This is teh awesome:
A day after warning that potentially critical terrorism intelligence was being lost because Congress had not finished work on a controversial espionage law, the U.S. attorney general and the national intelligence director said Saturday that the government was receiving the information — at least temporarily.
Shorter Bush Administration: We are so full of shit that even when we are full of shit, we are full of shit.
TenguPhule
And 19% of America approves being fed that shit with happy grins.
Darwin just isn’t working fast enough.
Dug Jay
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
If you had bothered to carefully read the entire story, you would have learned that, not only was the headline grossly in error and wrong, but your conclusion was a great big fat lie.
The AG and the DNI put out a press release on Saturday explaining that. The press release notes that, “Unfortunately, the delay resulting from this discussion impaired our ability to cover foreign intelligence targets, which resulted in missed intelligence information.”[emphasis added]
The administration is not backtracking. It warned on Friday of what could have been an even worse degrading of our intelligence collection capacity which, at least for now, turns out not to be as dire because the telecoms have decided to continue cooperating. But the administration maintains that intelligence has been lost already because of the House’s failure to pass (or, indeed, even permit a vote) on the Senate bill; it admonishes that the industry could well change its mind; and it adds that — even if the industry keeps cooperating — the loss of the PAA authorities going forward will continue to degrade our intelligence-gathering capacity.
ThymeZone
Oh noes! Is that a nuclear weapon over there by Safeway!
OH DEAR GOD THE CHILDR #&^#!(*&^ ….
{ signal lost }
slippytoad
I am guessing that what’s happening is that the Bush Administration has simply gone back to breaking the law like they were BEFORE 9/11, even.
TenguPhule
Oh Noes! Bush couldn’ tap Democratic Headquarters over the weekend! Boohoo, the Republicans couldn’t spy on their hooker’s Blackberry!
Because FISA is still there and anything Bush couldn’t get past a FISA court is pretty much guaranteed to be illegal.
Martin
And you believe them? These are people that think that “don’t torture”, “don’t have a policy of torture”, and “we tortured 3 people” are logically equivalent statements.
Intelligence surely has been lost. The phone call from my dad vacationing in Europe yesterday couldn’t be recorded. “Intelligence” has been lost, because we *might* have been talking about strapping bombs to cats in some insidious plot against the US, but now they don’t really know, do they? See how easy it is to unpack ‘administration’ statements.
Seriously, if they hadn’t spend the last 7 years lying to us on an almost daily basis, I’d be (stupidly) inclined to take them at their word. Now I just see administration statements as an advanced version of the kind of word-play jokes that my 4th grader son plays with me.
ThymeZone
Somehow the use of the word “intelligence” in connection with anything this administration does just strikes me as a jarring oxymoron.
S.W. Anderson
It’s well established that the system is operating and will operate as it has operated under the six-month extension until at least July.
Meanwhile, as Dug Jay noisily lapses into (emphasis added) sky-is-falling mode, he’s evidently too busy to consider that Bush could’ve had his Paranoias-R-Us bill signed, sealed and delivered by now except,
OUR CRACKPOT IN CHIEF PUTS TELECOMS’ PROFIT PROFILE AHEAD OF WHAT HE CLAIMS IS VITAL TO NATIONAL SECURITY.
Now do you understand?
flavortext
I still don’t understand why the Bush Administration wants the PAA in place. Just what kind of nonsense are they up to if their surveillance activities, which Bush claims is vital to protecting Americans, would not pass as legitimate in a FISA court? How is that even defensible?
S.W. Anderson
flavortext, consider this.
If Bush & Co. looks on Democrats as America’s retreat-and-defeat fifth columnists, it follows their communications must be monitored very carefully — especially the ones running for president and for Congress.
Of course, those recalcitrant FISA judges wouldn’t understand, so they must be bypassed.
rawshark
and yet..
would be totally inapproriate in Micheal D’s earlier post.
But they’re both example’s of ‘something bad could happen if we don’t do something now’ justifications. Using emotion where facts wouldn’t persuade.
rawshark
I think its still the 72 hour period. Wingnuts have been lead to believe that the feds would have to stop the tap and get a warrant and they could lose vital info.
RSA
“And trust us; when it comes to missing information–White House emails, videotapes of CIA torture, anything that Dick Cheney has laid his hands on–if that information is missing, it’s going to stay missing.”
mark
The Bush Ultimatum: We will protect the nation the way we bloody well FEEL like protecting the nation, or not at all.
tBone
Dear God, you Democrats just don’t get it! Do you have any inkling at all of what a huge threat this poses to Dug Jay’s undershorts??
The Other Steve
Can someone explain how they know they missed intelligence information?
Gemina13
“Unfortunately, the delay resulting from this discussion impaired our ability to cover foreign intelligence targets, which resulted in missed intelligence information.”
Anytime this Administration mentions “intelligence,” my brain hurts.
Bill Arnold
Can someone explain how they know they missed intelligence information?
They are probably using the word “information” in the semi-technical sense of a raw stream of data.
Regardless, the administration needs to be made to list exactly which telecommunications providers are ignoring lawful warrants. I suspect that list is zero-length.
It could be that some of the information being requested is one of the other programs, that provide phone call metadata in bulk to certain interested agencies, but not the actual call contents. How these programs relate to FISA, to and recent modifications to FISA, has never been clear to me.
Jared
John & Co.,
I truly appreciate your gift for using the language of LOLcats (exs: “Teh Awesome!” and “Oh noes!”) in the course of discussing current events.
Now John, let’s see some action shots of Tunch! Rock the cat-blogging!
rawshark
This is interesting.
Dug Jay
And tBone, I just read on another blog that you are an anal wart on John Cole’s behind, and nothing more….well, maybe a blithering idiot as well.
Delia
OH NOES! it looks like they missed my daughter’s phone call from Canada yesterday to tell me she’d broken up with her boyfriend, and I told her he was a jerk and she was better off without him.
So the NSA is just going to have to read Balloon Juice to pick up this vital tidbit. HEY GUYS, NATHAN IN TORONTO IS AN INSENSITIVE SLOB AND DOESN’T DESERVE TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Now you don’t have to bug my phones anymore to pick up such serious international information.
Bruce Moomaw
Alas, Dug Jay’s own reading abilities seem seriously limited. Let’s add the next few paragraphs immediately after the one he quoted in his 3:13 PM comment:
” ‘We learned last night after sending [the original] letter that . . . new surveillances under existing directives issued pursuant to the Protect America Act will resume, at least for now,”‘ Mukasey and McConnell said in the statement released Saturday.
” ‘We appreciate the willingness of our private partners to cooperate despite the uncertainty.
” ‘Unfortunately, the delay resulting from this discussion impaired our ability to cover foreign intelligence targets, which resulted in missed intelligence information,’ Mukasey and McConnell added.
“Government officials declined to comment on how much intelligence data may have been lost or how serious it might have been.
“One Democratic congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, expressed skepticism that any significant gap had existed, noting that existing rules permit continued monitoring of known terrorists and their associates…
“Democrats also have argued that the law’s expiration would not hobble surveillance of foreign-based terrorists or other enemies since recent orders issued to telephone companies under the law remain in effect for a year.
“On Friday evening, administration officials told reporters in a conference call that at least one telecommunications company was refusing to provide information that could help track newly suspected terrorists.
“But two hours later, administration officials notified congressional officials that the company had agreed to cooperate, according to the Democratic congressional official. As a result, all of the nation’s telecommunications companies are now providing all of the intelligence requested by the administration, even without the new law.
” ‘This is serious backpedaling by the DNI,’ the Democratic official said of McConnell. ‘He’s been saying for the last week that the sky is falling, and the sky is not falling.’ ”
________________________
All of which, you know, might possibly explain why the Times actually entitled its article “White House backtracks on claims of lost intelligence”.
AkaDad
There’s enough evidence from the past 7 years that proves if Bush says something it must be true.
The Grand Panjandrum
If this program is that important then why did the Administration NOT ACCEPT the extension offered by the Congress? The Administration probably thought the Democrats would rollover again. So in order to score political points the Administration was willing to forgo an extension of this vital program.
Although I am an Obama supporter; my secret fantasy is to have President Hillary Clinton exercise this warrantless wiretapping power. The bedwetting sissies on the Right would “find Jesus” real quick.
scarshapedstar
I’ll explain how they missed information. See, they have this vast data-gathering apparatus reading this very post at this very moment, right? Well, the entire operation is rigged up with an AND operator to a switch on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. If she flips the switch off, then the whole system goes dark.
Seriously, ask an expert like Dug Jay. As soon as an activity becomes illegal, the government no longer does it! This is completely opposite the “unitary executive” theory, but consistency has never been the wingnuts’ strong point.
tballou
And don’t forget the part where Mukasey says the wiretapping they were doing is ILLEGAL! I expect impeachment proceedings to start forthwith!
Delia
So I guess they’re still listening when my daughter calls me from Canada to complain about her love life after all.
Oh noes. She’ll never want to come back when she realizes they’ve got all this on file.
GSD
Fankly if we can survive the weekly school an mall massacres without going to full thumbsucking mode, I bet we can probably weather a few errant suicide bombers or truck bombs.
The republic won’t collapse, unless we are much weaker than the Iraqi people who are asked to suffer daily occurrences.
Suck it up wingers.
-GSD
tBone
Thanks for the effort, but I prefer insults that are less clinical and more creative. Refill the Cheetohs bowl, slip into a fresh pair of Jockeys and a wetsuit or two and try again.
jrg
Read the story again, genius.
Sorry, Dug Jay, no one in their right mind trusts this administration to use warrantless eavesdropping powers appropriately.
I would, however, expect this administration to petulantly refuse to use the FISA courts in the hopes that another attack on America would vindicate their position on illegal wiretaps. I would also expect them to use wiretaps on political opponents.
This administration did, after all, ignore warnings of 9/11; out a counter-proliferation CIA operative for political gain; lie to start a war with Iraq; lie in an effort to start another war with Iran; and destroy most of the email sent to and from the White House in 2003 and 2004.
But I’m sure we can trust them with unlimited, warrantless domestic spying power. “small government” my ass.
Perry Como
Shorter telcos: If you won’t give us immunity for breaking the law, we just won’t break the law.
HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, WE STILL SUCK ADMINISTRATION COCK
demimondian
I think that Bill Arnold nails it. In a technical sense, the bit string with the highest information density is line noise — and this administration honestly can’t tell the difference between that and actionable intelligence.
SamFromUtah
Who are all you people? Didn’t every single person on the Earth die of terrorism the second the “extention” expired?
Z
Fixed!
Z
No, Sam. Not those of us with towels and duct tape.
myiq2xu
I’m dead? That explains why there’s nothing on television but FOX News and reruns of “The Facts of Life” and “Joanie Loves Chachi”
Z
Uh-oh… you must have been a very, very bad myiq.
4tehlulz
Yes, but luckily our last save point was before the expiration.
jake
We’re not zombies. Really. And if we say that we’ve got all of the Playboy Bunnies at our house and you should come by and meet them, you can rest assured we’re not lying and trying to trick you or anything. Because we’re 100% not zombies and have no interest whatsoever in your sweet, juicy, brains.
Oh look, the Bunnies are wrestling in Jello. No! I mean $100 bills. You should come over and see this.
Asti
No one except Dug Jay, you mean.
The Other Steve
Not unless your daughter is Angelina Jolie.
jake
Come on, you have to love the way Bush’s attempt to help the tcoms made them look like a bunch of selfish twats. On the one hand you have the dread hordes of Islahomofetuskillers waiting to blow us all up. On the other you have Bush saying the tcoms won’t protect us from the Islahomofetuskillers because they’re afraid of being sued.
I’d like to think various Code Browners flooded their p/isp’s customer service lines with accusations of un-Umurican behavior and terrorist coddling. But I suspect Bush realized the SC’s refusal to hear the NSA wiretap case made it harder to maintain the ‘Oh Noes, we’ll be sooooed!’ defense.
Damn activist judges!
Punchy
Damn, I hope my soon-to-be inlaws are all like, “Blog? What the fuck is a blog? No, of course we’d never post on such a thing”…
Punchy
Just thought I’d say, this Amy Proctor blog that Cole linked to awhile back has to be the most spoofilicious blog I’ve ever seen. She’s ridiculously hyper-partisan, and takes everything personally.
That combo alone has me in stitches. I just cant stop posting there. Good times.
4tehlulz
Amy Proctor needs to join her husband in Iraq; she apparently has time on her hands.