Treason - Decoding the NSA Surveillance Debate

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The program was about to expire, Comey testified, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft lay incapacitated in a Washington hospital bed. Comey’s Justice Department colleagues had persuaded him that the program was constitutionally unsound. But emissaries from the White House were rushing to Ashcroft’s hospital bed, Comey said”determined to convince the ailing Ashcroft to reauthorize the program as the deadline for its expiration approached. Comey enlisted FBI Director Robert Mueller as an ally, and raced to beat the White House team (then Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then White House Counselor Alberto Gonzales) to Ashcroft’s room. Comey threatened to resign if the program was reauthorized without changes. Ultimately, the president intervened, and the program was revised to meet Comey’s concerns.

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In other words the program that the President approved was - and is - illegal.

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It also raises some rather new serious questions about Gonzales. He had told the Senate Judiciary Committee there were no major disputes between him and Comey about the NSA wiretapping program. That’s pretty hard to square with Comey's account”and one the Senate Democrats are sure to follow up on.

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Interestingly, Sen. Arlen Specter-the ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary”just said Thursday afternoon that Gonzales has lost the credibility to head the Justice Department. That's the furthest he's gone yet.

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Time for Gonzales to go, if not to face prosecution. Past time.

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As far as whether Comey, Goldsmith and the others should have quit at the time”the thing you have to remember is that these were not your classic whistleblowers. They were all conservative Republicans who believed in the War on Terror and were conflicted about being in the role of dissenters.

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These are not your usual hate-radio scrape goats but far right lawyers. How bad does it have to be before people - regular people - think something is rotten in the way the administration has been ruining this country?I can't wait to see how the apologists deny reality here.

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After Comey, the most intriguing figure in this story is Jack Goldsmith. As head of the Justice's Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the government on the constitutionality of its policies and actions, it was Goldsmith who began challenging many of the administration's anti-terror tactics, from torture to domestic spying. Goldsmith was essentially driven out of government by his opponents in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office.

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What was what it about the NSA domestic spying program that sparked the revolt in the first place? The New York Times, in an editorial Thursday morning, raises the possibility that President Bush authorized the NSA to "intercept domestic e-mails and phone calls without first getting a warrant." The administration has acknowledged authorizing interceptions of coimmunications between people overseas and people in the United States. That would be a huge development, if true.

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More at Open Source:
Comey's Dissent at Justice | Open Source with Christopher Lydon

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Act III
The deadline for reauthorization expires. President Bush allows the original NSA program to continue for the two to three weeks it takes the DoJ to work out the details of the necessary changes. The cleaned-up program ” which only becomes public in December 2005 ” is approved by DoJ. No one resigns.

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Regardless of the current status of this highly questionable program, prior to that the constitutional law WAS broken. This IS an impeachable offense.When is it time to stop going the wrong way?Enjoy.Edited by RAZD, : changed title

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

Where are the patriots eh?

I was in the Army when the first major recent assault on liberty, the asset forfeiture act was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress. Been a registered Libertarian ever since, even if I don't agree with everything in their philosophy. At least they don't support every assault upon freedom, every lie that justifies every war, without doing their homework, like the two major parties.Pelosi already said the Democrats will not move to impeach Bush, primarily because his term would be over by the time any conclusion was reached. But of course they have practically been doing Bush's bidding from day one IMO.As an answer to your question I would say patriots exist, they are just few in number and unrepresented because of the rules of the game.

I need to dig out my signs to post around town -"Impeachment! Not just for blowjobs anymore!"

Yes, I am triggering Godwin's law here.There's no outrage because the country is divided right down the middle. Not conservative/liberal, but paying attention/asleep at the wheel.It just happens that the vast majority of the asleep at the wheel people happen to also be conservatives. (or vice versa).Basically those who aren't paying attention, aren't going to pay attention to this. Too many words. It happened more than 10 minutes ago. I has nothing to do with sex.While those who have been paying attention are simply too beaten down to be outraged.The Nazis killing a million Jews - outrage. Two million - outrage. Three million - outrage... but at some point you just can't be more outraged.The man is a criminal. He deserves to be dragged in from of the Haag for war crimes. This is just one more drop of blood in the bucket.

One wonders just how much longer they can ignore the obvious. How longer they are content to be sheep eating worms. I am more outraged than before. Outraged that people can call themselves patriots yet ignore this assault on their country. Outraged that this administration has so far gotten away with so much illegal behavior.I think we could spend the next four years having hearings on the malfeasance of this administration and still not reach the bottom.It was sad to see Jimmy Carter back down from his statement, but it seems he cares more about Habitat for Humanity than for sticking by his statement. And yes, I think this administration threatened to disrupt funding for HH if he didn't recant - they are like that.

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Join the effort to unravel AIDS/HIV, unfold Proteomes, fight Cancer,
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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

Bravo, RAZD, there is little to add to your post. And yes, we must ask where are the patriots in our Congress who should hold these men accountable for their treasonable acts? While the whole world is watching, all must wonder how we dare to militarily force democracy upon the peoples who hate us abroad when the checks and balances within our own elected Government are totally inoperable? Then there is this Administrations unashamed goosestepping upon our Constitution by these officials sworn to defend it, conducting from week to week their Treasonable Acts, High Crimes and Misdemeanors.Will the USA see its' demise at the only the beginning of the 21st Century? These events are now and, I expect, will continue to be most disheartening to watch.Edited by Jon Paine, : wordsmithingEdited by Jon Paine, : No reason given.Edited by Jon Paine, : final perfection

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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-Carl Sagan

As most of us know, the democrats have backed down on insisting on a timetable for continued funding of the Iraq war.Obviously they lacked permission from their masters to make a stand.Welcome to the two party dictatorship.

Trust me, we're not ignoring the situation. You could say we've partially given up, considering how many people supported Bush in the last election and how many people today continue to support HIM.One of my gay friends gave me an advice that I am using now. He told me that the only real and sure way to make the world a more gay friendly place is to sit tight and wait for all the homophobes to die of old age. Other than that, there's really no other way for them to go away.Well, I'm applying the same philosophy here. Right now, there's little we can do considering the fact that Bush still has an army of supporters that can't even locate the middle east on a map. I'm just going to sit tight and wait for his term to expire... that is assuming he's not going to dismiss congress, suspend the 2008 election, and give himself emergency powers.

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We are BOG. Resistance is voltage over current.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!