Archive for December 21st, 2005
Dec 21, 2005 at 10:15 PM by Political Chase
This is a week old. I wish I had caught it earlier. That notwithstanding, it’s worth posting.
Ann Coulter (I don’t need to add any description do I) is hurting badly for readership. I just read the first paragraph, started laughing and moved on.
Titled: “Why Can’t I Get Arrested”
I’m getting a little insulted that no Democratic prosecutor has indicted me. Liberals bring trumped-up criminal charges against all the most dangerous conservatives. Why not me?
Hmm…
Tags : politics, political+humor, Ann+Coulter
Dec 21, 2005 at 7:50 PM by Political Chase
We get just about everything from China, manufactured goods, financing of the national debt…the list goes on. Maybe we should pick this up. Some of the Republicans in Congress might think twice about running down to Signatures for cocktails and a $74 steak.
Lu Wanli, former head of the Communications Department of southwest China’s Guizhou province, was executed Friday in Guiyang for taking huge amounts of bribes, according to the Supreme People’s Court.
The supreme court, which re-examined and approved the execution, holds that Lu had taken more than 25.59 million yuan (US$3.16 million) worth of bribes from June 1998 through January 2002 when he served as the provincial communications chief and general manager of the provincial expressway development company.
In addition, he failed to account for another 26.51 million yuan (US$3.27 million) of property, said the supreme court.
Lu fled abroad in January 2002 using a false passport, but was later arrested and brought back to China.
The Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court meted out the death sentence on Lu in April 2004. With the approval of the supreme court, the Guiyang court carried out the execution.
Tags : Congress, Jack+Abramoff, corruption, scandal, Tom+DeLay
Dec 21, 2005 at 7:23 PM by Political Chase
John Robb has some worthwhile reading on Snoopgate; this quote is from his post.
[...T]his George W. Bush quote (video and transcript), from December 18, 2000, is just too surreal not to reprint: “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
Note the timing, post-election day his first term. Someone can check me on this, but I believe it is within days (+ or -) the Supremes opinion on the election.
Tags : George+Bush, snoopgate, NSA, FISA, politics, surveillance
Dec 21, 2005 at 6:57 PM by Political Chase
Veep Dick Cheney received his Christmas present this morning. He cast the Senate tie-breaking vote to rip $39.7 billion out of the budget, which targets primarily items for the needy.
But then why should the Veep be concerned with matters like not receiving child support or a few meals? He has Halliburton to rely on – no worries mate.
Tags : Dick+Cheney, Senate, budget+cuts, deficit, politics
Dec 21, 2005 at 5:56 PM by Political Chase
The supporters of drilling in the Arctic fell four votes short of overriding the threatened filibuster. Every senator was present, believe it or not. The vote 56-44.
Tags : Senate, arctic+drilling, Alaska, Politics
Dec 21, 2005 at 12:49 PM by Political Chase
The Washington Post reports that Jack Abramoff may be close to flipping. It may be an anxiety-filled Christmas for a few people in Congress.
Tags : Jack+Abramoff, Congress, Politics
Dec 21, 2005 at 12:11 PM by Political Chase
I would like to know the specific Article, Section, or Amendment in the Constitution Mr. Barr refers to, which provides the President the autonomy described below.
Yet Bush supporters believe that other branches should take a subsidiary role to the president in safeguarding national security. “The Constitution’s intent when we’re under attack from outside is to place maximum power in the president,” said William P. Barr, who was attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, “and the other branches, and especially the courts, don’t act as a check on the president’s authority against the enemy.”
Tags : Snoopgate, George+Bush, FISA, NSA, Politics
Dec 21, 2005 at 11:00 AM by Political Chase
Another item to add to the speculation list. Judge James Robertson, one of 11 member of the FISA court resigned late yesterday afternoon. Robertson did not provide a reason for his resignation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court’s work.
Word of Robertson’s resignation came as two Senate Republicans yesterday joined the call for congressional investigations into the National Security Agency’s warrantless interception of telephone calls and e-mails to overseas locations by U.S. citizens suspected of links to terrorist groups. They questioned the legality of the operation and the extent to which the White House kept Congress informed.
Maybe I’m the quintessential pessimist, but when the administration comes out fighting like never before, judges start resigning, and speculation on the-story-behind-the-story increase, it reminds me of the way things started falling apart 30+ years ago.
Technorati Tags : snoopgate, james+robertson, FISA, NSA, George+Bush, Politics
Dec 21, 2005 at 1:21 AM by Political Chase
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has requested Congress censure President Bush and the Veep for misleading Congress on the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced resolutions creating a panel to investigate the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and separate measures censuring Bush and Cheney.
Conyers, releasing a staff report on the buildup to war, cited “substantial evidence the president, the vice president and other high-ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq.”
The kitchen keeps getting hotter.
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Dec 21, 2005 at 1:09 AM by Political Chase
Josh Marshall has a couple of good posts on Snoopgate that provide different perspectives. First, Josh postulates Bush’s problem with disclosure may have to do with technology itself. He doesn’t sanction the management of the issue, but discusses the method of spying may be so far advanced technically that resorting to extant lawful procedures may not be possible.
Over the last couple days I’ve heard informed speculation from several knowledgeable sources that what is likely really at issue here is the nature of the technology being deployed — both new technology and technology which in the nature of its method of collection turns upside down our normal ways of thinking about what constitutes a reasonable or permissible search.
A simple, brief, but not necessarily accurate example is data mining. The 007’s out there may have massive data collection devices that do not discriminate in collecting information. A "catch everything" concept, which then is "filtered" without any knowledge of what the results will be. The highly technical theory can possibly relieve some of the burden for not precisely following conventional legal procedures, but then again it doesn’t. Regardless of the technology employed, it doesn’t lessen the requirement for the administration to in some manner have followed legal procedure and certainly not contain knowledge of the acts of spying to the degree the administration did.
Read the post.
Second, Josh debates Bill Krystol and Gary Schmitt’s column in today’s Washington Post. The issue is, does the president have inherent Constitutional authority and more so obligation, that is not specified within the Constitution other than in certain language like "protect and defend."
William Kristol and Gary Schmitt have a column in today’s Washington Post that advances a simple premise: the president "uniquely swears an oath — prescribed in the Constitution — to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." While Congress legislates for the ‘in general’, the president is the one who must face particular crises, ones whose dimensions, dangers and particularities legislators could not have foreseen. This mix of responsibility and authority gives the president the unique and awesome power to set aside Congress’s laws in the over-riding interest of securing the nation.
Josh references The Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson and the conflicts presented in that situation and time. In summarry, he presents situations and the requirement for presidents to face critical decision that are not black and white, but still provides the avenue and requirement to adhere to law as written and understood.
Read the post.
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