Meet the royal Bush kids…your future presidents/ and/or kings and/or queens!
Mike Luckovich on Dubya today:
Movement to Impeach the Idiot Boy-King …much more at John Conyers
ACLU Sues Pentagon for Documents on Peace Groups (6/14/2006)
PHILADELPHIA — The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit to force the Department of Defense to turn over records it wrongly kept on peace groups and law-abiding Americans throughout the country.
“The U.S. military should not be in the business of maintaining secret databases about lawful First Amendment activities,” said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner. “It is an abuse of power and an abuse of trust for the military to play any role in monitoring critics of administration policies.”
The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the national ACLU and its affiliates in Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington. The lawsuit charges that the Defense Department is refusing to comply with national Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records on the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee, Greenpeace, Veterans for Peace and United for Peace and Justice, as well as 26 local groups and activists.
The ACLU filed the FOIA requests on February 1, 2006 after evidence surfaced that the Pentagon was secretly conducting surveillance of protest activities, antiwar organizations and individuals who attended peace rallies. According to news reports, the Pentagon gathered information on law-abiding Americans and shared the information with other government agencies through the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database. The TALON program was initiated by former Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 to track groups and individuals with possible links to terrorism. Following public outcry over the domestic spying program, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England issued a memorandum directing intelligence personnel to receive “refresher training on the policies for collection, retention, dissemination and use of information related to U.S. persons.”
In today’s lawsuit, the ACLU argues that the organizations and individuals monitored by the Pentagon have a right to know what information the military has collected about them. The ACLU seeks to uncover whether the TALON records have been or plan to be shared with another agency, or otherwise disseminated.
“Spying on citizens for merely executing their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful assembly is chilling and marks a troubling trend for the United States,” said Joyce Miller, Assistant General Secretary for Justice and Human Rights of the American Friends Service Committee. “These actions violate the rule of law and strike a severe blow against our Constitution.”
Some of the groups represented in today’s lawsuit, like the Rhode Island Community Coalition for Peace and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, learned that they were under surveillance after NBC made public portions of the TALON database it had obtained. A full list of groups in today’s lawsuit is online at www.aclu.org/spyfiles. Also today, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed additional FOIA requests on behalf of more than 30 peace groups in the state. The groups fear they may have been monitored because they have publicly opposed the war in Iraq.
Similarly, the ACLU of Montana last week filed a FOIA request on behalf of eight state grassroots organizations that have questioned federal policies. The Montana FOIA was filed simultaneously with the Defense Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
5-11 Domestic Spying Update: Bush Spys on tens of millions (He’s looking at your file right now)!
NSA has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls Link to USA Today.
Constructive Anarchy told you about this more than three months ago (see below) and finally mass media reports. We are not smarter, have a staff of two, zero budget, no White House contacts, and yet we scooped America’s Free Press by 100 days. How is that possible?
ATT, Verizon and BellSouth turned over all your records (billions of calls and e-mails) to Big Brother. Qwest refused.
2-5: Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing reports that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has just filed a lawsuit against AT&T for helping the National Security Agency execute illegal warrant-less wiretaps against American citizens. From the article: ‘The lawsuits alleges that AT&T Corp. has opened its key telecommunications facilities and databases to direct access by the NSA and/or other government agencies, thereby disclosing to the government the contents of its customers’ communications as well as detailed communications records about millions of its customers, including the lawsuit’s class members.’”
GOOGLE IT!
Greater Georgelandia Animation by Mark Flore
WASHINGTON (Dec. 17) - President Bush said Saturday that he personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. on tens of thousands of Americans since 9/11. Dubya lashed out at the whistle-blowers.
Reacting to Bush’s defense of the NSA program, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said the president’s remarks were “breathtaking in how extreme they were.”
Feingold said it was “absurd” that Bush said he relied on his inherent power as president to authorize the wiretaps.
“If that’s true, he doesn’t need the Patriot Act because he can just make it up as he goes along. I tell you, he’s President George Bush, not King George Bush. This is not the system of government we have and that we fought for,” Feingold told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday’s New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency violates civil liberties.
Appearing angry at times during his eight-minute address, Bush left no doubt that he will continue authorizing the program.
A common sense response. Animation by Mark Flore
Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’
By DOUG THOMPSON
Dec 9, 2005, 07:53
Last 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 certain provisions of the act could even alienate true conservatives.
“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!”
I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”
Senate Blocks Extension of Patriot Act
Move Marks a Blow for Bush Administration and GOP Leaders
By DAVID ESPO, AP
WASHINGTON (Dec. 17) - In a stinging defeat for President Bush, Senate Democrats blocked passage Friday of a new Patriot Act to combat terrorism at home, depicting the measure as a threat to the constitutional liberties of innocent Americans.
“We can come together to give the government the tools it needs to fight terrorism and protect the rights and freedoms of innocent citizens,” said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., arguing that provisions permitting government access to confidential personal data lacked safeguards to protect the innocent.
“We need to be more vigilant,” agreed Sen. John Sununu, a Republican from New Hampshire, where the state motto is “Live Free or Die.” He quoted Benjamin Franklin: “Those that would give up essential liberty in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”
Justice Department officials said no existing wiretap would have to be turned off.
On a separate issue, the House called for the Bush administration to give Congress details of secret detention facilities overseas. The vote was 228-187.
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Published by Greg at 08:45 PM on August 10, 2005