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Domestic Spying Records Ordered Released
CokoBWare wrote to mention an eWeek report on the NSA's domestic spying program. A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice to release records from the program by March 8th. From the article: "In ordering the Justice Department to expedite the FOIA request processing, Judge Henry Kennedy Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that the department's opinion that it could determine how much time is needed was 'easily rejected ... Under DOJ's view of the expedited processing provisions of FOIA, the government would have carte blanche to determine the time line for processing expedited requests,'"
A big tip of my hat to this guy... and a wag of my finger to the bush administration... bears are still the #1 threat at the moment...
-nick
Great, lets just wait until WE DECLARE WAR.........
Hear! Hear!
Was this guy elected or appointed? Clearly these sort of judges will rub both parties the wrong way and therefore haven't a chance of being on the US Supreme Court, which isn't as it should be.
He may as well have come out and said "Sorry, guys, you're full of shit. Give us ALL the records, and soon."
Then he'll mysteriously die in his sleep or be invited to a "hunting" trip with Dick Cheney.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Not Cheney. He's been known to enjoy a "canned" hunt here and there. Why do the hunting when you can cut straight to the killing?
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
I think it's fairly ironic that the same Republicans who were so anxious to impeach Clinton for lying about his sex life crying "The President has to uphold the law!" are now shrugging off the law as an inconvenience when it's their boy under the spotlight.
One of the reasons this country is so great is that we have laws like the Constitution to protect us from the excesses of government and the egomaniacal power grabs of individuals. Checks and balances are an absolutely essential component of what America is all about.
The judge is exactly right that this case needs to be exposed to the light of day to ensure that abuses (if any) are curtailed and exposed. And our President needs to be reminded that he's not the King. He works for us, not the other way around.
A guy who self-righteously claims to promote democracy shouldn't have to be reminded of that.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
I support more invasive monitoring of the terrorists who left Americans dying on their rooftops.
I've heard they frequently have communications with people outside the country, including terrorist friendly nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, and Pakistan.
Does a low level member of the Judiciary branch have the ability to override the executive branch? We have a black program, that is protected by multiple layers of secrecy. This is a construct of the executive branch. Can the Judiciary proclaim this level of secrecy null and void by decree and order classified information released?
How many billions of dollars will be now rendered worthless as all of the programs that would be revealed by complying with this order would now be rendered null and void?
Does anyone believe putting our sources and methods on display to our enemies (the El Quesos) is going to make this country any safer?
Nothing you said addresses that fundamental issue
The fundamental issue: people sitting in other countries have acted to kill a substantial number of people in the US and abroad. They loudly proclaim that they want to do more, and work to that end. Part of that includes placing calls (regarding funding and operational coordination) to supporters and collaborators. When people make those calls, it's not only legal to follow the trail, it's an obligation to. The constitution not only permits it, but empowers the CinC to perform, in his role of defense against just such attacks, to act. So, if you're a known Al Queda franchise operator in Lahore, phoning your US-based finance guy on a disposable phone from overseas, get over feeling like your privacy isn't what it used to be.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
That gives them less than a month to make 2/3 of the records disappear and fabricate records less detrimental to the president's image to take their place.
Quite honestly, Guiliani does not stand a chance. Keep in mind that he went through a messy divorce where it was shown that he was messing around. In addition, he supposedly had a few more skeletons there were going to come out. The only thing that helped in the end was 9/11. Since that time, he has been busy backing GWB no matter what. Personally, I would give Hillary a better than average chance against him and just about any other Dem will crush him.
Now, McCain is a different matter. The man is one of the few republicans that has shown that integrity and a backbone matters. In addition, he has paid attention to many of the small things AHEAD of the press going after it. For example, he has for several years been pushing against taxcuts, this outrageous deficits, Oil dependancies, Gitmo, the Sibel Edmunds gag order, our torturing, the spying, etc, etc etc.. (BTW, IMHO, only Ron Paul and Powell rate with McCain).
Most republicans would vote the party even if Hitler was running (witness the many republicans in Louisanna who voted in the David Duke, a locally well known KKK grand wizard). But the issue is can a candidate pull in independents, and opposing party voters? McCain would land many indies, as well as pull from a number of dems. Until the last election, I have never voted for a major party pres. candidate. While I sadly voted dem on the last election, I would happly vote for McCain.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.