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Wiretap Whistleblower, a Life in Limbo?
Newsweek has an interesting report on Thomas M. Tamm, the individual who blew the whistle on the Federal Government's warrantless wiretaps. The piece takes a look at some of the circumstances leading up to the disclosure and what has happened since. "After the raid, Justice Department prosecutors encouraged Tamm to plead guilty to a felony for disclosing classified information — an offer he refused. More recently, Agent Lawless, a former prosecutor from Tennessee, has been methodically tracking down Tamm's friends and former colleagues. The agent and a partner have asked questions about Tamm's associates and political meetings he might have attended, apparently looking for clues about his motivations for going to the press, according to three of those interviewed."
Do you really think that an Obama presidency will help? He thinks it's okay to tell radio and TV stations what to air. If a station's editorials appear too biased against the left, his regime will invoke the "Fairness Doctrine".
you think that's bad? read what he wants to do with online advertising: http://tinyurl.com/3b5r7y
You like your emphasis, don't you?
Indeed. We have to have more public oversight and judgement on what exactly are "matters of national security".
We also need stronger anonymous protection of whistleblowers and journalists who choose to let their sources remain anonymous so long as the whistleblower had reason to believe that the goverment(or corporation etc.) was involved in illegal activity.
Ideally, we should disband our intelligence services and rebuild them with much more oversight(as for the Department of "Homeland Security", we should tear it down and leave it that way). The FBI are pissing away astonishing amounts of money and resources for what is essentially a "takes a crook to catch a crook" racket which is stinking drunk from its own unchecked power. If they want to question the whistleblower with a lawyer present, fine...but they shouldn't be threatening his friends and family busting down doors while decked out in combat gear.
Thankfully, with Obama in charge things may or may not change for the better, but at least they won't get any worse. Shame on those of you who voted for the senile puppet McCain and his Brunette Barbie doll Sarah Palin.
Yeah... because there were ***NO*** democrats ***WHAT SO EVER***. It was purely Republicans. The saints that run the Democrat party were fighting tooth and nail to stop this from happening.
That's why we elected The Messiah!!! Because His perfect party is the second coming and will usher in a thousand years of peace after the 7 years of satan (aka Bush)
Hint: if you don't sense the sarcasm, you should pull your head out of your ass. If you seriously think that the ass hats in the democrat party did anything to stop this, or will do anything different while in power? Where are the champion Democrats that fought against this? Where are the Dem leaders fighting to uphold the Consitution?
*waits*
*waits*
*waits*
*Crickets still chirping*
And why is that? Because it took an FBI agent with the balls to talk - NOT an elected official - Rebulican OR Democrat.
Fuck you and your party line stance. It's that strict adherence to "Dems are leftwing batnuts enviro tree huggers" and "Repubs are stupid religious freaks" party lines that are fuckin this country over. People care more about their party than the Country that the parties are supposed to be representing.
Fuck Bush. Fuck Obama. Fuck McCain. Fuck Congress. Fuck the Senate. They are all asshats who are passing shit like the Bailouts, driving this country so far into debt that I have no doubt we'll be asking Cuba for handouts in 10 years.
But you go ahead and blame the Republicans, while sucking on the Dem leader dicks like the party fights are going to solve anything.
Look at history: COINTELPRO, agents provocateurs, enemies lists, McCarthyism.
And this has what to do with this guy?
Six years ago a radio station had children stomping on and setting fire to Dixie Chicks albums ... Who knew how stupid and paranoid the government would become?
Um. That had nothing to do with the government. You actually think the CIA orchestrated the burning of Dixie Chicks albums? You think they give a damn about the Dixie Chicks?
You ... misconstrue what he said
False.
There's something fundamentally wrong with you if someone opines the threat of death is chilling and your reply is "Howso?"
Bollocks.
The topic here is a chilling effect toward our freedom. Yes, you can get the death penalty for doing bad things. How is this chilling toward our freedom?
Maybe you're just against the death penalty, which would explain your self-righteous attitude. But that's beside the point here. The point is that the person I was responding to was engaging repeatedly in the question-begging fallacy, assuming Tamm did nothing wrong and that anything done to him in return was therefore "chilling." But it has not been established that Tamm did nothing wrong, and in fact, it is quite apparent that he committed a serious crime.
Tamm may have justification that mitigates punishment for that crime, and that will play a role -- perhaps completely exonerating him in the end -- but pursuing the investigation and possibly filing charges for such a clear felony case is not "chilling."
The only thing that would accomplish is an additional charge. If they are already doing something illegal, it has to go through some due process to determine that it is illegal. If it is classified, due process is blocked or at least impeded. I understand where you might think it is a good idea... and I don't think it's a "bad" one, but it wouldn't have stopped what we are seeing today. They only need to claim that they believed it was legal when they did it.
I mainly hope that Obama will sweep in and undo everything Bush did including the department of homeland security. FEMA became a part of homeland security and look what happened to it. Bush broke a lot of things that didn't need fixing. One thing I am afraid of is if Obama does "too good" a job of cleaning things up. It will likely make a lot of people angry just the way JFK did. If Obama sucks at being president, he will certainly live though... I am pretty sure of that. I don't think the US can be put back in order without making a bunch of people angry though.
(and to discourage anybody else from disagreeing with bush)
Maybe. So what? How is that a bad thing? Isn't that what Keith Olbermann does every night, but from the left, by abusing anyone who says something he disagrees with?
Not to mention those pinko ABC News leftist scare mongers: http://tinyurl.com/3b5r7y
No, we do have a pretty good idea what happened
No, we don't. Last I checked there was only on-the-record sources for that story. So no, we don't have a good idea of what happened at all.
and we know that Bush was deeply involved
Again, no, we don't know that. We only know one person implied that.
It was certainly illegal, at least according to James Comey
Yes, based on details he won't share.
But more importantly, the plan Ashcroft was supposedly ready to resign over was, from all appearances, not the one that was actually implemented.
Wrong again. See above. The program was already running, and they were trying to reauthorize it.
Who said it was a mere reauthorization? The reporter. Did Comey say that? Not that I see. And even if he did, all we know is that there was an order -- we don't know what it said, or whether it was significantly different from a previous one -- and that he wouldn't sign it and that changes were made.
You're right. The original program was obviously much worse.
Since you have a habit of saying you know things you obviously don't, I am unsurprised you'd make such an assertion. Obviously, Ashcroft and Comey thought the one in the original authorization that wasn't signed was worse, but we know nothing more than that.
You love the cock, don't you?