OH MAMA MIA! Barron’s Calls for Impeachment Hearings on Wiretapping …
MyDD blog (via Daou Report) reports that:
Barron’s calls for impeachment (via Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture)
“AS THE YEAR WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, we picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants. It was worrisome on its face, but in justifying their actions, officials have made a bad situation much worse: Administration lawyers and the president himself have tortured the Constitution and extracted a suspension of the separation of powers . . . […]
Barron’s ain’t exactly a commie rag … [No shit! – Susanhu]
MyDD’s Matt Stoller also comments on an attack on Rockefeller.
‘[W]e’re beginning to get a little more clarity on what, exactly, the NSA’s carefree warrantless wonderland entails” …
It’s bothered me since this story first broke that, initially, we didn’t have much of a picture — yet — of what really has gone on with Bushco spying on Americans since 2001.
I quoted NSA investigative expert James Bamford telling Amy Goodman on Dec. 19, “Well, there hasn’t really been very much revealed at all.”
I assumed there was much more nastiness lurking in the shadows. Indeed. Reports the Poor Man blog (via Daou Report):
… DefenseTech notes a new Times article, and its claim that the NSA’s program revolved around large scale snarfing (technical hax0r term) of data at switches:
The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system’s main arteries, they said.
As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.
Well, duh.
The fact is none of this is particularly secret; the FCC has been quite publically trying to promulgate rules that would make VOIP (internet telephony) and internet service providers provide the same level of access that telephone companies have been cheerfully offering up for eleven years: … Do read all at Poor Man Open Source blog.
Toss THESE in Your Festively Red “PomPom” Martinis (For non-BooTrib regulars, those are martinis with pomegranate juice) …
- “NSA Spying Much Larger than Reported” by Dr. Tom More here at BooTrib
- CNN has been promising all morning to go after every source they have to give us more on the NY Times story (“Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report”) … Susanhu taps foot impatiently, sore that it’s Saturday (isn’t that interesting), not to mention C’mas Eve (hmmm), and her trusty NPR shows like “To The Point” aren’t on …
- “The Necessity Defense” from Armando at Daily Kos
- “Bush spies with his big eyes…” from The Carpetbagger blog: “After 9/11, the Bush administration went to the FISA court to expand its surveillance efforts considerably. Judges asked the Bush gang for two things: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it. The administration balked. In case there was any doubt, the New York Times explains why …”
- “Data mining” from Fixer at Alternate Brain blog
Spike Your Eggnoggins With These Hard Spirits (er, Souls?) …
- “More on NSA” from John Cole at Balloon Juice blog: “Look- I can not be the only person who ever read the Puzzle Palace in the 90’s. I am not saying I like this, but the idea that this is ‘news’ is, well, silly. …”
- “NY Times Treasonous Tips To Terrorists” from Strata-Sphere blog: “You would think the NY Times would think twice about leaking details about how we are trying to trace and track Al Qaeda, and Bin Laden especially. But no …”
- “They’re Not Going To Stop” from Just One Minute blog: “The NY Times escalates its war on America with its latest revelations …”
Um, don’t any of you dudes remember Judy Miller’s and Bill Keller’s major help in getting you your insane Iraq war? Sigh. How soon the ungrateful ‘wingers forget …
Saving some of the best for last, our own Patrick Lang writes on his blog, Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005, about “Unintended Consequences on the Road to Democracy” (those pesky elections in the Middle East) …
I have been telling myself not to write anything else for a while about the FUBAR mess that the arrogant enthno-centric utopianism of the Bushies, the Caesarist types at “The Weekly Standard” and the more or less transparently ethnic politicians in the Jacobin movement are creating in the Arab World. “Let the situation ripen,” I told myself. I have no idea who Diana West is, but this column of hers struck me as so RIGHT ON THE MONEY that I just could not resist putting it up here. Thanks, Diana, whoever you are. Pat Lang … Read all.
Note: Diana West’s article, critical of the recent outcomes of elections in the Middle East, is in the Washington Times: “Freedom and Jihad.”
P.S. ‘member the Mao’s little red book story? Well, the “UMass Mao library book story is a hoax,” via fpc’s diary at DailyKos, front-paged by Plutonium Page with an alert to spread the word. We have enough real issues to deal with and don’t need to propagate the made-up stories. This was also reported today by the Moderate Voice blogger (who says he’s a professional ventriloquist).
