Mid-Morning Update: NSA Is Spying On Domestic Internet Traffic Without Warrants

by Steve

Mid Morning Update

Put a fork in Little Ricky Santorum; he’s done. Count this as one Democratic pickup in the Senate.

Forget that “isolated” bad apples defense; eight US personnel will be charged with the murder of an Iraqi civilian in April.

So much for Bush’s victory lap since the al-Zarqawi killing. Al Qaeda in Iraq seems to be humming along just the same, butchering our soldiers, bombing and abducting busloads of civilians to prove Bush wrong.

House Republicans have decided to stall on immigration and deny Bush a victory before November. Instead, they plan to stir the pot, and hold hearings around the country to stir up anger just before the midterms, which will help them with the base but may backfire at the polls with Latinos and Catholic voters.

The GOP House doesn’t want to renew the Voting Rights Act because the amendment to do so has the temerity to call for federal oversight of southern states that practiced discrimination. Let Nancy Pelosi run with that for a few days and beat their brains out.

It’s gotten so bad that the White House has now pissed off Sensenbrenner enough that he supports a Democratic request for all NSA requests of the telecoms that were made without warrants. At the same time, it now appears that the NSA is spying on purely domestic Internet traffic without any warrants by running access rooms at the telecoms.

John Bolton gets to correctly flex his moustache on North Korea, while we suggest that Star Wars will get a dry run if Pyongyang tests its missile. Swell. What happens if Star Wars flames out in the test? Yet, as the Los Angeles Times notes today, Cheney has bungled this so bad that the United States has few options anymore.

Rahm Emanuel will step down as head of the DCCC after November to spend time with his family, which is normal.

We have now allowed the Taliban to regain full strength in Afghanistan.

Colin Powell’s former Number Two at State tells the Australians that the Iraqis will soon be asking us to leave their country.

And Eric Boehlert, author of the wonderful “Lapdogs”, destroys ABC News’ “The Note” in a Washington Monthly essay.