Today the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument on Wilner v. NSA and DOJ, a FOIA case wherein the Center for Constitutional Rights is seeking disclosure of evidence of clandestine surveillance of attorney-client conversations between detainees and their counsel. The Obama Administration is once again protecting illegal conduct by the Bush Administration.

The government motion for an emergency stay reveals how Congress and the executive branch and the contractors they employ to spy on the American people have become on indistinguishable blob.

Remember the stated reason Karl Rove gave for firing a bunch of US Attorneys? He saw these US Attorney positions as a great stepping stone for rising political stars. Now Mary Beth Buchanan joins the list of USAs running.

Obama got the Not-Bush prize today.

Remember this stunt? It was just two weeks ago that Al Franken was reading the Fourth Amendment to David Kris.

Ut oh! Things really are bad when DOJ officials refuse to testify under oath.

If you missed the thoroughly depressing PATRIOT hearing today, this was one of two highlights.

The rest of the hearing featured Democrat after Democrat arguing that we need to develop lists of all the potential suspects out there buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide.

Remember how last week I used the hypothetical example of using Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to get records on people who had bought hydrogen peroxide and acetone?

I’m going to make a wildarsed guess and suggest that the Federal Government is doing a nationwide search to find out everyone who is buying large amounts of certain kinds of beauty products.

You can watch here.

Nice. Leahy started by referencing Obama’s statement to NCTC and references the Zazi and other arrests.

Leahy: We can’t go into what was said in a highly classified briefing. Need for prompt action and tools they need.

Scribe sent me this. It sort of makes you wonder who the NYPD is sharing this database with cell phone serial numbers with, doesn’t it?

The NYPD is amassing a database of cell phone users, instructing cops to log serial numbers from suspects’ phones in hopes of connecting them to past or future crimes.[snip]

A recent internal memo says that when cops make an arrest, they should remove the suspect’s cell phone battery