Fitz!!!

Fitz! Colbert!… Why?… Why not! yay!

FITZ!!

Pretty please???

Frisk Foggo, Fitz.

Fitz? Fitz. Fitz!

How many republicans aren’t under investigation?

Sorry, gotta Fitz and run

Fitz to be tied!

I saw the FBI taking a dolly in to Foggo’s house (and I don’t mean a cabbage patch kid). Looks like they will be removing file cabinets – or he has a super-computer in his basement.

Rudy under suspicion? As in Giuliani? What have I missed?

TPM Muckraker has Snow’s first press gaggle in transcript form:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000638.php

So W. is now plunging into the roaring 20’s and still gets his minions to vote the way he wants.

So the NSA is data mining almost everyone’s phones and probably e-mails too. That would include members of congress I would surmise.

So I’m remembering J.Edgar Hoover in pumps and a wig and how everyone was afraid of him because he had dirt on everyone.

So I’m thinkin’ that W has his own spooks out there holding lots of swords over the heads of his storm troopers in congress.

Just thinkin’.

Methinks Fornigate is going to give us lots of entertainment for months to come!

Just finished skimming the transcript of the Fitz /Wells showdown last Friday. Wew! Wells lost, then he lost, then he lost. It was pitiful to what a grown man get spanked in public like that.

After every losing argument when the judge who answer basically “yeah, so what? why is it relevant? {I’m paraphrasing, REALLY paraphrasing} Wells would start over saying “well, put that aside and….” and go off and argue something that contradicted his immediate past argument. Hilarious!

From fdl Thurs. late night thread

cleter #95 said

I think we need some kind of huge protest. A million people throwing phones over the fence at the White House, perhaps. How big a pile would a million phones make?

Go to a thrift store and buy some ratty-ass used phone for a dollar. Write “HOLD HEARINGS†on it with a sharpie. Mail it to Arlen Spector. How many shoeboxes full of dirty old used phones would it take to gum up the congressional mail room. Write “IMPEACH†on it and mail it to the White House.

I say
Thanks cleter
It’s time for another FDL RUBBER STAMP MANEUVER!

A call for civil hearings or HELLO! Impeach now.
Send your old cel phones

Specter, Arlen-
711 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4254

your responsible for constitutional crisis. batteries may or may not be included. void where inhibited. more action guaranteed.

They’re just going to town on this one ,aint they? Makes me wonder if ol’ Dukester is getting ready for some long term company.heh. Kind of like a snake eating it’s own tail with this bunch.

Unfortunately, my Republican Senator, the unctuous, odious, smarmy little ratfuck of a man, Norm Coleman isn’t under investigation.

Yet.

burn baby burn

or

fitz baby fitz

Don’t forget possible Duncan Hunter:

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004166.html

Scarecrow – OT Last thread. The Neocons are more like the Go’uld from Stargate, without the weaponry or sarcophagi, but with the shared belief they are “gods.”

Most of the rest are like the hippy-sih Nox – all peace, love and understanding, psychedelic clothes, hair tints…..really *G*

Does anyone know what the actual question that was asked in the poll where 68% said Americans didn’t care about wiretapping?
Many of those poll questions don’t specify illegal tapping.

Go to a thrift store and buy some ratty-ass used phone for a dollar. Write “HOLD HEARINGS†on it with a sharpie. Mail it to Arlen Spector. How many shoeboxes full of dirty old used phones would it take to gum up the congressional mail room. Write “IMPEACH†on it and mail it to the White House.

Great fucking idea!!!

I can’t believe that in the week since Goss went down that Foggo didn’t have time to rid his home and workspace of anything that could be incriminating.

OOH OOH lookie over there . . . helicopters and spooks, oh boy!

Kabuki theater anyone?

Unrelated legal questions:

1. Is it the case that Congresspeople are essentially immune to prosecution for things that they say on the floor in the course of their work?

2. If this is the case, would this extend to, say, Nancy Pelosi talking in detail, on the record, about a classified surveillance program she’d been briefed on by the Bush Adminisration?

RevDeb – Never assume that criminals are smart; very few actually are in the commission of their crime(s) or the hiding of their crimes. Even in the past that was true, it is more so now with computers, email, etc.

anyone see this goss/foggo story fumble:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/wonket…..foggoapsup

nice government you got there
check this out
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..8012/38216

What about the fact that everyone involved in this was OBVIOUSLY tipped off, hence the resignations and all. Nice to do a surprise warranted search, but there was obviously no surprise. Kinda reminds me of the 12 hour “window”.

All part of the same criminal conspiracy;

- Tax the middle class to the point of breaking

- Give sweetheart deals to cronies which waste money and national resources
- Cronies donate time/money/spin to help get crooks reelected and continue the cycle.

Everyone wins but the bottom 95% of Americans.

EPU

I get your point. It could also be a tactical diversion to say, 29 JAR, NSA illegal activity, possible aircraft carriers moving into position near Iran, and probably a host of other things.

It’s all too weird to me. The timing is off for a search—one week late it would seem. That said, we can never underestimate the greed and stupidity of the republicrooks.

Urban Pirate,
Newt Gingrich wasn’t kidding about his Contract On America…..

What I wonder is could the FBI be planting evidence while they are ‘collecting’ evidence? That’s how far I trust this mal-administration to do anything honestly. Who is to say what they will ‘find’ in his file cabinets once they take them away.

seems like a lot of rabid power-grubbers are yalies. it also seems, imho, that loyalty to the yale social club agenda takes precedence over loyalty to the american people. just wondering about the loyalty of hillary, obama and, needless to say, joey meatballs lieberman, to name a few.

omerta anyone?

ot, but editorandpublisher has a takeout from the nyt sunday mag with a q&a with fat tim with this nugget. maybe that’s the problem — instead of research, fat tim relies on his higher father (no wonder he has such affection for fredo):

“He [russert] also disclosed that he goes to church every week at 4 p.m. on Saturday and prays “that I will ask the right questions” on NBC the following morning.”

I just heard the exact wording used in the bogus ABC poll on Air America—boy is it loaded!!! I no longer give any credence to those numbers.

cathy #21:
Does anyone know what the actual question that was asked in the poll where 68% said Americans didn’t care about wiretapping?
Many of those poll questions don’t specify illegal tapping.

Froomkin has the poll questions. It was basically “which is more important, investigating terrorists or privacy?” I’m not exaggerating. As Dan points out, no mention of whether it’s illegal, or the secrecy, or the lack of oversight, or anything.

Man, I’m glad fraternities died out at Yale by the time I was there!

Next time anyone in the administration starts talking about the “rule of law†or America being a “nation of laws,†someone needs to ask for a definition of “rule,†“law,†and “nation,†and for the origin of the “rules†and “laws†to which they refer.

It could not be clearer that neither the rules nor the laws they follow derive from this nation’s Constitution, so maybe, if security allows, they could just confirm that it’s a little USSR, a little pre-war Germany, a smidgen of Mussolini’s Italy, with a dollop of Mao, and something out of the Saddam Hussein playbook, we could stop deluding ourselves into thinking that they’re talking about AMERICAN rules and laws.

Instead of a “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” problem, it’s clearly more of a “We are from America, Bush is from a Dictatorship of Undisclosed Origin.”

Needy a look at the foggy ole’ Agent of foreign influence issues, methinks.

Mph. ABSCAM just looks so darn quaint, now.

Redshift-
That’s my point. I bet most people don’t understand the illegality of what the gov’t is doing. I bet if we came up with the questions ourselves, we’d get a totally different response.

Totally OT but so humorous I can’t resist.

Snowjob at his little informal pressgaggle (just a mess)

The White House also noted that the Washington Post ran an editorial calling Bush’s tax cuts “a windfall for the rich†on Thursday, the same day it published a news article saying the measure would aid the middle class. (my bold)

So the newspages are taking good dictation, but the editors are not? Haha.

Evil Parallel Universe @ 11:50 am (#20) – Funny you should mention Stargate. There are days like this when I flash back to that episode where William Devane was playing the President. One of his lines was “I’m here because the American people elected me to run their country for them ..”.

What a quaint notion that is, too.

Peter #27

Great link. The part that said

“It wasn’t the rifle that was scary it was knowing that this madman is so insecure and scared and psychotic that this is how he must travel. AARRRRRGH! USA, Banana Republic for sure. Then to know our tax money paid for this photo op and for the fundraising luncheon at the Renaissance Club is truly the icing on the cake which will kill us all. Very depressing to say the least.”

Coupled with Urban Pirate #28 “Everyone wins but the bottom 95% of Americans.”

Pretty soon, maybe a generation or so, there will be three classes of citizens —

1. the benevolent dictators (compassionate conservatives)
2. the subsiders (the working class)
3. the outlaws

Back to punk…
when they knock on your front door,
how you going to come,
with your hands in the air
or on the trigger of a gun…

.
.
.

.

BANG

I know they’re all connected like aspens at the roots but that photo makes me want to P-Uke. What a nasty cabal.

This data mining is a nightmare come true; I attended a conference in DC in Sept ‘02 re: personal privacy in the digital age, and got the bejeebers scared out of me by the greedy enthusiasm shared by the feds and the corporate types. They were just itching to get their hands on our information; and arrogantly dismissive of those who expressed concerns about civil liberties. One of the workshops was “to sell or not to sell” and it seemed kind of moot even then.

From EPU land:

With the Foggo resignation followed quickly by the FBI searches, it seems much clearer today, than a week ago, that Goss’ “resignation†was pre-emptive, to diminish any perceive connection between him and Foggo. But CNN John Robert’s report on Foggo today (about noon EDT)still made the link, noting that Goss had elevated Foggo from relative obscurity, for no apparent reason. So Goss stays tarnished, but his “resignation†was handled to make it appear the WH and Negroponte were just cleaning house.

This was all staged damage control, and because there are so many players/twists/trysts in the Foggo/cunningham story, we forget it was Bush who was responsible for bringing in this crew and for the damage they did. The buck never stops there.

Yam: agree about Norm Coleman. I live in Minnesota and used to live in St. Paul – where he was put by the republicans oh so many years ago under the ruse of being a democrat. Don’t think he has changed his stripes — just a cameleon. His doing the bidding of his republican masters has really been obvious. Don’t know what his poll numbers are, but Minnesota has its own breed of neocon. Or is that the ..conned.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! From Tony Snowjob’s first press conference:

QUESTION: How are you going to make this administration more credible?

TONY SNOW: I’m not going to answer questions about credibility, other than to say that I’m eager to be here and I’m happy to be working with you.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000638.php

Says it all, doesn’t it??

anon #32:
seems like a lot of rabid power-grubbers are yalies. it also seems, imho, that loyalty to the yale social club agenda takes precedence over loyalty to the american people. just wondering about the loyalty of hillary, obama and, needless to say, joey meatballs lieberman, to name a few.

omerta anyone?

Hey, a lot of good people went there, too!

Honestly, I suspect it has a lot more to do with their being in the same social class, and in many cases families being acquainted before they went there. And I suspect there’s a lot less of that since Yale went co-ed, and the old boys era ended. Trust me, ordinary middle-class kids who go there don’t get inducted into a secret cabal.

When I was there, it was a bastion of liberalism (don’t know if it was in 1960, but if so, it would explain why all the conservatives were so tight.) The notable conservatives (not that I knew them personally) were David Frum, who was a smug bastard even then, and Robert Bork’s son, who started a little-read and much-mocked conservative magazine.

timewarp — you know there’s something perversely funny about snow’s direct attacks against the white house press corps first out of the box. huffpo has a couple of posts up too. and here they thought they were all the bestest of buds and tony would work hard to be a real playa among the haters, er white house, to get the real story.

#35 Redshift—ALSO, the poll posits a false dichotomy (as if the spying is NECESSARY to fight terrorism), AND assumes that Bu$h is telling the truth when he says it is being used “only†to fight terra!! GMAFB!

Dru @ at 12:09 pm (#43) – This is why I’m so reluctant to give away any personal information on the Internet, even e-mail addresses. The usual text of any site’s privacy policy includes a sentence like “We reserve the right to change our minds at any time”. Pretty clear how much a policy like that one is worth – and it’s not even written on paper.

I’m not sure why it seems that TheRawStory is played down on FDL (maybe coz it isn’t an actual blog but a news site). Today there is an excerpt from a new book that gives stats showing showing how Libby was coddled by the MSM before and after the indictments–compare numbers with the Clinton affair. “Book suggests Libby’s relationship with reporters spared him Plame coverage” at
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0512.html

How many of you knew that Libby was the negotiator that led Clinton to pardon Marc Rich? I sure as hell didn’t know that.

So when is Rove going into the gas chamber today? Oh…wait. He’s just up for indictment! See now I’m reading too many commie blogs.
dna

cheney falls asleep again. someone needs to turn up his pacemaker or reduce his blood thinners:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/s…..hdg–

Ralphbon at 10 — not Guiliani, far as I know. The Rudy in question in my post was Tony Rudy — DeLay’s former Chief of Staff, Abramoff buddy, and newly minted felony plea deal fella.

Oscarsmom 49 -

Yep, the choice of sample and the framing, exact wording (i.e., loaded questions) and order of the queries can be DESIGNED to get the result you want. Nothing more than the campaign season “push poll.”

#44 scarecrow—don’t you know, the buck stops with Bill Clinton (and his current incarnation, Hillary)!

paging Stephen Parrish – could you email me at christina underscore siun at mac dot com – have a request from a mutual friend

cathy 21, “Does anyone know what the actual question that was asked in the poll where 68% said Americans didn’t care about wiretapping?”

Which do you prefer?
A. Being safe
B. Protecting the privacy of terra-ists?

cathy#21:

i would suggest that is corporate media’s attempt to get out front and shape public perception. if you look at previous polling on national security/wiretap issues, the public was fairly evenly split — and this was under the assumption that the surveillance was restricted to the ‘terrorists and their sympathizers’ and inbound/outbound international calls — not domestic calls between me and my sister.

the wapo/abc numbers are very suspect (502 respondents) and i would suggest a little push-pulling might be at play.

http://www.pollingreport.com/terror.htm

Hugh – Last thread. I am not saying that AIPAC or other lobbying groups don’t try to influence our government, they do. My point was that simply “blaming” Israel (or AIPAC for that matter) for what is wrong with American foriegn policy is wrong (and naive).

Would terrorism still exist if Israel did not or if Palestineans otherwise had a homeland? Yes, it would. Would nearly every Mid East country still have a seething population tired of corrupt rule, lack of rights? Yes. Would Iran still want to develop a bomb or export its influence past its borders? Yes. Would the US still want to have “strategic” control over the worlds oil supply? Yes. Would the US still want to counter Russian, Chinese (or any other country’s) influence in the Middle East? Yes. And the list can go on and on.

Do supporters of Israel have too much influence over American foriegn policy? Not if you believe that the leaders of this country would come to the same decisions, which I do believe.

Basically, Prof. Rat is arguing a direct single cause with myriad (bad) effects – its a blanket statement. So, if you get rid of the cause, the effects would be different. There are many causes, the most important of which is neither Israel nor the Israel lobby.

here are the questions to the wapo/abc poll:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..051206.htm

also keep in mind, 502 respondents, the calls were made last night, when the fucking story hit the papers yesterday morning. presumably many of those 502 work and hardly had an opportunity to digest the facts at issue.

This is off topic, but anyone considering changing their long distance carrier in light of the latest scandal should consider switching to Working Assets. http://www.workingassets.com/ According to their web site, “Every time customers use our services, a portion of their charges is automatically donated to progressive organizations working for peace, human rights, economic justice, education, and the environment.” They’re the real deal, but I don’t know for a fact that they didn’t cave in to the NSA.

Just read the ‘ gaggle’ story. At the end of the snowstorm it says PM John Howard is coming for dinner next week. That reminds me – the ugly little leprechaun is a jinx. He was in Britain when they had their terror attack and Washington DC on 9-11.
You may want to get the hell out of Dodge next week j’sayin’. Come back at the end for the Fitzkrieg.

Re NSA

Part of the spin going on is that the NSA only went after information on calling patterns (telephone numbers) and not on call content. The story goes that if a suspicious pattern was found then the agency would zero in on this and then look at content.

But which content? That of future calls (which may or may not ever occur) or the initial calls (which might contain go aheads for terrorist actions)? To look at old calls the NSA would need to have recorded all calls. This is because it would not know immediately which calls formed a “suspicious pattern” until it had sufficient data points to form that pattern.

To my knowledge, the NSA has only said that it did not look at the content of all calls. It has never said that it didn’t have this content. By dribbling out the parameters of the program the Administration can delay and possibly blunt the impact of this domestic spying program and avoid its investigation.

Cujo359 #50 (and everyone else) – do you know about mailinator? It allows you to create a temporary email address for all those sites that want to mail you a password, but where you don’t want to give them your real address (or don’t want to risk being spammed.) You don’t have to do anything in advance, just make up an address like “bushsucks@mailinator.com” and use it. An account is automatically created when mail gets sent to it, and you can go to the mailinator site and get the mail.

(It’s not something to use for private content, since there’s no control on who can get to the mail there other than that they’d have to guess what address you used, but for publication and organization public websites that require registration, it’s quite useful.)

I also found the overnight polling to be very odd. Who found it important to do such a poll about the NSA/Telco spying so quickly? The original news broke early Thursday, by noontime the Preznit his own bad self had come out on TV to defend it. That night a quickie poll was done and splashed in the media the next morning. In other words, within 24 hours of the story breaking, a counter-story stomping on it was being disseminated.
Odd
Very odd…

From the poll:

44. What do you think is more important right now – (for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy); or (for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats)?

and this is interesting:

47. Do you think it is right or wrong for the news media to have disclosed this secret government program?

Right Wrong No opin.
56% 42% 1%
_____

Ask #44 in a different way and you’ll get a significantly different response distribution.

Unfortunately, my Republican Senator, the unctuous, odious, smarmy little ratfuck of a man, Norm Coleman isn’t under investigation.

coleman strikes me more as a rent-boy type to provide the entertainment; not a major poker player type… lol

Am posting this for those of you discouraged by that ridiculous, shit-framed Overnight NSA Poll -

Initial poll after December disclosure -
Dec. Polls

Compare and contrast with March 17, 2006 (Think Progress)

A new poll by the American Research Group finds that 46% of those surveyed favor Sen. Russ Feingold’s resolution to censure President Bush for his NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program.
42% favor impeaching Bush. Some conclude that Bush may be losing the Independent voters for good.
42 percent of independents favored censuring Bush, 47 percent of them said they favored impeaching the president.

The longer the non blogging public has to get their minds around this, the worse these initial numbers are going to get – am actually willing to bet they will fall even faster this go round take heart firepups, we’ve been here before!

EPU # 59

“So, if you get rid of the cause, the effects would be different. There are many causes, the most important of which is neither Israel nor the Israel lobby.”

And these would be?

OT: Just called Verizon Wireless to ask them if they are providing my call details to the govt. “Not at this time…” was her answer…

I also asked if she personally felt it was appropriate that we are spied on… “.. if it keeps us safe…” Of course, that conversation was recorded for quality purposes….

In response to “How many other customers are calling to express their outrage?”… she said “you are my first…” (I don’t believe it….)

Ha…. Pick up that phone, call your provider, stick it to em.

How quaint indeed! Downright reminiscent of the Geneva Conventions prohibition against torure. Heard the news about the search warrant and laughed out loud.

The Senate switchboard says Specter’s lines are busy. Anyone know how to send fax by internet? I don’t have long distance phone service so my fax-modem is of no use to DC.

Durbin’s my Senator and if he’s doing good (i.e. the “Question of the Day” post) I’d like to know specifically what to give him props for. Anyone know?

Hugh – Read the post. Many other causes are listed. Don’t be an ass.

Redshift says “Man, I’m glad fraternities died out at Yale by the time I was there!”

Skull & Bones is a private club built by a group of people (men) and it has not died out. One is inducted by secret invitation to join. The organization survives because they have a mission statement (secret) and a series of rules (probably with a penalty like death for divulging secrets – note: blood oaths used to be popular and most ‘fraternities’ have something similar; up until the 1980s, the best members of the mormon church had to take a blood oath to the cause for full membership *not a joke*.

So one day, a pretty smart guy in skull & bones said to the group ‘we are the best and the brightest. If we put our minds to it, we could take over the world.’

Someone else said, ‘you really think so?’

The first person said ‘of course. all we need to do is get control of the US Security apparatus (read CIA, NSA, etc), and then we can make a shitload of money trading in the security markets (read Carlyle Group, MZM, Halliburton, Thyssen, Brown Brothers Harriman), and then we can spend enough money to get one or more of our boys elected president. Then once we get enough control of all of the government apparatus, we can start shutting things down and taking that money for ourselves. And the best part, it is completly legal! hahahahaha (knee-slap).

We are simply watching this plan unfold. It is pretty brilliant actually. They saw the inherent weaknesses in our democracy and social fabric and they have exploited it. That’s all.

*ilson,

First, hello.

Secondly, it’s not odd. This is the most finely tuned propaganda machine in the history of the world. They are spending BILLIONS of our tax dollars to fight the “war on ideas”.

Rendon group, Lincoln Group, OSP, Comstock, yadda yadda. They are the best ever at doing this. Simply the best ever. God help us.

Relevant, though slightly off topic – something from ThinkProgress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/…..ch-on-nsa/

The disclosure of the NSA’s domestic call-tracking program has drawn criticism from some of Bush’s key allies:

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): “I am concerned about what I read with regard to NSA databases of phone calls.â€

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH): “While I support aggressively tracking al-Qaida, the administration needs to answer some tough questions about the protection of our civil liberties.â€

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?â€

I telephoned Senator Graham’s Washington office to express my agreement with his comments.

From Froomkin:

Here’s the language from the Washington Post/ABC News poll :
“What do you think is more important right now — (for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy); or (for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats)? Sixty-five percent said investigate threats; 31 percent said privacy.
“It’s been reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. It then analyzes calling patterns in an effort to identify possible terrorism suspects, without listening to or recording the conversations. Would you consider this an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?” Sixty-three percent said acceptable, 35 percent said unacceptable.
http://tinyurl.com/9gx78

Cujo359/ 50; me too; I often use ‘Bugmenot” when I want to view a registration required site but I don’t want to register with my own information. I wonder if it really makes a difference though :(

Thanks cbl #68 –That *was* heartening. I admit I was very depressed when I heard about that poll this morning. I should have known better :)

The pollers may as well ask:

Which is more important to you right now;
The government investigating domestic phone calls of the terrorists blowing up a city near you?

siun says:
May 12th, 2006 at 12:17 pm

I’ve sent you an e-mail.

“The story goes that if a suspicious pattern was found then the agency would zero in on this and then look at content.”

What constitutes a “suspicious calling pattern?”

HeirofPatriots

efax.com has digital fax serivce.

I mean to type:
Which is more important to you;
The government investigating domestic phone calls OR the terrorists blowing up a city near you?

EPU

In allowing others the privilege of agreeing with you, you have much in common with our President.

Uncle Bug 61

I’ve been using Working Assets for years. Called them this morning and asked. They said they have not provided anything to the feds and I suggested they put a statement to that effect on the web site. The statement they have on now doesn’t go far enough.

BUT if ANYONE would resist the feds on this, it would be them.

I’d like to add just one question to the list compiled by Froomkin to ask Tony Snowjob:

“We’ve spent almost one trillion dollars on the Iraq War by now. How far could that sort of money go towards establishing a hydrogen, biodiesel, or other alternative-energy infrastructure in the U.S., thus weaning us off the need for foreign oil and expensive foreign wars?â€

Oscarmonm @ 78 – good on ya. forgot to add that as recently as last week establishment type Censure/Impalement, whoops, Impeachment polls were up to 54%

Redshift @ 12:21 pm (#64) – No, I hadn’t. Thanks for the lead.

thinkprogress has more on telco liability:
http://thinkprogress.org/answers-telco/

Let’s talk about Star Wars in this context of spying and phone numbers etc.

I have always heard that a satalite laser system would not work to take out multi-headed nukes, do the the 1000 warheads falling in random patterns.

So why would the government still want to waste so much money on a program that doesn’t work? The program does work, it is the premise that is a lie. These national security facists want to control communications. The laser system controlled by the NSA can easily knock out a stationary satelite. Therefore, they control the ability to share information.

My freedom to write these ideas may not be around in twenty years. FDL may be branded a terrorist orgainzation because it doesn’t support the status quo. This is why we fight.

I’m just glad my weapons are currently a keyboard, a phone, and a fax because I have not shot a gun in over a decade. Damn I hate middle age.

I’m still waiting for someone to ask the question:

Exactly what does the Bush Administration hope to learn from these phone calls that would be any more explicit than a PDB saying “Bin Laden determined to strike in US.”

We don’t even have to go into the FBI memo fumbles.

A warrant? Since when did this administration need a warrant?

Turley on Randi Rhodes talking about the data mining. He’s good! He says that the admin. has not denied doing any of this and there is no law that authorizes them to do it.

Hugh – So you chose the ass option. I gave other “causes” in the post. You can disagree with me; no problem there – I have a long history here to support that too BTW. Just don’t state that your question hasn’t been responded to when it has.

If you want to believe that America would not, independent of Israel, have “perceived” strategic interests in the Middle East and that the same policies would result, then believe that.

Rush blamed this NSA program(s) on the ‘94 DemocRAT Congress and, (can you guess..?) Bill Clinton! Specifically, he mentioned the 1994 “Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act”, which came up early this morning in Mary’s multi-part dissertation in last night’s Late-Nite, beginning @ 1:32 A.M. here:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ent-100423

EPU can’t you make your point without resorting to name-calling?

Joe Clark,

“A warrant? Since when did this administration need a warrant?”

The FBI isn’t “this administration”

OT, apropos of nothing, non-sequitor:

Is it just me or is Drudge over? I think he is. I think his “must-read” status is kaput. He’s almost, but not quite, a footnote.

Due to numerous factors, but I think he’s been done in by the rise of the lefty blogosphere, and the incessant bad news for Bush Republicans–closet-case Drudge is a Republican (*duh*) and is loathe to headline anything that makes his constituency look bad. Leaves him with precious little to be shrill about–in fact, I sometimes go over there on a hot-shit newsday to see what his headlines are, and he’s been forced yet again to focus on celebrity twaddle. Or some freak story, like “Old lady found with 100 cats. And weighs 700lbs.”

Anyway, just something I noticed–there’s a power vacuum on cyber Fleet Street.

dead last @ 12:47 pm (#90) – I firmly believe that in any struggle in the future between us and our government, guns will be irrelevant, at least for the citizens. The government has enormous resources at its disposal – all this snooping equipment and the people who know how to make use of it, the best body armor and night vision devices, aircraft, advanced training, and lots and lots of money. They could, if they chose, make anyone disappear or ruin them whether or not those people have guns. If they’re well known and live in one place most of the time, they can be gotten to. That’s why it’s important to ensure that checks and balances exist, not only between the branches of government, but in a professional, educated civil service and non-governmental watchdogs like the news agencies and special interest lobbies.

David Gregory is doing Bush impressions on C-SPAN.

Dru – Probably.

prof. rat

Fitzkrieg – lol, priceless

and are y’all saying Tony Snow came out with guns blazin’ at the Media ? did he not see the Laura Ingraham show of a month ago ?

I never know anymore what pisses me off most – the things they’re doing – or that it’s being accomplished by the biggest groupp of learning impared buffoons in history !

Just FYI folks:

1. There was no “poker” going on at those parties. I heard a news report that they — the defense contractors — deliberately lost so the congresscritters would have money to spend on their male and femial prostituties. I wonder if Jeffy Lube Gannon Guckert was there?

2. In short, the only “poker” was actually “Poke-Her” — if you can pardon the pun.

Signs it’s not going to be a good year for you, from cnn.com:

“The Associated Press reported that Foggo has been under investigation by [1]the FBI, [2] Internal Revenue Service, [3]Defense Criminal Investigative Service, [4]the CIA’s inspector general and [5]the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego, California, according to FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego.”

So in Chimpy’s Monday night prime-time-interrupting address on immigration, will he announce that he will be pulling some nat. guard out of iraq to guard the mexico/US border?

chisolm 98 –
I think Drudge’s “flashing-lights-and-breathlessness” addicts may have migrated to Raw Story for their fix. The content’s slanted differently, but the tone isn’t dissimilar. Raw Story’s come in for its share of criticism lately, at FDL. I always liked the Fleet-Street aspect of Drudge, and that’s why I like Raw Story, although I understand some critics may have tired of “breaking — developing hard…” stories that, then, aren’t stories at all.

I haven’t read Drudge in months — not interested in his “inside Hollywierd” stories, morbid obesity, and celebritology. I do read Raw Story, though, and get my fix as well as my slant at the same time — although I’m sometimes disappointed!

104 Good lord, Frank; Time for Dusty to be in protective custody!

RE: VLA – A point of trivia = as I was working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (offices in Charlottesville, VA) in 1972 in the Graphics Department and I was the one who drew the triangle on the map of New Mexico, may i claim midwifery? Well, a very small part of the process.

Frank P. – Did they say how long he has been under investigation for? It would make sense that anything connected to Cunningham has been under investigation for awhile.

OT, but Jennifer Nix’s post this morning inspired me to go out and commit this.
.

Bush is down to 29% approval rating. He broke 30. Where, oh where, is Patrick Fitzgerald?

Looks like Michael Steele, Lynn Swann and J. Kenneth Blackwell are going to ride the Bush wave of African-American popularity right into office. As long as they can win over the other 93% of Black voters. Perhaps a few too many of those friendly “plantation owner” pats on Black mens heads have gotten some bad press for Bush.

From Rasmussen:

Friday May 12, 2006–Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Americans Approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President and 60% Disapprove.

The President earns approval from 43% of white Americans, 7% of black Americans, and 34% of all other Americans.

Heckuva job.

-GSD

RevDeb 12 – No freakin’ doubt at all.

Dru #96

EPU has no point. He alleges strategic interests independent of Israel but does not say what these are or if they are separate or can be separated from our stance toward Israel. The neocon agenda which determines much of our strategic policy to this area has as one of its linchpins the defense of Israel and America’s strategic alliance with this country. How this can be overlooked or set aside or thought not to influence our other interests is beyond me.

And now there are still those that want National ID cards replete with biometrics, full scale DNA registration and, as the latest outrage, from the CDC (couched as a thingy to help us– read the insurance giants), a recommendation for AIDS testing for all peeps here between the ages 18- 64.

Just take my eyeball, ok, and dispense with the niceties.

With a few more of these, bushco will be going into extras practices for the first limbo revival prize of the 21st century.

When Drudge ran the Pat Kennedy story for days with 10 links a piece and pictures it was a bit much. He can’t run scoops anymore because most of the scoops are against Bush.

He is becoming a pathetic Walter Winchell type….

-GSD

The quaintness of search warrants — Maybe the Bushies don’t care about getting warrants because they have never intended to use any of what they find out in a legal way, whether in prosecutions or not. They wouldn’t want warrants, because they wouldn’t want a record anywhere of what information they were/are mining. In other words, the whole program is about oppositional research. It’s the Hans Gruber tactic. Make the good guys think you’re after something completely unrelated, and rob the world blind under their noses.

As someone compatatively new to FDL, I haven’t seen you all mentioning Greg Palast — but his site’s lead article today is relevant and important and makes me wonder if others here have heard of Choice Point inc. before?

Cujo359

You make some very good points. My comments were meant to “speak from the gut” or “in the language of revolution” because a neo revolution is what we are doing here.

I am one who believes in the Jefferson dictum that we need regular revolutions to keep it real. As you point out, one thing that evolves in revolutions is the weaponry — the internet, faxes & phones being our side-arms.

Cujo, thanks for watching my back. It has been a pleasure sharing this foxhole with you while we shared the dream of bedlam.

The afternoon guy on Nice Polite Republicans (NPR) talking about the WaPo poll with David Brooks and E.J. Dionne. Of course the Afternoon guy (can’t remember his name) just repeating the WaPo poll as if it is gospel.

Thankfully EJ Dionne identified it as a push-poll, but no F/U on what that means, how the questions may have skewed the poll responses…nothing to counter the Afternoon guy’s assessment that “most Americans support this program.”

Argh!

…beyond me too, brother Hugh!

Frank Probst 104: How long was Foggo under investigation? Two days? If more, then why was he allowed to remain in his position, with his clearances, for so long? And who was responsible for that? Goss? Negroponnte? Who knew? Is anyone in a position of authority ever held accountabled?

OT

the May 5th Trascript in the Libby case is a must read. MANY new details.

Can’t wait for ReddHedd’s detailed analysis.

it’s supposed to rain all weekend here in the big apple, so I would love to curl up by the fire, with the dogs and look at firedoglake.

not to put any pressure on you or anything Christy.

GSD,

Do you know if the Rasmussen number reflects his new weighting system? IIRC he was going to smooth his data somewhat by taking into account previous polls taken within the last few months. Since these numbers reflect higher support for Bush, it might cause the current number to be higher (and remain higher) than in unweighted polls.

Just waking up on a Saturday morning here, so this might fit in oddly. But on another thread long ago, someone was wishing for someone of stature to come out and lead, mentioning Oprah. I don’t think she can do that, but she could use her show for one big Civics 101 lesson about the balance of powers and the three branches of government, which could bolster support for Congressional oversight and some hearings with some oomph. The level of civic ignorance is overwhelming.

Good idea on the telephones over the fence….The visuals are needed to counter the fatigue in in response to the masses of print detailing the numbing corruption.

YOu go Christy

EPU, I’m dying here. Can you give me an example of “hippy” neo-con, in the public today?

GSD @ 117

Have heard it often said in these threads that Rasmussen has a documented Gooper bent –

Lynn Swann is a ‘political’ unknown – currently riding his shiny Steelers glow -only making broad statements and usual GOP condemnations of current Gov. Rendell – lots of PA. pol observers say his 8% lead will shrink with every ’serious’ word out of that yap –

personally strange t/b disparaging him, but that is one empty suit

looseheadprop – do you have a link to the transcript? I’m dying for a fitz fix

Hugh – Your stating I did not is different from my having not. Example – I used Oil for one, and how American strategic policy on oil, and its impact on its foriegn policy in the middle east, has little or nothing to do with support of Israel.

There are two issues: 1) Whether support of Israel is the determining factor in American foriegn policy; and, 2) whether the pro-Israel lobby has too much influence.

2 can be true without 1 being true. I don’t believe 1 is even close to being true.

Believe either is true all you want, doesn’t make you right. But bring something other than simply stating that the pro-Israel lobby is the cause of whatever troubles, Chimpco related or otherwise.

No, there are no hippy neocons. The point was that aliens are for the most part NOT neocons, but laid back, hippy-ISH type folk.

Just saw the WaPo article saying that 63% of the public feels the NSA call records monitoring and database is appropriate.

What the hell is *wrong* with these people?

“hippy†neo-con,

David Horowitz?

xyz at 130

Am tech impared and don’t know how to link. I think I found it on Talk Left.

http://www.talkleft.com

It was a couple of stories down. you are gonna love it. It is loaded with new info.

Have a good weekend, everybody, and keep a song in your hearts!

Another one bites the Dust-y!
Another one bites the Dust-y!
And another one gone, and another one gone,
And another one bites the Dust-y!

Just poking my head in here and want to say that we are dealing with terra-ists in Iraq– the MEK and we’re not dealing with Hamas…….the democratically elected government of Palestine. We have shot the so called joke of a road map goodbye.

Hypocrisy?

The Palestinians are being starved, their owed monies kept from them, their fuel shut off, a wall built, and worse every day simply because they did what we purport to revere.

I fault this administration for many things, but their abject neglect of the pursuit of a just and lasting peace in this area ranks high on my list.

If this touches you read this and there’s plenty more, including from Jimmy Carter and the front page story of the Wapo yesterday.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0509-32.htm

Christy 53: Thanks. Woulda been swell to have my Rudy sweating under the heat lamp too. He’s led way too charmed a political life.

GSD – Michael Steele is (unfortunately) in my state – Maryland. He is currently the lieutenant governor to Bob Ehrlich (gack!), a relatively meaningless position. He had no real qualifications for office when Ehrlich picked him; The Baltimore Sun editorial page called him an “empty suit,†which probably was the first shot leading to the Sun eventually barring any State employee from speaking with two of The Sun’s reporters. Steele is a law school grad who had to leave the firm he was with when, after multiple tries, he could not pass the bar. He went into business, but had no success there, either.

He is the perfect tool for the GOP; the national party has been putting a lot of money and effort into his campaign – Cheney did a fundraiser for him, and I think Norm Coleman held one over the weekend. He’s perfect because he won’t stray from the party line and the party can use the color of his skin to claim they are inclusive and diverse and try to woo upper-class black votes.

His likely opponent is Ben Cardin, currently serving in the House. Cardin will have to win a primary against Kweisi Mfume, former head of the NAACP. Whether Steele faces Cardin or Mfume, I think he will lose, and go back to being a nice guy who isn’t qualified to do much of anything – which means the national party will give him a job.

CBL,

Last poll I saw had Rendell ahead by wide margin. Swann was tanking.

-GSD

Christy: “Will we ever get a straight answer on what this has to do with last week’s Goss resignation?”

A) Yes, I think so. And I think we’re talking weeks, not months.

B) And I think the answer will be: deflection. I stiill strongly suspect that the Foggo’s promotion was recommended by someone in the WH. Porter’s resignation focuses responsibity for Foggo on Porter for the time being.

Of course, this is pure speculation.

Hugh, EPU — let it go, friends. The issue is interesting, important, debatable, but ultimately not resolvable now or here.

angie: the Palestinians didn’t have purple thumbs on Election Day so their democracy doesnt coun’t.

From Political Wire.

In Ohio, Brown Pulls Ahead of DeWine
In Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) holds a three-point lead over Sen. Mike DeWine (R), 44% to 41%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.

“That’s the first time he’s been ahead in any of our six Ohio polls for Election 2006. It’s worth noting that DeWine has lost ground in four straight polls.”

Rudy -

ChoicePoint is EVIL.

Giuliani question:

I have a serious problem. At graduation at the school I teach at, Giuliani is scheduled to deliver the commencement address. I always go to graduation — for the students and their parents….

But I don’t want to be a nice backdrop/furniture for ol’ Rudy the Destroyer in his Presidential Conquest tour of 2006.

What’s an Immanentize to do?

Swann Dive:

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) has opened up a 55% to 33% lead over challenger Lynn Swann (R) in his race for reelection, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

-GSD

I heard something on NPR just a bit ago and wanted to share it with y’all and I believe I said in an earlier post wrt to Feith being appt despite opposition at Georgetown, that Rice was also objected to at BC– I believe I referred to an honorary degree, but I confess it may just be to her commencement address. dunno. sowwy!:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

Dear Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so — after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret — as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year’s graduation.

Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice’s actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.

But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.

She has lied to the American people knowingly, repeatedly, often extravagantly over the past five years, in an effort to justify a pathologically misguided foreign policy.

The public record of her deceits is extensive. During the ramp-up to the Iraq war, she made 29 false or misleading public statements concerning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda, according to a congressional investigation by the House Committee on Government Reform.

more here
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0512-20.htm

re: William H. T. Bush (aka “Uncle Bucky” ) in the Yalie picture with Goss & Negroponte & his take as a war-profiteer:

A report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that William H.T. Bush collected just under $1.9 million in cash plus stock valued at more than $800,000 from the sale of Engineered Support Systems Inc. to DRS Technologies of New Jersey. [snip]

Before DRS purchased it, Missouri-based ESSI experienced record growth as a result of expanded U.S. military contracts — many to supply U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The contracts, some awarded on a no-bid basis, include a $77-million deal to refit military vehicles with armor for use in Iraq.

Other ESSI products used in the war include radar and detection services, field medical stations and field electrical generator units.

SEC filings show that two federal investigations of ESSI are underway. One inquiry involves a stop order from the government on the field generators. The order was issued because the units didn’t operate properly. link

O/T but VERY IMPORTANT

The news from a/p that some Iranian equipment has shown traces of high enrichment doesn’t actually mean very much.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ira…..0bQ–

Can I also point out that Gary Samore who is the “expert” cited co-wrote the IISS report arguing for war with Iraq because it already had or was on the verge of getting WMD and can i also point out that he’s been fucking wrong with almost everythnig he’s written for the last few years. Please help spread that word. The man has considerably less than zero credibility.

Thanks.

Wow, chimpy up to 2% jar among black americans.

That’s quite a jump, I remember him at 2%.

Now what rock are the 29% still living under? Imagine the GOP w/o faux news. If there wasnt a network to support their “evil parallel universe”. I say he hits the teens by Summer.

P.s. Sorry, EPU. :)

So, no Fitz this week?

GSD — PLUS, Rassmussen pols + 6 or 7 Republican all the time! Good on Sherrod Brown!

CNN’s John Roberts said contrary to what’s been reported, Goss and Foggo weren’t “good friends”. They’d only met twice prior to Goss promoting him to 3# at the CIA. Hmm…

new thread – new tactics

angie -

But, but, but…

Hasn’t Condi suffered enough?

http://www.bgladd.com/Bush_Mal…..e_Rice.jpg

angie — that was a lte in today’s Boston Globe….

http://www.boston.com/news/glo…..ge_i_quit/

imm- go to ceremony for students and parents. Get your anti- Rudy talking points ready. Maybe a nice Rudy in red circle with slash thru for the top of your beanie ;)

JGabriel,
please see # 68 above

GSD – guess I was reading your # 112 oh well – loved your ‘Swann Dive’

Arcturus #149

Nice handle… You aspire to be a star?

Love that BobbyG!

Immanentize– that is what I heard on NPR!! The author was soooooooopissed.

Here’s a rather hip-py neocon:

http://www.johnbatchelorshow.c…..5B1%5D.jpg

Hey Valley — Thanks!

I thought about wearing a big “2436″ (or whatever the KIA number is next Sunday) on my regalia.

Angie 137 If the US were not so inexplicably tight with Israel, UN resolutions might carry some weight and American policy wouldn’t be selective, biased and unjust. And there are plenty of Israelis who agree, so I reject that whole Anti- argument. Hypocrisy here there and everywhere.

GSD @ 1:37 pm (#147) – I’m not too surprised by this. Deservedly or otherwise, Rendell gets credit in PA for getting the budget under control there. He certainly won points with seniors for creating an interim Medicare program to make up for the problems with the federal program. So if this comes down to a referendum on Rendell’s first term, he should win.

Angie, please don’t do that to me — what a manatee in a tie that guy is.

Except I like manatees.

Angie said about the joke of a roadmap: “The Palestinians are being starved, their owed monies kept from them, their fuel shut off, a wall built, and worse every day simply because they did what we purport to revere.”

This will happen to all of us if we don’t behave.

Absolutely agreed Dru. This macabre maladministration (not to excuse previous ones by any stretch of the imagination) constantly trot out the UN resolutions against Iraq (and others) and their noncompliance as a cause for a ‘just’ war (and sanctions) and I say ptooey. How many violated resolutions languish wrt to our ‘allies’ while people continue to suffer and die on both sides; completely selective and hypocritical. This is why, if we had humans running this govt, they would take Iran’s letter seriously. I linked to this earlier, here I go again:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0512-33.htm

sorry immanentize! I love manatees too and their hands… well, they look like hands to me. when I look at all those sea mammals that are oh so more evolved than us, I pray we evolve like them.;)

Father Leahy of Boston College is also the guy who hangs out at football games with the famous father of one of his students: Tim Russert. And it was at one of those buddy sessions with Russert that the idea of a seminar on Religion in Politics was hatched by Leahy and Russert. Which led recently, get this, to the “Holy” Tim Russert convening a Boston College panel discussion featuring Peggy Noonan, James Carville, E.J. Dionne [remind anyone of the Sunday morning line-ups?] and maybe one or two others, as ‘moderated’ by Russert, about how their faith fits, or doesn’t fit, into the Republican and Democratic Parties today. It was very lame and predictably self-promoting, as reported in the Catholic newspaper(s).

Immanentize: “I don’t want to be a nice backdrop/furniture for ol’ Rudy the Destroyer in his Presidential Conquest tour of 2006. What’s an Immanentize to do?”

As a Manhattanite, I say, “Don’t worry about it.”

Yeah, Rudy’s evil to the extent that all authoritarian Republicans are evil. On the other hand, at least he’s not a conservative, and supports gay rights and abortion rights.

Both stances meaning he can never get the Republican nomination. NYC polls extremely differently from the rest of the country. Republican consultants have commented upon it in the Times, though I haven’t mention of it recently.

Anyhow, the upshot is that the Republican party thinks all New Yorkers (City, not Bridge and Tunnel) are nuts. A conservative Republican can’t win in the city, and a liberal Republican can’t win with the base.

So, I wouldn’t get myself too concerned about it if I were you. No matter how well Rudy may be polling with Pugs now (and by the way, the GOP should really change its mascot from an elephant to a Rottweiler), his numbers will sink like a stone once he gets into the primaries; his Republican opponents will tar him as a homo-loving, baby-killing liberal.

cbl, 159:

Thanks.

JGabriel #133 –See above comments . . . The appropriate question is, “What is wrong with this poll?†Answer: A lot!!

Having been gone for several hours so this could be a repeat here but the guest host on the Ed Schultz show said that there is a rumor that bush will tell us Monday evening that he is calling out the national guard for border security.

Fitz!

yep sounds about right from what i have seen today, keith from orlando.

posse comitatus anyone, hmmmm?

dead last– ding ding ding ding ding………………….. you win!!! pick your prize— what’ll it be? a stuffed bunny, canned tuna, duct tape, tamiflu, or powdered milquetoast?

(snark– pretty poor, mebbe ;) )

It’s possible Goss was walked out specifically to avoid having to inform him that his employee was about to be searched. It’s possible that Foggo realized his tenure was over anyway and quit in order to take the heat on him down a notch. It’s possible he didn’t know that he would actually be surprise-raided.

It’s possible.

The problem with this poll is the wording because alot of Americans don’t believe these investigations are about legitimate terror threats. In other words, if the poll had been:

“What do you think is more important right now – (for the federal government to investigate dissenters, even if that intrudes on personal privacy); or (for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate dissenters)?”

the numbers would have been 0%, 100% or maybe 5%, 95% for Freepers.

Oops forgot to bold the second part:

or (for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate dissenters)?

I noticed the IRS is involved :)