Saturday, December 17, 2005

What Will It Take? Yet Another Presidential Crime Much, Much Worse Than Lying About a Blowjob...

It could not have been more timely -- with the reauthorization of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act landing on the Senate floor after the House sanctioned the Act's perpetual enactment -- for the American people to have learned that two years ago, Bush and his Administration covertly authorized the NSA (the National Security Agency, natch) to secretly carry out surveillance of hundreds, likely thousands of people throughout the United States.

If anything was necessary to emphasize how this President and Administration have now eclipsed even the grossest abuses of the equally-paranoid President Richard Nixon and his Administration, and how they will trample on any check/balance system in place to extend the reach of government into our homes under any pretence, this is it.

Now, Bush, like Ronald Reagan and Poppa Bush before him, campaigned mightily (both campaigns) on the populist stand that the government is too big, too intrusive, and that "down-sizing" government to make it less intrusive to the lives of American citizens is a priority of this President, this Administration.

As the tragic (and needlessly ugly) Terry Schiavo case history demonstrated, there is no nook or cranny of our lives too intimate for the present Administration to ignore, and in fact insert their bull-in-a-china-shop girth into, especially if it serves their agenda (broad or opportunistic agenda-of-the-moment). This latest revelation puts paid to any notion that Bush's campaign promises were based in anything but appealing to voter prejudices.

True to the monikers applied to his environmental policies, Bush's ongoing claims to believe in 'downsizing government' is in fact the reverse of his true intentions. Bush personally ordered this inversion of standing law and Constitutional protections. He can blame no one else for this latest abuse of power to come to light.

As reported in The NY Times this week, Bush's secret presidential edict skirted standing post-Nixon era NSA rules and regs (which require only the permission of a judge for the NSA to investigate any one of us -- not a major hurdle, by NSA's own admissions) to not only allow but mandate massive spying on any designated citizens (designated by whom?). This edict includes (but is not limited to) surveillance of phone calls and peoples' homes without any evidence of criminal activity, and by Bush's order can be mobilized sans court order.

Understand, too, that the very 'rules and regulations' the Administration quickly asserted as being in place were the rules and regs the edict circumvented by design.

Thus, their 'defense' is by definition false -- another lie.

This gross violation of the Bill of Rights was also deliberately orchestrated and issued sans congressional debate, avoiding any and all judicial scrutiny and oversight.

This was another overreaching abuse of Presidential power, a secret and secretive criminal violation of our constitutional rights. It is an indefensible act, yet another blatant example of this President and Administration's sociopathic behavior, part of an ongoing and traceable pattern of behavior that simply cannot be excused, ignored, or justified.

President Bush’s personal authorization of this violation of federal wiretapping law, the Privacy Act and a violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be palmed off as "bad intelligence," the ill behavior of subordinates, or something Bush was unaware of.

Are we left at last with no choice but to demand Congress defend the Constitution through the impeachment of President Bush?

THIS IS CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR, pure and simple.

7 Comments:

Blogger Mark Martin said...

from the NYT:

"According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters. Some of the questions about the agency's new powers led the administration to temporarily suspend the operation last year and impose more restrictions, the officials said."

"The officials said the administration had briefed congressional leaders about the program and notified the judge in charge of the foreign intelligence surveillance court, the secret Washington court that deals with national security issues."

12/18/2005  
Blogger SRBissette said...

We're back to J. Edgar Hoover tactics the and Nixonian investigation of citizens, Mark, pure and simple.

Our tax dollars at work under this new program: the following occurred in easy driving distance of my home, across the White River from where I teach every week, at the very college my older stepson graduated from:

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior

By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

"I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book," Professor Pontbriand said. "Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it."

Although The Standard-Times knows the name of the student, he is not coming forward because he fears repercussions should his name become public. He has not spoken to The Standard-Times.

The professors had been asked to comment on a report that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to spy on as many as 500 people at any given time since 2002 in this country.

The eavesdropping was apparently done without warrants.

The Little Red Book, is a collection of quotations and speech excerpts from Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung.

In the 1950s and '60s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it was required reading. Although there are abridged versions available, the student asked for a version translated directly from the original book.

The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a "watch list." They brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said.

Dr. Williams said in his research, he regularly contacts people in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Muslim hot spots, and suspects that some of his calls are monitored.

"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," he said.

Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk.

"I shudder to think of all the students I've had monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that," he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."

Contact Aaron Nicodemus at anicodemus@s-t.com

This story appeared on Page A9 of The Standard-Times on December 17, 2005.

12/18/2005  
Blogger SRBissette said...

We're back to J. Edgar Hoover tactics and the Nixonian investigation of citizens, Mark, pure and simple. This is expensive and counterproductive, has more to do with instilling and maintaining fear among the populace than finding Bin Laden (oh, remember that goal?) or terrorists, and is contrary to a democratic state. While Bush claims to be "spreading freedom" to other (occupied) countries, he's curtailing our own freedoms at home. This is state-sanctioned terrorism of the US populace, propelled by 9/11 as a catch-all justification for the same abuses of power that plagued the Cold War era.

Our tax dollars at work under this new program: the following occurred in easy driving distance of my home, across the White River from where I teach every week, at the very college my older stepson graduated from:

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior

By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

"I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book," Professor Pontbriand said. "Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it."

Although The Standard-Times knows the name of the student, he is not coming forward because he fears repercussions should his name become public. He has not spoken to The Standard-Times.

The professors had been asked to comment on a report that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to spy on as many as 500 people at any given time since 2002 in this country.

The eavesdropping was apparently done without warrants.

The Little Red Book, is a collection of quotations and speech excerpts from Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung.

In the 1950s and '60s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it was required reading. Although there are abridged versions available, the student asked for a version translated directly from the original book.

The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a "watch list." They brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said.

Dr. Williams said in his research, he regularly contacts people in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Muslim hot spots, and suspects that some of his calls are monitored.

"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," he said.

Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk.

"I shudder to think of all the students I've had monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that," he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."

Contact Aaron Nicodemus at anicodemus@s-t.com

This story appeared on Page A9 of The Standard-Times on December 17, 2005.

12/18/2005  
Blogger Mark Martin said...

Where's the harm? They checked the kid out, found out he was not a threat - end of story.

Were you this outraged over WACO and Elian Gonzales?

Shit happens.

But hey - go for it. You want Bush impeached, I say you go for it. It's a free country.

NYT has an agenda. That story was spinning like an aerodynamically perfect gyroscope.

12/18/2005  
Blogger SRBissette said...

Ah, I see.

Trust.

Obey.

Consume.

Gotcha.

(Spin? According to multiple sources, The NY Times article was prepared, revamped, and withheld in the paper's cooperation with the White House. They at last chose to run the story after many delays -- some sources report up to to a year -- thus, once again the timing of news breaking is due in part to the White House's own efforts.

Spin? What portions of the material being covered are we not seeing/reading/hearing? If we aren't living in a democracy, it's none of our business. But according to the White House, we are and do live in a democracy.

Accept, of course, when it suits them to behave otherwise.)

12/18/2005  
Blogger Mark Martin said...

Any abuse of power that may potentially result in Ward Churchill getting broom-handled by a Renegade Rambo is a beautiful thing!

USA! USA! USA!

12/18/2005  
Anonymous Ttalor072 said...

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5/19/2012  

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