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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Specter Specters

Specter Specters

by Tim F|  July 13, 20068:14 pm| 27 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity

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As predicted the new NSA bill will grant retroactive amnesty in return for the president notifying congress about domestic spying if and when he kind of sort of feels like it. Kevin Drum explains:

So the bill loosens requirements for wiretaps, thus giving the president more authority than he already has, and in return requires nothing new in the way of judicial review. Those must have been some truly tortuous negotiations, all right.

See also Glenn Greenwald.

Congratulations Arlen Specter, you are now a verb.

***Update***

Some confusion exists about whether Specter’s bill still contains the retroactive amnesty provision. If Specter removed it I feel roughly the same relief that I would feel if Specter merely gave the president permission to beat kittens unconscious but not kill them.

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    MN Politics Guru

    July 13, 2006 at 8:39 pm

    No, it should be “Congratulations America, you are now a dictatorship.”

    No judicial review? Check. Congress granting amnesty for laws already broken? Check. Wny not go all the way and just pass an amendment that gets rid of the Judicial and Legislative branches of government? That will make things easier and cheaper.

  2. 2.

    Zifnab

    July 13, 2006 at 9:18 pm

    They’re wearing that rubber stamp down to the nub.

  3. 3.

    Ancient Purple

    July 13, 2006 at 9:42 pm

    Oh, thank goodness.

    Now Darrell and MacBuckets won’t have to buy rubber sheets because making the NSA wiretapping without oversight is going to save them from the big old Boogey Man so they won’t wet the bed every time the terror alert goes to orange.

  4. 4.

    Perry Como

    July 13, 2006 at 9:49 pm

    Now I’m confused. Why does the Specter bill retroactively legalize a perfectly legal act?

  5. 5.

    Steve

    July 13, 2006 at 10:43 pm

    Cause, you know, some partisan U.S. attorney might institute a frivolous prosecution of someone in the executive branch. Which happens all the time, apparently.

  6. 6.

    Sine.Qua.Non

    July 13, 2006 at 11:48 pm

    DAMN THEM TO A FIERY INFERNO. I am so sick of these asses.

    Sheesh Perry.

  7. 7.

    Zifnab

    July 13, 2006 at 11:50 pm

    It’s the criminalization of logic!

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    July 13, 2006 at 11:51 pm

    It’s the criminalization of politics! Look what they did to Ney and DeLay!

  9. 9.

    Sine.Qua.Non

    July 13, 2006 at 11:52 pm

    ARGH!!!!!!!!! Damn these bastards to a fiery inferno. I am sick to death of these guys.

  10. 10.

    Perry Como

    July 14, 2006 at 12:08 am

    Bush agrees to have domestic eavesdropping program reviewed:

    …such details could include politically explosive disclosures that the government has kept tabs on people it shouldn’t have been monitoring.

    Umm… duh!

  11. 11.

    Slide

    July 14, 2006 at 12:32 am

    ..such details could include politically explosive disclosures that the government has kept tabs on people it shouldn’t have been monitoring.

    I caught that too and made me go hmmmmmm….. Does everyone remember in the confirmation hearings of John Bolton the secret intercepts the administration refused to reveal? Why would Bolton be given intercepts of US citizens overseas conversations? Was it political? Who were the intercepts off? To refresh your memories here is a snippet from Larry Johnson:

    The revelation that the National Security Agency was allowed to conduct non-FISA intercepts of American citizens should bring last summer’s hearing on John Bolton’s nomination to the United Nations back into focus. As Legal times noted in September of this year, “During the confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, it came to light that the NSA had freely revealed intercepted conversations of U.S. citizens to Bolton while he served at the State Department. . . . More generally, Newsweek reports that from January 2004 to May 2005, the NSA supplied intercepts and names of 10,000 U.S. citizens to policy-makers at many departments, other U.S. intelligence services, and law enforcement agencies.”

    We still don’t know who he was looking at and what information was contained in those intercepts. More importantly, were they legally obtained? In light of the latest revelation, we have another possible explanation why the Bush Administration fought so strenuously to keep those intercepts secret and out of the hearing. Snooping without judicial review is wrong and must be punished.

    .

  12. 12.

    Perry Como

    July 14, 2006 at 1:34 am

    Who were the intercepts off?

    One was of Gov. Richardson (D – NM).

  13. 13.

    Eric

    July 14, 2006 at 6:17 am

    This comes from Yahoo News:

    By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 54 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON – Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their grip on Congress in November. With less than four months to the midterm elections, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule.

  14. 14.

    Eric

    July 14, 2006 at 6:18 am

    This comes from Yahoo News:

    By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 54 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON – Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their grip on Congress in November. With less than four months to the midterm elections, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060714/ap_on_go_co/republicans_ap_poll

  15. 15.

    Richard 23

    July 14, 2006 at 6:57 am

    Yay, Senator Spectre! Down with oversight! Up with the urinary executive!

  16. 16.

    Richard 23

    July 14, 2006 at 7:00 am

    Oops, must’ve been thinking about the evil organization SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). Geez, I don’t know how I keep getting Senator “magic bullet” mixed up with evil.

    And no, I’m not talking about Senator “asshat” Darrell!

  17. 17.

    Tulkinghorn

    July 14, 2006 at 8:01 am

    I remember Andrea Mitchell suggesting that because they were tapping Christiane Amanpour’s phone (to get her jihadist sources, natch) they had caught a few conversations between James Rubin and Bill Clinton.

    I always assumed this was the sort of thing they were trying to cover up, and maybe that is what could turn Specter to the administration’s side on suppressing the investigation.

    Whether it is true or not, it is fair game for the left to suggest it is the case, what with all the illegal confidentiality here. The right would not hesitate to trump such a conspiracy theory.

    Why is Dean not proclaiming that the real target of the NSA wiretapping was Bill Clinton and other Dem insiders? Let the WH prove it was not so.

  18. 18.

    Tulkinghorn

    July 14, 2006 at 9:12 am

    >

    Did everybody go the the beach today?

    Sounds like a good idea…

  19. 19.

    Mr Furious

    July 14, 2006 at 9:13 am

    One was of Gov. Richardson (D – NM).

    I remember that too.

    I remember Andrea Mitchell suggesting that because they were tapping Christiane Amanpour’s phone (to get her jihadist sources, natch) they had caught a few conversations between James Rubin and Bill Clinton.

    And that.

    This is fucking outrageous. These are clear indications of spying not on terrorists or terrorist connections, but real, live political rivals. Some of whom are in office.

    And those are just the one’s we found out about.

  20. 20.

    Lee

    July 14, 2006 at 9:55 am

    Can this even make it thru both houses before the break?

    I really really hope the democrats win one of the houses this november at least to give our government some balance.

  21. 21.

    jg

    July 14, 2006 at 11:26 am

    Darrell must be gathering talking points.

  22. 22.

    Pb

    July 14, 2006 at 1:09 pm

    Pardon the Plame link, but this rant cracked me up!

    Let’s try this a different way. Many people (family, friends, work colleagues etc.) know that I have a wife. Many have met her. Seen her. Spoken to her. You can find her name on our wedding registry. Or in any official filings from our marriage. But if her job was a secret then nobody would know what she did.

    Get it yet? It is a simple fucking concept. Once more, in short sentences so you won’t get overwhelmed by the many words that make up a full sentence.

    Her name – not a secret.
    The fact that Joe Wilson had a wife – not a secret.
    Her existence – not a secret.
    Her job – A FUCKING SECRET!!!!

    Maybe it’s the tone, I don’t know, it reminds me a bit of Bob the Angry Flower…

  23. 23.

    Tom in Texas

    July 14, 2006 at 2:00 pm

    Glenn’s second post today was much more fun. In it, he links to Marty Lederman’s analysis (which he administered after admitting to only taking 10 minutes to read the “difficult to follow, almost unreadable” bill).
    Seems to me like whether or not Specter gives Bush ex post facto immunity for FISA crimes is irrelevant. With this bill, Specter has gutted FISA and, on top, allowed Bush to completely ignore it at Bush’s sole discretion. Sheesh.

  24. 24.

    Tom in Texas

    July 14, 2006 at 2:05 pm

    Orin Kerr has also analyzed the bill and come to pretty much the same conclusion.

    The key language is the new Section 801 of FISA:

    Nothing in this Act [FISA] shall be construed to limit the constitutional authority of the President to collect intelligence with respect to foreign powers and agents of foreign powers.

    That strikes me as a pretty major change, given that the purpose of FISA in 1978 was to attempt to regulate that authority. The Specter bill then would rewrite the prohibitions of FISA to explicitly allow for this authority.

  25. 25.

    Sine.Qua.Non

    July 15, 2006 at 1:33 am

    Tim,
    That is one hell of analogy.

  26. 26.

    Jeffery Faulk

    July 16, 2006 at 10:47 pm

    Specter (noun) 2: something that haunts or perturbs the mind: PHANTASM (the specter of hunger)

Comments are closed.

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  1. BlogBites. like sound bites. but without the sound. says:
    July 14, 2006 at 11:38 am

    […] If Specter removed it I feel roughly the same relief that I would feel if Specter merely gave the president permission to beat kittens unconscious but not kill them. Balloon Juice   […]

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