he’s kidding right?
rick renzi “Voted NO on requiring FISA warrants for wiretaps in US, but not abroad. (Mar 2008)”
“Voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant. (Sep 2006)”
“Voted YES on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight. (Apr 2006)”
“Voted YES on retroactive immunity for telecoms’ warrantless surveillance. (Jun 2008)”
and now, he’s pissed because the fbi surveilled him without a warrant?! huh.
“The Justice Department’s reckless disregard for basic separation of powers principles in the conduct of this investigation demands a meaningful sanction: the dismissal of the Indictment with prejudice,” wrote lawyers for Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), who faces federal charges of fraud as part of a land deal.”
Sphere: Related ContentAn Open letter to Barack Obama
July 17, 2008 by Fran · 2 Comments
An Open Letter to Barack Obama:
You did not stand before 75,000 Oregonians & say you would vote to support warrantless wiretapping & grant immunity for those who give access to wiretap. You did not promise to shift gears to have a different war in Afghanistan, and add 10,000 troops, when speaking to the people at the historically largest gathering of a presidential candidate, or the many crowds & gahterings throughout the country.
Why now? I was following the promise of change, by the alleged Champion of Civil Rights & someone who would uphold the Constitution. Going after Al Queda is a fruitless effort.
Our country is bankrupt. We can not afford more war either financially or ethically.
I don’t want to HOPE for real change– I want REAL CHANGE. Your recent FISA vote & this announcement for war horrify me. Don’t think you have secured the progressive base & can now tap dance over the center line, into a spineless war monger, more of the same 9-11 to the world, violence based diplomacy?
Have we not learned lessons from all these years of war?
The Obama bio says you have studied Gandhi & MLK & their non violent leadership. Neither of them would support this idea of more troops in Afghanistan- or anywhere. More war, death, killing, & suffering will not yield the security we seek.
After 8 long years of the Bush regime, and perhaps the United States most deadly and unethical behavior ever, I have no tolerance or patience for any semblance of more of the same- particularly in regards to war, occupations, violence, and disregard for the Constitution. The ship has sailed for those items to have been unleashed to see just how bad and wrong things can go.
Blogger B. Perdue wrote this:
“The good news is that the antiwar movement isn’t fooled by either party’s posturing and is preparing antiwar demonstrations at the conventions of both pro-war parties. That’ll be followed up with a major organization drive beginning this December. As soon as Obama (or McCain) takes a seat in the Oval Office they’ll be on the hot seat and answerable to a militant and demanding antiwar movement with a growing GI component.
We should do all we can to support the antiwar movements determination and begin formulating our own campaigns for federal anti-discrimination and anti-violence legislation”
People are watching & listening closely. I have been an avid supporter, but these actions have me questioning my support & feeling the need to convey my grave disappointment. How could you betray the people in this way?
Smedley Butler, most decorated Marine in US history
Congress’ July 4 Recess — Implications For FISA
July 1, 2008 by Gee Carol · 2 Comments
Congress will be away from Washington for a time to celebrate our nation’s birthday. Given the manner this congress has been operating, it is often a good thing for our senators and representatives to be out of the city. Less mischief happens that way. As my regular readers know, much mischief has happened regarding the erosion of citizen privacy over the past few years. And Congress has aided and abetted that assault on the Fourth Amendment. The current fight is over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the “FISA” bill set for revision. The best post on the current and future situation regarding the FISA bill, as yet unresolved by Congress, was put up about a week ago by — guess who — my favorite, Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon.com. Another of his excellent posts sets the stage for what is likely to happen to the FISA bill when Congress comes back from its July 4 recess. To quote (includes his links):
UPDATE: Two Democratic Senators actually fighting against the FISA bill — Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd — succeeded in blocking a vote in the Senate until after the July 4 recess (the vote is now scheduled for July 8). Jesselyn Radack — the DOJ lawyer who became the whistleblower concerning the Bush administration’s treatment of John Walker Lindh — writes here about this success. It’s only a temporary reprieve, but delays of this sort can enable further opposition to build and/or allow unanticipated events to intervene.
There is a surprisingly vigorous feud among three of my favorites over the future of FISA. Glenn Greenwald and Keith Olbermann are going at it over Senator Barack Obama’s unwelcome support for a bad FISA bill. Former White House Counsel John Dean is also in the middle of it. In my opinion, the disagreements are not so much over the back and forth criticisms between Greenwald and Olbermann over Obama’s FISA stance, as they are about a general frustration due to the country’s inability to stop the FISA bill’s apparent momentum to passage. Empty Wheel weighs in with some helpful insight into this whole bizarre controversy. We all want the same things out of Congress on this matter; we just disagree on how to get there. Congress needs to exercise vigorous oversight over a law-breaking Executive. It needs to defend the Constitution. And it needs to stop caving in to the nasty tactics of Republicans.
View my current slide show about the Bush years — “Millennium” — at the bottom of this column.
This day in history: Constitution Convention, July 1, 1787. Washington called Rhode Island’s absense from the convention “scandalous.”
Technorati tags: news news and politics politics fisa domestic surveillance congress
Crossposted at South by Southwest.
Sphere: Related ContentDems sell out the Constitution again..
June 19, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
The friggin’ ratbastards have agreed to provide immunity to the Telco’s and institute sweeping changes as to how our government can spy upon us. They are calling it..cough..choke..a compromise. From the WSJ via The Carpetbagger Report:
After more than a year of partisan acrimony over government surveillance powers, Democratic and Republican leaders have agreed to a bipartisan deal that would be the most sweeping rewrite of spy powers in three decades. The House is likely to vote on the measure Friday, House aides said. [...]
The new agreement broadens the authority to spy on people in the U.S. and provides conditional legal immunity to companies that helped the government eavesdrop after the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to congressional aides in both parties.
The deal, if adopted, would bring the spy activities of a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program permanently under the law. That would allow the government, in certain circumstances, to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens without a specific warrant. It would also expand government spy powers to monitor communications between the U.S. and overseas to collect intelligence on topics beyond terrorism.
As Steve notes, Glen Greenwald’s pov on this is spot on. The fucking Blue Dogs were the ones championing this bullshittery to enable our government a free rein on spying without a warrant and providing the fucking Telco’s with retroactive immunity. They played the fear factor card just like the Rethugs do..and evidently it has worked..even Obama has jumped on this fucking bandwagon. From Greenwald:
So all the Attorney General has to do is recite those magic words — the President requested this eavesdropping and did it in order to save us from the Terrorists — and the minute he utters those words, the courts are required to dismiss the lawsuits against the telecoms, no matter how illegal their behavior was.
That’s the “compromise” Steny Hoyer negotiated and which he is now — according to very credible reports — pressuring every member of the Democratic caucus to support. It’s full-scale, unconditional amnesty with no inquiry into whether anyone broke the law. In the U.S. now, thanks to the Democratic Congress, we’ll have a new law based on the premise that the President has the power to order private actors to break the law, and when he issues such an order, the private actors will be protected from liability of any kind on the ground that the Leader told them to do it — the very theory that the Nuremberg Trial rejected.(emphasis Greenwalds)
With Democrats such as these in office..who is really our enemy? Seriously folks..who? The Rethugs only need to enlist the help of the fucking Blue Dogs and snap..it gets done.
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