Methinks we be sloggin' in some pretty deep shit here.
Posted by mainsailset at May 25, 2006 03:54 PM"Gonzales has reiterated in recent days that sharing too many details about the surveillance program could diminish its usefulness in locating terrorists, and he indicated that giving OPR investigators access to the program could jeopardize it."
Because, like, it's not like Justice Department investigators are likely to follow the law or maintain confidentiality or something? Is he suggesting that evildoers are going to kidnap them and torture the secrets out of them? What?
Is it possible to imagine a program which would actually jeopardized by giving them access? (Aside from illegal ones, of course, which one would hope to jeopardize.) Perhaps the program is powered by faeries who will weaken when exposed to disbelievers?
Must I say it? If we can't trust Justice Department officials, the terrorists have already won.
Posted by Paul at May 25, 2006 04:30 PMThat little crime-enabling fucker belongs in jail.
Bush Orders FBI-Congress Documents Sealed
Bush Orders Documents Seized by FBI From Congressman's Office to Be Sealed for 45 Days
By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
==President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a lawmaker's office be sealed for 45 days.
The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents taken last weekend from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and that they remain in the custody of the Justice Department's solicitor general.
Bush's move was described as an attempt to cool off a heated confrontation between his administration and leaders of House leaders of both parties, particularly Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Posted by Saz at May 25, 2006 06:43 PMPaul, that was exactly my response on the issue. I guess the only criminal that can be trusted is Gonzales. These guys are not just criminals, then are down right evil.
Posted by Judith at May 25, 2006 06:47 PMSomeone wanted to know in an earlier post what they could do about getting on the list of people suing the phone companies. This may be an answer for them, and all of us.
Want to DO Something About Telephone Spying?
Then file a complaint. For real. Ask your phone company about its cooperation with the FSA, then report its response -- and your own attitude toward telephone snooping -- to your state utility regulator and/or the FCC. That's the recommendation from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the FCC and filing complaints with state officials.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nellie-b/want-to-do-something-abou_b_21564.html
Posted by Judith at May 25, 2006 07:20 PMI am certain that Abu Gonzalez greenlighted the NSA domestic spying when he was White House Counsel, so I'm not the least bit surprised that he's acting dodgy now to protect the decisions Bush made on his watch.
The most frustrating thing for me about the Bush administration is two-fold:
1. The people in this country seem so willing to be diverted by whatever the administration says, ala "Let's roll out the immigration issue and try to circle the wagons around that to bolster our poll numbers"
2. That with all of the crap that has been done illegally and immorally by Bush and his people, nothing will happen to them because of it. It seems criminal in and of itself that all of the criminal behavior will not get prosecuted. This really feels like one giant national nightmare.
Posted by Maurice Reeves at May 25, 2006 08:37 PMHow is this not obstruction of justice?
Posted by Chris at May 25, 2006 08:40 PMPaul wrote:
Must I say it? If we can't trust Justice Department officials, the terrorists have already won.
Very true. Perhaps more widely, if we can't trust Justice Dep't officials, the American people have already lost to their gasping shell of a government.
Saz quoted Kellman's article:
President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a lawmaker's office be sealed for 45 days.
To me, as significant as the news itself is the time frame for which they were sealed. I say watch for some major disruption within that 45 days such that the re-opening of the sealed documents will be either [a] impossible or [b] disallowed.
Somebody, please, mark my words here: 45 days or less....
Maurice wrote:
The people in this country seem so willing to be diverted by whatever the administration says...
Indeed! The majority of people with whom I interact seem disturbingly uninvolved, let alone even concerned, at all that seems so frickin' obvious to all of us here.
Margaret Mead was quoted as saying, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
It's clear that we're a small group, else we'd have already accomplished the changes that we seek.
It's clear that we're thoughtful, else we'd be moo-ing along with the rest of the herd, so...
How/when are we going to actually change something, people? :-)
Posted by Richard Harlos at May 26, 2006 05:12 AMmight be pissing in the wind, but here's a Wyoming Dem running for the house who supports public financing of campaigns
Posted by benjoya at May 26, 2006 07:24 AM