Colin Hill’s Blog

Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush’s domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.

Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president’s eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.

. . . unlimited? - Commentary - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
According to President George W. Bush, being president in wartime means never having to concede co-equal branches of government have a role when it comes to hidden encroachments on civil liberties.
Last Saturday, he thus aggressively defended the constitutionality of his secret order to the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans whom the executive branch speculates might be tied to terrorists. Authorized after the September 11, 2001 abominations, the eavesdropping clashes with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), excludes judicial or legislative oversight, and circumvented public accountability for four years until disclosed by the New York Times last Friday. Mr. Bush’s defense generally echoed previous outlandish assertions that the commander in chief enjoys inherent constitutional power to ignore customary congressional, judicial or public checks on executive tyranny under the banner of defeating international terrorism, for example, defying treaty or statutory prohibitions on torture or indefinitely detaining United States citizens as illegal combatants on the president’s say-so.

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Bush’s unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.
Underlying all of the excesses and abuses of executive power claimed by the Bush Administration is a theory of absolute, unchecked power vested in the Presidency which literally could not be any more at odds with the central, founding principles of this country.

MercuryNews.com | 12/12/2005 | Tool helps you find stuff that you didn’t know you were looking for
Tool helps you find stuff that you didn’t know you were looking for

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’
ast month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,� Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.�

“Mr. President,� one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.�

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,� Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!�

Yarn Harlot: Weenies has a great account of the threat posed by knitting needles on a plane. Some pople are just hopeless. What else is there to say…

CNN.com - TSA�announces security screening changes - Dec 2, 2005
TSA announces security screening changes. When asked why, a TSA representative said “Security is one thing but, My God, those stewardesses were hetting gnarly. Young men the world over were starting to fly only Hooters Airline. It looks like the combined efforts of the Airline Lobby and the Manacurists Lobby is a truly unstopable force.