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enough Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:00 AM
Original message
NSA Bill would make it a crime to report President breaking the law
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002157186


Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration's eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in U.S. law.

snip>

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft of the legislation, which could be introduced as soon as next week.

The draft would add to the criminal penalties for anyone who "intentionally discloses information identifying or describing" the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted under a 1978 surveillance law.

Under the boosted penalties, those found guilty could face fines of up to $1 million, 15 years in jail or both.
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified.

"The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate.

snip>


For discussion of the issue see:
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/03/criminalizing-exposure-of-government.html
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Eric J in MN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:03 AM
Response to Original message
1. Please ask your Congressman and Senators to vote against the NSA bill
Contact info at www.vote-smart.org

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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:25 PM
Response to Reply #1
41. VOTERS in Maine: Don't RE-Elect Olympia Snowe this 2006!!!
She was one of the co-sponsors of the bill.
Anyone but this fascist!

FASCIST!!


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LostinVA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #41
79. I am honestly shocked by her involvement in this
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w4rma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:09 PM
Response to Reply #79
81. She's always been sneaky. (nt)
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LostinVA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:26 PM
Response to Reply #81
85. But she usually isn't totally psycho...
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w4rma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:49 PM
Response to Reply #85
88. Her #1 motiviation has always been loyalty to the Republican Party
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 04:50 PM by w4rma
She's easy to predict once you take this into account.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #79
93. I looked at her website. She doesn't seem like a repuke. see my letter.
Congresswoman Snow,

I am really confused. When I look at your site you seem like a caring human being who looks out for your constituents.

Then I find out you are co-author of a Bill that would make whistle blowing on the President illegal? It is the American people who are being criminally assaulted by the current NSA surveliance program, not the President.

He has FISA. All he has to do is give a judge good reason and has 72 hours and up to a year to do that. If he doesn't have a good enough reason to present to his secret court, then how can anyone say he has the right to spy on Americans?

No One is above the law. That's why this is America. We are a country based on rule of law, not some dictatorship where the rules apply as those in charge see fit.

How can you be party to this? Step away from the bad legislation. Withdraw your support. If you are the person you seem to be by your involvement with your constitutients, it should be an easy decision.


Concerned Citizen
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deb98126 Donating Member (13 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 09:59 PM
Response to Reply #93
136. You are so right, Tigress DEM
We are being assaulted by the NSA surveillance program and I have first hand knowledge. To read a true account of my surveillance and detainment by the FBI, go to:



So far, response has been 50% supportive and 50% of people think I'm nuts.
However, I'm not crazy. I have a degree from University of Washington. As an undergraduate I conducted research and some of my results were published in the Journal of Infection and Immunity <http://iai.asm.org/> the article title: Chlamydia pneomoniae induces..., volume 68, August 2000.

I'm trying to attract the attention of a human rights attorney and/or investigative journalists. So far two have contacted me and may get back to me. However, with all the human rights violations going on now, many of which are far worse than mine, everyone is busy!

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disndat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:17 PM
Response to Reply #41
140. I heard that Snowe
is not up for re-election. Which makes it even more confounding.
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mainegreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:45 AM
Response to Reply #41
151. Gee we'd love to toss her out
but for some reason everyone here thinks she's great. The tide is turning against her, but not quickly enough.
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readmoreoften Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #1
76. Tell them to vote against the bill while they can.
Soon it will be illegal for them to vote against bills like this.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:26 PM
Response to Reply #76
125. Candle Light Vigil open to all
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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:20 AM
Response to Original message
2. The press insists on using the WH label: "terrorist surveillance program"
:banghead:
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Stephanie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:22 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. rather than "illegal wiretapping" which is what it is
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Kierkegaard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #2
24. Well technically, that is correct.
It is a surveillance program run by terrorists.
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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:31 AM
Response to Reply #24
25. heh
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:08 PM
Response to Reply #24
91. ROFL
:banghead: IT WOULD EVEN MORE FUNNY IF IT WASN'T SO SCARILY TRUE.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:17 PM
Response to Reply #24
127. ROFC (Rolling On Floor Crying)
or something like that.
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WePurrsevere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:24 AM
Response to Original message
4. Yet another neo-CON ATTACK on our Constitution. Why do they HATE
America AND our Constitution? :grr:

Last time I checked... LAWS and ACTS do NOT trump the Constitution and the protections and freedoms it protects and guarantees... one would need to go through the whole process of amending the Constitution for this type of crap to be truly legal.
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formercia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Meanwhile,
people sit in jail.
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WePurrsevere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #5
18. True, This "bill" should NOT even be considered in the first place though.
Our representatives should, and I'm fairly sure most if not all do, know that this is blatantly unconstitutional and not just some "grey" area that they might squeak by the SCOTUS.

As far as I'm concerned knowingly passing this bill would make them accessories to BushCo's crimes and they should be called on it... loudly.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:20 PM
Response to Reply #18
98. It is illegal, and they know that it is illegal, but they think they will
be given a pass on it and a few years down the road they can rescind it with a mere "oops, my bad" like they did with the Japanese internment camps.

This is not, however, a short term abrogation of a particular minority's rights - this is an open ended assault on ALL Americans and the constitution which can last as long as the current crisis -- and who was it said last week the War on Terror could last 70 years?

This is just one of many systemic changes that are designed to change us from a republic to an empire. I wonder if the Romans knew that the Republic had died on the day that Caesar was appointed First Consul? Even though he never ruled as emperor, he must be remembered as the one who killed the republic. I fear that * will be similarly remembered.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #98
107.  *ush = Ceasar? No. More like Nero.
The chimperor is stark raving neked!
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WePurrsevere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:32 PM
Response to Reply #98
126. I agree & have been saying that this is an assault on ALL Americans &
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 07:34 PM by WePurrsevere
the Constitution. It's been one thing after another by BushCo and then it's played down like it's no big deal or something that can be fixed by passing a law.

We need to stop playing by the Republicans narrow rules. We need to stop saying it's only "illegal" when it's clearly illegal AND unconstitutional... and even treason.

I truly believe that there's still hope and that eventually we will persevere over this blight on our country. The way that I feel we stand a chance of turning this around is to stop letting these neo-con Republicans frame and control the issues; we need to keep hammering Americans with FACTS and TRUTH and we need to keep educating American voters as to what is real and what is the Republican Spin and illusion. We MUST stop being constantly reactive and on the defensive and be proactive and develop and institute a good strong offense. With that and determination even an "emperor" can be dethroned.



edited to run forgotten spell check.
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:32 AM
Response to Original message
6. the phrase we need to use = republican SECRET POLICE
sounds so nice, NSA, security, all that stuff.

the correct phrases are republican secret police, concentration camps, bush gestapo....

Msongs
www.msongs.com/democratsmugs.htm
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hobbit709 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:00 AM
Response to Reply #6
13. GESTAPO GESTAPO GESTAPO
It's the GESTAPO Bill. Everyone should call it thgat.
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Benhurst Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
7. Now, now. We can't have the president breaking the law.
Given the nature of the present sleaze-bag who stole his way into the White House, the only way to fix this is to change retroactively any laws he chooses to break.

God's in his heaven. Dubya's on his throne. All's right, extremely right, with the world.

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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:05 PM
Response to Reply #7
90. He's gonna party like it's 1984. nt
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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:42 AM
Response to Original message
8. the "legalize watergate" bill.
or the "nixon's mistake was that he didn't bug ENOUGH offices" bill.
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wordpix2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:44 AM
Response to Original message
9. Unconstitutional, according to First Amendment / Bill of Rights
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ReadTomPaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:33 PM
Response to Reply #9
46. That's never stopped Bush before.
To borrow a phrase; "How quaint". They will push hard for this, the knives are out.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #46
108. Sigh. So true. So true. nt
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:46 PM
Response to Reply #9
55. New phrase: "DEconstitutional" - the deconstruction of the U.S.C.
And this step is like legalizing the positioning of the wrecking ball next to the U.S. Constitution. It's only a matter of time after they pass this law that they will start swinging away.
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:47 AM
Response to Original message
10. Major breach of First Amendment Rights.
Of course, it's being very optimistic in assuming that reporters will actually get the balls to go against this Admnistration.
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C_U_L8R Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:51 AM
Response to Original message
11. Let them just try to enforce
this unconstitutional law .. the blowback will be enormous.

The sheer arrogancy of these American Nazis is disgusting.
We're in for a hell of a fight to remove these crooks from power.

Unbelievable.... but true.
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juliana24 Donating Member (209 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:55 PM
Response to Reply #11
144. You think this is bad? Its only going to get much, much worse.
Read your history books, before they burn them, that is :(
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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:56 AM
Response to Original message
12. Covering their lying behinds..they KNOW they've broken the law..
Isn't there a law stating one cannot enact a law to prevent prosecution of a crime, comitted with full knowledge the act was indeed a crime!

Bushco has been doing this all along. They knew since day one of his residency that their plans and policies would be illegal as can be. So they've stacked the Supreme Court in their favor, and enacted laws to prevent future prosecution.

I know this sort of action has a name ...can't think of what its called..
Bush wipes his ass with our Constitution every day.."now push the little handle that says 'flush' georgie."



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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:51 PM
Response to Reply #12
110. But he said on TV at least 30 times, if I do it, it's OK. I'm the pRes...
trust me.

Do you think the makers of MAD Magazine knew all those years ago how much a future pRes would look like and act like Alfred E Neuman?
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natrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:00 AM
Response to Original message
14. oh we are so fucked nt
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:18 PM
Response to Reply #14
35. No, THEY are the ones that are fucked. If they keep this up...
...they are in for quite a surprise. Quite a surprise.
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:01 AM
Response to Original message
15. Surveillance Nation- All Systems Go
If you read only one article in order to understand what is at your doorstep as Patriot Act Redux tightens its grip on your civil liberties, make it this one and hold on tight:

Police state USA and Big Brother's most cool tool
By Amy Worthington

Passing the fascist laws they never read

After passage of the Patriot Act of 2001, Rep. Paul told Insight Magazine that the 2,200-page bill was not made available to Congress to read before the vote.6 So the most corrupt Congress in history rubber stamped the most fascist legislation they had never read. Our constitution enumerates inalienable rights that are emphatically restated in the first 10 amendments commonly known as "The Bill of Rights." Under the Patriot Act, the "right" to free speech, peaceable assembly and security in one’s person, papers and effects have been relegated to "privileges" that government can take away at any time. Patriot Act authority has suspended the right to due process and a prompt and public trial; it even cancelled protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Agents serving the fascist state can freely wire-tap our phones, enter our homes/offices, search and seize without warrant and detain us indefinitely without charges—ostensibly to keep America safe.
As we go to press, the original Patriot Act, which had a sunset clause, is now in the final stages of being amended and passed by Congress as a permanent feature of America’s fascist landscape.



VeriChip Corporation recently announced that already 68 U.S. medical facilities, including 65 hospitals, have now agreed to implement its VariMed system for patient and staff identification and tracking. This includes both implantable and wearable ID chips that will tie the health records of patients into Big Brother’s electronic national database. In New Jersey, Hackensack University Medical Center and Trinitas Hospital, will be implanting patients in their emergency rooms. These crafty hucksters are targeting the most vulnerable people first-- the injured and the sick who are desperate for care, plus the homeless and mentally retarded who can’t defend themselves.



As injectable ID chips come on line, Homeland Security is paying numerous corporations to develop a national network of object-mounted wireless sensors that will be able to read implanted human chips. This network of sensors will eventually relay information on the whereabouts and activities of implantees to teams of surveillance specialists. Conceivably, every wall socket could become a reader for implanted chips.To quote University of Kansas professor Jerry Dobson, these devices will ultimately offer "a new form of human slavery based on location control. They pose the greatest threat to personal freedom ever faced in human history."



Passive ID subdermal chips are the "good news" compared to grotesque ACTIVE implant chips also developed by ADS. The implantable Digital Angel is a grotesque communication device that can continually relay information wirelessly to either ground stations or to satellite systems. Developed to be a true tracking chip like the bulky radio ankle bracelets locked onto prisoners, it is tiny enough to be implanted into human flesh. The Angel has a built-in GPS receiver and a wireless transceiver. In December, 2004, ADS signed an agreement with the satellite telecommunications company ORBCOMM. Such collusion will one day turn implanted citizens into walking radio beacons, trackable by satellite.

Digital Angel is the ultimate in totalitarian control, to date Big Fascist Brother’s most "cool tool."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12121.htm

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SammyWinstonJack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:50 PM
Response to Reply #15
96. !
:grr: :mad: :grr: Thanks, you asshole Values voters! Hope you're happy now. :argh: You think this won't apply too you also? How naive of you. :rofl:
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:58 PM
Response to Reply #96
111. They've signed their pledge to him already.
To attend the rallies they sign cards acknowledgin support of * which means equivilantly that * can do no wrong.

Those that do see may be in deeper doo doo than us obvious ones, maybe there will be a Schiendler or two if it gets to that point.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:21 PM
Response to Reply #111
128. Gee, why does all this sound so familiar....kind of like we were warned
about this in a book perhaps...
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Brothaman2k Donating Member (63 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:09 PM
Response to Reply #15
139. Has anyone ever read the book of Revelations?
This was covered pretty well in there. I'm telling you the "end" is near.
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meganmonkey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:02 AM
Response to Original message
16. Who cares?
The next season of American Idol has started. America has more important things to worry about ;(
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gemdem Donating Member (975 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:04 AM
Response to Original message
17. Outrageous
As an Ohioan, whatever shot (slim and getting slimmer) DeWine had of getting my vote just disappeared. With legislation such as this being proposed, how long before we're either fitted for brown shirts to follow "the der Fuehrer" or put aboard camp trains? I don't give a goddamn about possible "technical fixes." That legislation like this is even seeing the light of day is disturbing as all hell.

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natrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:42 AM
Response to Reply #17
26. like your voted counted anway not
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global1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:07 AM
Response to Original message
19. You Got To Be F'in Kidding Me.......
Break Laws - Change The Law - Make Legal - Make Those That Accuse The Criminals

What have we come to? What did we let happen to us?
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #19
50. This bill is the tipping point. If it passes, everything else is lost.
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 01:38 PM by file83
Because if they can pass this law - there is no stopping them. They will guard all the locks, they will hold all the keys.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:46 PM
Response to Reply #50
94. No offense, but aren't we ALWAYS at some "tipping point" with them?
I am so tired of having to fight tooth and nail to keep the tiny shreds of the Constitution we still hold in our hands.

Of course, the alternative isn't acceptable. We must fight. But, my God, what is wrong with these people?

I guess we'll all have to swim for Cuba.





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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:32 PM
Response to Reply #94
129. Sort of, but this Bill is the most insane of them all...
...I will explain my position.
They are trying pass a "Law" that makes it "illegal" to expose Bush's "illegal" programs. Come again? :freak:

Once they do this, think about how far they can go: Total Information Awareness. The All Seeing Eye on Americans. And if anybody ever even makes a "peep" about it - they go to jail for 15 years and/or get fined a million dollars.

We will officially have crossed the Rubicon if this law is enacted.

Some argue that we perhaps already have passed the point of no return with the Patriot Act - but we still had a chance to fight and expose the abuses. But with this law the entire country is effectively silenced on the subject. This can only mean one thing: There is much more illegal activity going on that we haven't even heard about yet that they are trying to keep secret. Otherwise, why pass a law preventing people from exposing something that is already exposed?

Regardless, we both agree: We are up shit creek without a paddle if this passes.
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lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:07 AM
Response to Original message
20. The Fourth Reich is alive and well.










" ...... then they came for the journalists. I was not a journalist, so I said nothing."



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havocmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:07 AM
Response to Original message
21. Junta disregards laws until they get caught , so make catching 'em illegal
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 11:11 AM by havocmom
Makes sense... to the criminals in government!
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:13 AM
Response to Original message
22. THE "INCOMPREHENSIBLE" ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917
THE "INCOMPREHENSIBLE" ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917

In its efforts to punish unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the media, the US Government is turning to the Espionage Act of 1917 (18 U.S.C. 793) which, among other things, prohibits "communication of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it."

The Espionage Act was invoked in the recent indictment of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who did not work for the government and did not hold security clearances, yet who are charged with mishandling classified information, including disclosures to the press. The Act may also be employed by the special prosecutor investigating the unauthorized disclosure of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, according to news reports. But using the Espionage Act to prosecute leaks to the press is an extraordinary step with potentially profound ramifications.

In fact, the precise meaning of the Act is uncertain and experts argue that it cannot mean what it says.
The Espionage Act is "in many respects incomprehensible," wrote Harold Edgar and Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. in a definitive study three decades ago ("The Espionage Statutes and Publication of Defense Information," Columbia Law Review, May 1973, vol. 73, pp. 929-1087).

As written, the espionage statutes are "so sweeping as to be absurd," wrote Edgar and Schmidt. "If these statutes mean what they seem to say and are constitutional, public speech in this country since World War II has been rife with criminality," they wrote.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2005/10/101905.html

The Espionage Act - June 15, 1917


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

Title I.


ESPIONAGE.

Section 1. That (a) whoever, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information to be obtained is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, goes upon, enters, flies over, or otherwise obtains information, concerning any vessel, aircraft, work of defense, navy yard, naval station, submarine base, coaling station, fort, battery, torpedo station, dockyard, canal, railroad, arsenal, camp, factory, mine, telegraph, telephone, wireless, or signal station, building, office, or other place connected with the national defense, owned or constructed, or in progress of construction by the United States or under the control or the United States, or of any of its officers or agents, or within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or any place in which any vessel, aircraft, arms, munitions, or other materials or instruments for use in time of war are being made, prepared, repaired. or stored, under any contract or agreement with the United States, or with any person on behalf of the United States, or otherwise on behalf of the United States, or any prohibited place within the meaning of section six of this title; or (b) whoever for the purpose aforesaid, and with like intent or reason to believe, copies, takes, makes, or obtains, or attempts, or induces or aids another to copy, take, make, or obtain, any sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writing or note of anything connected with the national defense; or © whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, receives or obtains or agrees or attempts or induces or aids another to receive or obtain from any other person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts or induces or aids another to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this title; or (d) whoever, lawfully or unlawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being intrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to
the national defense, willfully communicates or transmits or attempts to communicate or transmit the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or (e) whoever, being instrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, note, or information, relating to the national defense, through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be list, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both.

Section 2. (a) Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury or the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicated, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to, or aids, or induces another to, communicate, deliver or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly and document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than twenty years: Provided, That whoever shall violate the provisions of subsection (a) of this section in time of war shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years; and (b) whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, shall collect, record, publish or communicate, or attempt to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the armed forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval of military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification of any place, or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years.

Section 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies and whoever when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Civil_Liberties/Espionage_Act_1917.html
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Nostradammit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:29 PM
Response to Reply #22
66. Re: Section 3 -
When did Congress declare war?
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many a good man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #66
72. It was an Executive Order
Don't you know the NeoConstitution has always given this power to the Executive? We're supposed to just shut up and let the president conduct foreign policy and national security.

By "we," I mean you, me, and the United States Congress.

The same US Congress that is now considering a bill to make it illegal to talk about how the president is lying to us in the name of national security!
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Nostradammit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #72
78. We are NOT at war -
The Constitution says that ONLY CONGRESS can declare war.

And they have not done so, therefore -

We are not at war.


(I know, I know - they've trashed the Constitution, I just always remind people of this fact because it's useful in arguments with the deceived.)
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #78
87. Congress was banned haven't you heard
just wasn't done officially. Or maybe they banned themselves by their consistent complicity.

You're in a pre-9/11 frame of mind. All War-All the Time. Same as it ever was.

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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:51 PM
Response to Reply #22
97. Gag.
Still - what they are proposing is worse because it doesn't need to prove the person intended any harm or that any damage is done to the US.


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DarkTirade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
23. (&%#ing scary.
That's all I can say about that.
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NVMojo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:59 AM
Response to Original message
27. another outrageous Bush act!!!
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area51 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 12:10 PM
Response to Original message
28. So, let me get this straight...
It's not okay to tell us the illegal things GW Hoover is doing, but it's perfectly okay to expose Valerie Plame & all the people she's dealt with over the years as an undercover agent.... :eyes:


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lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:25 PM
Response to Reply #28
42. Bottom line ....



It's entirely up to the dictatorial BushCo regime to interpret what is right and wrong, good and bad, true and false, etc. What anyone else thinks is heretic and doesn't matter. Heretics will be dealt with swiftly and appropriately.



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rambler_american Donating Member (565 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 12:23 PM
Response to Original message
29. And here I was...
thinking Olympia Snowe was one of the "good Republicans." Joke's on me. Trick question. There is NO SUCH THING!
I am absolutely unable to comprehend how anyone could conceive such a law as this, much less support it. Everytime I think they have gotten as low as they can go they fire up a back hoe and go deeper. We're living in Bizarro World.

:yoiks:
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JackintheGreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 12:25 PM
Response to Original message
30. This just STINKS of fear
I've said it before. I'm sure I'll say it again. If "they" hate us for our freedom, just who the hell are "they"?
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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:00 PM
Response to Original message
31. They should call it
the "Deathblow to the Constitution" Bill.

Ain't it grand?

:sarcasm:
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Marr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
32. They're REALLY scared that people are going to know who they've spied on.
I mean- correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is a new move. In five years of lawlessness and flagrant violations from the Plame case to the media pay-offs and all the rest-, they've never attempted to make one of their crimes legal after the fact, and make reporting it illegal.

This one is particularly bad. They *really* want to keep this secret, and they *really* want to keep doing it.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #32
34. This bill begs the question....just how much SPYING is really going on?
If they are passing a bill concerning this matter, they must have a WHOLE LOT MORE TO HIDE.
Why aren't we passing a bill that makes it ILLEGAL for BUSH to keep illegal spying a secret?!? There's an idea.:think:
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ReadTomPaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #34
45. The way this form of "tapping" works, they monitor pretty much everyone.
Everyone from the Senate to the military, to you and me. It all goes into a data warehouse. Information that falls into predefined patterns are stored, organized and brought to the attention of the appropriate personnel, which is the point that actual humans enter the equation. They can then pull up the records later, as required, for whatever reason they need. Data that falls outside these patterns gets flushed from whatever caching mechanism they are using, although for some lucky people I'm sure every word has been faithfully preserved. This is why Bush has no use for FISA. FISA requires a target and a reason.

I find it fitting that Halliburton is listed as HAL on the NYSE.

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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:27 PM
Response to Reply #45
65. A friend of mine used to work for Qwest, the phone company in
Phoenix, Arizona. He had graduated from DeVry as some sort of communications technician. He told me that after a few weeks of working there, his supervisor took him down into the central tunnels where all the phone lines from that section of the city came together. It was an orientation and he was being shown what bundles of lines were what, where they went, etc...

What he noticed, but what the supervisor hadn't mentioned outright, was that there was a huge bundle of lines coming out of the main "switch" (really all computerized now) that went off into a pipe into the wall (underground). He asked what those lines were for and where they went. He said that when the supervisor answered, it was with a cautioned tone (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Well, the only thing you need to know about those is that they are government related, know what I mean? Now over here..." and he quickly moved on to other areas.

The thing that perplexed my friend was that the "orientation" at that stage was very thurough. The supervisor wasn't glazing over any details about the "regular" equipment.

That's what he told me back in 1999. He left Qwest about a year later to go work for some small communications company.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:13 PM
Response to Original message
33. Sig Heil Mein Führer! You can do no wrong!
Where do we order our brownshirts from?
:sarcasm:
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NJCher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:55 PM
Response to Reply #33
58. Halliburton?
Just a guess.




Cher
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earth mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
36. This is getting more terrifying by the minute.
:scared:

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Bob K Donating Member (41 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:26 PM
Response to Reply #36
43. The descent into darkness.......
Honey! Do you know where my Jackboots are? I think it's time I put some polish on them.:evilgrin:
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earth mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 11:01 AM
Response to Reply #43
154. There is darkness...
but there is also the light of the many people who care what happens to this country.
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:53 PM
Response to Reply #36
133. Relax. When the time comes to act, we will all instinctively know
what to do, where, and when.

Limits will be reached. The people will do what their hearts tell them to do.
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earth mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #133
153. Thanks for the positive words.
It's getting close to that time, don't you think?

Though I am afraid, at the same time I'm ready to fight and my fingers are crossed that Impeachment is gaining more and more momentum... :bounce:
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 11:47 AM
Response to Reply #153
155. I think when Bush attacks Iran he will find that he has gone
one step too far...........

I say "when" because, well, I didn't just fall off some turnip truck, lol!
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juliana24 Donating Member (209 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:51 PM
Response to Reply #36
143. Thats what they want you to feel. Fear and more fear.
To hell with that !!!
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earth mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #143
152. I hear you-Thanks for the pep talk!
:hi:
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ReadTomPaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:22 PM
Response to Original message
37. Sounds like it's time for Sybil Edmunds to come forward with Dem sponsors.
... and tell everything she knows to the entire world. All she needs is some protection.

Any Democratic Senators or Governors care to step up?
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Tierra_y_Libertad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:22 PM
Response to Original message
38. But..but..it's for our protection from tyranny.
The irony is overwhelming.
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:43 PM
Response to Reply #38
54. Note well the probable election year set-up.
Vote against this bill and the GOPhers will say "The Congress/People are against penalties for Libby/Rove/Hadley/WHIG's outing of Valerie Plame." No matter how chilling this proposal is, the Reich can use it as yet another propaganda tool for the abolition of civil liberties and increase of coercion over those seeking a free and open government.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:52 PM
Response to Reply #54
56. Not to mention - they will be protecting their most valuable...
...electioneering tool - Wire Tapping their political opponents.
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Blutodog Donating Member (291 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:33 PM
Response to Reply #56
102. Exactly right!
Not content to rig the voting these bastards also need to be able to tap their political enemies phones, read their mail and e-mail and do it to whomever whenever they see fit.
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Tierra_y_Libertad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:55 PM
Response to Reply #54
57. Yes. And, the rollover wing of the Dems will vote for it.
Terrified of being thought "soft on terror". Even more irony.
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:39 PM
Response to Reply #57
69. Yep. Let's never underestimate the duplicity, hypocrisy, and cynicism ...
... of the corporatist tools thinly-disguised as 'representatives.'
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Blutodog Donating Member (291 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:34 PM
Response to Reply #57
104. Ur right!
These stupid bastards are the one's at the top of the friggin enemies list but like the cowardly gutless bastards they are ur right they'll vote for it just like they voted for the Patriot Act.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:18 PM
Response to Reply #57
120. EXisting laws already make their acts illegal because they...
have signed agreements to get clearance on top secret information.

What would be great is if DEMs call on this law to be reworded to actually deal with those issues while maintaining valid whistleblower status to those trying to protect American rights.

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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:59 PM
Response to Reply #38
112. Touche!
good point
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rg302200 Donating Member (495 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
39. I sent this to all the major media outlets
I wonder if anyone will even take the time to report it :(
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:20 PM
Response to Reply #39
122. Good Job 00rg302200 !!
If enough people yell, they might.

Air America will if they are notified.
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Generic Other Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
40. Eavesdrop this MOFOs: I confess I am guilty of thoughtcrime
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leftofthedial Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
44. Heil Bushler!
this country is truly and completely fucked.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:35 PM
Response to Original message
47. Tell the good Senator from Main what is on your mind...
Senator
Olympia Snowe (R)

Senate Office Contact Info:
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224-5344

She co-sponsored this fascist bill. She likes the idea of illegal spying on Americans.
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Up2Late Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:36 PM
Response to Original message
48. O.K., Maybe it's time to start talking about Impeachment of Congressmen!
Is that an option?

Remember, Impeachment is only the formal bringing of Charges before the house of Representatives. I'm sure some smart Lawyers out there can figure out a few charges for these ReThuglicans.

Start with Conspiracy.

Then maybe Treason?
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:40 PM
Response to Reply #48
53. Sign me up!
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lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:36 PM
Response to Original message
49. Concerned voters of these states need to remember these names......
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 02:01 PM by lpbk2713


DeWine, R-Ohio, is co-sponsoring the bill with Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.


Remember who wants to deprive us of our right to know.




Ed. to add: Doesn't this contradict one of the RWers favorite lines of late ....

"What have you got to hide?"





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ReadTomPaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:38 PM
Response to Reply #49
51. There's Ohio again.
The GOP is mighty busy in that state.
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #51
52. Curious that OHIO would want to protect criminal government activities...
...ain't it?
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:21 PM
Response to Reply #52
123. Since they've been doing it so well for so long, yes.
But it seems they have pride in their corruption and constantly seek to find new ways to improve on the process.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:13 PM
Response to Reply #49
118. "What have you got to hide?" I got a cover up for that, ya know.
Depends on the rest of the conversation how that's meant, and who is listening.
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proud patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
59. I will Not comply
nope
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ReadTomPaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:47 PM
Response to Reply #59
70. This is the only way the reign of madness will end.
It won't stop or even slow down until the line is drawn in the sand. It starts with those four simple words.
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Jack Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:34 PM
Response to Reply #59
103. !!
I'm right there with you, PP.

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spanone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
60. As a law-abiding citizen, that is a law I would truly be proud to break.
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Laelth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
61. This ticks me off.
Yet another step toward dictatorship ... criminalize the free press. Rape the 1st Amendment.

Please, somebody, make these people GO!

:mad:

-Laelth
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sakabatou Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:21 PM
Response to Original message
62. What. The. Fuck?!
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Beelzebud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:21 PM
Response to Original message
63. Welcome to your new Fascist Dictotorship.
Was nice knowing you Bill of Rights, and Constitution. Mabye we can read you both in the history books. Hopefully they won't be purged from our memeories.
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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
64. Brilliant!
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cassiepriam Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:31 PM
Response to Original message
67. The dictatorship is coming along quite nicely :((
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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:34 PM
Response to Original message
68. WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO AMERICA?
ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

It in no way applies to reporters — in any way, shape or form," said Mike Dawson, a senior policy adviser to DeWine, responding to an inquiry Friday afternoon. "If a technical fix is necessary, it will be made."



So how are the reporters supposed to find out about the crimes?
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electron_blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
71. Well, it sure ain't secret if they go blabbing about it...
sarcasm

Good grief.
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Festivito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
73. Hmmm. Impeachment would be difficult.
Can't talk about what was done, nor have a newspaper print the proceedings.
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Independent_Liberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:25 PM
Response to Original message
74. Don't worry about this guys. This is so arrogant...
...it will just be the beginning of their destruction.
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Emit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #74
75. But
I've heard that about a lot of things they've managed to get by on us. We say, "It's so arrogant, surely the public, or surely the reps in Congress, won't allow this!" And then, boom. It's done. And we are struck, once again, by their hubris and the complacency of our elected officials who are complicit in the actions of Bush & Co.

But, I hope that you are correct.
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SofaKingLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:24 PM
Response to Reply #74
83. I can't remember how many times I've said that
about something these neocon fucks have done. Yet they continue to get away with shit like this.

:eyes:
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:06 PM
Response to Reply #83
115. Something being arrogant, insane, criminal or all the above is no
good reason for THIS administration not to have it george's way.


Busher King = Have it my way or off with their heads.

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long_green Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:29 PM
Response to Reply #74
86. I remember how confident I was that Abu Ghraib was the death
knell of the Bush cabal. I'm not popping the champagne until the jury comes back in W's trial in The Hague.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:31 PM
Response to Reply #74
100. If this sort of shit was going to bring them down
IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE. NOT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stand and Fight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 03:31 PM
Response to Reply #74
157. Nonsense...
How many times have I read those words in the last five years? Hell, how many times have I spoken them? Don't be delusional. Things guys know what some here refuse to admit -- the Bush regime is not affected by the rule of law or the discontent of some of the people. They rule and define reality. I fear there is only one way to remove them, and I dare not speak it.
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Jack Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:46 PM
Response to Original message
77. THE PRESIDENT IS BREAKING THE LAW
. . . and should be impeached and removed from office.

Can you say "civil disobedience"? I knew you could. They try to make it so easy.

Hey, Mike, be sure you spell my name right.
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Hubert Flottz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
80. That's CRIMINAL!
Dreamed up by CRIMINALS!
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gordianot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:18 PM
Response to Original message
82. Just thought you would like to know.
I opened three topics on DU no activity. Someone is watching this one real close. I pinged then twice which never happens. Just thought I would report it here on DU I intend to also contact several watch groups I know where they are. Someone must want to see the usual inane shit I post on DU.


On edit there were four attempts I have never seen that happen before.
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Independent_Liberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:26 PM
Response to Original message
84. Something popped into my head just now.
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 04:28 PM by Independent_Liberal
They know we're on to them. They're running scared. They're trying to do everything they can at the last minute to save their asses. It won't work. It's coming to a head. The wheels are coming off. Things are not what they seem. Do not fear. Tell yourself, "No, you won't pass. I won't let you do this to me." Never surrender.

Sorry if I sound so positive when all of you are so upset right now, but it all makes sense to me now.

Just remember, never surrender to tyranny.

Peace guys.

:)
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DaytonOHDem Donating Member (42 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 07:09 PM
Response to Reply #84
159. I agree with you. I have had a feeling for a few weeks now that this
summer is going to be a very important one. I think things are going to get interesting and I think it is going to be good for us and good for the country.
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Lucky Luciano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 04:57 PM
Response to Original message
89. The second amendment is sounding more and more important
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 04:58 PM by Lucky Luciano
to me...and I have never shot, much less, owned a gun. Might be time to learn a little self-defense from fascism.
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muntrv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:14 PM
Response to Original message
92. Why do Republicans
tout their record of fighting communism? Because they believe in and practice naziism.
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Nothing Without Hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 05:48 PM
Response to Original message
95. K & R - extremely important. Media blast and Congress blast on this
blatant outrage. This CANNOT become law. All who are behind it must be put out of office and held accountable.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:27 PM
Response to Original message
99. Letter to MN Senator Mark Dayton
Senator Dayton,

Why is it when the Republicans can't be right, they change the rules?

Olympia Snow and a couple of other Senators have a draft of a bill that is talking about making it ILLEGAL to speak up about the President breaking the law by going against FISA specifically - it's supposed to justify what he's doing with this NSA surveilance of Americans.

So if the Pres breaks a law he just writes a new one that says it's ok for him - even if Nixon got impeached for even saying that. (? !)

I thought only kings had that authority. Am I missing something here? Is this no longer America? Are we in Bushland where we go by the Mad Hatter and the pshyco Queen of Hearts' book of rules?

What has happened to the Constitution and Bill of Rights?

Thanks for listening. See what you can do.

Mamie
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Jack Rabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:32 PM
Response to Reply #99
101. Nixon was not impeached for saying that
He was impeached (more accurately, about to be impeached) for doing it.

It was only later, in an interview with David Frost, that he said "If the President does it, it isn't illegal."
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:10 PM
Response to Reply #101
117. My bad.
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
105. Letter to Senator Norm Coleman MN
I find that if I give him credit for anything he has tried to do out of lock step with the party, that my letters actually get a better response.




Senator Coleman,

I have noticed that you have broken away from the strict adherance to party line on occassion when it really is obvious that a threat to the Constitution and our rights as American's are concerned, so I hope you can help on this.

Senator Olympia Snow and some others are trying to illegalize free speech in regards to any illegal or potentially illegal activities the President may be engaging in with this NSA surveilance program that is targeting Americans without the involvement of FISA.

If the President has a valid reason to suspect a citizen's involvement with terrorist activities and needs to check something out, FISA is available and has shown a willingness to go along with minimal fuss so that our national security is always tantamount. If even this tiny, fragile nod to our Bill of Rights does not exist, then is this truly America?

It is the job of WE the People to question our leaders and have our questions answered with real information or decisive action to protect US from such violations of American Freedoms. How can we do our job with our hands tied behind our backs and gags in our mouths?

Please speak up on this issue and represent your Constituents Rights to Free Speech. It is incredibly unConstitutional to use the Senate to change the rules mid-game to conceal crimes committed in office.


A concerned citizen,
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:46 PM
Response to Reply #105
106. oops - should have said "alleged crimes committed in office"
Well, guys, been nice knowing you. If the law passes, I'll be in stripes, I guess. Or is that only for men? It looked like Martha had on prison grey or somethint like that.


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LuckyLib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:03 PM
Response to Reply #106
114. That's OK, Tigress DEM, you'll be in good company. You
should see the nasty letters I send Coleman! I tell him I can't believe that he can support the regime of BushCo!
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:09 PM
Response to Reply #114
116. Thanks, this was my "nicest" one so far.
I did try to warn him off going up against Galloway, though.


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Neil Lisst Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 06:50 PM
Response to Original message
109. Bush has spoken of "fifth columners"
Bush and his cohorts fully intend to suppress anyone speaking out against Bush, and using any guise of government to do so. Bush is becoming emboldened, because he realizes that he's president and no one can really stop him from doing whatever he wants.

Well, they could, not with Republicans controlling congress and the courts.
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berni_mccoy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
113. HOLY F*#*@)! S#(!
x( :-( :( :mad: :puke: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :argh: :freak: :hurts: :wow: :grr: :nuke: :scared: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :shrug: :tinfoilhat: :banghead: :hide: :yoiks: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox:
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Mrspeeker Donating Member (671 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:16 PM
Response to Original message
119. Its the new Democracy (aka Despotism)
Along with rewriting every law the definition of words like freedom, liberty and democracy are being rewritten to differ from that of there true meanings.

Democracy is now defined as despotism was previously defined!
Freedom is now defined as oppression was previously defined!
Liberty is defined as subjugation was previously defined!

Even with the changes there is always a bright side. lets look at a past dictator to see where the road of despotism leads.


*pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945)led Italy from 1922 to 1943. He created a fascist state through the use of state terror and propaganda. Using his charisma, total control of the media and intimidation of political rivals, he disassembled the existing democratic government system.*

Well I think ive seen this before somewhere, if you change the dates and the country and replace Mussolinin with GW BUSH its actually worse than Mussolinin, if that is possible.

I'm just going to target the end of a dictators power.

*pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussolini
On April 27, 1945, in the afternoon, near the village of Dongo (Lake of Como), just before the Allied armies reached Milan, as they headed for Chiavenna to board a plane to escape to Switzerland, Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci were caught by Italian communist partisans.

The day after, April 28, they were both executed along with their sixteen-man train, mostly ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The execution took place in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra, and was conducted by "Colonnello Valerio" (Walter Audisio), the partisan commander entrusted by the CLN (National Liberation Committee) with the execution of the death sentence issued against Mussolini. The next day the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were hung upside down in Piazzale Loreto (Milan), along with those of other fascists, to show the population that the dictator was dead. This was both to discourage any fascists to continue the fight and an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities.*

Sounds about right, guess people don't take to kindly to being mislead!




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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:19 PM
Response to Original message
121. Gosh aren't we supposed to have a FREE PRESS?!
*sigh*
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Tigress DEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #121
124. They thought that meant it was FReE to do TheIR bidding. nt
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Clara T Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:33 PM
Response to Original message
130. Big Brother Is Listening
Big Brother Is Listening

The NSA has the ability to eavesdrop on your communications, landlines, cell phones, e-mails, BlackBerry messages, Internet searches, and more?with ease. What happens when the technology of espionage outstrips the law?s ability to protect ordinary citizens from it?

By James Bamford

03/12/06 "The Atlantic" -- -- On the first Saturday in April of 2002, the temperature in Washington, D.C., had taken a dive. Tourists were bundled up against the cold, and the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin were fast losing their blossoms to the biting winds. But a few miles to the south, in the Dowden Terrace neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, the chilly weather was not deterring Royce C. Lamberth, a bald and burly Texan, from mowing his lawn. He stopped only when four cars filled with FBI agents suddenly pulled up in front of his house. The agents were there not to arrest him but to request an emergency court hearing to obtain seven top-secret warrants to eavesdrop on Americans.

As the presiding justice of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, Lamberth had become accustomed to holding the secret hearings in his living room. ?My wife, Janis ? has to go upstairs because she doesn?t have a top-secret clearance,? he noted in a speech to a group of Texas lawyers. ?My beloved cocker spaniel, Taffy, however, remains at my side on the assumption that the surveillance targets cannot make her talk. The FBI knows Taffy well. They frequently play with her while I read some of those voluminous tomes at home.? FBI agents will even knock on the judge?s door in the middle of the night. ?On the night of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, I started the first emergency hearings in my living room at 3:00 a.m.,? recalled Lamberth. ?From the outset, the FBI suspected bin Laden, and the surveillances I approved that night and in the ensuing days and weeks all ended up being critical evidence at the trial in New York.

?The FISA court is probably the least-known court in Washington,? added Lamberth, who stepped down from it in 2002, at the end of his seven-year term, ?but it has become one of the most important.? Conceived in the aftermath of Watergate, the FISA court traces its origins to the mid-1970s, when the Senate?s Church Committee investigated the intelligence community and the Nixon White House. The panel, chaired by Idaho Democrat Frank Church, exposed a long pattern of abuse, and its work led to bipartisan legislation aimed at preventing a president from unilaterally directing the National Security Agency or the FBI to spy on American citizens. This legislation, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, established the FISA court?made up of eleven judges handpicked by the chief justice of the United States?as a secret part of the federal judiciary. The court?s job is to decide whether to grant warrants requested by the NSA or the FBI to monitor communications of American citizens and legal residents. The law allows the government up to three days after it starts eavesdropping to ask for a warrant; every violation of FISA carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Between May 18, 1979, when the court opened for business, until the end of 2004, it granted 18,742 NSA and FBI applications; it turned down only four outright.

Such facts worry Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who worked for the NSA as an intern while in law school in the 1980s. The FISA ?courtroom,? hidden away on the top floor of the Justice Department building (because even its location is supposed to be secret), is actually a heavily protected, windowless, bug-proof installation known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF. ?When I first went into the FISA court as a lowly intern at the NSA, frankly, it started a lifetime of opposition for me to that court,? Turley recently told a group of House Democrats looking into the NSA?s domestic spying. ?I was shocked with what I saw. I was convinced that the judge in that SCIF would have signed anything that we put in front of him. And I wasn?t entirely sure that he had actually read what we put in front of him. But I remember going back to my supervisor at NSA and saying, ?That place scares the daylights out of me.??

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12307.htm
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file83 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
131. If the U.S. Constitution were a ship....this Bill would be the Ice Berg
that rips a hole in it from bow to stern. The icy water flooding in and sinking the ship would be BushCo's NSA Wire Tapping program on the GOP's political opponents.

There are no life rafts.
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UrbScotty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:44 PM
Response to Original message
132. UN-FUCKING-CONSTITUTIONAL!!!!
When will some people learn?

It's called a COSTITUTION. Don't like it? GET THE FUCK OUT OF AMERICA!!!
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rucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 05:24 AM
Response to Reply #132
148. You're not allowed to call it that anymore.
there will not be enough prisons or guards to contain our outrage over this.
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madmark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
134. its sounds like the law would violate the first amedment and be unconst.
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Bushladen Donating Member (24 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:04 PM
Response to Reply #134
138. I predict
That Bushco will nuke Los Angeles California and blame Iran so that when it comes to Nukuliar war shit head Bush will be able to take more rights away because that has never happened on US soil ever. I truly believe Bushco pulled the WTC buildings too. If they are so concerned with National Security they should have listened to the 52 prior warnings they got before 9/11. I would love to see Bush get caught by the terrorist who behead people. To see the village idiot in an orange jumpsuit with 4 terrorist behind him with swords and guns and talking about Alla and then grab his head and......He would be crying like a baby.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 09:42 PM
Response to Original message
135. Totalitarianism...
pure and simple.

:scared:
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Brothaman2k Donating Member (63 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:02 PM
Response to Original message
137. Letter to my Senator
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 10:04 PM by Brothaman2k
Senator Shelby,

Don't take this the wrong way, but normally I wouldn't even bother writing a letter to a republican as they're just folks I don't see eye to eye with. However, the recent "republican revolt" over the DPW, Ports issue has given me some hope that there are a few that can listen to reason. I cerainly hope you're one of them.

I've recently found out that there is a measure being proposed in congress that would make it illegal for anyone (especially members of the media) to report about surveillance being perpetrated on US citizens by this government. It's obvious what's going on. The Bush administration, under heavy scrutiny over NSA wiretapping, which many consider to be illegal/a violation of the president's constitutional authority, is trying to greenlight their actions by making it illegal for anyone to make their actions public.

I suppose I'm not surprised by this bold faced and obvious attempt to thwart the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution. After all, ever since the grand excuse of 9/11 this administration has shown nothing but contempt for the parts of the constitution that insure personal freedoms, but have bastardized and exploited the vague parts that he seems to think gives him the authority to set himself up as some despot who can rule from the oval office without having to be accountable to the citizens of this country. However, this spying measure is nothing more than an attempt to legitimize an illegal action and a blatant, McCarthyesque tactic to demonize those who'd dare standing in the way of National Security* by having the unmidigated gall to quesiton this administration on their tactics or their intent.

Simply reporting on spying taking place does not give away ANY tactical information that could compromise national security. Every criminal has always known that there was a possibility that their actions could be monitored by law enforcement. There is no revelation that compromises anyone's safety. The question is whether the Bush Administration can do it with what amounts to ZERO oversight. That's the question they don't want brought out by reporting on NSA spying so that is why they are trying to unlawfully and immorally trying to surpress it now.

As a citizen of Alabama I feel compelled to write you this letter and let my vehement objection to this proposed law be known. I will not let the rotten stench of the "You're not patriotic if you question the president's actions" red herring intimidate and detur me from what I know is correct. This non reporting bill is a violation of the 1st Amendment and is as dangerous a step towards the slippery slope of violating the very spirit of our constitution as I've ever heard of. If it comes up for a vote I urge you to vote against it.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,
Nunaya:)

*National Security- Anything that Bush sees fit to do in the empty, vacuous name of protecting this country, that he'll never be able to prove has made anyone safer or countered a terrorist act, but puts our fundemental freedoms as Americans in danger.


Oh, I did put my name, not Nunaya. Just didn't want to leave it for you weirdos...lol
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nolabels Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:32 PM
Response to Original message
141. What next? making it a crime to read the Constitution perhaps
Like the Twilight Zone had nothing on todays modern world
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savemefromdumbya Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:42 PM
Response to Original message
142. There's no stopping the Reich is there?
Edited on Sun Mar-12-06 10:43 PM by savemefromdumbya
they goose-step onwards regardless!
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McCamy Taylor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 10:59 PM
Response to Original message
145. Yet another reason Republican voters will stay away from the polls.
Have Congressional GOPers lost their collective minds? I feel a new cartoon coming on for Grand Theft Election Ohio.
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Leopolds Ghost Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-12-06 11:35 PM
Response to Original message
146. Isn't this an Ex Post Facto Law???
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 12:07 AM
Response to Original message
147. Wonder how this ties in with the 2004 stolen election?
You just know that if they can tap into every electronic conversation, datastreams can't be too hard to manipulate.

Criminals.
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salin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 07:16 AM
Response to Original message
149. hard to claim this is about terrorism when this language is included
terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted...

The only reason the public was somewhat assuaged after the NSA revelations - was the repeated words by bushco and his faithful in the media that the surveilling was ONLY tied to al qeada (rarely used term terrorism more broadly - almost always specific to 'al qeada') - so why is this caveat of "any other eavesdropping program" included? National Security? Or they don't like the public knowing stories about their spying on catholic school kids, quaker meetings and other revelations that have already come out.
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Pryderi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:26 AM
Response to Original message
150. I guess Diebold has already chosen the next president...
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Debau2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
156. It is amazing to me
that they don't see long term. One day it will NOT be a Republican in the WH, yet this will still be the law! What will they scream then?
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Stand and Fight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #156
158. Maybe they do see long term...
Maybe it is you who have failed to see the long term. Think about it. Perhaps they do not plan, or are fairly confident, that there will always be a Republican in the White House. Why else would they be going along so wrecklessly?
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Debau2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #158
161. Good point!
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usregimechange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 07:11 PM
Response to Original message
160. The enabling act?
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McCamy Taylor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:35 PM
Response to Original message
162. Cartoon: "Pee-Yew Nuts" or "Barry Goldwater Turns in His Grave"
As promised, a cartoon in honor of the hilarious antics of Senatorial Republicans who seem to have forgotten that midterm elections are just around the corner and that they have a conservative base to court.

I wonder if Karl Rove has enough electronic vote fraud up his sleeve to make up for the conservative GOP voters who are going to be staying home IN DROVES over anti-conservative crap like this.

http://www.grandtheftelectionohio.com/060313.htm
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