The Libruls were right again
Excuse me for a minute while I laugh at all those righties who swore up and down that the domestic surveillance program was absolutely necessary, that it had to be kept separate from FISA, and could not be altered under any circumstances because it was an indispensable tool, used in the life and death struggle to protect us from the Islamo-facists!
"WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has agreed to let a secret but independent panel of federal judges oversee the government's controversial domestic spying program, the Justice Department said Wednesday.[..]
B-b-but, Bush said he didn't need no steenkin' court approval .. just a year ago he vigorously defended his spy program as essential to national security .. said what they were doing was entirely legal .. said it was impossible to monitor certain spy traffic under FISA.
He maintained it was within his authority to spy on us without a warrant .. even when he could spy first and get a warrant 72 hours later.
But now he's changed his mind. His Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told senators in a letter yesterday that "any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."
Well I'll be danged. Why the flip-flop? If the program complies with the law, as Gonzalez claims, why change it?
And why announce it now? They usually wait till Friday afternoon to release politically embarrassing news.
Could it have something to do with Gonzales' appearance today before the Senate Judiciary Committee .. his first since the committee came under control of those dreaded investigatin' Democrats?
Could this be an eleventh-hour ploy to avoid judicial and congressional scrutiny? Maybe by backing down they think they avoid an investigation .. avoid testing the legality of the program.
P-p-p-please don’t subpoena me!
Instead of having the power ripped out of his hands, Bush has “decided” to not reauthorize the program right now. Yeah right. Maybe he thinks this cancels the several planned hearings on the wiretaps. No hearings, no findings of illegality, and Bush keeps the authority to do this again in secret.
Yep, maybe Bush has replaced the program with something even more insidious and double-secret .. just up and created another hidden illegal program and shifted their illegal activity to that.
We'll have to pay careful attention the next few days .. wait for the hearing to ask some serious questions. Are there any other programs that have taken over any of the responsibilities of this one? Have any of the key people been moved? What happened to the equipment used to tap key data lines?
AND--we don't really know whether this new program complies with the letter of the law. From the Washington Post:
"In a background briefing with reporters, Justice officials declined to provide details about how the new program will work -- including whether the surveillance court has issued a blanket order covering all similar cases or whether it will issue individual orders on a case-by-case basis. Authorities also refused to say how many court orders are involved."
"In a background briefing with reporters, Justice officials declined to provide details about how the new program will work -- including whether the surveillance court has issued a blanket order covering all similar cases or whether it will issue individual orders on a case-by-case basis. Authorities also refused to say how many court orders are involved."
Never forget these immortal words: "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
Hmm .. I'll bet Bush wonders if he can pardon himself.....
