right. It is not a matter of starting with information and trying to reach the truth through reason, it is a matter of justifying spoon fed conclusions after the fact.

Glenn, carve this turkey to the bone.

Forgot one thing: This behavior that Glenn finds painful to watch has a name. It's a modified limited hangout. Used to be the hallmark of an office run by a crook.

Unfortunately I had only one Time subscription to give for my country and I canceled it with righteous indignation a couple of years ago.

I wish I could think of something to do now, though, because Mr. Klein couldn't be more wrong in his headline "FISA: More Than You Want to Know." There are few things in the world that I care more about than my Constitutional rights.

Doesn't it go without saying: if Klein doesn't have the time or background to understand what he's writing about, then he ought not to write about it? Doesn't anyone at Time agree with that? ~GG

No.

Your post earlier today made that very clear.

What isn’t clear yet is whether your very detailed, methodical and concise exposition of Klein’s incompetence to opine on this subject (reaffirmed by a wide variety of experts with both the time and background to know what they’re talking about) will actually affect Time’s and Klein’s lackadaisical journalism.

“Shameful ‘Journalism’” is not a phrase that will go unnoticed in the dark bowels of Time Inc. where they might not care that much about journalism, but “brand” is still a marketing concept that means something to them.

And it is in this realm that Glenn has drawn blood. Although he used basic good reporting, common sense, and a legal scalpel with surgical precision, the wound he left – the embarrassment – was a blunt one indeed.

It will leave a scar.

We require him to report WHAT is right.

God, I'm fed up with these people.

I know I am.

As I daily witness to the media's ever more thinly disguised pretense at reporting news I become more afraid as it becomes increasingly clear that at some point it dawned on them that the long-term financial rewards from choosing to be propaganda machines are simply too great to resist. For some time, the media has been termed 'the fourth estate' or fourth branch of government.

This has never been more true, but the MSM are unfortunately now a fourth branch of a government that is beyond out of control and bend over backwards to accommodate Bushco's rampant gutting of the Constitution. The world is very concerned and watching very closely. I say so with authority because I am Canadian and I have been increasingly consumed by this great concern since the election of 2000.

I don't know who I would hope to win the 2008 Presidential election, aside from Kuchinich, but I only know that its at least time to change parties. These people are craving Armageddon.

One final note: it looks like there won't be another Woodward and Bernstein charging to the rescue this time around.

I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who's right.

I figure that Joe Klein is being ever so flippant and defensively dismissive with that quote, but I see some other connotation behind it.

Shouldn't that sentence be followed immediately by, "And so, I hereby submit my resignation to Time Magazine as a Time Magazine opinion/columnist".?

The sad thing about this is that at the end of the day, Time actually wins out. First, their resident bonehead gets his facts wrong resulting in a severe uptick in pageviews at Swampland (where they're selling Jaguars by the way)

In the meantime the 5,000,000 or so people who rely on the print edition will see the original article which trashes the Democrats and then next month will see a one page treatment that "covers the controversy", offering the he said/she said analysis of the bill and creating additional plausability for the ridiculous interpretation that graces Joe's current post.