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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
Spy net may pull in all U.S. calls overseas Many Americans' privacy is at risk, some say
Post Date: 2005-12-23 12:20:46 by Zipporah
3 Comments
WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to al-Qaida, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA. The Bush administration formally defended its domestic spying program in a letter to Congress late Thursday, saying the nation's security outweighs privacy concerns of individuals who are monitored. In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Justice Department said President Bush authorized electronic ...
Alito Defended Officials From Wiretap Suits
Post Date: 2005-12-23 12:18:11 by robin
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Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice Department, documents released Friday show. He advocated a step by step approach to strengthening the hand of officials in a 1984 memo to the solicitor general. The strategy is similar to the one that Alito espoused for rolling back abortion rights at the margins. The release of the memo by the National Archives comes when President Bush is under fire for secretly ordering domestic spying of suspected terrorists without a warrant. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has promised to question Alito about the administration's ...
Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.
Post Date: 2005-12-23 11:14:20 by randge
6 Comments
By Barton Gellman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A04 The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202119.html
Power We Didn't Grant
Post Date: 2005-12-23 10:54:19 by robin
2 Comments
Power We Didn't GrantBy Tom DaschleFriday, December 23, 2005; A21In the face of mounting questions about news stories saying that President Bush approved a program to wiretap American citizens without getting warrants, the White House argues that Congress granted it authority for such surveillance in the 2001 legislation authorizing the use of force against al Qaeda. On Tuesday, Vice President Cheney said the president "was granted authority by the Congress to use all means necessary to take on the terrorists, and that's what we've done."As Senate majority leader at the time, I helped negotiate that law with the White House counsel's office over two harried days. I can state ...
Will Republican Senators Save the Republic?
Post Date: 2005-12-23 10:39:13 by Zoroaster
5 Comments
December 23, 2005 Will Republican Senators Save the Republic? by Ray McGovern I'll say this for Vice President Dick Cheney: he puts it right out there, whether it is trying to ensure legal protection for those torturing prisoners, or insisting – as he did on Tuesday – that a wartime president "needs to have his powers unimpaired." Supporters of this view are dredging up quotes from former officials like George H.W. Bush's attorney general, William Barr, who, according to the Washington Post, contends: "The Constitution's intent when we're under attack from outside is to place maximum power in the president, and the other branches – and especially the ...
Drunken-driving arrest at 0.05 a sobering lesson for all this holiday season
Post Date: 2005-12-23 02:14:00 by Esso
14 Comments
Drunken-driving arrest at 0.05 a sobering lesson for all this holiday season It’s illegal to drive drunk, but it’s not necessarily illegal to have a drink and then drive. That’s why Jerry Boyer figured he had no problem when he left a local American Legion hall late on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and headed home. He says he had driven down Harris Road, turned right on Goshen and then made a quick left onto Butler Road, one of those awkward jogs that are all over the city, when he was stopped by a county sheriff’s officer, allegedly for not using his turn signal. Boyer says he did signal, but that’s another issue. The officer gave him a alcohol breath test in ...
Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.
Post Date: 2005-12-22 23:20:39 by Zipporah
0 Comments
The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post. Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution. The Justice Department ...
Time for Bush to turn over his papers re. Spying on Americans
Post Date: 2005-12-22 22:24:51 by Zipporah
3 Comments
Minutes ago, I submitted a resolution (H. Res. 644) of inquiry in the House requesting the President and directing the Attorney General to turn over to the House of Representatives documents relating to the authorization of this secret spying program on American citizens. One of the main talking points justifying this domestic spying is that my Democratic colleagues in Congress knew about this double super secret program and didn't object to it.Well ... I think it is time for them to prove that claim. Like I said before at this point we are all sort of numb to an administration who really has no credibility left. They need to come clean and show us - LMS By the way, thanks to all of you ...
Domestic Spying & Incident of Intimidation of Military Families: Letter from a Military Mom
Post Date: 2005-12-22 21:56:12 by Zipporah
20 Comments
Letter from a Military "Mom": I am sending this letter to you in hope of finding a source to hear my concerns. It is something that has bothered me since the occurrence, and I know it is not something that should have happened, and I worry for my family's safety as I step out to speak about this. During my son's deployment to Iraq, February 2004-February 2005: I created a small group website on MSN, for families and friends of our soldiers deployed unit. It was a membership only site, and we were a tight group of mostly "Moms", from all over the United States, just trying to make it through each day. The support and help we gave one another is a singular experience of ...
Early Warning, 9/11 Gone Wild
Post Date: 2005-12-22 20:41:38 by Zipporah
3 Comments
12/22/05 "Washington Post" -- -- The New York Times editorial on National Security Agency spying in the United States refers to "your mail and your e-mail" and "your telephone conversations" being monitored. The connotation of course is that the "you" is some New York Times reading Cappuccino drinking upper middle class Manhattan intellectual, that thousands if not tens of thousands of similar Americans are having their phones tapped and e-mails intercepted. Come on. The government is not just repeating the targeting of political opponents a la J. Edgar Hoover or Richard Nixon. It is not picking out a Seymour Hersh or a Cindy Sheehan to find their ...
Microwave Weaponry and Covert Government Harassment Used on Many Average Americans; Too Many People Coming Forward To Be Dismissed As Paranoia
Post Date: 2005-12-22 15:35:02 by Red Jones
7 Comments
Microwave Weaponry and Covert Government Harassment Used on Many Average Americans; Too Many People Coming Forward To Be Dismissed As Paranoia Susan Elmes of Seattle is one such victim of most every type of illegal government tactic used to silence critics, including gang stalking, mind-control and sophisticated electronic weaponry. 19 Dec 2005 By Greg Szymanski The number of people claiming to be illegally zapped by microwave weaponry and harassed by undercover government thugs is shocking, as America’s march toward a complete military takeover and martial law is getting closer and closer. In the last month alone, at least 30 people have come forward, citing outrageous civil ...
"Inherent Authority" to Violate Federal Law?
Post Date: 2005-12-22 15:03:46 by Starwind
8 Comments
[Poster comment: two separate articles below] 1) "Inherent Authority" to Violate Federal Law? Marty Lederman A thoughtful interlocutor ("T. More") gently inquired, in a comment to a previous post, whether my posts on the NSA matter wouldn't be more effective, more persuasive, if I stopped bolding and emphasizing the adjectives "criminal" and "felonious" -- a tactic that, he rightly chided, might make my posts appear too intemperate, especially in light of the fact that previous Presidents have "presumed the [article II] power to eavesdrop on our enemies, and that even Carter and Clinton authorized warrantless wiretaps."His comment ...
No Separation of Church and State
Post Date: 2005-12-22 14:31:22 by Lod
0 Comments
A Cincinnati appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky courthouse can display the Ten Commandments alongside other historical documents, even though the U.S. Supreme Court recently barred a similar display 50 miles away. The decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals means the display in Mercer County is permitted as long as the religious document is not given significance over the other documents, which include the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. A three-judge panel of the court said such a display does not violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against government establishing a religion - and that the constitution does not demand "a wall of ...
The O'Grinch factor
Post Date: 2005-12-22 13:07:22 by PnbC
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Rosa Brooks: The O'Grinch factor (sorry, Dr. Seuss) Rosa Brooks December 22, 2005 The Whos down in Who-ville Were a tolerant lot: Who Christians, Who Muslims -- a Who melting pot. Who Hindus! Who atheists! Who Buddhists, Who Jews! Who Confucians, Who pagans, And even Who Druse! The Who First Amendment's Establishment Clause Said, "No crèches in courts," and the Whos loved their laws. Because somehow ... they worked. The Whos rarely fought, Mostly, each Who did just what he ought. Every Who down in Who-ville Loved the Consti-Who-tion a lot. But the O'Reilly, who lived up in Fox-ville, Did NOT! The O'Reilly DETESTED the Who Consti-Who-tion, He thought it was ...
New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies
Post Date: 2005-12-22 08:21:32 by robin
4 Comments
Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show. In glimpses and in glaring detail, the videotape images reveal the robust presence of disguised officers or others working with them at seven public gatherings since August 2004. The officers hoist protest signs. They hold flowers with mourners. They ride in bicycle events. At the vigil for the cyclist, an officer in biking gear wore a button that said, "I am a shameless agitator." She also carried a ...
Senate votes to extend Patriot Act (6 months)
Post Date: 2005-12-22 08:16:08 by robin
9 Comments
Agreement reauthorizes law for 6 months to negotiate safeguards WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday passed a six-month extension of the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act as a last resort after Democrats and a small group of GOP senators blocked President Bush and Republican congressional leaders’ attempt to make most of the anti-terrorism law permanent. Approval of the six-month extension came on a voice vote, and cleared the way for a final vote in the House possibly as early as Thursday. Sixteen provisions in the current law expire Dec. 31 unless the Congress and White House acts. Patriot Act critics said White House-pushed legislation did not provide enough civil liberty ...
The Paralyzing Shadow of Accusation "Eco-Terrorism": Cui Bono?
Post Date: 2005-12-22 07:52:16 by Kamala
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The Paralyzing Shadow of Accusation "Eco-Terrorism": Cui Bono?
By MICHAEL DONNELLY
In the 1980s in the North Santiam Canyon east of Salem, OR, Ancient Forest activism was peaking after years of dogged effort. This is the area of the famous 1986-89 North Roaring Devil blockade and tree sit (the second ever pro-forest tree sit; the first coming in the nearby South Santiam's Millennium Grove actions of 1985). North Roaring Devil protection efforts went on for three years, over sixty folks were arrested for non-violent Civil Disobedience at the logging site; sixty-three acres of five-hundred-plus year old trees were leveled; but, in the end, a lawsuit stopped the logging of an additional ...
Bush Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Illegally
Post Date: 2005-12-22 04:38:01 by Uncle Bill
3 Comments
President Bush Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Illegally www.sbindependent.org By Marcel Votlucka December 21, 2005 The President admits to spying on Americans "In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks." With these seemingly benign words, President Bush admitted that he authorized the National Security ...
Nixon's Views on Presidential Power: "Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal"
Post Date: 2005-12-22 03:45:35 by Uncle Bill
5 Comments
Nixon's Views on Presidential Power:Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost The following is an excerpt from an interview with former President Nixon conducted by David Frost. It aired on television on May 19, 1977.FROST:The wave of dissent, occasionally violent, which followed in the wake of the Cambodian incursion, prompted President Nixon to demand better intelligence about the people who were opposing him. To this end, the Deputy White House Counsel, Tom Huston, arranged a series of meetings with representatives of the CIA, the FBI, and other police and intelligence agencies. These meetings produced a plan, the Huston Plan, which advocated the systematic use of wiretappings, ...
GOLD STANDARD = FIAT IN DISGUISE
Post Date: 2005-12-21 22:22:13 by rack42
1 Comments
P>In his occasional paper THE RETURN TO GOLD 1925, Cambridge University scholar, Donald E. Moggridge, tells us that it was Sir Isaac Newton, who, back in 1717, set the price of gold at 77 shillings 10 and 1/2 pence per standard ounce (22-carat, .9167 fine), a price that endured for two hundred years. In reality, Sir Isaac, serving as Master of the Mint, recommended that the gold coin of the realm (Guinea) be valued at 20 shillings 8 pence (which corresponded with 76 shillings 7.6 pence per 22-carat ounce), but Parliament rejected his odd number and set the guinea at 21 shillings even (http://www.friesian.com/coins). This of course compelled Sir Isaac to increase his mint price of gold ...
Dick Cheney has put it on the table as bluntly and thuggishly as a mobster setting down a crowbar.
Post Date: 2005-12-21 22:02:24 by tom007
26 Comments
Dick Cheney has put it on the table as bluntly and thuggishly as a mobster setting down a crowbar. A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS It may be the Holiday Season, but for the United States of America we're back to Lexington and Concord. Dick Cheney has put it on the table as bluntly and thuggishly as a mobster setting down a crowbar. Cheney has said that he, Bush and Rumsfeld are out to seize as much power as they can in the name of a "robust" executive branch. It ain't no executive branch Cheney is after; it's a dictatorship. As we've said before, call it the Franco regime, the Stalin regime, the Pinochet Regime, the Brezhnev regime, the Bush regime -- they are all the same in terms ...
The Fuhrer and Senators near deal to temporarily extend USA Patriot Act
Post Date: 2005-12-21 21:44:11 by Uncle Bill
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Senators near deal to temporarily extend USA Patriot Act The Star Tribune Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press Last update: December 21, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Senators on Wednesday agreed to extend the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act for six months to allow the bill's critics to continue to seek additional civil liberty safeguards in the anti-terrorism law. The deal, if passed by the GOP-controlled Senate, would still need to get the approval of the Republican-controlled House and President Bush, but it would keep the Patriot Act provisions from expiring on Dec. 31. Republican and Democratic senators have been negotiating all day long to try and break an impasse over the ...
Diebold Hack Hints at Wider Flaws
Post Date: 2005-12-21 20:57:56 by boonie rat
1 Comments
Diebold Hack Hints at Wider Flaws By Kim Zetter 02:00 AM Dec. 21, 2005 PT Election officials spooked by tampering in a test last week of Diebold optical-scan voting machines should be equally wary of optical-scan equipment produced by other manufacturers, according to a computer scientist who conducted the test. Election officials in Florida's Leon County, where the test occurred, promptly announced plans to drop Diebold machines in favor of optical-scan machines made by Election Systems & Software, or ES&S. But Hugh Thompson, an adjunct computer science professor at the Florida Institute of Technology who helped devise last week's test, believes other systems could also be ...
COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM: Not So Compassionate, Not So Conservative
Post Date: 2005-12-21 19:49:25 by Uncle Bill
2 Comments
Compassionate Conservatism: Not So Compassionate, Not So Conservative Newsmax By Steve Farrell Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2005 Things are not always as they seem. Marxism's war on religion presents evidence-a-plenty that this notion is true. From both the left, in the name of Social Democracy, and from the right, in the name of Secular Government, Marx's Atheistic teammates have pushed, shoved and pressed upon religion in public life until a bipartisan squeeze has effectively crushed what was once publicly pervasive into the less than popular enclave of that which is now publicly suppressed. Christianity, today, though tarred and feathered, spit upon and lied about, has not given up however, and ...
The anti-American president
Post Date: 2005-12-21 12:31:38 by christine
0 Comments
"Sept. 11 changed everything" has been the mantra of the strong government conservative, the pragmatic dialectoids who are flexible enough to justify any expansion of central government power in the name of the very conservatism that opposes it. Since "we are at war," Republican media whores have repeatedly claimed that because of an attack that killed the same number of people who die on American roads every 26 days, the following actions are therefore justified: An undeclared war of indefinite end against an undefined enemy. Invading two sovereign nations without a congressional declaration of war. The anti-American Patriot Acts I and II. The suspension of habeus ...
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