Bob Barr Gets It

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, debating administration apologist Dana Rohrabacher on CNN: BARR: Here again, this is absolutely a bizarre conversation where you have a member of Congress saying that it's okay for the president of the United States to ignore U.S. law, to ignore the Constitution, simply because we are in an undeclared war. The fact of the matter is the law prohibits -- specifically prohibits -- what apparently was done in this case, and for a member of Congress to say, oh, that doesn't matter, I'm proud that the president violated the law is absolutely astounding, Wolf.

Senator: Bush Broke The Law

From Senator Russ Feingold, via Raw Story: “The President's shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king. “On behalf of all Americans who believe in our constitutional system of government, I call on this Administration to stop this program immediately and to fully cooperate with congressional inquiries and investigations. We have had enough of an Administration that puts itself above the law and the Constitution.”

FISC Warrant Standard

To obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court an application must have the Attorney General's certification that the target is a foreign power or the agent of a foreign power. If the target is U.S. citizen or resident alien the certification must show the target may be involved in the commission of a crime. The Department of Justice has a nearly perfect record with its applications and approval is swift. The only reason the administration would have not to use the process is to get around having to show an American is likely to be involved in a crime. In other words there is no standard, or at least one the public is allowed to see—anyone is fair game. Surveillance under such conditions is illegal. In his radio address today the President admitted he has committed an impeachable offense.

Bush Goes on Offensive

President Bush chastised critics of his illegal surveillance program and tried to turn the spotlight on those who revealed it: "The existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports after being improperly given to news organizations," Bush said. "Unauthorized disclosure damages our national security and puts our nation at risk. "Revealing this information is illegal." Of course the New York Times went to extraordinary lengths for the administration, enabling the activity by sitting on the story for a year at the government's request. The Washington Post was just as accomodating with the CIA prison scandal. There's an emergency warrant system in place for domestic surveillance. For reasons unknown it wasn't followed. There's every indication the law was broken by the President personally, so it's no great mystery to see him shooting at the messenger. He shouldn't be angry—he should be worried. From James Bamford, a writer who was once threatened by the NSA for researching a book: "I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said in an interview. "Today, what Bush said is he went around the law, which is a violation of the law — which is illegal."

McClellan Explains NSA Spying

From today's White House presser: MR. McCLELLAN: I just told you why I'm not going to get into discussing ongoing intelligence activities. Q You mean you cannot say whether it's lawful to spy on Americans or not? MR. McCLELLAN: We have a Constitution and we have laws. Q We're not asking for any details. We're asking you -- MR. McCLELLAN: That's why I'm making a broad statement to let you know that we -- Q It is broad. Is it legal to spy on Americans? MR. McCLELLAN: We have a Constitution and we have laws in place, and we follow those -- Q You say you are abiding by the law? MR. McCLELLAN: Absolutely. And there's congressional oversight of intelligence activities, there's other oversight of intelligence activities. Q Why do you have to have secret orders then? MR. McCLELLAN: Does anybody have a question? Go ahead. Q And how many secret orders have been issued by this President? MR. McCLELLAN: I think the American people appreciate what we do to work within the law to prevent attacks from happening. The Patriot Act is being debated right now.

Patriot Act Extension Blocked

From Breitbart. Another serious blow for the administration. In the last few days: The White House was forced to cave on the McCain torture law The NYT exposed NSA domestic spying The Patriot Act is actually being questioned by the leadership of both parties All this despite the usual allotment of 9/11 references in the President's speech earlier this week. Someone needs to tell the him the era of rule by fear is drawing to a close.

NSA Spies on American Email

The New York Times reports President Bush gave the National Security Agency unprecedented power in the years after 9/11. $Q: Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight. By implementing the program through an Executive Order he managed to dodge congressional oversight—very similar to the illegal CIA prison program. The President appears to have become accustomed to moving the country in the direction of the totalitarian states he professes to despise.

Fitzgerald Busy With Black

From USA TODAY. Patrick Fitzgerald added racketeering and obstruction of justice charges to his earlier eight count indictment against disgraced media baron Conrad Black. The development explains why the Special Prosecutor cancelled his scheduled appearance with the grand jury in the Plame case on Tuesday.

32% Favor Bush Impeachment

From a new Rasmussen poll. Even more (35%) support the impeachment and removal of Cheney. Some context: In an average of 10 polls during the height of the Starr Vendetta 26% favored the impeachment of President Clinton. This was with a heavy push from Republicans on Capitol Hill propping up the numbers. Bush's numbers, in contrast, show a public ahead of the politicians on the matter.

White House Backs Down on Torture Law

USA Today reports on the victory for John McCain. The administration tried a veto threat, lobbying and pleading from the Vice President. At the end of the day they were forced to accept the reality that politically, they were on the wrong side of the issue. Hopefully it sinks in to at least some of the players that morally their position was indefensible as well.

150,000 Vote in Saddam's Hometown

In Ramadi, where the province's nine candidates represent mainly Sunni parties, over 200,000 out of 700,000 eligible voters had flocked to polling stations by Thursday afternoon. In Tikrit, the birthplace of ousted president Saddam Hussein, about 150,000 voters reported to polling centres. Some 564,000 are eligible to vote for eight seats in the province. Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Sunni Turnout High

More from Breitbart: polling hours extended; some stations didn't have enough ballots for turnout; scattered explosions but minimal damage. Looks like an excellent day for Iraqis. Update: Polls now closed. Preliminary report from Xinhua News: BAGHDAD Over 60 percent of eligible Iraqis have turned out by mid-Thursday in the mostly Sunni Salahudin province for the country's parliamentary elections, an official in the province said. "Over 60 percent of the province voters cast ballots until 1:00 p.m. (10:00 GMT) in all the cities of Salahudin province," Ali Salih, from the provincial election center, told Xinhua. Over 340, 000 voters cast ballots out of a total of 564,883 registered people, Salih said, putting the overall turnout in the province to about 80 percent. Witnesses said a major Sunni list and a secular Shiite list led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi have garnered most the votes cast. Early in the day, several mortar rounds landed near polling stations in Tikrit and Samarra, but there were no casualties reported, according to police sources. The heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad was also hit by an explosion shortly after the polls began, but there were no casualties or damage reported. The elections will install a first full-term parliament in the violence-torn country since the US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

First Person Account From Iraq

... from the always fascinating Baghdad Burning: "Elections have been all we hear about for the last ten days at least. "The posters are everywhere in Baghdad. There are dozens of parties running for elections, but there are about four or five ‘lists’ which stand out from the rest...

Hillary vs First Amendment

From Richard Cohen at WaPo. Sen. Clinton has co-sponsored a bill that would make flag burning illegal. She's pandering to visceral instincts at the expense of principle here, and has the singular advantage of her husband to help blunt liberal criticism. Together, as an undeclared team, they can leave the impression she has the full spectrum covered—he went left on Kyoto in Montreal recently, she follows up by going right a few days later. Look for them to continue the hedging strategy as 2008 approaches.

Iraq Polls Open

From Breitbart. A mortar landed near the Green Zone shortly before the polls opened—no one hurt. Despite the wake-up call, there's reason to be encouraged. Sunni insurgency groups have called for a moratorium on poll attacks and security , by all accounts, is even tighter than last time around.

The President's War on Logic

From the President's speech today: We were not in Iraq in 1993, when the terrorists tried to blow up the World Trade Center in New York. We were not in Iraq in 1998, when the terrorists bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. We were not in Iraq in 2000, when the terrorists killed 17 American sailors aboard the USS Cole. There wasn't a single American soldier in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001, when the terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 people in the worst attack on our home since Pearl Harbor. Cheney made a similar argument recently. There are plenty of places the military wasn't when these attacks occurred. It's nonsensical to use previous terrorism as a justification for the invasion—Iraq had nothing to do with any of these atrocities. If anything it reinforces the notion that precious lives and resources have been wasted creating and fighting a nationalist insurgency while the real enemies are still at large.

Woody Allen on George Bush

From the New York Observer: “Arguably the worst administration in the history of the United States. I didn’t start out with any hostility; I started out rooting for him. I was rooting for him, certainly, after 9/11, and when I was in Europe a few days after Sept. 11 and people were asking me questions about him—because I was from New York and people thought I was an expert—I was saying, ‘Well, I hope he’ll do a good job, I’m optimistic, I think he will.’ He certainly got off to a good start and showed sympathy and enthusiasm and said all the right things. But he didn’t. He let the country down brutally.”

Bush Cuts and Runs From Seniors

WaPo— and hardly anyone else—reports the President broke with tradition and ducked the White House Conference on Aging today. $Q: That he went to speak about Medicare in Virginia today, instead of an assembly of delegates from all over the country indicates that he's afraid to speak in anything but a controlled environment,' Binstock said during a session on improving the Medicare program, which provides health care for 43 million older and disabled Americans. He was the first President not to address the delegates in the 50 years the conference has been running—another drop in an endless stream of examples of a President mortified by unscripted questions from those most affected by his policies.

Fitzgerald Closing on Rove

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to present evidence before the grand jury in the CIA leak case this morning. It's anticipated this phase involving Karl Rove will be over by the end of the year. All indications from sources familiar with the case point towards Fitzgerald pursuing an indictment against the Architect.

Iran Interferes With Iraq Democracy

Breaking on CNN: Iraqi border guards have intercepted a truck coming from Iran carrying thousands of forged ballots. Coming hard on the heels of the recent Iraqi torture revelations , it's clear not everyone is overly sentimental about purple fingers in the Shiite majority. Sunnis have long complained that the militias have infiltrated the government and are exacting retribution for the Saddam years. This latest news—both the cynicism towards democracy and the apparent influence of Iran—will only heighten their fears for the future.

Sullivan Not a Conservative

Times Watch, a liberophobic arm of Brent Bozell's MRC , tries to prove Andrew Sullivan is not a conservative. $Q: He's become a virulent critic of the Iraq War, excoriating Bush for opposing gay marriage, obsessing over the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and slamming the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, among other issues. Gay marriage aside, all this has nothing to do with conservatism: What principle of conservatism endorses the disastrous foreign adventurism of the Iraq War? What principle of conservatism argues in favor of torture and abuse? What principle of conservatism lauds the smearing of a decorated veteran for political purposes? Truth be told, Times Watch is arguing Sullivan is not a Republican. There's a distinction between the two terms that Republicans have intentionally blurred since George Bush assumed the Oval Office, and a measure of their success can be seen in the MSM who have followed right along. Democrats shouldn't let the party hacks get away with it anymore.

Even Fox Embarrassed by O'Reilly's War

Crooks and Liars found a gem with WNEM-TV5's report on the latest fake controversy in the imaginary War on Christmas pushed by Bill O'Reilly and friends. The famously marginal radio host complained that Saginaw Township residents were discouraged from wearing red and green at this time of year. It would hardly be worth a mention even if it was true—unfortunately for O'Reilly, it's not. $Q: WNEM TV-5 Talked to Saginaw Township supervisor Tim Braun who says O’Reilly’s comments are flat out not true. Braun goes on to say the township hall has red and green Christmas lights adorning the building at night. Not especially surprising—the stream of consciousness newsman has never let the facts get in the way of a non-story. Fox News, when asked for comment, wisely distanced themselves from the trainwreck saying "...it was a radio issue and had nothing to do with the Fox News Channel." More from Media Matters.

Fitzgerald Likely to Pursue Rove Indictment

According to the Raw Story. $Q: Short of a last minute intervention by Rove’s attorney, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to ask a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove for making false statements to the FBI and Justice Department investigators in October 2003, lawyers close to the case say. It appears Rove's lawyer Luskin dodged the first indictment bullet by bringing Viveca Novak into the equation. Now that she's spoken, it looks like it's not enough to keep Rove off the block. It was six to eight months after V. Novak revealed the Cooper conversation to Luskin that Rove came clean—too long, apparently, for Fitzgerald.

Diebold CEO Resigns

From Raw Story. $Q: The chief executive officer of electronic voting company Diebold who once famously declared that he would "deliver" Ohio for President Bush has resigned effective immediately... Some of the allegations against the election machine company and its practices have broken free from the conspiracy fringe. The sunlight shining on Diebold will make the suspicious breathe a little easier for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Arnold Denies Clemency for Tookie

Must be a horrendously difficult decision for one man to make. $Q: "Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise?" Schwarzenegger wrote less than 12 hours before the execution. "Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption."

Obama Leads the Way

Barak Obama, speaking at a gathering of Democrats on Saturday, proved yet again why he is the future of the party. He criticized the federal response to the New Orleans crisis. Nothing new there—what is important is how he framed the argument. He pointed his finger at what could properly be called the Republican bastardization of conservative philosophy. By tying legitimate criticism to the Republican plank he shows all Democrats the importance of keeping ideas and not ad hominems at the forefront of the debate. The original conservative idea is not an unworthy one: an accent on self-reliance and taking responsibility for one's own lot in life; not relying on the government as an instant teller when times are tough. Problem is, under the current administration the government has now become the instant teller for the wealthy. The Republicans have taken the basic premise and distorted it so that it has become, in Sen. Obama's words, "Social Darwinism". $Q: ...only a philosophy among Republicans of sink or swim explains why some Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans still live in cars while Republicans in Washington prepare next week to enact $70 billion in tax breaks. Even the rich recognize the problem. Warren Buffet, on the dividend tax cut: "Putting $1,000 in the pockets of 310,000 families with urgent needs is going to provide far more stimulus to the economy than putting the same $310 million in my pockets," Buffett added. The Republican mantra has so skewed the gap between rich and poor that no one with an ounce of pragmatism or compassion can begin to claim the system is fair. It's more than a battle between the haves and have-nots; it's now about the connected and the connected-nots. The balance has tipped too far and a reckoning of ideas is in order. If the rest of the party follows the Senator from Illinois' lead, their prospects will be bright for 2006.

Pope Joins War on Christmas?

It must seem that way to the folks at Fox who invented the controversy. According to My Way, Pope Benedict called for a more personal and meaningful celebration. $Q: In today's consumer society, this time of the year unfortunately suffers from a sort of commercial "pollution" that threatens to alter its real spirit," the Pope told a large crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square to hear his weekly Angelus blessing. But this commercial pollution is exactly what O'Reilly, Hannity and Gibson are advocating. They believe Christmas is under attack if the government and retail corporations take a more subtle tone by using the word "Holiday" instead of "Christmas". The Pope quite rightly reminded the faithful that sober personal celebrations are in order, not a barrage of exploitative consumerism.

France Warned CIA About Niger Claims

The LA Times has the story. It details repeated warnings from France that the yellowcake allegations were false. $Q: Then twice in 2002, Chouet said, the CIA contacted the French again for similar help. By mid-2002, Chouet recalled, the request was more urgent and more specific. The CIA was asking questions about a particular agreement purportedly signed by Nigerian officials to sell 500 metric tons of uranium to Iraq. Chouet dispatched a five- or six-man team to Niger to double-check any reports of a sale or an attempt to purchase uranium. The team found none. It's now clear the claims were discredited by the CIA's own investigation (Joe Wilson) and a requested foreign mission. How did the false charges find their way into the State of the Union? It's questions like these the Vice President finds reprehensible. If Phase II of the senate investigation ever gets moving they just might discover why Cheney has such a visceral reaction to allegations his administration misrepresented the case on Iraq.

Frank Rich: It Takes a Potemkin Village

Legend has it Potemkin erected a series of fake villages to impress empress Catherine II on her visit to the Crimea in 1787. Frank Rich is of the opinion that, metaphorically speaking, the administration is doing the same thing over 200 years later to impress a skeptical public. They have the full article over at B12 Partners. $Q: What raised the “Plan for Victory” show to new heights of disinformation was the subsequent revelation that the administration's main stated motive for the address - the release of a 35-page document laying out a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” - was as much a theatrical prop as the stunt turkey the president posed with during his one furtive visit to Baghdad two Thanksgivings ago. Rich not only convincingly proves the assertion, he pulls back the curtain on the entire amateur-hour propaganda war the administration is waging.

Viveca Novak

Her piece on her Luskin conversations is now up at TIME. General consensus of the blogosphere: the news is exculpatory for Rove. According to V. Novak, Luskin was surprised when she told him Matthew Cooper was a Rove source (Rove had presumably testified otherwise at this point). Taking her version at face value, it seems either Rove genuinely forgot about the Cooper conversation or he lied to his lawyer. In any event, like the Woodward revelation, it's another disturbing glimpse of a Washington journalist cozying up to a source and hiding subsequent involvement in the story from the bosses.