Fitz! Colbert!… Why?… Why not!

Impeach!

“fing”?

We’re going to save a lot of money when Congress and the courts disband.

I’m proud to say that my rep is one of them!

Wow, check the pissed look on blowingupfrogswithfirecrackersboy.

This just up on Raw Story (a half hour or less):

Washington on edge over Rove, again… Networks plan to stake out courthouse Friday… Developing hard….
–

Won’t be the first bet I lost but it’d be the best!!

‘White House sources say that Snow aims to counter criticism of the administration in an aggressive manner”

Yeah, as the newest member of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders – come out from behind that monitor !

Mean’Ol Media !

Cafferty just said we better hope that nothing happens to Arlen Specter cause he may be the only thing standing between us and a dictatorship…

ps– he was as angry as I have ever seen him. that outta grab a few like curmudgeonly wingnuts…

CNN’s Jack Cafferty is LIVID!!!!!!!!!!!!

reposted from previous thread:

I just called my Congresslady Julia Carson to thank her for joining in on the lawsuit against the NSA warrantless-wiretapping. She’s now upset at the govt for acquiring & retaining records of all phone numbers she calls — she’s a total phone freak with 3 cellphones and also 2 landlines at her home plus 1 at her DC apartment (not to mention office and campaign phones!)

If our hopes rest on Specter we’re doomed.

What lame excuse are the Dems going to advance for refusing to sign on to an impeachment resolution now? (I’m sure they’ll think of one!)

Americablog gives an address on how to encript e-mails -

http://blog.eponymous.org/?p=3160

The only thing that might keep people from finally taking to the streets over this is the very real possibility that Bush would use it to declare martial law.

Maybe someone should suggest that the reason we have not been attacked again since 9/11 is that we have been under attack by our own government ever since. Why attack when we our own government is engineering the loss of the most precious thing we had?

How people cannot see that the incremental loss of our constitutional rights is a huge victory for terrorism is beyond my ability to understand.

My city one–Maloney (an old D-style hack)–and my country one–Hinchey (the best)–both signed on.

i really wish cafferty would reach through that panic room and choke blitzer. that idiot’s comments at the conclusion of cafferty’s rant are so friggin condescending.

Links in 1st Paragraph don’t work

NSA = New Superseding Authority

puzzled – that adorable 30 something Congressman Meek from Florida is not on that list of 72 –

and I’m shocked, shocked I tell you -Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) is not on the list either

Jane, that Wired article from a couple of months ago about the AT&T employee in San Francisco was regarding one such choke point. I’m sorry now that I didn’t save what I wrote back then, because now I have to go find the damn URLs again, but that was the gist of my comment about it. San Francisco is the place a lot of bits go on the way to someplace else. There are various Internet maps available that show this relationship, and I’ll try to hunt up a couple of representative ones here in a moment.

Today, most Internet and other phone traffic go through the same pipes. A technology called Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) makes this possible. Without going into detail, if you tap a big ATM phone switch belonging to AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon, you’re going to see both phone (voice) and Internet traffic. All you need is a basic understanding of the underlying protocols, and a whole lotta disk space.

From Raw Story:
Networks plan stakeout of Fitzgerald court Friday; No formal sign of indictment

I sent letters to both Senators today. This is fucking ridiculous. Emperor Bush and Darth Cheney must be stopped.

Afternoon. I was/am catching up on everything. A few misc. items from the very last article “Are They Listening”.
1. comment 29 is the one that strikes me. Read that article he left. It was the same question running thru my mind…what exactly IS the NSA/WH theory on how massive #’s of phone numbers can detect terrorist activities?
2. comment 100, Rusty…nope, wasn’t me!
Now then, as to this article…I’m just wondering if the situation here is that we may not have a WH hell-bent on obtaining all this data for other nefarious reasons…but instead, it’s complete incompetence. I don’t know. But I remain baffled at how “someone” over at NSA actually thought that millions of phone #’s can lead to terrorist detection.
Any way you slice it, it’s just plain wrong.
Ghostman

To give NYT some due – this Feb. story provides a lot of info and shows someone was working hard:

http://tinyurl.com/qvc2j

The companies routinely assist law enforcement and intelligence agencies with eavesdropping authorized by court warrants, a task streamlined by a 1994 law requiring a back door for the government in every new telephone technology. The law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or Calea, has created a thriving “lawful intercept” industry for technology to make eavesdropping easier.

But for decades such cooperation has sometimes gone further. Federal law permits companies to intercept calls or e-mail messages without a warrant and protects them from lawsuits if a “certification” is provided by the attorney general or his deputies stating that no warrant is needed.
. . .
The companies’ ties to Washington are formidable. Once a year, 30 of the country’s top telecommunications and Internet executives gather in the capital to talk with the government about national security topics like how phone systems can survive nuclear attack.
All members of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, as the group is known, have been given security clearances to discuss classified programs with senior domestic security, intelligence and White House officials.

OK – other than the interesting fact that telecom executives get security clearance to discuss the programs, but DOJ Prof Resp investigators don’t, tuess which White House official was at the 2005 meeting?
(Vice President Dick Cheney was at last year’s meeting.)

Asked about the NSTAC’s knowledge of the NSA programs: . . .a committee spokesman, Steve Barrett, said in an e-mail message, “The N.S.T.A.C. is not involved in the gathering of intelligence.”

Anyone else wondering if he spelled it out like that in his email bc — he knew his email was going to be monitored by — NSA?

Nisi Surveillance, Arrest (meant as a declarative).

Also – remember Gonzales being asked (in the hearing where he was not sworn) about whether he was providing certifications to telecoms and he ducked answering?

Jane Harman– The WH is in free fall.

Anne says:
May 11th, 2006 at 1:18 pm

What is your definition of martial law? Are you actually referring to a declaration of a state of national emergency? How would martial law (which isn’t mentioned in the Constitution or, if I’m not mistaken, in the United States Code) be enforced without the presence of armed forces numbering in the millions?

Jane Harman just issued a really good statement — amazingly good. details will trickle forth.

Here’s a link to the legislation introduced today:

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

Thanks for the hat tip, Jane. If you want to know if your Rep signed on, you don’t need to call–the signees are listed within the pdf of the brief, starting on page vii.

Those tens of millions of al Qaeda affiliates living here had better watch out now. The Varmint Hunter in Chief is on to ya’s.

Fitz is meeting with the GJ tomorrow says Raw Story:

Reporters at the major cable television networks plan to be on the ground Friday outside a federal district court where the jury considering the fate of President Bush’s senior adviser Karl Rove.

No formal indication has been given of Rove’s status, though lawyers close to the case have said his fate is likely to be determined soon. Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is investigating the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, is scheduled to meet with the grand jury in the case Friday.

The major networks plan to have reporters live on the ground, a senior reporter said.

Two White House reporters covering the case said they had not heard anything about new Rove developments, though they confirmed that the grand jury is scheduled to meet.

Rove testified for the fifth time Apr. 26. Legal experts have said that those who appear before the grand jury on multiple occasions are more likely to be indicted.

The Washington Post recently reported: “Fitzgerald, according to sources close to the case, is reviewing testimony from Rove’s five appearances before the grand jury. President Bush’s top political strategist has argued that he never intentionally misled the grand jury about his role in leaking information about undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003. Rove testified that he simply forgot about the conversation when he failed to disclose it to Fitzgerald in earlier testimony.”

DEVELOPING…

excuse me Arlen, f**k AT&T, Bellsouth, & Verizon – they are only going to stonewall your sorry ass – Why don’t you give the kids at QWEST a call ?!?!?

cornyn, not his usual ‘liberty doesn’t matter when you’re dead’ shithead self

Ghostman:#25: I pretty much agree with a posting from Americablog..

Rob in Baltimore says of this:

This still doesn’t sit well with me – we’re not even remotely getting all of this story. A database of numbers that simply say A called B cannot possibly be the “largest database in the world”. Virtually every single phone company holds years and years of billing records like these. Even pooled together, they wouldn’t create the world’s largest database, not by a long shot. If you simply attached an audio file to each of those records, well then now you’d be talking about the kind of dataset that would create the “largest database in the world”.

I am frankly getting sick of Raw Story’s sensationalism — their headlines are super misleading. You would EXPECT the press to be staking the courthouse out every Wednesday and Friday from here on out. The grand jury meets every Wednesday and Friday, not just for this case.

Additionally, Raw Story’s “Soon…” and “Developing…” is quite ridiculous more often than not.

Carolyn Maloney is my rep, and she’s already signed it.

Damn, I love living in Manhattan. 84% of the vote here went for Kerry in the last election.

(Unfortunately, that got diluted by all the pugs in Staten Island. For the life of me, I don’t know why we just don’t let them secede from the city already.)

We crashed Corrente, I had to remove the links.

Earl Blumenauer of Oregon has signed on which is a relief. I was so outraged when I heard about this I am afraid I would find it hard to be civil if I had to make the phone call.

Harry Reid: Asked about Senate investigations of Bush administration, Reid said, “I’m not heavily into investigations. That should be way down at the bottom of our agenda.â€

Democratic pollster Jeremy Rosner, a former aide to President Clinton: Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party . . .

Both from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12675876/

Compare and contrast with:

Democratic blogger Matt Stoller: “the key issue for us is checks and balances…. Until Bush is forced to respect the law, policy talk is somewhat irrelevant. The Constitutional crisis comes first.â€

Rep. Henry Waxman: “I would pursue a much more vigorous set of investigations (than Republicans have)…. I’d certainly consider a high priority to investigate abuse of prisoners, manipulation of intelligence that has gotten us into Iraq, I’d want to know about waste of taxpayers’ money by private contractors, whether it’s in reconstruction of Iraq, or work in the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf region or for homeland security.â€

proj – You are right.

But this bit of information, if true, is quite significant to Plameologists:

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is investigating the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, is scheduled to meet with the grand jury in the case Friday.

Pfeh. Called Pelosi’s office – “Oh, is this the 72 names thing?” Uh, yeah. Way to be up on the topic, sonny. The official line from the aide was that Pelosi is calling on Hastert to investigate. Ha ha ha. Also, she would like a pony.

But Lynn Woolsey’s on there! woot! She was my friend’s mom before she was in Congress – well, she still IS my friend’s mom, but you know what I mean, I hope – so it’s nice to see her still being cool in the Capitol…

well, rawstory gets it right more often than The Note– just sayin.

#7 — re Rove. Looks like a false alarm…”Two White House reporters covering the case said they had not heard anything about new Rove developments, though they confirmed that the grand jury is scheduled to meet.”

I hope it *is* a false alarm.

Indictments tomorrow would prematurely curtail the prominence of the NSA story, which has many many news cycles to run…Besides, I bet 5/19 in the FDL Name That Indictment contest…

Jane,

the Amicus Brief is also linked in the Raw Story story

That’s a total false dichotomy, though. I don’t claim that Raw Story and The Note are the only two news sources. I agree that Raw gets some good scoops, but their methods leave a lot to be desired.

Anne at 16…

Your comment was revealing…

… since 9/11 … we have been under attack by our own government …

Not only do I enjoy running with the Jane Hamshers of the Left, but I am an enthusiastic afficianado of the Digby School!

On a more somber note, Raw Story is reporting on a possible tail wagging the dog: US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike.

The first person CNN puts on after this exposure of Bush and the NSA is a REPUBLICAN Senator – Cornyn – whoring for Bush, playing the GWOT and fear cards. Not a dem in sight.

That’s CNN – still FAIR AND BALANCED!

Cliff Varnell – Not necessarily a false alarm – after all, the article is reporting that Fitz will be there – so not just a standard scheduled GJ meeting.

FYI – I am biased as my bet was that the indictments would go down tomorrow.

At HuffPo, Zack Exley states that the Dems should simply state the following:

“Bush ALREADY HAD the freedom to spy on anyone he wanted – he just had to tell a secret intelligence judge AFTERWARDS, a judge who was sworn to secrecy. So what was he trying to hide from that judge?”

Short, sweet and to the point. It does not disassemble, like do most Dems, into “fine points” like the 72 hour limit, or Schumer’s favorite “the president is changing the law.” (I like that one for its complete stupidity.) Will the Dems use a simple phrase like this? I doubt it. They’d rather save their seats (asses?) and serve nominally in a dictatorship than take a (small) risk of losing their seats and defend the Constitution. By the way, isn’t defending the Constitution what they were sworn to do? (Bush probably changed the oath to read “defend my seat in Congress” instead.)

This country is standing at the edge of the abyss. The Repubs are all crooked or insane. We need Democratic statesmen — not the shysters and hacks that appear to be walking the halls of Congress now.

proj,

“I am frankly getting sick of Raw Story’s sensationalism”

Ditto that! Further, if someone here links to them please make clear it’s to Raw Story so I don’t have to be bothered. Thanks.

The President is standing in front of a chart from some research done by CAIDA, Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, which is right on their home page and would be familar to pretty much anyone who does research on the Internet.

When the picture appeared in the press it occasioned a lot of snickering in the Internet community, as it was not done by the NSA (and because it is extremely doubtful W understood it). It’s not really about choke points; it’s a discription of how Autonomous Systems are distibuted in time and bandwidth, and is described more
here. It’s not really suitable for figuring out how to bug people.

Jane Harman today:

“Last week I said the CIA was in free fall. Now, I think the White House is in free fall, and paying the price for refusing to obey the National Security Act and brief the full Intelligence Committees in detail on the NSA program.

“Americans are alarmed – and rightly so – because this Administration continues to operate parts of the NSA program in violation of FISA and the 4th Amendment.

“Today, 14 members of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees introduced legislation to require all aspects of the NSA program comply fully with FISA.

“The drop in the President’s poll numbers is no accident. Americans have lost trust in a White House which refuses to brief Congress and insists it is above the law.â€

“This is how a dictator would act…this is not how a Patriot would act!”

This is how I posted it over at Glenn’s blog. I’m also posting this here to do 2 things:

1. As a suggestion for a Progressive meme that is short, memorable and to the fitzing point!
2. To enerate more widespread interest in Glenn’s boot!
I’d also like to suggest that his publisher send a copy (perhaps a signed copy) to each member of Congress, and if they can afford it, to each judge of the Federal judiciary!

Stephen Parrish – my anger has gotten ahead of the reality of what normally has to be in place in order for a federal declaration of martial law. Given the limitations of Posse Comitatus, I suspect that what would happen is governors of states in whatever cities protests were taking place would call out whatever National Guard they had at their disposal (which might be limited given the military deployments that have depleted their domestic ranks).

But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, given this president’s willful disregard for the law, that he would float martial law as a possibility.

Going to the gym to take out my anger on the elliptical.

Major thanks to whomever leaked this story to USA Today. Obviously the timing of its publication was no accident, given that it’s totally fucked with Hayden’s beauty show visits on the Hill today and made His Serene Eminence The Deciderer have to go on TV and haltingly read yet another non-denial denial, the phoniness of which could not be more evident. It’s Hard Work.

Oops! Change that boot to book :-)

comment #55 “more widespread interest in Glenn’s boot!”
I bet Condi can afford more expensive ones!

*ilson46201 @ 1:39 pm (#54) – I think Ms. Harman is missing the point – it’s not Bush’s failure to brief Congress that explains his miserable poll numbers, it’s his utter failure to live up to any of his obligations to the American public.

Talk about being disconnected from the voters.

Dagnabit! We definitely need a good spellcheck here. Change my enerate to generate.

There is a problem with settling this in the courts. I attended a discussion about the illeagal wiretapping at a local university, and the panel included A person from the ACLU, the Federalist Society, and Rob Andrews (D) from New Jersey.

The problem that the guy from the Federalist society pointed out is that the current Supreme Court precedent says that “Congressional Acquiescence is tacit approval”. Basically, if this is not settled by congress, the Supreme Court is going to say that becuase Congress did not act, then they are giving tacit approval of the program, and the expansion of presidential authority.

(full details on the wiretapping forum here)
If anyone though Alito and Roberts were nominated just becuase of abortion they are dead wrong. With the current supreme court, there is no doubt in my mind that they would follow this line of logic.

If congress does not rebuke this dangerous power grab by the President, then it stands to be institutionalized, and then the Constitution might as well not exist.

No response is the best response for those that seek to push us even closer towards dictatorship.

PWI: Preznitin’ While Inebriated

My congressman didn’t sign on either. Of course I am stuck with the majority leader himself as my congressman so there was no chance in hell of that happening LOL.

Jamie
http://www.intoxination.net

Good on Jane Harman! I just called her office earlier today to rant, and lo and behold — it worked!

At close today:

AT&T $26.11 -0.06

Verizon $31.90 -0.04

Bell South $33.73 -0.08

will be interesting to watch once the initial suits are filed

Curious. Three telco’s comply, claiming it’s legal. One teleco says it’s not so legal, and doesn’t roll over.

Assuming Bush is serious about the GWOT, why hasn’t Quest been indicted for obstruction and shipped off to Gitmo – you don’t need a trial these days.

Plus, you can’t let some outfit punk you- you lose cred.

Next thing you know, Democrats may get uppity!

I feel a Fitz Day coming!!

*ilson46201 at #59:

LOL! I’d love to give her the boot! :-)

Yeah, spellcheck would be nice. I now use this WiFi laptop that’s fine, except that some keystrokes don’t all always take. Then I grimace when I see some of the bonehead-looking stuff I end up posting.

Great Posts! Lousy spelling……..

Major thanks to whomever leaked this story to USA Today.

dana priest made the point that the reporter is a business reporter and she covers the telecomm industry. that’s where the info came from — telecomm employees who are freaked by what is happening.

ot, but oy, jc watts is one stupid mofo.

Ghostman said…
“I remain baffled at how “someone†over at NSA actually thought that millions of phone #’s can lead to terrorist detection.”

Absolutely correct. What this practice does is IMPEDE terrorist detection. Because they are spending so much time spying on us, they are wasting precious resources that could be used to spy on terrorists. I’m don’t think that they want to spy on terrorists — they want to spy on us and use the terrorist theme as an excuse.

Why do so many reports of interactions with Congressional offices end the way Jane’s post does?

“[The aide in my Congresscritter’s] office, though nice, really didn’t seem to have much idea of what I was talking about.”

I am getting really tired of people who work for Congresscritters (who, incidentally, work for us!) not having a clue.

And, yes, I have had THE FUCK enough!

The Captain says: “Congressional acquiescence is tacit approvalâ€
May 11th, 2006 at 1:44 pm

It would be very helpful to see where that quote appears in Supreme Court decisions.

mercury @ 65– just tell me what it really feels to be listened to??? I am so jealous.

Ah, interesting, Corrente was overloaded by click-through from FDL. (Sympathies to Corrente) FDL now has internet gravitas, akin to the ’slashdot’ effect.
I hope getting FDL’d doesn’t get construed as a DoS (denial of service) attack.

OT – But this is pretty funny, Katherine Harris really put her foot in it last night:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..144118/138

A Rove indictment on top of the NSA outrage, (plus the CIA and HUD fiascos [fiasci?], which have oddly put not just one but two people named Dusty on the ropes this week) would make for a perfect little goddamn storm, wouldn’t it?

Cujo359 says:
May 11th, 2006 at 1:24 pm

Is this what you were looking for in your post?

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014808.html

Who forgot to close his/her italics tags??

hmmm must put a stop to this italics madness

Seeing if I can end this italic nonsense.

see, all the news is slanted

One more try.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/…..i_66149136

read and track on that a little……

some unclosed italics tag in a previous comment post ?

Did someone forget to turn off Italics in # 73?

Deja vu. Isn’t this what the government wanted to do with Total Information Awareness (TIA) a few years ago? I seem to remember that just this sort of thing was proposed, but plans were dropped because of overwhelming opposition. Am I losing it, or does anyone else remember this?

stop italics

cbl (#34):

coryn “liberty doesn’t matter when you’re dead”.

gee, i wish he would say that to a mother of a dead soldier.

why do you think they’re dead, john? because liberty doesn’t matter? what is the point of having a government, a nation, a military or any of the other things we associate with the needs of our country. freedom and liberty R us, john.

Dusty…Scooter…Dubya…WTF kind of names are these anyhoos.

try to end ital.

behold the power of slant-b-gone

ralphbon says:
May 11th, 2006 at 1:52 pm

The timing of the two events you mentioned becomes even better if it turns out that Karl Rove is involved in any way with the NSA phone records program.

stopped again. E. ‘Greg’ Ious did it !

on hold while Rush’s office tries to figure out if they have a position … I love calling Congress.

and they’re back with “not yet” … they have no idea what I’m talking about … keep putting me on hold ….

done – gave a little education

Thanks Jane for the kick!

coryn “liberty doesn’t matter when you’re deadâ€.

Right. That’s our ONLY choice. Give up our liberty or die. Assclown.

TalkLeft is reporting Mark Klein, a retired AT&T employee, is the whistleblower largely responsible for the information.

Deja vu. Isn’t this what the government wanted to do with Total Information Awareness (TIA) a few years ago? I seem to remember that just this sort of thing was proposed, but plans were dropped because of overwhelming opposition. Am I losing it, or does anyone else remember this?

yes, you remember correctly. it was just renamed and outsourced instead.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/4497

Just one more day until the filing for the US Senate primary in Florida closes! Do you suppose former Congressman Porter Goss (R-FL) is contemplating a run against La Divina Harris? Spook vs Silicone?

It’s 5PM, do you know where your civil liberties are?

WASHINGTON D.C. — Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee, today released the following statement on the USA Today report of the phone call database collected by the NSA:

“Last week I said the CIA was in free fall. Now, I think the White House is in free fall, and paying the price for refusing to obey the National Security Act and brief the full Intelligence Committees in detail on the NSA program.

“Americans are alarmed – and rightly so – because this Administration continues to operate parts of the NSA program in violation of FISA and the 4th Amendment.

“Today, 14 members of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees introduced legislation to require all aspects of the NSA program comply fully with FISA.

“The drop in the President’s poll numbers is no accident. Americans have lost trust in a White House which refuses to brief Congress and insists it is above the law.â€

http://www.house.gov/apps/list….._3_06.html

Followup to my comment (#22). The Wired article I was referring to, in which Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that the NSA was given a room to store listening equipment that was used to tap a telephone switching center in San Francisco.

Here’s an interesting article that contains a map of the North American Internet broken down by what telco or provider owns what lines and routers. It’s really, really complicated, but the important point of it is to note that there’s a different color for each major entity, and there aren’t a whole lot of colors.

Lets see if I have this straight, 3 big news items on the same day.

Item 1 Warm up for Rove vs GJ (of dubious value)Item 2 Military Officials warn of air craft carrier movement in the gulf (sabre rattling or worse)Item 3 NSA/Telco Spying Collusion (what freedoms are we fighting for again)

Ugh, thats without even digging to any depth on each of these stories.

Anne (#56)
” Given the limitations of Posse Comitatus, I suspect that what would happen is governors of states in whatever cities protests were taking place would call out whatever National Guard they had at their disposal ..
But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, given this president’s willful disregard for the law, that he would float martial law as a possibility.

Since the National Guard is part of the military, I believe that Shrub can mobilize them to “preserve order” whenever he wishes. (If I remember my labor history correctly, there was an incident (either the Pullman Strike or the Haymarket Riot) where the President mobilized the National Guard in Illinois against the wishes of the Governor of Illinois (Altgeld?). However, I am unclear what limitations Posse Comitatus places on mobilization of the National Guard.

Can some lawyers help out on this?

Here’s a link to the google cache of the corrente story:
The network architecture of treason

another one bites the dust!

The special grand jury that’s been investigating state government hiring practices indicted Gov. Ernie Fletcher on three misdemeanors for conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination.

The jury also indicted former Transportation Cabinet official Sam Beverage for perjury, which is a felony.

And the jury also submitted to Franklin Circuit Judge William Graham 14 more indictments that are under seal.

Those indictments cover crimes that may have occurred before Aug. 29, 2005, when Fletcher pardoned all administration officials except himself.

Sophist (#104)…

I agree. It’s been a shitty day!!

the Gov @ 108 was KY

Uh oh – fredo’s eyes were a blinking when he said it was the intention to protect Americans from another attack. Stock up on water and canned goods, kids. His body language is very revealing in those comments this a.m. – shifty eyes, rapid blinks when he’s lying.

Senator Patrick Leahy today: “Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents.â€
“NSA building giant database of Americans’ phone calls, newspaper says”

Well, I think the telecoms should also hear from us.

To: *ilson46201 (#95)

Can you give either the story source or a link?
Thanks in advance.

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 :)

KY Gov. shafted : http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14556190.htm

OT – KY republican Gov indicted:

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/…..tcher.html

These chatterboxes repeatedly cite current polling showing people fairly evenly split on surveillance. What they fail to note, is that bush assured Americans that surveillance was limited to incoming/outgoing international calls and suspected accomplices. Now that usatoday has revealed it’s tens of millions of Americans and domestic-based calls, that number is gonna shift dramatically to reflect his wingnut cultists as the only supporters of the spying.

loosehead (#107):

hey man, that was sublime!

More followup to my comment (@22) – Here’s another version of the map in back of Bush in the photo above. It shows the autonomous systems, which are basically independent bunches of routers. Each of these is usually controlled by one large entity or subentity. I’m not sure what else you can glean from this without far too much effort.

Finally, here’s a map of Uunet’s backbone network. This is one of the major “long distance” networks in North America. Note that many lines terminate in San Francisco.

Arrgh! Why is it the only person my local NPR affiliate can find to discuss this NSA story is John “I see nothing illegal about this program” Eastman, from the Claremont Institute?

Privacy of consumer information – 47 USC 222 – from FindLaw:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/…..mp;sec=222

Will other sections of the Telephone Comsumer Protection Act be helpful? Let’s see if we can find them.

Email excerpt, to Verizon wireless a moment ago:
_____

Re: (702) “nnn-nnnn”

…Simple question, yes or no: Have you turned over the phone call transaction records pertaining to this number to the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Bush administration secret program reported in the press today?

Yes or no? Yes or no. One or the other. Simple question, simple answer. Any other response — or a refusal to respond at all — will be regarded as a “yes” that will force me to look into taking legal action for violation of my 4th Amendment privacy right (perhaps looking into support for a class action)…

Jesus,

This nation is lost. I can’t even keep the scandals current in my mind. There is so much.

Just today the data mining scandal, the HUD payola scandal and now Kentucky Guv. Ernie Fletcher.

As to the data mining, looks like Larry Wilkerson was dead on when he said “you aint seen nothing yet”.

Meanhwhile the we are slumbering towards a catastrophe in Iran. An unmitigated disaster in the making.

Someone turn the hour glass over, we need more time.

-GSD

To: *ilson46201 and twolf1

Thanks!

There is a question that isn’t being asked, and needs to be:

Why are members of congress learning about practices/policies like the NSA wiretapping program and extraordinairy rendition from the press? Why aren’t they holding ROUTINE oversight hearings and asking pertinent questions of government employees?

looseheadprop says:
May 11th, 2006 at 2:05 pm

Did you intend to submit a blank post (107)?

looseheadprop at 107: congratulations for not a single typo :)

waaait a minute. then how do we know it’s you?

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 1:53 pm (#80) – That’s Jeralyn’s analysis of the article I was referring to, and a good one at that.

Laura-Pickles Bush approval rating has dropped 20 points since January. See there are repurcussions of having Satan’s dick inside of you.

-GSD

All those patriotic American songs and the Pledge might as well be sung in dolphin now… doesn’t matter.

The anti desecration flag amendment should be shelved immediately.

So stop yer posturing, you dolts, we know better. Those are just symbols.

The Executive and Congress have already trashed it all.

We care about our laws and the Constitution and Bill of Rights, so DO something.

GSD says: “As to the data mining, looks like Larry Wilkerson was dead on when he said “you aint seen nothing yetâ€.

May 11th, 2006 at 2:19 pm

Although I can’t prove it, I think the Larry Wilkerson quote is still true. I have a feeling that there is more to come…

although I am of the Digby school which says that the whole effort is using the “war on terror” as a front

You mean to suggest that the Bush Administration is doing something illegal and immoral and justifying it by claiming it’s part of some ill-defined “war on terror”?

Gosh, I hope this doesn’t become a pattern!

(Sorry, Jane, but that’s the biggest “duh” I’ve seen here on FDL.)

Whistleblowers and “good” leakers are going to have to start signalling with flowerpots and shit to meet in parking garages; too risky to use the phone or the internets.

lhp below thread http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ment-99308

I sure hope you are right. I’ll hope it if I can’t work up to believe it. ;-)

What would be interesting with Kavanaugh would be for some Senator(s) to break Reid’s ranks and start filibuster anyway. His last two reviews were, I think, that his oral argument was “inadequate†and by another, that he “dissembled†There are PLENTY of good, smart, qualified conservative lawyers — but like with Alito and Harriet – there is getting to be a limited pool of kisstheringers.

Personally- I’m game for the Fristibluster Nuke and I understand the consequences and that it is the high stakes table. So do the Republicans. If it is very clearly stated that Bush is:

packing onto the Court of Appeals for the Courts handling the Libby case (and multiple other cases challenging to the Adminsitration’s illegal programs), someone who has been working as a partisan staffer the last few years and who has almost nil qualifications other than his close relationship with the Administration and who will not agree to recuse himself from cases involving the Admin’s activities while he has been a staffer

then fine – let RunningforPresident&AwayfromSECInvestigations Bill Frist throw a temper tantrum that Dems are preventing him for effectively providing to cover for the President and by d*mn he has to change Senate rules to prevent filibuster (on anything ever) so he can continue to cover up for the President.

Have at it Bill is my response.

It’s why I question whether or not I’m a Dem though.

GSD @ 130 –

Or in Laura’s case, being married to someone with Satan’s dick inside them . . .

A new nickname for Clusterfuck — Satan’s Codpiece?

sonate 73:

“I don’t think that they want to spy on terrorists — they want to spy on us and use the terrorist theme as an excuse”

bingo.

see the smoke? see the mirrors?

makes you wonder what new distraction they might come up with to get the attention off this.

something that will “prove” the need for the program in the first place maybe?

The “good†leakers records will be deleted. Cheney will see to it.

Oh yeah, and the stock market took a mighty big tank today. All the Cavutos and Varneys were all atwitter a day ago about “breaking the new record”….guess what kids, it’ll be downhill from here…That hiss is the sound of a Superpower springing a leak.

-GSD

SP, I feel the same way too. I think there is much more to come. Much more to come.

CK…that joke was about Laura.

-GSD

BobbyG..I want to send the same sort of note to Sprint but am debating whether to use the customer support email (probably someone in timbukto) or go for someone in corporate..ie..media relations, etc..any suggestions?

I am pleasantly surprised to see that my congressman Brad Sherman has signed on to Conyer’s brief. I will call his office and thank him. He can now get back to the important business of signing resolutions such as

H Res 39: honoring the career of Johnny Carson
and
H Res 729: supporting national tourism week

Hi all. Been busy, did I miss anything? :)

Got your message Angie. I bet we hung out at sea beach.

115: that’s about the 3rd time today I’ve seen that identical spam from that blogwhore and it’s getting on my nerves. Had enough?

As to this data capture,

They are storing the CONVERSATION.

Not just the call record, but the ENTIRE CONVERSATION. For every call, foreign and domestic.

They are also capturing every email, and every IM.

Why wouldn’t they? The technology allows it. And noone has the balls to stop them.

And, in my opinion, the story is not whether we trust them to safeguard it, the question is whether we trust them not to use it to FURTHER THEIR POLITICAL AGENDA.

This isn’t tin-foil hat territory, although they will try and paint it as such. They have the database, and anyone who doubts they would use it if needed hasn’t been paying attention.

Two words, Valerie Plame. If they will disclose a noc to win an election, you dont think they’ll spy on an american? Please.

Poll:

Reflect rationally for a moment. Are you personally more at risk, overall and long-term, from

[a] the Bush federal goverment?

or

[b] a terrorist attack?

op99-
Me3 isn’t a blog whore. He’s a serious patriot and I don’t get why those posts bother you.

Sound familiar?

“Fletcher has acknowledged that mistakes were made but he has denied any wrongdoing. The Republican governor has accused Stumbo, a Democrat, of conducting a politically driven investigation.”

Those poor rethugs – in control of the Congress, the WH, the judiciary and most governorships – and yet those “partisan” democrats just keep picking on them. Is anybody, even the wingnut base, still buying these DeLay tactics?

Kieth -

Do both.

Hi Urban Pirate– mebbe so. :)

op99 says:
May 11th, 2006 at 2:30 pm

He’s OK; he was one of our regular posters until he found it necessary to spend more time on his blog.

New thread

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?

Late to the game here, with other deadlines- which is the link that lists the 72 congress reps who have signed on?

GSD –

I know . . .

147 & 151 because it’s the same fucking post on every thread, soliciting traffic to his or her blog, no relationship to what’s under discussion. If I did that I would expect you to settle my hash for me. Pet peeve is all.

CK,

OK.

-GSD

BobbyG says: “Cheney will see to it.”
May 11th, 2006 at 2:28 pm

Or will that task be entrusted to an overzealous subordinate. (By the way, how many overzealous subordinates have helped put the Bush Administration into the mess it’s in?)

121 JWR says:

Arrgh! Why is it the only person my local NPR affiliate can find to discuss this NSA story is John “I see nothing illegal about this program†Eastman, from the Claremont Institute?

npr has long been on a koolaid drip and is now pravda radio —- utter crap.

National
Pentagon
Radio.

ALLAH IS JUST ALRIGHT!!! (for the nsa asshats)!

VG — it’s in the Conyers brief, p. vii (he links to it on the Kos story)

VG: Here’s the linky (pdf) – Pg #7 starts the list.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary…..ef5906.pdf

Dear ladies,
I’ve been a daily/hourly follower of FDL for about 8 mths. You are my Heroes. When I read Jane’s article about Cheney reading the paper to see if Woodward passed gas er read the WaPo to see if he had drank enough kool aid and forwarded the BS he’d told Woodward. Jane said she could see/hear Cheney saying “Fucking Woodward” I knew I’d found soulmates.

Christy, because of your many insights and spot on analysis of the Libby case you may have restored my opinion that not all DA’s were soley about building resumes.

Because of your inspireing writing I now call my Senator, and congressman to let them know how I feel. And how much they are not doing the peoples business, just walking lockstep with bushco.

Thank you for your inspiration and perspective.
Randy Gorsuch

Urban Pirate–

I agree on recording content. The info cited in the USAToday article is largely available from the phone companies’ billing records, in probably close to real time (which the NSA asked for as part of the agreements made with the telcos). Why would the NSA need to install additional equipment of their own, especially stuff that has the speed and storage capacity described elsewhere?

Thanks Dr. B.

Glad to see my boy Earl Blumenauer on the list.

Oops – the first sentence in my most recent post upthread should read:

Or will that task be entrusted to an overzealous subordinate?

Thanks. I had opened the .pdf, but with dialup didn’t look at every page. My Rep has signed, but then he can always be counted on. Wish I could say same for my senators.

BobbyG..I sent an email to both at Sprint..one to Legislative, Regulatory and Issues Management person, a ms Horner and to customer service..

I called my Congressman’s office just now—Ed Markey, who has been all over things like net neutrality and the like. I asked his staffer if the the actions described in the USA Today story were legal. He said, “We’ve been trying to find out all day exactly what the NSA did. If it’s what the story described, it sounds completely illegal.”

Folks, I can’t tell you how nice it feels to have a Representative who might be as outraged as I am. I’ve had my disagreements with Markey, but right now he is out front, doing the right thing. He has been kicking butt over the past several months, and I get a sense that he is seriously pissed off. YEAH!!! I gotta find out what chairmanship he would get if the House went Democratic.

Combine this…

Followup to my comment (#22). The Wired article I was referring to, in which Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that the NSA was given a room to store listening equipment that was used to tap a telephone switching center in San Francisco.

With this…

This still doesn’t sit well with me – we’re not even remotely getting all of this story. A database of numbers that simply say A called B cannot possibly be the “largest database in the worldâ€. Virtually every single phone company holds years and years of billing records like these. Even pooled together, they wouldn’t create the world’s largest database, not by a long shot. If you simply attached an audio file to each of those records, well then now you’d be talking about the kind of dataset that would create the “largest database in the worldâ€.

Tada! You certainly don’t need to anything remotely like what is described in the Wired article to just get billing data from telecoms.

But you certainly would need to do that to collect audio/data transmitted during those calls.

We still are only touching the big left toe of this story.

*sigh*…i used to think the punchline in “>the president’s analyst was out of date. now i realize it never was.

p.s.:

well, rawstory gets it right more often than the note– just sayin.

roflmao!!

I hate to say it, but Darlene Hooley is one of those miserable Vichy-style Dems that we need to dump. She is useless. And she doesn’t respond to constituent e-mails or faxes.

She was one of the Dems who voted for the gawdawful bankruptcy bill.

Darlene Hooley has got to go.

Color me confused. Much of this info was out long ago. i.e. TIA broken down into multiple programs at the NSA and DOD, the 3 biggest being talon, advise and topsail(hardware BY LAW was supposed to be used against foriegn sources, this was ignored). http://www.defensetech.org has had alot of info, for 1 example. Why in the hell has it taken so long for the public/media to react to this BS?

“…considering that this is no longer the province of bloggers…”

And the EFF, which sued AT&T in January. The USAToday article only briefly mentioned the EFF. I think the EFF’s work should be highlighted.

The EFF has been fighting for years against the government’s wanting to know *everyone you communicate with*– for example, the gov’t wanting to track every email communication, or the gov’t wanting to ban strong encryption in software. i.e. the gov’t wanting to ban electronic envelopes for your electronic letters.

The EFF has also fought against corporations who illegally want to unmask anonymous or pseudonymous writers. The EFF’s position is that corporations have to prove that someone’s writing is illegal before the corporation can find out who the writer was.

Because I know EFF people personally, I know how the work they do seems like its from a much larger organization. But they’re not that large except in their accomplishments, and they need donations. If you like their work, including all their work which has protected blogging, consider donating.

Jane, Loaded Orygun is reporting that Hooley’s office is saying she is “in.” Her chief of staff said “hundreds” of FDLers had responded.

Hey San Francisco FDL’ers -

Would anyone care to join me in bringing our phone bills over to Rep. Pelosi’s office here in SF?

It’s the least we can do to preserve the Republic in wartime.

I’ve got some old phone bills lying about here – and more come every month. If you’d like to join me in taking your old phone records to Rep. Pelosi’s office, please feel free to give a holler.

I mean, we give her a lot of flack, but – hey – she’s been getting the NSA briefings.

What do San Franciscans know about the Constitution? Our Rep. must know better – and she sure isn’t signing on to the amicus briefs opposing the NSA illegal spying.

I’ve never been one to place blind trust in anyone – but where has that taken me? Time to turn over a new leaf and place my full faith and confidence in my Congressperson. If the Dems chose her as their leader, who I am to object?

So, if Rep. Pelosi thinks the government should have my old phone records, well gosh golly as a loyal American how can I say no?

If the government needs to break so many laws just to see my old phone records – those records must be vital to national security.

Now I’m not planning any trips to Maryland, so I can’t just drop off at the NSA.

I’m afraid to mail the records. What if these treaures of national security were lost in the mail? Or what if the wrong sort of spook opened my mail to the NSA and saw the secrets? Horrors!

How can I know for certain which spy is reading what agency’s mail? Does the FBI watch the CIA? Who watches the DIA? Who snoops on the NSA for the DOD?

It’s all too much for this simple citizen. I’ll take my old phone bills down to my Congressperson – she’ll know what to do with my private records.

She knows what to do you with your private records, too: let the NSA take them.

So if you want to help our wise Congressperson serve the NSA, lets gett together and visit Rep. Pelosi’s office.

You do want to help, right? After all, we’re at war.

I hate these fucking people, I hate these fucking people, I hate these fucking people. Bush is an autocrat waiting for the excuse. You may think he will leave office in ‘09. Why? Because he respects the Constitution? Give it a rest.

“The threat of terrorism is an inescapable reality of life in the 21st century. It is a permanent condition to which America and the entire world must adjust. The need for homeland security, therefore, is not tied to any specific terrorist threat.”
–”Securing the Homeland, Strengthening the Nation” presidential report

Connect existing government and commercial databases.
Let’s start by connecting most of the large government databases that contain information on domestic activity, including those containing customs, immigration, law enforcement, military and Internal Revenue Service files. The network would eventually include state and local tax rolls, political contribution lists, and educational and voting records.

In the short term, the government would build software that translates queries between the various databases (since its current information systems are the digital version of the Tower of Babel). A permanent solution would be to create rigid requirements forcing all agencies and contractors to converge around a common set of standards for data storage and access.

Contractors would eventually write translation gateways into many commercial databases so that searches against the government database could be seamlessly integrated. Some of these commercial databases would be straightforward, containing data such as credit reports, phone and other utility bills, and transportation/reservation information from airlines, rental car companies and hotels. Others might be more subjective and involve human appraisals such as profiled direct-marketing lists, school guidance counselor records and comments made by utility or government workers.

Match them to commercial information such as credit reports (using social security numbers).
Initially, translation systems would be “data-matched” against government records. The government would eventually mandate that all commercial databases include a field for social security numbers. This would likely result in legislation making it a crime for consumers to give false social security numbers to companies. It might even require these companies to deny service to the curmudgeons who still refused to provide that information.

This system would eventually access tens of millions of real-time sensors for up-to-the-minute threat assessment.
Add tens of millions of cameras and other sensors.
This system would eventually access tens of millions of real-time sensors for up-to-the-minute threat assessment. This process of adding sensors is already underway at several different agencies. These sensors include visual cameras at various public places, such as storefronts, street corners, highways, toll roads and airports. Some already rely on experimental face-recognition software. Other sensors would include identification devices at checkpoints in public buildings and eventually in all transportation terminals.

Require national ID cards and tie them to a biometric database.
These devices would require some sort of universal identification card that carries biometric information. The biometrics could include fingerprints, retinal scans, face measurements, blood types and DNA. (The military is already collecting DNA information to facilitate body identification.) Of course, this would require a national ID card and, even more importantly, a universal database of biometric information; otherwise it would be useless. The easiest way to build up this database is to collect the information from schoolchildren. An alternative method would be to link the biometric collection to draft registration for citizens and to visa issuance for resident aliens.

Track phone calls and e-mail, and generate diagrams of social groupings using traffic analysis.
An important element of a predictive system would be the gathering of information on social interactions and on “networks” of individuals who communicate as a group. Intelligence analysts refer to this process as “traffic analysis.” Expansion of the Carnivore/DCS-1000 program to encompass most Internet-based communications, used together with records of phone transactions, should provide enough information.

Naturally, detailed analysis will also require the content of the conversations. Since the system will have to reconstruct activity after the fact, this implies that all communication from all Internet users will have to be stored.

Build technology that will “guess” what people are thinking and predict what they might do.
Since terrorism is ideologically based, anyone is a potential terrorist. Under this proposed system, then, everyone’s actions would have to be under constant scrutiny. But the biggest problem with large-scale information systems is figuring out what’s important in the data that’s being stored.

Since terrorism is ideologically based, anyone is a potential terrorist.
Since this is a threat-assessment system, it would deploy a so-called heuristic processing, or rules-based analysis, similar to what’s used by credit scoring systems to determine consumer creditworthiness. But the terrorist-profiling system would have much more sophisticated and insightful rules, crafted by psychologists, and would have much more data to work with. It would look for ideological leanings, as demonstrated by choice of reading material, organization memberships and friends, or psychological disturbances, as evidenced by behavioral changes such as a sudden switch in grocery-buying habits.

Researchers would be free to experiment with many types of correlations of individual behavior–such as dietary habits, travel behavior and social grouping–to determine the best way to assess the threat-potential of everyone, Americans and aliens alike.

Give everyone a secret threat score or loyalty rating.
Since millions of government workers need access to these threat profiles–and most will not be trained in the nuances of interpreting psychological information–threat scores similar to credit scores are the most useful way to display the results of these profiles. In this way, any government employee with access to the system could look up a person’s threat score based on their social security number, driver’s license or immigration visa number.

In the screensaver, looking out at the fish…
People may get used to the cameras, but threat profiling will cause them to make lifestyle adjustments. We’ve become accustomed to the idea that our credit report can affect our chances of getting a job, renting an apartment or buying a car. The threat score would serve the same function in all of our interactions with government employees.

As this Predictive Data Security System threat profiling develops, people will quickly find out what kind of behavior will draw attention and what’s safe. They might avoid certain books and take extra-special care to find out the background and opinions of their friends, colleagues and employees.

If a person unfortunately gets a high threat score–perhaps because of something that one of their friends or family said–they might reduce that score through some socially useful action such as providing information on one of their neighbors. This is your Totalitarian Information Agency – Do you want to know more.
We’re from the government and we’re here to love you.

Impeach!

I thanked Cafferty and asked him to cover the heavy object that almost hit Spectre and Supreme Court Justice O’Conner, and how the media coverage of this was redacted. Read about it on EZ Board Rigorous Intuition.

And Ruth Ginsberg’s statements about the Repub leadership encouraging violence againsts judges.

Appreciate the infor on FDL about Comstock and her connections with the fiend Mel Sembler. America has had torture concentration camps on the Mainland against teenagers for quite some time paid for with our tax dollars courtesy of Jeb bush and the other bushlings.