|
Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
Cheney resistant to change in U.S. spy program
Post Date: 2006-02-07 17:03:53 by Zipporah
1 Comments
07 Feb 2006 19:12:29 GMT WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday resisted bipartisan appeals for changes in a hotly disputed warrantless eavesdropping program, saying he believed "we have all the legal authority we need." Democrats and some Republicans have urged the Bush administration to work with Congress to revise a law already on the books in order to end questions about whether the spy program, initiated after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, was constitutional. In an interview to air on Tuesday night on PBS' "Newshour," Cheney was asked whether President George W. Bush was willing to work with Congress to settle some of the ...
Gonzales: They sometimes forget
Post Date: 2006-02-07 11:53:04 by Zipporah
9 Comments
Gonzales: They sometimes forgetGonzales: They sometimes forget You can't make this up. BIDEN: Thank you very much. General, how has this revelation damaged the program? I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls. GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer. And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true - you would assume that the enemy is presuming ...
Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee (WH 'twisting arms' )
Post Date: 2006-02-07 11:08:09 by Zipporah
2 Comments
Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee
Presidential adviser Karl Rove carried his files and luggage after arriving with President Bush in Dallas on Feb. 3. (L.M. Otero/AP) The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping. Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November. "It's ...
"Just As 'Legal' As Hitler was in 1933"
Post Date: 2006-02-06 23:40:46 by Red Jones
0 Comments
"Just As 'Legal' As Hitler was in 1933" Anonymous First - Gonzales "Legalizes" Torture. WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 - Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, intervened directly wi th Justice Department lawyers in 2002 to obtain a legal ruling on the extent of the president's authority to permit extreme interrogation practices in the name of national security. A request by Mr. Gonzales produced the Justice Department memorandum of Aug. 1, 2002, which defined torture narrowly and said that Mr. Bush could circumvent domestic and international prohibitions against torture in the name of national security. The issue was whether al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured on the ...
Ex-President Carter: Eavesdropping Illegal
Post Date: 2006-02-06 22:04:30 by Zipporah
12 Comments
By 21 minutes ago HENDERSON, Nev. - Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program Monday and said he believes the president has broken the law. ADVERTISEMENT "Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision — we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter told reporters. "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act." Carter made the remarks at a union hall near Las Vegas, where his oldest son, Jack Carter, announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. ...
Gonzales: NSA May Tap 'Ordinary' Americans' E-Mail
Post Date: 2006-02-06 20:54:31 by Brian S
31 Comments
WASHINGTON--Agents operating a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program may have inadvertently spied on the e-mails and phone calls of Americans with no ties to terrorists, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday. Gonzales stressed that the program is "narrowly focused" and that adequate steps are taken to protect privacy, though he said he was unable to describe such procedures because of the program's classified nature. Gonzales stressed that the program is "narrowly focused" and that adequate steps are taken to protect privacy, though he said he was unable to describe such procedures because of the program's classified nature. The ...
GOP senators refuse to put Attorney General under oath on wiretaps
Post Date: 2006-02-06 13:33:29 by Zipporah
1 Comments
Republican senators refused to put Attorney General Alberto Gonzales under oath in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about President Bush's clandestine wiretap program, RAW STORY has learned. The move was first picked up by ThinkProgress. ThinkProgress has the video here. Testimony before Congress is governed by law, and lies to Congress can be prosecuted as perjury. Technically, individuals need not be under oath to face prosecution. Democrats have focused on having individuals under oath before -- most notably oil executives -- who were found to have lied to a Senate Committee when they said their companies did not take part in secretive meetings with Vice President ...
AT&T, Sprint, MCI Aiding Domestic Spying
Post Date: 2006-02-06 11:21:40 by Brian S
2 Comments
Published: February 06, 2006 8:18 AM NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications' (VZ) MCI and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) are among several large U.S. telecommunications companies that agreed to cooperate with the National Security Agency's spying without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, USA Today reported Monday. The newspaper said it based its account on seven telecommunications executives who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the program. AT&T, MCI and Sprint had no official comment, the newspaper reported. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings Monday on the government's program of monitoring international ...
(Abu) Gonzales Faces Tough Questions on Spying
Post Date: 2006-02-06 11:09:44 by robin
12 Comments
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted Monday that President Bush was "acting with authority" both under the Constitution and federal law in eavesdropping on Americans without warrants as part of the war on terror. But his strong defense of Bush's program was challenged by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who told Gonzales that even the Supreme Court had ruled that "the president does not have a blank check." Specter suggested that the program's legality be reviewed by a special federal court. "There are a lot of people who think you're wrong. What do you have to lose if you're right?" Specter ...
On the Eve of the NSA Warrantless Search Pretend Hearings
Post Date: 2006-02-05 21:58:12 by h-a-l-f-w-i-t-t
0 Comments
Oh, I get it now! The Preznit thinks 'e's 'enery the Eighth! "I'm 'enery the Eighth, I am, 'enery the Eighth I am I am, I got married to the widow next door..." "Although British law required that warrants be issued for the police to search a person's residence, the British Colonial government relied on general warrants, called writs of assistance, which gave officials a license to search almost everywhere for almost everything. The notion of a general warrant dated back to the Tudor reign under Henry VIII, and resistance to its broad reach began to grow in the early 18th century. Critics attacked the general warrants as "a badge of slavery upon the whole people, ...
Updated Miranda Warning
Post Date: 2006-02-05 21:48:25 by h-a-l-f-w-i-t-t
1 Comments
You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand? Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand? You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand? If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand? If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand? Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, ...
The State of the Union's Mystery Suspect (dark-skinned guest of Congressman given the "terrorist treatment")
Post Date: 2006-02-05 11:26:53 by Arator
2 Comments
The State of the Union's Mystery Suspect An anti-war activist and a congressman's wife weren't the only ones detained by the Capitol Police By MELISSA AUGUST/WASHINGTON SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR Posted Saturday, Feb. 04, 2006 T-shirts, it turns out, aren't the only things that get you in trouble with the Capitol Police at the State of the Union address. Much has already been made of the fact that both anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, the wife of Republican Congressman Bill Young, were ejected from the speech for wearing shirts with political messages; in Sheehan's case, her t-shirt read "2,245 dead. How many more?", while Young was sporting ...
VIDEO: Gun Confiscation
Post Date: 2006-02-05 04:33:36 by wakeup
5 Comments
http://www.terrybressi.org/NewOrleans/video/NaginGunConfiscation.avi
Evicting David Souter - do not miss this one.
Post Date: 2006-02-04 17:32:35 by Lod
7 Comments
Weare, New Hampshire LOGAN DARROW CLEMENTS doesn't seem like the sort of fellow who'd go around stealing the houses of Supreme Court justices. He's mild mannered and laughs easily, often at his own jokes. Physically he resembles a less creepy Ralph Reed: He looks like a 36-year-old altar boy whose mom made him scrub up and dress for dinner. An Ayn Rand devotee, he heads an objectivist discussion group back home in Los Angeles. A zippy evening for the group might entail a field trip to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center or sitting through a presentation on The Force Minimization Theory of Ethical Taxation. As an objectivist, Clements is committed to Rand's notion of rational ...
Papers Reveal Similar Wiretap Debate in 1970s (Cheney & Rumsfeld repeat offenders)
Post Date: 2006-02-04 12:18:26 by robin
6 Comments
Nov. 7, 1975: Presidential assistant Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy Richard Cheney. Notes from 1975 meetings show a similar climate over wiretapping. Papers Reveal Similar Wiretap Debate in 1970s Friday, February 03, 2006 WASHINGTON — An intense debate erupted during the Ford administration over the president's powers to eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign intelligence, according to newly disclosed government documents. George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are cited in the documents. The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before ...
Roberts champions warrantless spying
Post Date: 2006-02-04 10:36:36 by Arator
6 Comments
Roberts champions warrantless spying
BY ALAN BJERGA
Eagle Washington bureau
WASHINGTON - Sen. Pat Roberts, head of the Senate's intelligence panel, is emerging as a vocal defender of the Bush administration as it faces what could be its toughest intelligence controversy yet: Whether warrantless wiretaps of terrorism suspects are justifiable and legal.
The issue takes the congressional spotlight next week, with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying on wiretaps before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
Roberts, chairman of the historically bipartisan Select Senate Committee on Intelligence, will also be holding his own committee discussions. On Friday he sent a ...
Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse
Post Date: 2006-02-04 08:06:42 by Zipporah
0 Comments
48 minutes ago They are the Pentagon's new "rules of engagement" — the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk." The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 in the Army — active, National Guard and Reserve — have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001. Officials partly blame long and repeated deployments which started after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stretched the service thin. Troops also are coming home with life-altering ...
Increasingly, Internet's Data Trail Leads to Court
Post Date: 2006-02-04 04:05:42 by robin
0 Comments
Who is sending threatening e-mail to a teenager? Who is saying disparaging things about a company on an Internet message board? Who is communicating online with a suspected drug dealer? These questions, and many more like them, are asked every day of the companies that provide Internet service and run Web sites. And even though these companies promise to protect the privacy of their users, they routinely hand over the most intimate information in response to legal demands from criminal investigators and lawyers fighting civil cases. Such data led directly to a suspect in a school bombing threat; it has also been used by the authorities to track child pornographers and computer intruders, ...
AP: Cheney, Rumsfeld fought to impose wiretaps for foreign intelligence thirty years ago
Post Date: 2006-02-04 00:23:43 by Zipporah
0 Comments
An intense debate erupted during the Ford administration over the president's powers to eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign intelligence, according to newly disclosed government documents. George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are cited in the documents, AP reports. Excerpts (and background on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act follow). Full story here. # The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before President Bush's acknowledgment he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some Americans in terrorism investigations. Senate Judiciary ...
AT&T Sued in US Spying Case
Post Date: 2006-02-03 23:30:39 by DeaconBenjamin
1 Comments
A digital rights group charges the teleco giant with violating privacy laws by allegedly letting the feds snoop into its databases. A nonprofit digital rights group said Wednesday it has filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T, alleging the phone company violated customer privacy by giving the National Security Agency access to its databases so the feds could wiretap and mine domestic communications. The lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Tuesday charges the company with allowing the NSA direct access to the phone and Internet communications passing over its network as part of President Bush’s administration’s domestic spying operation. The suit also ...
Congress passes another 5-week extension of Patriot Act
Post Date: 2006-02-03 20:00:36 by Brian S
0 Comments
February 3, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Congress sent President George W. Bush a second five-week extension of the Patriot Act as Senate negotiators worked to close a deal with the White House on renewing the antiterrorism law with some new civil liberties protections. "The president thinks it's important to have the Patriot Act in place, and we should not go a single day without it," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Thursday. The new extension is through March 10. Sixteen provisions of the 2001 law were originally set to expire Dec. 31, but Congress extended them until today after Democrats and a handful of Senate Republicans demanded that banks, libraries and Internet service ...
Senate Intelligence Chairman: Bush Can Spy
Post Date: 2006-02-03 17:42:39 by aristeides
2 Comments
Senate Intelligence Chairman: Bush Can Spy Senate Intelligence Chairman Says Bush Has Authority Under the Constitution for Domestic Spying By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Feb 3, 2006 — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said Friday the Bush administration's domestic spying is within the president's inherent power under the Constitution, and he rejected criticism that Congress was kept in the dark about it. The program is "legal, necessary and reasonable," the Kansas Republican wrote in a 19-page letter, taking a particularly expansive view of the president's authority for the warrantless surveillance. "Congress, by statute, cannot ...
'The Biggest Secret' (REVIEW OF RISEN'S "STATE OF WAR")
Post Date: 2006-02-03 16:45:15 by aristeides
8 Comments
'The Biggest Secret' By Thomas Powers State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration by James Risen Free Press, 240 pp., $26.00 1. The challenges posed to American democracy by secrecy and by unchecked presidential power are the two great themes running through the history of the Iraq war. How long the war will last, who will "win," and what it will do to the political landscape of the Middle East will not be obvious for years to come, but the answers to those questions cannot alter the character of what happened at the outset. Put plainly, the President decided to attack Iraq, he brushed caution and objection aside, and Congress, the press, and the ...
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss)....
Post Date: 2006-02-03 09:32:20 by Itisa1mosttoolate
9 Comments
W's "Uncle Bucky" (Secret Society Pal of John Negroponte and Porter Goss).... GOOGLE-John Negroponte skull and Bones gOOGLE -PORTER GOSS PORTER GOSS Google= George Bush Skull and Bones http://www.infowars.com/print/Secret_societies/kerry_bush_sb.htm http://www.infowars.com/articles/occult/uncle_bucky.htm Boodle Boys / The Order of Skull and Bones Overthrew The Russian people in 1917
Spinning the Alito defeat: It makes progressives stronger! HUH???
Post Date: 2006-02-03 01:05:52 by siagiah
8 Comments
Spinning the Alito defeat: It makes progressives stronger! It's hard to spin away what happened to women in the Senate Monday, but that's not going to stop Eleanor Smeal from trying. With the cloture vote on Samuel Alito, Democrats had their last shot at stopping the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice who once said that he "personally" believes "very strongly" that the Constitution doesn't protect abortion rights. They didn't even come close to succeeding. For one reason or another, 19 of the 44 Democrats in the Senate felt free to turn their backs on the pro-choice movement and cast a vote against cloture that was, in every meaningful sense, a vote for Alito. So ...
Latest [Newer] 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 [Older]
|