A republican last night on hardball stated that bush did indeed have the authority. he said something was passed in the 70s by carter! wtf! and i believe it was andrea mitchell (but am not certain) who was filling in for chris matthews looked aghast as this guy kept digging it deeper... and kept telling him he was wrong. that it wasn't true. and he smiled and kept right on shoveling that bullshit. at least she kept on him and didn't just roll over. i

didn't see the rest of it after the break however. btw, there was another guy there too that said it was illegal what bush was doing, but quickly backed off that statement. why is everyone afraid to call it what it is!

We expected bad news before Christmas since it's policy to release pre-packaged Friday or holiday scandal, right. With the cover of the Iraqui election and Rumsfeld's just announced troop drawdawns(retreat?) we have quite the smokescreen (whether the news of a drawdawn is just something to give Americans warm fuzzies or will be real remains to be seen - it could be another lie to the troops and their families to give hope for the holidays, we'll see). The Justice Dept's letter to Congress yesterday - that was pretty quick but I don't have a clue how long a letter like that would usually take - maybe it was written in advance so as not to ruin anyone else's holiday. We need to light holiday candles under our representatives so they don't forget and give the President too much this Christmas. I hope we have heard the worst of this until after the holidays have passed but I won't be surprised if we haven't. Maybe we can expect this behavior from politicians, blighting our holidays with bad news, but when the New York Times is party to it as well - withholding the story for a year and releasing it now. Quite an un-timely story but thanks to them for reporting it nonetheless. I wonder if the President and his comrades will be making any New Year's resolutions.

Timing is everything. I hope Congress goes into their holiday break with a clear head and comes back in the new year ready for impeachment hearings because I've had enough of this self-righteous rich boy digging us into deeper and deeper holes to climb out of.

'your dad' if you would like to discuss your status here you have my email.

I just did a search to find information about impeachment. I found a great site: impeachPAC http://www.impeachpac.org (Great, now I'm going to be wire tapped...BRING IT ON!)

'your dad' if you have questions about your status here you have my email address

ejpoeta: I'm surprised with Andrea Mitchell; she's just another corporate journalist.

A republican last night on hardball stated that bush did indeed have the authority. he said something was passed in the 70s by carter!

The FISA act was passed the 70s under Nixon I believe (maybe it was Carter), but that just established the secret court for the legal, but still national security safe, wiretapping of citizens. This is what Bush deliberately ignored doing, even though it's completely efficent and as fast as anything.

Whoever was on that show wasn't the smartest person to believe this gave Bush authority.

Congress will only come back to tackle this if their constituents at home are talking about it. That means the press has to be going non-stop about the Bush administration's lack of credibility.

Unlike Plame, unlike the Downing Street Memo, SnoopGate is simple enough for Cletus Americanus to understand: do you have a right to privacy? The president swears an oath to uphold the Constitution. Should he be allowed to suspend that promise in secret and at his whim?

Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about an extramarital affair between two consenting adults. George Bush is publicly defending activities which violate the 4th Amendment, and which jeopardizes validity of our government. Small difference? Or BIG Difference?

OK, let's look at one of the FISA rules - it states that if an immediate "surveillance" is necessary, then a court ordered warrant can be obtained after the fact (if done within 72 hours) - and if disapproved, all data collected must be disposed of permanently. (Not that it is - they are just required to do it).

The problem with the Cheney... er, ah, Bush Administration is that they even ignored this avoid-a-Constitutional-infringement loop hole. They just went about what they were doing with presumed impunity.

Using the Attorney General, who was White House Counsel at the time of implementaton, to validate that it is OK with the Justice Department is like asking Hannibal Lector (sic) if it is OK to eat people.

This is the same guy (the Attorney General) who says that the Constitution is an old outdated document. His boss (Dubya) hates it when you bring up the Consitution. Just throws a tizzy fit.

Blatant disregrd for the Constitution, which these two men have taken an oath to protect and defend, is not only an impeachable offence but also a crime that should warrant jail time. IMHO.

BTW, have any of you heard of Echelon? It was and still is a programme that was intituted by Roosevelt and Churchill to monitor all international communication traffic - US citizen or not - to assist them in keeping a close eye on the Communists. Also called UKUSAX.

That operation has facilities all over the world and satellites. they are listenting all the time - phone, email, fax - all forms of communication.

So why did the NSA need FISA? Did they not want anyone to know about Echelon? Look it up on the web. There is plenty of information about it.

I think Cheney is pushing the envelope as much as he can because he was held back during the Reagan Administraton.

Not sure how to end this - just wanted to point a few things out and wish everyone a joyous WWFSMD celebration. Eat that pasta and meat balls. Arrgg!

Is it just me or did we all miss this article? I have not heard about this until searching for old clips on onegoodmove!!!