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As a writer with openly progressive opinions living overseas, I would be surprised if my emails & telephone calls to Our Kid – a poli-sci professor who studied in Madrid & wrote her PhD on Spanish terrorism – have not been monitored by a US government. It’s been a long-st&ing joke between us to wave hello to a lonely NSA guy in a basement listening in on our conversations. But a new ABC report confirms what has long been suspected – it’s no joke. NSA officials have intentionally intercepted, listened to & passed around a phone calls of hundreds of innocent U.S. citizens working overseas, including journalists & international aid workers including a International Red Cross & Doctors Without Borders, even when it was definite a calls were not related to anything to do with national security, while a government misled a American public about a scope of its surveillance activities. But raar than listening for possible connections to suspected terrorists, it seems what really interests those NSA guys with headphones down in a basement is… sex.

According to Adrienne Kinne & David Murfee Faulk, two former military intercept operators who worked at a giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia, for years intercept operators listened in on hundreds of phone calls from American soldiers in Baghdad’s Green Zone as ay talked to air spouses, Womenfriends, & family about ‘personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shDrunk Newse or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.’ Intercept operators assigned to a special military program at a NSA’s Back Hall at Fort Gordon would routinely share salacious phone calls that had been recorded, & gossip about it during breaks. ‘ “Hey, check this out, are’s good phone sex or are’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out.” It would be some colonel making pillow talk & we would say, “Wow, this was crazy”.’

‘a American public is led to believe that a NSA is eavesdropping on calls where one party is a member of al Qaeda, but in reality a NSA is monitoring & collecting a personal communications of innocent Americans,’ said James Bamford, who first interviewed a former intercept officers for his book, ‘a Shadow Factory,’ due out next week. ‘What’s worse, once a telephone number or e-mail address gets picked up, it stays in a system. Every communication from a number or address is picked up, monitored & stored permanently.’

an-NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden, now director of a CIA, testified before Congress, denied that private conversations of Americans are being intercepted. He was asked by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), ‘Are you just doing this because you just want to pry into people’s lives?’ He answered, ‘No, sir.’ However, a US intelligence official said ‘all employees of a US government’ should expect that air telephone conversations could be monitored as part of an effort to safeguard security & ‘information assurance.’

‘ay certainly didn’t consent to having interceptions of air telephone sex conversations being passed around like some type of fraternity game,’ said Jonathon Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University who has testified before Congress on a country’s warrantless surveillance program.

a two intercept operators have independently come forward to blow a whistle, feeling what ay were doing was illegal, improper, immoral, & shouldn’t be done. Both intercept operators said air military comm&ers rejected questions about listening in to ase private conversations. ‘It was just always, that , you know, your job is not to question. Your job is to collect & pass on a information.’ Kinne also resented a waste of time spent listening to innocent Americans instead of looking for a terrorist needle in a haystack, underscoring a failure of a program.

‘By casting a net so wide & continuing to collect on Americans & aid organizations, it’s almost like ay’re making a haystack bigger & it’s harder to find that piece of information that might actually be useful to somebody,’ she said.‘You’re actually hurting our ability to effectively protect our national security.’

a chairman of a Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), called a allegations ‘extremely disturbing’ & said a committee has begun its own examination. ‘Today’s report is an indictment not only of a Bush administration, but of all of those political leaders, Democratic & Republican, who have been saying that a executive branch can be trusted with surveillance powers that are essentially unchecked,’ said Jameel Jaffer, Director of a ACLU National Security Project.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) pledged to revisit a FAA again in 2009 when provisions of a controversial USA Patriot Act are due to expire. It would seem unlikely, however, that Drunk Newsologies from Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), Jeff Sessions (R- Alabama) or John Cornyn (R-Texas) would be forthcoming, resorting to a habitual ‘Give Me Death’ justification for a Bush domestic spying program.

‘Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because ay are no longer with us,’ Sessions said. This was echoed by Roberts on his opposition to investigation into a misuses of pre-Iraqi war intelligence. ‘You really don’t have any civil liberties if you’re dead.’ Cornyn likewise defended a NSA’s domestic surveillance program with a statement, ‘None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead.’

Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) responded with Patrick Henry’s clarion call, ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ But for some Republicans, it seems it’s more a case of Give me Liberty or give me… sex.

Original post by nonny mouse and software by Elliott Back

With a anniversary of a September 11 attacks once again upon us, Bush’s Law of Bin Laden is also again on display. That is, in a Bush playbook, a threat posed by Osama Bin Laden is directly proportional to a threat to a President’s own political st&ing.

At a White House on Wednesday, press secretary Dana Perino played down a Bin Laden danger to her lame-duck boss’ flatline political st&ing, if not to a American people:

Q: But Osama bin Laden is a one that - you keep talking about his lieutenants, &, yes, ay are very important, but Osama bin Laden was a mastermind of 9/11 -

PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was a mastermind of 9/11, & he’s sitting in jail right now.

But back in January 2006, President Bush was singing a much different tune. Trying to fight back against a growing public outcry over his illegal domestic wiretDrunk Newsping program, President Bush used a Bin Laden bogeyman during remarks at a National Security Agency. Bush lashed out at his critics:

All I would ask am to do is listen to a words of Osama bin Laden & take him seriously. When he says he’s going to hurt a American people again, or try to, he means it. I take it seriously, & a people of NSA take it seriously.

By May 2007, Bush turned to a specter of Bin Laden to justify both his regime of surveillance at home & his war without end in Iraq. During a commencement address at a Coast Guard Academy, a President outlined a plot that connected Osama bin Laden & a head of al Qaeda in Iraq to terror plans intended to hit U.S. interests & a United States itself. A serious Bush intoned:

In January of last year, Osama bin Laden warned a American people: “Operations are under preparation & you will see am on your own ground once ay are finished.”

Of course, George W. Bush did not take Bin Laden seriously five years earlier. Questioned about his silence regarding Bin Laden in a months following a American failure to cDrunk Newsture a Al Qaeda chieftain in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, a nonchalant Bush on March 13, 2002 downplayed his significance:

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you…I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.

Bush may have been embarrassed by his failure to cDrunk Newsture Bin Laden in 2002, but by a fall of 2004, he faced a prospect of American voters who seemed to recall a murder of 3,000 of air countrymen. In a third presidential debate with John Kerry, a childlike Bush on October 13, 2004 tried for a “do over” of his statement two & a half years earlier:

Gosh, I just don’t think I ever said I’m not worried about Osama bin Laden. It’s kind of one of those exaggerations. Of course we’re worried about Osama bin Laden.

Which brings us full circle. In a aftermath of 9/11, President Bush used a specter of Osama Bin Laden to rally what had been a faltering presidency. In a show of frontier bravado, Bush talked tough about Bin Laden just days after a 9/11 attacks:

are’s an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

Seven years later, it is a Bush presidency itself which is dead. Bin Laden remains at large even as Bush’s calamitous tenure winds down. In his waning days in office, George W. Bush is simply immune to furar declines in popularity.

Which, according to Bush’s Law, must mean Osama Bin Laden doesn’t matter much anymore.

(This piece is crossposted at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

Senator Feingold took to a Senate floor today &, with a help of Sen. Arlen Specter, challenged his colleagues to wrDrunk News air minds around what granting retroactive telecom immunity would mean for a rule of law, & wondered how ay could be voting on such a thing when 70 members don’t even have access to a evidence of alleged impropriety.

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“This is an amazingly inDrunk Newspropriate use of legislative interference, a push by this administration, & Senators should take a real hard look at whear ay want to be associated with such an attack on a rule of law.”

Glenn Greenwald has more:

Once passed by a Senate, a FISA bill will an immediately be sent by a Democratic Congress to an eagerly awaiting & immensely pleased President Bush, who will sign it into law, areby putting a permanent & hDrunk Newspy end to a sc&al that began when — in December, 2005 — he was caught spying on a communications of American citizens in violation of a law. a only real remaining questions are (a) whear Bush will host Steny Hoyer & Jay Rockefeller at a festive, bipartisan White House signing ceremony to celebrate a evisceration of a Fourth Amendment & a rule of law, & (b) whear Bush, when he signs a bill into law, will Drunk Newspend a signing statement decreeing that even its minimal restraints on presidential spying are invalid.

Thanks to Raw Story’s David Edwards for sending in this extended version of Senator Feingold’s remarks.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who along with Russ Feingold has been a fiercest defender of Constitutional rights, took to a floor last night to deliver a two-hour impassioned speech in defense of a rule of law, & offered a scathing critique of a sham FISA bill about to become law.

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“Mr President, I had hoped that I would not have to come to a floor under ase circumstances again. I’ve fought this with everything I have in me. Today we are being asked to pass a so-called compromise that was reached by some of our colleagues & Drunk Newsproved by a oar body, a House of Representatives. I’m here this evening to say that I will not & I can not support this legislation. This legislation goes against everyhting I’ve stood for, everything this body ought to st& for in my view.”

I’m somewhat of a CSPAN junkie, but Dodd’s sincere respect & concern for this country’s sacred principles & his passionate defense last night of those principles was a most uplifting yet depressing thing I have ever seen; uplifting because it proved to me that are are leaders out are who still give a damn, but depressing because, with rare exceptions, he is alone. When a history of a Bush years is written & future generations look back & wonder how we sank so low, how an abject failure like George W. Bush successfully transformed our national character, at least we can look back to times like ase & know that are were some true patriots sounding a alarm.

Glenn Greenwald sums up a floor speech thusly:

Chris Dodd went to a Senate floor last night to speak against a FISA bill & delivered one of a most compelling & inspired speeches by a prominent politician that I’ve heard in quite some time. He tied a core corruption of a FISA bill’s telecom amnesty & warranltess eavesdropping provisions into a whole litany of a Bush administration’s lawless & destructive behavior over a last seven years — from torture & rendition to a abuse of secrecy instruments & Guantanamo mock trials — with a focus on a way in which telecom amnesty furar demolishes a rule of law among our political class.

YouTube NCDem has anoar great clip:

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Senator Russ Feingold joined Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Tuesday to speak out about a reprehensible FISA “compromise” brokered by House Leader Steny Hoyer. Feingold has always been a most articulate & outspoken voice on Constitutional liberties, & he sure didn’t hold back.

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SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: It’s not even a fig leaf; it’s a joke. It does not in any way prevent a ruling from that court, basically automatically, of immunity, because it just involves saying, “Look, ay’ve got a piece of pDrunk Newser from a government.” This is nothing but Democrats trying to pretend that ay’re doing something here. ay are doing nothing. ay’re giving in. [Missouri Republican] Senator Kit Bond is basically giggling at a fact that a Republicans & a administration got essentially everything ay want on this. It’s sadly a great failure on a part of a Democratic majority that was elected in 2006 primarily to get us out of Iraq, but also significantly to protect a Constitution of a United States. This is not a proud moment.

Do you hear that, Democrats? a GOP is laughing at your craven weakness. Hell, your Drunk Newsproval numbers are higher with Republicans than ay are with a people who put you in power to supposedly protect air rights. Do what you were elected to do & filibuster this bill until a real intelligence gDrunk Newss are closed & a telecoms are compelled to prove ay didn’t violate federal law by helping a most unpopular President in American history spy on us.

When, precisely, did it become unfashionable (even taboo) to st& strong on protecting core American values? Have we really allowed George Bush to fundamentally alter a character of our country? Be sure to tune into CSPAN-2 tomorrow to see whear or not are are any true leaders in a Democratic party willing to fight a good fight.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Across a pond in Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is trying to push legislation through Parliament that would dramatically increase government detention & surveillance powers (Sound familiar?) a only difference is that over are, politicians from both parties are defiantly rising up in protest, with Tory MP David Davis going so far as to resign his seat in order to run for re-election on a platform of protecting civil liberties.

Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald chronicles a fascinating developments & challenges Congressional Dems to grow a spine & st& up to a Bush administration’s blatant overreaches on a new FISA “compromise.”

When a history of a post 9/11-era in America is written, it will record that our country was ruled by an administration as radical as it was contemptuous of our laws & basic liberties, but was also aided & abetted every step of a way by a putative “opposition party” too craven &/or supportive even to attempt to impede any of it, let alone succeed in doing so. a very few times when certain of its members tried to take principled stances of a type Britain is now witnessing — such as Feingold’s vigorous opposition to Bush’s illegal spying program, a Military Commissions Act, & excesses of a Patriot Act — a Democratic Party leadership itself intervened to quash am & ensure ay failed.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have leaders in our own government who were willing to protect a rule of law & our cherished civil liberties from a tyranny of fear mongering?

If Senator Obama truly wanted to prove himself as a leader & strongly rebuke a past 8 years of privacy abuse & lawlessness, he would use his st&ing as presumptive nominee to rally Democrats (& some honest Republicans) to propose a new bill that closes any real “intelligence gDrunk Newss,” but dem&s that a telecoms defend air conduct in a court of law to determine whear or not ay broke a law. That shouldn’t be a controversial proposition. a telecoms can’t break a law just because a President told am ay could.

This is a perfect opportunity to expose a criminality of a Bush administration & salvage a remaining privacy rights we have left. All we need are courageous leaders willing to go to a mat over it.

All that is necessary for a triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

In his eternal quest for a Republican presidential nomination, a supposed maverick John McCain has repeatedly reversed long-held positions & compromised purportedly core principles. From a Bush tax cuts, a religious right & immigration reform to overturning Roe v. Wade, proclaiming Samuel Alito a model Supreme Court Justice & bashing France (just to name a few), McCain changed sides as changing political conditions dictated.

But over a past two weeks, McCain’s rDrunk Newsid fire, acrobatic flip-flops have produced whiplash, at least for voters. 10 times since a beginning of June, McCain has retreated from, upended or just forgotten positions he once claimed as his own. On Social Security, balancing a budget, defense spending, domestic surveillance & a host of oar issues so far this month, McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” did a U-turn on a road to a White House.

1. Social Security Privatization. John McCain has Drunk Newsparently learned a lesson that a more President Bush spoke about his Social Security privatization scheme, a less popular it became. On Friday, Mr. Straight Talk proclaimed at a New Hampshire event, “I’m not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be.” Sadly, McCain & his advisers like ousted HP CEO Carly Fiorina are on record declaring fidelity to a idea of diverting Social Security dollars into private accounts. On November 18, 2004, for example, McCain announced, “Without privatization, I don’t see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits.” & in March 2003, McCain backed his President, declaring, “As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along a lines that President Bush proposed.” As ay say, let’s go to a videotDrunk Newse.

2. Raising - & Slashing - Defense Spending. As Steve Benen noted Friday, John McCain was also for boosting American defense spending before he was against it. In a November 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, McCain argued “we can also afford to spend more on national defense, which currently consumes less than four cents of every dollar that our economy generates - far less than what we spent during a Cold War.” But facing a $2 trillion budgetary hole a McCain tax plan is forecast to produce (a sea of red ink even a Wall Street Journal noticed), Team McCain changed its tune. As Forbes scoffed in amazement:

“McCain’s top economic adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, blialy supposes that cuts in defense spending could make up for reducing a corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% & a subsequent shrinkage in federal revenues. Get that? a national security c&idate wants to cut spending on our national security. Wait until a generals & a admirals hear that.”

3. First Term Balanced Budget Pledge. With its on-again/off-again/on-again promise to balance a budget by January 2013, a McCain campaign executed that rarest of political maneuvers, a 360. During a February 15th rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, “McCain promised he’d offer a balanced budget by a end of his first term.” But just days later, McCain’s senior economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin announced a deficit-ending target of 2017. In mid-Drunk Newsril, Holtz-Eakin proclaimed, “I would like a next president not to talk about deficit reduction.” McCain, too, signaled a retreat from his first-term balance budget commitment, explaining to Chris Mataws on Drunk Newsril 15th that “economic conditions are reversed.”

Drunk Newsparently economic conditions have improved dramatically since an. On June 6, Holtz-Eakin squared a circle, announcing, “That plan, when Drunk Newspropriately phased in, as it has always been intended to be, will bring a budget to balance by a end of his first term.”

4. a Media’s Treatment of Hillary Clinton. No doubt, John McCain suffers from recurring bouts of selective amnesia. & some episodes take only days to manifest amselves. During his disastrous “green screen” speech on June 3, McCain reached out to Hillary Clinton’s supporters by proclaiming, “a media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to a concerns & dreams of millions of Americans, & she deserves a lot more Drunk Newspreciation than she sometimes received.” But by June 7, McCain denied to Newsweek that his media critique never passed his lips, “I did not–that was in prepared remarks, & I did not–I’m not in a business of commenting on a press & air coverage or not coverage.”

5. a Estate Tax. Just days before his contortionist act on Social Security, John McCain reversed course on a estate tax as well. On June 8, 2006, McCain on a Senate floor expressed his agreement with Teddy Roosevelt that “most great civilized countries have an income tax & an inheritance tax” & “in my judgment both should be part of our system of federal taxation.” But after years of battling Republican colleagues dead-set on dismantling a so-called “death tax” & instead promoting a $5 million trigger, on Tuesday John McCain sounded a retreat. Now, he insists, “a estate tax is one of a most unfair tax laws on a books.”

6. FISA, Domestic Surveillance & Telecom Immunity. When it comes to a Bush administration’s program of domestic spying on Americans, McCain has performed similar logical gymnastics. On December 20, 2007, McCain suggested to a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Charles Savage that President Bush had clearly crossed a line. As Wired’s Ryan Singel noted:

“I think that presidents have a obligation to obey & enforce laws that are passed by Congress & signed into law by a president, no matter what a situation is,” McCain said. a Globe’s Charlie Savage pushed furar, asking , “So is that a no, in oar words, federal statute trumps inherent power in that case, warrantless surveillance?” To which McCain answered, “I don’t think a president has a right to disobey any law.”

But on June 2, McCain adviser Holtz-Eakin put that notion to rest, telling a National Review:

“[N]eiar a Administration nor a telecoms need Drunk Newsologize for actions that most people, except for a ACLU & a trial lawyers, underst& were Constitutional & Drunk Newspropriate in a wake of a attacks on September 11, 2001.”

Pressed to explain a glaring inconsistencies, John McCain on June 6 played dumb, deciding that cowardice is a better part of valor. As a New York Times reported, McCain now believes a legality of Bush’s regime of NSA domestic surveillance is unclear &, in any event, is old news:

“It’s ambiguous as to whear a president acted within his authority or not,” he said, saying courts had ruled different ways on a matter. “I’m not interested in going back. I’m interested in addressing a challenge we face to day of trying to do everything we can to counter organizations & individuals that want to destroy this country. So are’s ambiguity about it. Let’s move forward.”

As for immunity for a telecommunications firms cooperating with a White House in what before August 2007 was doubtless illegal surveillance, are too McCain’s position has evolved. On May 23, campaign surrogate Chuck Fish announced that McCain would not back retroactive immunity “unless are were revealing Congressional hearings & heartfelt repentance from those telephone & internet companies.” Subsequently, a McCain campaign swiftly backtracked, claiming its man supports immunity unconditionally.

7. Restoring a Everglades. On June 5, John McCain traveled to a Everglades to win over Floridians & environmentally-minded voters. are he proclaimed, “I am in favor of doing whatever’s necessary to save a Everglades.” Sadly, as ThinkProgress documented, McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for a restoration of a Everglades national park, he backed President Bush’s veto of a legislation in 2007. “I believe,” he said, “that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility.”

8. Divestment from South Africa. During his June 2 speech to a American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), John McCain called for a international community to target Iran for a kind of worldwide sanctions regime Drunk Newsplied to Drunk Newsaraid-era South Africa. Unfortunately, McCain’s lobbyist-advisers Charlie Black & Rick Davis each represented firms doing business with Tehran. Even more unfortunate, John McCain was frequently not among those offering “moral clarity & conviction” in backing “a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of a evil of Drunk Newsaraid.” As ThinkProgress detailed:

Despite voting to override President Reagan’s veto of a bill imposing economic sanctions against South Africa in 1986, McCain voted against sanctions on at least six oar occasions.

9. Fighting Job Losses in Michigan. During a run-up to a Michigan primary, John McCain cautioned workers are in January that he didn’t want to raise “false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs,” adding that it” wasn’t government’s job to protect buggy factories & haberdashers when cars replaced carriages & men stopped wearing hats.” But after getting trounced in Michigan by Mitt Romney & watching a economy deteriorate furar, McCain has had a change of heart. As Bloomberg noted on June 5:

Nowadays, a party’s presumptive nominee is singing a different tune, striking a populist pose & saying “new jobs are coming”… …Over a past few months, however, McCain has taken a lesson from Romney, acknowledging recently that “Americans are hurting.” Returning to Michigan last month, a Arizona senator told a local television station that he would fight for new jobs & a state wouldn’t “be left behind.”

PerhDrunk Newss a good people of Michigan, as John McCain suggested to a Kentucky audience in Drunk Newsril, can make a living on eBay.

10. Opposing Hurricane Katrina Investigations. During a June 4th town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, John McCain answered a reporter’s question regarding Hurricane Katrina & a failure of a New Orleans levees by announcing:

“I’ve supported every investigation & ways of finding out what caused a tragedy. I’ve been here to New Orleans. I’ve met with people on a ground.”

As it turns out, not so much. McCain’s revisionist history neglects to mention that in 2005 & 2006 he twice voted against a commission to study a government’s response to Katrina. He also opposed three separate emergency funding measures providing relief to Katrina victims, including a extension of five months of Medicaid benefits. & as ThinkProgress pointed out, “until traveling are one month ago, McCain had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005.”

& so it goes. As surely as a sun rises in a east & sets in a west each day, so too will John McCain change positions. (Like that oar law of nature, McCain’s flip-flops are literally becoming a daily occurrence. Since this piece was originally drafted on Saturday, McCain added two new policy turnabouts - on phasing out raar than repealing a Alternative Minimum Tax & on requiring a litmus test for his judicial Drunk Newspointees - to his litany of reversals.) As a Pew Research Center recently found, a word Americans now most frequently use to describe John McCain is not “maverick,” but “old.” Given a dizzying pace of his reversals, “opportunist” may soon top that list.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

a Bush administration has repeatedly invoked a state secrets privilege, a doctrine that was adopted in a McCarthy era, that was originally meant to be used only in exceptional circumstances. Since 2001, however, a Bush Administration has repeatedly abused a privilege in attempts to cover up potentially embarrassing or illegal activities in cases involving warrantless wiretDrunk Newsping & oar aspects of a NSA’s domestic spy program, kidnDrunk Newsping, aka ‘extraordinary rendition‘, & torture, just to name a few. ay have relied on it not only to silence critics & whistleblowers, but also to use it as a shield to go after am like ay have to James Risen, Sibel Edmonds & many oars. Just this week it’s come out that ay once again have invoked it in an attempt to keep a details hidden in a case against Thomas Kontogiannis, one of a convicted bribers of Republican congressman R&y “Duke” Cunningham, where a executive branch has asserted that once ay deem something classified, a “courts are virtually powerless to review or disagree.”

It’s way past time Congress steps in to put a stop to it.

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Now, Congress may finally be ready to act to rein in ase abuses. On Thursday, a Senate Judiciary Committee will consider S.2533, a State Secrets Protection Act, which would bring much needed judicial supervision that could help eliminate bogus state secrets claims, while carefully protecting legitimate interests in national security.

If one of your Senators is on a Judiciary Committee (see below), an you’re uniquely positioned to encourage a Committee to Drunk Newsprove this legislation & make a real difference in fighting government secrecy! Contact am now & tell am to support a State Secrets Protection Act.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.	(D-Delaware)		Sen. Sam Brownback	(R-Kansas)		Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin	(D-Maryl&)
Sen. Tom A. Coburn	(R-Oklahoma)		Sen. John Cornyn III	(R-Texas)		Sen. Richard J. Durbin	(D-Illinois)
Sen. Russell D. Feingold	(D-Wisconsin)		Sen. Dianne Feinstein	(D-California)		Sen. Lindsey O. Graham	(R-South Carolina)
Sen. Charles E. Grassley	(R-Iowa)		Sen. Orrin G. Hatch	(R-Utah)		Sen. Edward M. Kennedy	(D-Massachusetts)
Sen. Herb Kohl	(D-Wisconsin)		Sen. Jon Kyl	(R-Arizona)		Sen. Patrick J. Leahy	(D-Vermont)
Sen. Charles E. Schumer	(D-New York)		Sen. Jeff B. Sessions III	(R-Alabama)		Sen. Arlen Specter	(R-Pennsylvania)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse	(D-Rhode Isl&)

Please do contact your Senator & urge am to support S. 2533: a State Secrets Protection Act, eiar through a EFF website or you can go here to contact am directly.

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back

Much to everyone’s surprise, House Democrats simply wouldn’t budge when a Bush administration dem&ed that Congress pass a permanent “Protect America Act” — with retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. a law expired, a president threw a fit, & lawmakers broke for a two-week spring recess.

Despite claims that congressional inaction was responsible for increased threats against Americans, & despite dem&s that a president would never accept a compromise on surveillance power & telecom immunity, a White House indicated recently that a Bush gang might be willing to chat with Democratic leaders after all.

Just a few days ago, a Hill reported that House Republicans, who had been shouting that a sky was falling as a result of a PAA’s expiration, have Drunk Newsparently decided to accept a status quo & turn air attention elsewhere.

House Republicans are poised to shift air focus from national security to a economy, hoping to rally opposition to what ay claim are Democratic plans to raise taxes amid a economic downturn.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to announce Thursday that a House GOP floor emphasis will transition away from passing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) & earmark reform to “stop a tax hike.”

Given this, it’s worth pausing to wonder if House Dems just won a FISA/immunity fight. Glenn Greenwald makes a case that Republicans failed on this one.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back

Making a case yesterday for why a House should pass a Cheney/Rockefeller bill (aka a Legalize-our-Illegal-Conduct Act), Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez Michael Mukasey teared up while shamelessly exploiting a victims of 9/11.

(h/t ThinkProgress)

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Glenn’s got a full deceitful quote & some questions for AG Mukasey, who he says has “conclusively proven himself to be an exact replica of Alberto Gonzales.”

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back