Comments on: At the Risk of Being Churlish

By: rdwdkw

rdwdkw — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:57:37 +0000

you nailed this one, Marci

By: PetePierce

PetePierce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:30:47 +0000

Yes perfect. I’d sure like to see those written assurances and a nice group picture of all the participants who crafted those assurances. The reporting by Wapo and Putlitzer winner for NYT Eric Lichtblau their so-called terrorism/legal reporter author of Bush’s Law that I’m reading now has been pathetic. Lichtblau and the WaPo sure have done some hard core shilling for “Bush’s Law.”

Great to have your input here Cboldt–I’ve been relying on your site to try to figure out what’s being done on this but they sure are playing 3 card Monte with it.

By: phred

phred — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:13:30 +0000

“administration officials say” — would those be the same ones who said Iraq had WMD? the same ones who say Iran is building nuclear weapons? the same ones who say China is drilling for oil in Cuba? the same ones who say we do not torture?

Suffice it to say if one is looking for a true statement, administration officials are not the ones I would quote. The question is, after all this time why does the WaPo still bother to ask administration officials what they think?

And further more, if the telcos have their written assurances, then they can produce them in court and receive the indemnification they already possess. Either they don’t have them or they are protecting those who gave them worthless bits of legally dubious paper — why choose? It’s probably both.

By: cboldt

cboldt — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:02:19 +0000

“Lawmakers Near Deal On Surveillance Bill” - Carrie Johnson (WaPo)

Not updating the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could cause investigators to miss important clues to thwart terrorists, administration officials say. …
Telephone and Internet service providers say they received written assurances that the warrantless wiretapping program was legal at the time they agreed to participate.

If the government provided written assurances in 2001-2005 (and later, before FISA was changed by the PAA in 2007) that the warrantless wiretapping orders were legal, and those assurances were sound, why couldn’t the SAME assurances be produced NOW? How is it that investigators would miss ANY important clues if Congress fails to again update FISA? Simply issue fresh legal orders, just like before.

And what’s up with the “30 year-old” label? FISA was amended in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, and by the Homeland Secrity Act of 2002. How about this formulation, “Not repealing the 219 year-old Fourth Amendment to the Constitution could cause investigators to miss important clues to thwart terrorists.”

By: PetePierce

PetePierce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:05:04 +0000

relenged was an accident but I guess I could apply for a patent for a contraction for reniged and relented. 2 birds with one as it were.

By: PetePierce

PetePierce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:04:15 +0000

Well State relenged and they are now on their way to their studies in the US.

Condi will leave the national spot light having contributed zero positive, killed a lot of people with her lies, one of the coverup liars in the Libby/Bush/Cheney et. al Plame CIA leak case. She did on the substantive side of the ledger though help to turn thousands of Iraqi refugee women into widows who are now prostitutes in the non-supportive Arab Middle East where no Arab state will allow them work permits. Talk about slackers.

By: PetePierce

PetePierce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:00:46 +0000

What’s important to them is them. And of couse we all recognize the loss and pain to family and friends. I just question that if every TV in America were magically disappeared in a nanosecond, if it’d be much of a loss to anyone talking head and newswise.

Everyman Tim and Everyman Tweety live(d) in multimillion dollar homes in D.C. and Nantucket Island.

The Tweetster’s Nantucket crib is a $4.3 million plus crib.

By: 4jkb4ia

4jkb4ia — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:02:34 +0000

The Israeli news story I saw about the students in Sderot perhaps not being able to take their matriculation exams there was not propaganda, and described something more than a nuisance.

By: Mauimom

Mauimom — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:02:05 +0000

My reaction was that the “Russert-a-thon” reflected the MSM’s belief that what’s important to them must be important to the American public. There was also a lot of “Tim was such an ‘Everyman’,” “Tim thought of himself as ‘Everyman’,” “Tim thought his job was to ask the questions ‘Everyman’ would want asked,” and they believe this crap!!

It just shows the extent of the MSM’s delusional thinking.

By: PetePierce

PetePierce — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:40:22 +0000

A Year Reshapes Hamas and Gaza 6/15/08

One year ago, gunmen from Hamas, an Islamist anti-Israel group, took over Gaza, shooting some of their more secular Fatah rivals in the knees and tossing one off a building. Israel and the West imposed a blockade, hoping to squeeze the new rulers from power. Yet today Hamas has spread its authority across all aspects of life, including the judiciary. It is fully in charge. Gazans have not, as Israel and the United States hoped, risen up against it.

It ain’t Israel doing this and it sure ain’t purty.