If taxation without representation is tyranny, what is surveillance without representation?

Freedom?

I feel like I'm trapped in a Fellini movie.

Is it just me, or does it seem in the last 3 to 4 weeks that the coup has come out in the open? Things that were hidden before are now right out there. We need to torture. We need to spy on Americans and protect the telcos. Etc., Etc.,

If taxation without representation is tyranny, what is surveillance without representation?

Freedom?

No, it's something much, much more important -- Safety. And Protection by our Government.

The lack of regard for the law, the willingness to lie to the public and the blatant fear mongering carried on by this administration is so extreme, and so longstanding, as to hardly generate outrage anymore. It's as if you've been tortured for years, so what is a little tweak of your nose now.

Given that Congress, in their fecklessness and deep misunderstanding of the public mood, their responsibilities and the seriousness of the situation, have refused to impeach this criminal lot there is not much we can do. Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts will not be honored by history for their political cowardice. Allowing some of the wrongdoing to be brought to light is also essential, hence the vital importance of non-immunity.

Just sit tight for nine more months and the felons that make up the Bush executive will be out of power. All we can do is hope that President Obama and an overwhelmingly Democratic Senate and House will set things right. While we still must do all we can to prevent further damage by those now in power, we must now concentrate on holding the incoming "heroes" feet to the fire and to their promises.

Will the Dems ever figure out how to respond to the republican propoganda machine?? Gheeze, its not rocket science folks. The know exactly how to manipulate Americans. They runs idiotic TV spots telling Americans that if we don't give Bush everything he wants we will all die. Why don't the Dems run TV spots showing a series of of regular American citizens in every town USA taking to their spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, business partners, kids on the telepone and on the split screen showing some scary looking government type sitting in a dark room listening to every word. Its all about images and language folks. Its not that complicated. Instead the Dems never respond to this crap and instead cower in fear and eventually capitulate. I don't under why the Dems are so WEAK! Bush has a 29% approval rating. Did all the Dems flunk math in school??

Via a link on Antiwar.com, apparently some telecoms got scared and are refusing to spy on us without a warrant.

Link to the story: http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=56603

Exhume and resurrect Lewis Carroll, only he could write the history of this bunch. That this bunch will escape impeachment proceedings bodes ill for the future of the nation.

Am I the only one who is beginning to think that Mukasey is worse as an AG than Gonzales? The difference I see is that where Gonzale is transparently a bumbler and a fool, Mukasey has "gravitas" and having that, he can hide a semblance of hewing to the law while trashing it. In other words, he is a much smoother liar and evader than Gonzales, and that got him the job.

It seems significant to me, and part of the larger problem, that even in an expose, the newspaper blandly states, "....without warrants ordinarily required for such searches." Ordinarily? Would a newspaper write, "without a license ordinarily required to drive a car?" Of course not. That's the kind of crime little people commit, and has no ifs, ands, buts, or "ordinarily's."

It seems that government lawlessness has become so ingrained in our culture that even investigative reporters proceed on Nixon's famous principle, novel at the time but no more, that, "if the President does it, is not illegal."

Just a tad out of the ordinary.

From McConnell/Mukasey:

Specifically, you assert that the National Security Agency (NSA) or Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) "may begin surveillance immediately" in an emergency situation. FISA requires far more, and it would be illegal to proceed as you suggest].

Question: Just what exactly was "illegal" about proceeding as Reyes suggested? It's my understanding that FISA allows warrants to be requested retroactively in an emergency, so no loss of surveillance occurs while awaiting court approval.

Perhaps it would have been "illegal" because the wiretapping targets were far outside the statutory scope of FISA, and no judge would ever have granted a warrant.

More like a Hitchcock movie, maybe?

Your link is to the same AP (Pamela Hess) item as Glenn Greenwald linked to, but you're highlighting another question raised by the story, which is, what are the telecom companies doing?

(Assuming that some of them are, in fact, actually attempting to validate the legal basis for some requests, now.)

My interpretation is that some telecoms may have questioned whether an extension or modification of a grandfathered warrantless wiretapping order is actually covered by the old warrantless PAA order, or, instead, is actually a new order which would now be governed by the old (pre-August 2007) version of FISA.

Question: Just what exactly was "illegal" about proceeding as Reyes suggested? It's my understanding that FISA allows warrants to be requested retroactively in an emergency, so no loss of surveillance occurs while awaiting court approval.

Their point -- and it's true -- is that the Government can't just start eavesdropping with no warrants any time they feel like it under FISA. Even for the emergency provisions, some procedural requirements must be met -- specifically, the AG or a designee must certify that it's likely that the FISA court would find probable cause for the eavesdropping. So some process is required even for FISA's emergency, no-warrant 72-hour eavesdropping provision.

They really do have an amazing vetting process. They can find candidates like the M&M boys in this article who appear to have an ethical view of their profession and somehow know that they have candidates that will do anything their masters ask. The Ultimate Dark One, whom I have formerly referred to as the “The Dick,” must have a dark heart apparatus that either determines that the majority of the heart is dark or finds blackmail details that can be used to force the darkest behavior. UDO has to go down as the most Machiavellian figure in US history.

I know UDO is behind all this because my smile/sneer detector is almost as good as his dark heart/blackmail detector and since Rove and others have left the White House disaster scene, darkness still pervades over every decision. The fact the M&M boys haven’t been repulsed by that Repug ad and could utter such dishonest drivel on FISA, shows the accuracy of UDO’s dectector.

I wouldn’t be surprised that he used the detector on McCain because our war hero has fooled a lot of people, including me for too long, and still does. Yet during the most critical time in his ego-driven career, McCain lets the dark heart come out as it has in his farcical denial of the truth about Iseman, Paxson and lobbyists.

I have to admit that McCain has fully challenged my smile/sneer detector’s validity. But when you take a very careful look you can see the smile is manufactured and when he is lying there are subtle differences that can be detected. Those differences will become more and more apparent when Obama trounces him in November because I believe the Repug thugs have been given enough rope to hang themselves and they are dutifully rallying to the cause and showing their dark hearts for more and more Americans to recognize and become revolted and disgusted by. They don’t know it, but UDO is their worst liability, as they and good-hearted Republicans are sadly learning. When only dark hearts vote for dark hearts, they have no chance of prevailing in November.