Patriotism Telecom Style

Via Andrew Sullivan the Republican President and his fanbois in Congress want retroactive immunity for telecoms who participated in the FISA warrantless wiretapping debacle, because the telecoms were doing their patriotic bit in the War on Terror. However, telecoms aren't quite as patriotic when it comes to giving the government a break on the cost of those wiretaps.

Cox Communications, for instance, charges $1,500 for a 30 day wiretap or for 60 days of real-time call record information. Some telecoms have even shut off wiretaps after the FBI repeatedly failed to pay their spying bill.

This looks like all the patriotism we can afford. So patriotism is as deep as the taxpayer pockets?

Whitehouse on the White House

Looks like Senator Whitehouse thinks banana republic is appropriate:

We are a nation of laws, not of men. This nation was founded in rejection of the royalist principles that "l'etat c'est moi" and "The King can do no wrong." Our Attorney General swears an oath to defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States; we are not some banana republic in which the officials all have to kowtow to the "supreme leader." Imagine a general counsel to a major U.S. corporation telling his board of directors, "in this company the counsel's office is bound by the CEO's legal determinations." The board ought to throw that lawyer out – it's malpractice, probably even unethical.

Heh. Indeed. At least one Democrat is making some noise.


(h/t Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker.com)

Dodd Video

Here is Dodd's video threatening a filibuster if his HOLD is not honored by Harry Reid.

Chris Dodd & the Constitution

Chris Dodd is leading the charge AGAINST amnesty for the corporatist criminals. Embedded in the legislation to amend the FISA Act is a provision to provide amnesty to the fascist corporate criminals at the major telecons. Glenn Greenwald writes extensively about Dodd's fight against this assault on the 4th Amendment. Although many are writing about Dodd and the assault on our 4th Amendment Rights, Greenwald is doing the most extensive analysis and criticism of this President and his Congressional sycophants quest for power.

Dodd has a petition to support his HOLD on this UnAmerican legislation on his website. Go sign it and donate a couple bucks for his Presidential campaign show you really mean it.

Here We Go Again!

Looks like Glenn Greenwald and a bunch of crazy liberals are bringing up issues, thereby cutting into our MoveOn.org bashing time. Please, those are just facts. Who gives a damn about the 4th Amendment. Its for sissies anyway.

FISA Works

But it requires the over politicized DOJ to pull their heads out of their asses. It took these dumb bastards NINE hours to get a special FISA approval.

The original FISA law generally requires court orders if the government conducts electronic surveillance on U.S. soil. It allows the attorney general to authorize surveillance in emergencies without a court order for up to 72 hours, provided the government has probable cause to believe it is eavesdropping on an agent of a foreign power.

Here's the timeline:

The soldiers were ambushed on May 12 south of Baghdad. On May 13 and 14, intelligence officials got leads on insurgent communications they believed were related to the case, and on May 14 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was asked for and granted a court order to target some communications.

On May 15, intelligence agents met at 10 a.m. to discuss collecting additional intelligence. By 10:52 a.m., the NSA had notified the Justice Department it would need a FISA order for some of it.

At 12:53 p.m., the NSA general counsel agreed that all the requirements for an emergency FISA authorization existed. The attorney general makes the authorization.

From 12:53 p.m. until 5:15 p.m., "administration lawyers and intelligence officials discussed various legal and operational issues associated with the surveillance."

At 5:15 p.m., they made the formal request for emergency authority to the Justice Department's FISA office, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review.

Fifteen minutes later, the OIPR attorney on duty attempted to reach the solicitor general, Paul D. Clement, who in Gonzales' absence was acting attorney general. Clement had left for the day.

Nearly two hours later, at 7:18 p.m., Gonzales authorized the requested surveillance. The FBI was notified, and at 7:28 p.m., the FBI notified intelligence agencies and personnel of the approval. Surveillance began at 7:38 p.m.

NEWSFLASH for all the dumbasses at DOJ: Make sure you know where the AG or his authorized representative is. WE ARE IN A WAR AND LIVES ARE AT STAKE!

UPDATE: We are not at War. Only our brave men and women in uniform are at War. Sorry for the misunderstanding. My apologies to all the hard working REMF's at DOJ.