I hope we can get some buzz phrase going for the dimwitted media to maybe pickup on...seems the only thing that may get their attention.  All emails we send have certain phrase in subject line that MSM see over/over again?

And I definitely want to know just who all is or has been spied on.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence'--Gandhi

Where will you cross-post? Add your links to this comment and join the fight.

I guess we are fighting them over here instead of over there, huh?

And the president is personally heading up these illegal efforts to fight them over here.

"I've heard that too!"
(Karl Rove in today's presidential obituaries)

Support BooTrib

He'll be working out the specifics of the campaign over there. Please make sure you mention that in any cross-posting you do. For a campaign of this magnitute to work organization and communication will be the key.

Once we get our marching orders from smintheus the attack will begin.

Migra Matters: progressive immigration reform

Search without a warrant--and without that warrant expressing what is to be looked for--is unlawful.

PERIOD.

There is no law (can be no law) which permits the president to direct anyone to perform searches without a lawfully obtained warrant.

Hang him.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. Jimmy Carter (1924 - )

Absolutely.  Great action plan, BJ. This should be an APB for virtually all Democratic and progressive bloggers, officeholders, activists, and organizations. There should be a tidal wave of angry letters, faxes, e-mails, phone calls to our congressional reps - not to mention the editors of the NYT. I agree that this is a violation of the Constitution, as well as direct contempt for any limits on domestic spying

[And as a side note to the 12 days of Alito campaign, I think a major question to Alito should be to ask him whether he believes it is within the legal powers of the President to commit such acts.]

don't let them deflect the seriousness of their crimes onto the leakers!

Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate - William of Ockham

George Bush publicly admitted this weekend that he had broken the law by ordering the NSA to spy on Americans.  He insists that by divine right he will continue to ignore our laws.

This admission, followed by his declaration that "The Constitution is just a god-damned piece of paper." gives us every incentive to defend our country and proceed with the removal of this sociopath from office.

Veterans for Peace have added their voices to the call for impeachment.  I ask all of my representatives to add theirs as well.

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

You guys continue to shine and work hard. Good for you. This issue belongs in the Senate but I'm hoping Cong. Michaud will consider carrying the message as it were. There's a great passage from a book (fiction actually) that goes:  "Well, it's quite simple, really, said Henry. "The trick is to keep doing outrageous things. There's no point in passing some scandalous piece of legislation and then giving everyone time to get worked up about it. You have to get right in there and top it with something even worse, before the public have had a chance to work out what's hit them. The thing about the British conscience, you see, is that it really has no more capacity than a primitive home computer, if you like. It can only hold two or three things in its memory at at a time..."

I think you'll find the latest outrage regarding unauthorized spying on Americans is taking hold. In his radio address Bush not only stated it did happen but it will continue. To my ears that is admission of a felony and the policy is a clear violation of the 4th amendment of the Constitution and therefore we have a crisis that requires immediate response. This Administration is operating beyond the intent and letter of our laws and action from our elected officials is needed. IMO, the following is the  minimum the Administration should do:

    *     immediately reverse this directive on domestic spying

    *    promise to desist in the future from warrantless spying on Americans

    *    cooperate fully with a bi-partisan investigation of the policy

    *    release the texts of the directives along with the legal opinions they were based on

    *    identify to the Senate all residents of the US who were targets of unconstitutional spying

"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."

Thanks for posting this here; I would have missed it otherwise (weekends, you know).

...this White House has cried wolf so many times on the urgency of national security threats that it has lost all credibility. But we have learned the hard way that Mr. Bush's team cannot be trusted to find the boundaries of the law, much less respect them.

Mr. Bush said he would not retract his secret directive or halt the illegal spying, so Congress should find a way to force him to do it. Perhaps the Congressional leaders who were told about the program could get the ball rolling.

Like John Lennon said "life is what happens to you when you're making other plans."  I had all kinds of holiday preparations planned for this week, but this morning have already e-mailed every democratic senator with an 'Impeach Now' message.  Later I will do the republicans and after that the House.

I don't care to second-guess what will happen next, but this is a wave I've just got to catch.

Agreed. No longer though. In the big picture, this is reason number one to go to battle against Bush. But I hope we don't neglect Tampopo's 12 Days for/of Justice campaign. We're half way finished. Six more days to go.

Green Grass and High Tides Forever

Seems like we have to lead and our Leaders follow once again

I swear, that was the equivalent of saying:

"You're goddamned right I did!"

This is a coddled and dictatorial jackass, but we knew that already. We already knew that the Constitution was a goddamned piece of paper to him.

But my God, what MORE does he have to do before people say "Enough!"? How many more laws will he break? How many more constitutional protections will he ignore?

What the fuck more will it take?

I'm sorry I'm not more hopeful. Though this creeps me out, I'm not surprised. And I won't be surprised that more people are concerned about shopping than their rights.

'Cuz see, if we stop shopping, then the terrorists have won.

Indeed.

/rant.

Can't hear ya, Peach!

First: Bush lied and was caught redhanded when he trotted out the 10 disrupted terror plots. Why cook the stats if the illegal spying and torture were producing intel?

Second:  "Congress and the Bush administration are getting largely failing grades when it comes to how well they are protecting Americans against a terrorist attack, members of the former 9/11 Commission said Sunday." USA Today, 12/5/2005

Third: If that isn't scary enough, the one A grade was for curbing terrorist financing. For those of you who have seen Syriana or Bob Baer (who recently debated the dubious Dana Rohrabacher on the issue of illegal spying), he has an interesting story to tell about just how credible that financing grade A may be:

In December 1997, CIA agent Robert Baer, newly retired from the CIA and working as a terrorism consultant, meets a former police chief from the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. He learns that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was being sheltered by then Qatari Interior Minister Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani in 1996. However, the ex-police chief knows other details, based on what Qatari police and intelligence learned when Mohammed was in the country. Mohammed was leading an al-Qaeda cell in Qatar together with Shawqui Islambuli, the brother of the Egyptian who had killed Anwar el-Sadat. They also were linked to bomber Ramzi Yousef. But what worries the former police chief is that Mohammed and Islambuli are experts in hijacking commercial planes. He tells Baer that Mohammed "is going to hijack some planes." Further, he is told that Mohammed has moved to the Czech Republic, and has also travelled to Germany to meet bin Laden associates there.

In early 1998 Baer sends this information to a friend in the CIA Counterterrorist Center, who forwards the information to his superiors. Baer doesn't hear back. He says, "There was no interest." [UPI, 9/30/02; Vanity Fair, 2/02; Baer, 2002, pp 270-71]  Baer also tries to interest reporter Daniel Pearl in a story about Mohammed before 9/11, but Pearl is still working on it when he is kidnapped and later murdered in early 2002. [UPI, 9/30/02]  Baer's source later disappears, presumably kidnapped in Qatar. It has been speculated that the CIA turned on the source to protect its relationship with the Qatari government. [Gertz, 2002, pp 55-58]  

It appears bin Laden visits al-Thani in Qatar between the years 1996 and 2000. [ABC News, 2/7/03]  Al-Thani continues to support al-Qaeda, providing Qatari passports and more than $1 million in funds to al-Qaeda. Even after 9/11, Mohammed is provided shelter in Qatar for two weeks in late 2001. [New York Times, 2/6/03]  Yet the US still has not frozen al-Thani's assets or taken other action.

Dear friends and family,
A unified blog effort was started yesterday at the dailyKos to press the Senate, Congress and Mainstream Media to begin investigation into the possibility of impeachment proceedings against President Bush.  This is a serious effort to force the Republican Leadership to take their Consitutional responsibilites seriously.

I KNOW that we are all very busy today and all week.  But it is very important that these people be greeted with messages from across the country about our outrage .  To summarize the Diary I've attached

Do this:

*  Write a letter to your 2 senators & congressman.  Copy it to the Editor of the Newspapers that you read.
*  Send the letter by email & snail mail.  And FAX a copy to them as well (take the stack of letters & FAX numbers to Kinkos if you don't have a FAX machine set up).

If you have e-mail lists please forward this information to those lists.

If each of us take an hour or two today, we can help make tomorrow a day to remember for our political leaders.

Please take an hour to stand up for the Constition today!!
Very Sincerely,
katiebird (not my real name)

** Text of Diary Follows **

Eat 4 Today: Just today I'm not going to take seconds & not eating between meals

Politicians and media are much more likely to act on email if it supplies a quick and easy source of information. Referring to blog pages and diaries makes it easier to dismiss our communications. A standalone page/site that outlines the history and the laws being violated and that links to opinions and statements on Bush's speech would give "substance" to our demands -- something solid for public persons to point to. I would think such a page or pages already exists somewhere. All we need to do is find it and agree to refer to it in our own communications.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

I am deeply concerned about the recent news of illegal government spying of American citizens.  

In an editorial on Sunday, December 18, 2005 the New York Times editor wrote,

"Let's be clear about this: illegal government spying on Americans is a violation of individual liberties, whether conditions are troubled or not. Nobody with a real regard for the rule of law and the Constitution would have difficulty seeing that. The law governing the National Security Agency was written after the Vietnam War because the government had made lists of people it considered national security threats and spied on them. All the same empty points about effective intelligence gathering were offered then, just as they are now, and the Congress, the courts and the American people rejected them.

This particular end run around civil liberties is also unnecessary. The intelligence agency already had the capacity to read your mail and your e-mail and listen to your telephone conversations. All it had to do was obtain a warrant from a special court created for this purpose. The burden of proof for obtaining a warrant was relaxed a bit after 9/11, but even before the attacks the court hardly ever rejected requests."

I agree with this statement, do you?

I am terrified and appalled by President Bush's assertion that he considers illegal spying on citizens necessary and will, indeed continue the practice.  This president is making the unprecedented claim that he can openly defy American law.

Are you going to allow him to do it? What, if any action are you planning to take to see that this practice stops, to assure us, voting citizens of the 3rd District in Kansas that you are protecting our interests.  

Sincerely worried,
katiebird (not my real name)

WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called Sunday for congressional hearings and investigations into President Bush's authorization of domestic spying as part of the war on terror.

"This Congress has done very little oversight," Reid, D-Nev., said on "Fox News Sunday." "There should be an investigation and hearings."

Reid acknowledged that he was briefed by the administration about the surveillance program "a couple of months ago." But he said the program apparently has been going on for four years and "there's no way the president can pass the buck."

prolesunited at DU came up with this interesting tidbit.

Did Ashcroft ask for wiretap expansion, was rejected & they still did it?

So, all you smart people help me out here.

I was digging around and found this:

The Bush administration recently received a harsh legal blow in the war against terrorism. It came from an unlikely place: a clandestine federal court responsible for reviewing government requests to spy on terrorism suspects.

This court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, refused to approve of certain procedures proposed by Attorney General Ashcroft. In an unprecedented move, it also publicly released its ruling this August. The dispute, however, had been going on since May, when the Court announced its dissatisfaction with the procedures and its belief that they were contrary to existing federal law.

The procedures would have allowed criminal prosecutors routine access to information obtained through counterintelligence searches and wiretaps - without a probable cause showing that a crime had been or was about to be committed. ("Counterintelligence" is defined within the FISA as information gathered, and activities conducted, to protect against espionage; other intelligence activities; sabotage; or assassinations conducted by or on behalf of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations, or foreign persons, or international terrorist activities.)

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20020904.html

There's more there and here's a link to the actual ruling:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/fisc051702.html

If I'm putting this together correctly, did they ask for expanded surveillance powers, were DENIED by the FISA court and then went ahead and did it anyway? Or, are these two separate matters?

If I'm right, this definitely seals the case for impeachment for me.

So, help me analyze this more.

Dear Sen. ___:
I am writing to say how completely and utterly outraged I am to find out that the President has been relentlessly and remorselessly spying on American citizens, especially those who are not even suspected of violating the law or causing any security threat.  This conduct is an unconscionable violation of the laws of the U.S. and the constitution.  That a sitting President has done this and expresses an intransigent intention to continue doing it is an impeachable offense.  Please do everything possible, including not adjourning for the holiday if necessary to bring this matter to conclusive action by the Senate.  As citizens we cannot remain complacent about this ravaging of our constitutional rights.  This issue should not be allowed to just roll on while people "get used to the idea."  I know this is a tough request, but the conduct involved is a profound attack on our constitutional rights, and the foundation of what it means to be an American.

Thank you.