Fitz!!!

fitz

Fitz, anyone?

Dagnabit.

Fitz me baby, eight to the bar!

FITZ!!

Death to wiretaps!

Cafferty reaches a huge audience, it’s definitely worthwhile trying to educate him.

His anger is a great gift.

Fitzmas prelims tomorrow — the whole enchilada combo plate next week!!!

From the last thread, my first definite EPU:

Scott McNealy’s bon mot springs to mind, the one about us having no privacy and we should get over it.

Sadly, I doubt it’s possible at this late hour to put the genie back in the bottle. Large-scale data mining and heuristic analysis are already widespread, sophisticated, and getting cheaper by the minute.

I can’t see the government being able to give it up — boys with their toys, etc. — any more than it was able to give up nuclear weapons.

The dark side — false positives, politically-motivated intimidation tactics, industrial espionage, etc., ad infinitem — probably can’t be stopped at the source. It’s instructive in this regard that circumvention of last attempt to stop it, the FISA legislation, is exactly what is at issue today.

Maybe the answer is to assume a William Gibson-style scenario, where Big Brother is always lurking in cyberspace, and users accept the fact that they must engage in guerilla warfare whenever they use it. Encrypted communications, IP spoofing, alternate identities, whatever. If GWB and Cheney like to watch, maybe we can give them a show. I’m sure we could recruit hacker training experts from within our own ranks. Any volunteers around today? EPU?

In fact you could call Cafferty’s anger righteous indignation. Righteous, like justice.

But wolf says Pickles is truly popular. Doesn’t that balance things.

Ws Jesus-like $70B tax cuts approved, take dat lucky duckies.

DeLay just resigned

Huh, Jane?????????

DiFi today flips 180 degrees on Hayden … a good sign !

BTW- Didja all hear DoJ has had to end their NSA probe ‘cuz of being denied security clearance?
_____

NSA security kills domestic spying inquiry

By Devlin Barrett

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers’ role in the program.

“We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey’s office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

Jarrett wrote that beginning in January, his office has made a series of requests for the necessary clearances. Those requests were denied Tuesday.

“Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation,” wrote Jarrett…

oh my! Link to Raw:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0511.html

Paul Begala also made an excellent comment on CNN. He pointed out that the large telephone companies that have agreed to cooperate with the administration on domestic surveillance may have an ulterior motive. Begala reminded viewers that the phone companies are looking to remove net neutrality and would need the support of the administration to get that done. His point is that these companies and the administration are playing “we scratch your back and you scratch our backs.†It certainly sounds like a plausible scenario.

read more here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com

(WaPoo) DeLay to Leave Office on June 9

The Associated Press
Thursday, May 11, 2006; 5:28 PM

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom DeLay, the once-powerful majority leader whose career was undermined by scandal, said Thursday he would resign from the House on June 9.

“As you are aware,” the Texas Republican wrote House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., “I have recently made the decision to pursue new opportunities to engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day from an arena outside of the U.S. House of Representatives.”…

http://tinyurl.com/a6erq

Help Impeach Today

Now… People think this is a waste of time because even the Dems said that they were not going to impeach (yeah right)…

Keep the pressure on Congress… Talking about impeachment wakes people up… They question, it’s a strong motivator to get people thinking. It also lets Congress know how intense the dissapproval is for this President… They seem to be a little slow on the uptake. So please:

1) Sign petitions if you have not done so
2) Send a letter to Congress (both Senators & House rep)
3) Send a copy to the media
4) Enlist friends and family to help, ask them to chip in time
5) Spread the link around, email it (with a request to forward) post it on a blog, or in the comments of a news story.

Help out!!!

Thanks :)

Popcorn for all my friends!!

according to Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…..p;refer=us Trent Lott confirms the USAToday story…

Fucking Delay scumbag. Laughing as he plays the grey area to allow another to run in TX.

they are imploding.

this all started with 9/11, which gave bush an open ended excuse — he lets osama roam free because osama’s ability to make statements at convenient moments suits bush, specially as bush’s publicists write osama’s words

unless americans wake up & realize that 9/11 was an inside job, all we can do is chase our tails

*ilson below thread 108.

See why KY politics are such fun? KY’s old AG, Ben Chandler (one of my classmates) who got involved in seversl KY kinda issues himself, lost in his run against Fletcher, but the AG’s office stayed Dem and has gone for Fletcher – who has not only freely pardoned, but committed some worser sins of pissing off horsefolk.

BenC, btw, apparently got a big fundraising boost in his run for the House via using Kos ads. While he and I were in school, KY was having (in addition to my conspiracy story from the other night) a big case involving cohorts of GOv. John Y Brown, who promptly left the country to avoid subpoenas and warrants IIRC.

Cafferty was truly pissed off. Even if his hope is misplaced…. still FELT GOOD TO SEE ! A start at least, someone w/ a mainstream audience PISSED OFF. The mass public needs to SEE this kind of anger. Everything is not ok.

Damm am I pissed off too. Need to find a clip of that hall of fame SOB Delay as he is led to pasture. Sayonara you SOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DeLay resigns ! Franco still dead !

Wow. Cafferty could hardly BREATHE. Look how his chest pulls in at the end of a sentence.

Bugman resigns at the end of the day perhaps hoping to be overshadowed by indictments forthcoming — tomorrow?

MSNBC poll update:

Is a government database containing a record, but not the contents, of every call within the United States justifiable? * 47548 responses

Yes, given the threat of terrorism it is appropriate.

15%

No, it’s an intrusion on our right to privacy.
85%

well at least SOME good news today. Bye BYE Bugman.Good Riddance.

Cheney still dead ! Bush still a brainwave away from the Presidency !

Pat Roberts(Fasc, KS) to be on w/ Lou Dobbs.

If my blood pressure can take it…

I will say it again.

They betrayed a CIA NOC to win an election.

Does anyone doubt they will betray anyone or anything to further their goals.

“fiercely defend american’s privacy” my ass.

William Timberman #9: The immediate issue it is not the very idea of such data bases, it is the lawlessness of how BushCo has done it and the lack of oversight. And the news articles make it difficult to see any legitimate reason for the stated goal -to have a permanent record of every phone call (and all internet transactions… and what else… ATM activity too?) for everyone. That is the goal stated in a new story. Or is the story wrong? A permanent record of everything and everybody is much different from periodically sampling a proportion of the population’s phone calling patterns to estimate and test algorithms for detecting terrorist activity. I don’t think the former would be outrageous, if proper safeguards were in place -both to protect privacy and to ensure quality of research so it does not become a huge boondoggle and waste. But what could be the use of the latter: keeping records on everything on everybody forever? Other than plain old domestic spying and political intimidation?
So, rueful reflections on the implications of technology on privacy in general are miss the relevant points. As I see it the immediate issues are the following:
1) done in a lawless manner (an issue in iteself)
2) done without adequate oversight (an issue in iteself)
3) done without adequate assurance that proper safeguards for protecting privacy of records, and to prevent misuse for political spying and blackmail
4) done without adequate assurance that the effort meets acceptable research standards and will be useful in detecting terrorists (ie., that it is not a big waste of resources).

Btw, That means he’s off the appropriations committee, right?

That should have been — Cheney still un-dead!

Boy, wouldn’t it be great if Senator Feinstein were a Democrat? She’s on the Senate Intelligence Committee and everything. I bet she could get some answers!

btw, the senate just passed the tax cuts….argh.

http://www.cnn.com/

angie, the Senate might have passed them but the House is having some difficulty according to Boehner…

link for msnbc poll

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12738454/

I’m sure Jack’s reliance on Specter is limited only to Specter’s ability to issue subpoenas. Specter’s a paper tiger, to be sure, but at least he’s on notice now by more than the fever swamp.

Oh, and Tom Delay: RIP*

*rise if possible

Tweety just decried getting the news in bits and pieces off the Internet “It’s like USA Today to the extreme.” Man, is he off base!!!

Has there been any movement on the story of a possible Defense Dept Under Secretary also resigning – that came out when Goss resigned?

I don’t know why the Raw Story article made me think of it.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0511.html

Military and intelligence sources say that MEK assets were responsible for this attack, but did not know if the US military was involved or if US military assets were part of the ambush.
One former high ranking US intelligence official described the use of MEK as more of a “Cambone” operation than a “Department of Defense operation.”

new thread – old felon

Delay is trying to draw the attention away from the NSA – or to sneak by his own story … hard to guess which angle it is

Come on everyone, the tax cuts for the wealthy will eventually trickle down to all of us. In fact I just got my penny a little while ago, and yours will be coming soon.

well, *ilson46201– I hope the house does the right thing… finally.

I wonder where Delay (r-Lobbyist) will turn up?

The House passed the tax cuts for the wealthy yesterday. Only 185 votes against it which means some dems defected. DAMN them!

The true thing about what Cafferty says is that Specter is the only person with the power to affect things who is even making noises about it at the moment. Whether that’s a cause for hope or not probably depends how cynical you are, and how well you’ve been paying attention.

wesgpc #35

All good points, and I agree with them. Still, once a tool like this is available to folks with power, their palms remain itchy no matter what the law says. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.

You’re right that we must fight them openly on constitutional grounds, but we must also realize that the fight will never be over as long as ambitious people with authoritarian instincts are around, i.e. it will never be over, just as the threat of nuclear detonations will be with us forever.

My suggestion was at least partly ironic, even smart-alecky, I admit, but I think the point underlying it was valid. The defense of liberty is a multi-layered affair, the moreso when its enemies are unprincipled.

Stephen Parish, CPA – in response to your request in the last thread, I have the case that the quote is from as well as a section of the decision posted on my blog here.

The exact quote is:

“long-continued practice, known to and acquiesced in by Congress, would raise a presumption that the [action] had been [taken] in pursuance of its consent . . . .” United States v. Midwest Oil Co., 236 U.S. 459, 474 (1915).

Here’s my letter to Verizon today, their response, and my reply.

I have learned that Verizon is engaged in turning over phone call data to the United States government, specifically the NSA, which is storing the information. This is a serious invasion of privacy. Please inform me immediately of whether you are engaged in such behavior. If so, I will consider it a breach of our contract and I will consider my options at that time.

******

Dear XXX,

Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless through our website. My name is Pamela, and I am happy to assist you regarding Verizon Wireless Disclosing your information to The United States Government.

XXX, plaese be advised that Verizon Wireless is currently not disclosing our Customers information to the United States Government.

Verizon Wireless takes customer privacy concerns very seriously. We have always been guided by strong codes governing the privacy of their communications and information. Our Privacy Principles reflect our commitment and define our policy on safeguarding their privacy. We believe these principles strike a reasonable balance of customer concerns about privacy with your interest in receiving quality service and useful new products. This is especially important at a time when emerging wireless communications services present us with new business opportunities and new challenges to protect the customer’s privacy.

Additionally, at Verizon Wireless, we are committed to safeguarding your privacy, and we require companies we do business with to protect your privacy too. We put customers first.

It has been a pleasure assisting you today, and we appreciate your business. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Pamela
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service

“We never stop working for you!”

******

Pamela,

Thank you for your response. I have a few questions. You state,

“Verizon Wireless is currently not disclosing our Customers information to the United States Government.”

1. An article in today’s USA Today states: “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.” Is this incorrect? Would it be true as to Verizon, but not as to Verizon Wireless?

2. You state that Verizon Wireless is not currently disclosing information. Has it disclosed this information in the past? If so, when, and why? When did it stop, and why? Did Verizon or Verizon Wireless change its policy with respect to such disclosures?

3. By “information” in the above statement, do you mean that to include “phone call records,” as described in the USA Today article quoted above?

Thank you for your prompt response.

Pamela is a robot operated by the NSA! Do not communicate with her!

So, are we finally approaching critical mass here? The proverbial tipping point? The straw that broke the camel’s back? What do you think?

I don’t thik that Cafferty is suffering from any illusions. Don’t think that he trusts Arlen anymore than the rest of us, but the GOP is in charge of every damn thing, so who else do we have? Pat ‘cover-up’ Roberts?

At least, Arlen has held some hearings, even though they haven’t done one whit of good, as far as getting rid of the Bushites.

They do give the Bushites the opportubnity to lie and evade on the record, just in case the record ever matters again.

Cafferty is a conservative curmudgeon. Now he needs to be persuaded that his distrust of brown people from Mexico is less important than his distrust of snoops in the federal government.

Ms Hamsher,

I suggest you are the one that needs to get on track.

I deplore every one of the Republican cretins. But how would you like to have had NO hearings. Specter is the only one who has consistently been constitutionally troubled enough to throw open the doors of his powerful committee to these outrages.

And I remind you, that every time one of those hearings is held, there are DEMOCRATS on the panel. OUR Democrats, who would have no other way to fire questions at these witnesses.

If they do not turn the hearing into gasps and whispers about the exposures they have just forced and cause it to make headlines on the newscasts that night, it is OUR fault–not Specters. If you know of any blockbusters we have scored, let me know.

And do you have any idea how much his hearings have contributed to the rocket sled ride to the the cellar in the poll ratings for that slime bag in the White House? I suggest it is enormous.

Now here he comes again, throwing open those doors, as the only one who can, to provide a bullseye for our Democrats to expose this cabal again. I suggest his questions will not be the softball variety either that he will ask himself.

You better give some thought to encouraging Specter instead of slamming him. Without him we would not possibly even have had the NSA revelations we had today.

And we certainly would not have had anything but Bush love with any other Republican syndicate member in that Congress.

I applaud Senator Specter. He has been the only thing between coverup and the demise of our constitution in that Congress!

Sorry if this has been previously posted elsewhere. I saw this on Talkleft:
There is much more going on than even the massive datamining discussed in USA Today. The NSA domestic phone record spying program was largely outed by a whistleblower, Mark Klein, who worked at AT&T.

AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers’ phone calls, and shunted its customers’ internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against the company.

Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, submitted an affidavit in support of the EFF’s lawsuit this week. That class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco last January, alleges that AT&T violated federal and state laws by surreptitiously allowing the government to monitor phone and internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.

On Wednesday, the EFF asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting AT&T from continuing the alleged wiretapping, and filed a number of documents under seal, including three AT&T documents that purportedly explain how the wiretapping system works.

The Government has asserted “states secret privilege”(pdf) in the EFF lawsuit and is seeking its dismissal.

Here is Mark Klein’s statement:

Statement: Mark Klein, April 6, 2006

My background:

For 22 and 1/2 years I worked as an AT&T technician, first in New York and then in California.

What I observed first-hand:

In 2002, when I was working in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the site manager told me to expect a visit from a National Security Agency agent, who was to interview a management-level technician for a special job. The agent came, and by chance I met him and directed him to the appropriate people.

In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco — actually three floors of an SBC building. There I saw a new room being built adjacent to the 4ESS switch room where the public’s phone calls are routed. I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room. The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.

In October 2003, the company transferred me to the San Francisco building to oversee the Worldnet Internet room, which included large routers, racks of modems for customers’ dial-in services, and other equipment. I was responsible for troubleshooting problems on the fiber optic circuits and installing new circuits.

While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal. I saw this in a design document available to me, entitled “Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco” dated Dec. 10, 2002. I also saw design documents dated Jan. 13, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2003, which instructed technicians on connecting some of the already in-service circuits to the “splitter” cabinet, which diverts some of the light signal to the secret room. The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect Worldnet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world.

One of the documents listed the equipment installed in the secret room, and this list included a Narus STA 6400, which is a “Semantic Traffic Analyzer”. The Narus STA technology is known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets. The company’s advertising boasts that its technology “captures comprehensive customer usage data … and transforms it into actionable information…. (It) provides complete visibility for all internet applications.”

My job required me to connect new circuits to the “splitter” cabinet and get them up and running. While working on a particularly difficult one with a technician back East, I learned that other such “splitter” cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

What is the significance and why is it important to bring these facts to light?

Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet — whether that be peoples’ e-mail, web surfing or any other data.

Given the public debate about the constitutionality of the Bush administration’s spying on U.S. citizens without obtaining a FISA warrant, I think it is critical that this information be brought out into the open, and that the American people be told the truth about the extent of the administration’s warrantless surveillance practices, particularly as it relates to the internet.

Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA’s spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA’s charter or with FISA. And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals’ phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.

Yes, given the threat of terrorism it is appropriate.

15%

The same Fucktard Fifteen that supports Darth Cheney.

The ‘ don’t-step-on-me’ and ‘ Live-free-or-die’ Pants down Libertarians, Birchers and daughters of the American revolution ought to be pretty steamed about all this.
I saw one of them over at http://www.antiwar.com talking about a ‘ rebel alliance’ with the left. Similar to the coalition of the willing that defeated the CLIPPER chip.
No need for anything formal but this could fit in with our ‘ diversity-of-tactics’ couldn’t it.
Also this is a world crisis.
ECHELON will still be a problem even if this horrorshow gets rolled back somehow.
I think we have to see this as an ongoing RICO narcoterrorist problem. Watergate=Nugan/Hand
Iran/contra=BCCI Yellowgate=drugs in Arms out once more.
It’s a series of rolling scandals each getting worse each time. Appeasement and slaps on the wrist wont work. Scorched earth and total war is called for. No prisoners and unconditional surrender. 25th ammendment for the criminal Caligula from Crawford. RICO for all the repug crooks especially the Bush crime family.
We have a limited window of opportunity to use the net DARPA gave us – maybe PAM will also be required.
http://www.nex.com/innews.htm

Couldn’t a person’s communications patterns provide probable cause for wiretap warrents? That way anyone of interest can be wiretapped.

Jack was Specter on notice that he has to step up to the plate. Brilliant, I thought.

Yes, I saw Cafferty make that comment. It made me guilty about castigating the MSM for its cowardly portrayal of what is going on in this country. It was crisp straight talk, serious talk, and an appeal to the people watching to walk up to what is going on in this facist form of government. But alas, he is only a drop in the empty bucket of courageous reporting in this country. But there is hope..We have blogs like this..