Government Conducting Warrantless Domestic Surveillance
Today, the New York Times and the Washington Post are reporting that President Bush authorized domestic spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on American citizens without a warrant in 2002. Lawmakers involved with the program exposed it, under the condition of anonymity, because of the possible illegality.
“Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation’s legality and oversight. 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.”
In addition to the startling discovery of domestic spying by the NSA, the article notes that the White House “asked the New York Times not to publish” the article “arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny.” The article continues that “the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting.”
Education and Healthcare Fall Victim to Tax Cuts
In recent days, four more tax cuts for over $100 billion have been passed despite two wars, one of which is costing American taxpayers $1 billion a week, and a quarter of a trillion dollar reconstruction effort in the Gulf States region. This, all in addition to a mounting budget deficit in the hundreds of billions of dollars and a skyrocketing national debt.
So instead of rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which President Bush wants Congress to make permanent, how are we going to pay for all this?
Congress is cutting aid to “education, health research, medical and job training programs” - you know, all the things we have no use for.
This is the worst part of the article:
“Republicans said they had produced the best bill they could in lean budget times…”
(Hat tip: John Aravosis, AMERICAblog)
Michelle Malkin: Tool of the Unhinged
It has been over two weeks since David Neiwert dismantled Michelle Malkin’s book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, and still not one word from Malkin herself. He made this observation sixteen days ago, and other bloggers are picking up on the silence.Here’s a quick fact sheet on her:
Author of In Defense of Internment in which she “defends both the evacuation and relocation of ethnic Japanese from the West Coast (the so-called “Japanese American internment”)… during World War II” and subsequently supports racial profiling back then and now, including the use of internment camps for Arab-Americans in the same fashion
–Eric Muller
“So Let Me Get This Straight: Michelle Malkin Claims to Have
Rewritten the History of Japanese Internment in Just 16 Months?”
History News Network (George Mason University)
September 9, 2004
More reading on her book: “Muller and Robinson on Malkin”
Publicly supports Steve Sailer’s racist “IQ and the Wealth of Nations,” in which light-skinned nations are slated to have higher IQs than that of darker nations, such as Africa
–Liberal Avenger
“Michelle Malkin Defends White Supremacist”
Liberal Avenger
September 26, 2004
Alleges that a “radical alliance” of “Japanese-American civil libertarians teaming up with Arab-Americans to betray America”
–John Gorenfeld
“Michelle Malkin says the Japanese and the
Arabs are conspiring to destroy America!”
The Gadflyer
October 4, 2004
Margaret Cho discusses the “revelation and revolution” that is Michelle Malkin
–Margaret Cho
“In Defense of Michelle Malkin”
Margaret Cho’s Blog
September 27, 2004
Michelle is her own worst enemy in an expose of her own contradictory words
–Greg
“Michelle vs. Michelle”
The Talent Show
August 15, 2005
From “fellow columnist” Bronwyn Lance Chester:
“I think [Malkin] habitually mistakes shrill for thought provoking and substitutes screaming for discussion… She’s the worst of what’s wrong with punditry today. She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse.” [Wikipedia: Michelle Malkin]
For more background information, here’s a bit of personal history on Malkin here. Media Matters for America has plenty on her. It is important to note that many speculate that her husband Jesse Malkin ghostwrites her blog - which is possibly why she contradicts herself so much.
From Malkin’s book as highlighted by Neiwert:
“And while conservatives zealously police their own ranks to exclude extremists and conspiracy theories, extremism and conspiracy theories have become the driving force of the Democrat Party.” [p. 169]
This coming from the woman who supports Bill O’Reilly’s asinine belief that there is a “secular progressive movement” that has “a secret plan … a very secret plan” to rid the U.S. of Christianity and that there is a “radical alliance” between Japanese and Arab Americans to “destroy America.”
War on Christmas: Conspiracy Theory of the Right
Bill O’Reilly made an appearance on Your World with Cavuto on November 30 and he credit his “reporting and that of others” to the lowering gas prices, and claimed that people are “offended” that Christmas is a federal holiday. That is classic O’Reilly, and FOX News for that matter, to create phony straw men to fit their arguments.
NEIL CAVUTO: You don’t buy the take that they’re trying to be inclusive or the companies that have that position are?
BILL O’REILLY: This is insulting to Christian America. It’s insulting. This is driven by secular progressives –
NEIL CAVUTO: The Jews and Muslims say it’s insulting to keep the “Christmas.”
BILL O’REILLY: I say that Muslims are less than 1 percent of the population, and Jews are less than 3 percent of the population. They’re entitled to their opinion, they’re entitled to their opinion and they are entitled not to shop in places that say “Merry Christmas,” just as I’m entitled not to shop in places that don’t. That’s what I say. But the bottom line on this is this: Secular progressives which are driving this movement, OK, don’t want Christmas. They don’t want it as a federal holiday, they don’t want any message of spirituality or Judeo-Christian tradition because that stands in the way of gay marriage, legalized drugs, euthanasia, all of the greatest hits on the secular progressive play card…”
Media Matters has extensively documented O’Reilly theory of the “secular progressive movement” and broke it down into three elements. Read more »
Arizona Tops #7 UCLA, 52-14
In the rout of the weekend, the Arizona Wildcats (3-6, 2-4 PAC-10) crushed the seventh-ranked UCLA Bruins (8-1, 5-1 PAC-10), 52-14, in Tucson tonight.
Willie Tuitama, an 18-year-old freshman in his second college start, threw for two early touchdowns and Arizona rolled for 519 yards in a 52-14 rout of the previously unbeaten and seventh-ranked Bruins.
“It was wild out there,” Tuitama said, “really crazy.”
The scene on the field was incredible as Wildcat fans finally got something to cheer for, and all those close games that just seemed to never pan out for UA finally did tonight.
Hundreds of fans, mostly students, stormed the field at the finish. Some climbed the goal posts in jubilation but couldn’t bring them down.
GOP Lobbyists Refer to Religious Base as “Wackos”
Meet Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon.
These two are accused of exploiting Native American tribes for over $66 million, diverting the funds to buy favors from “powerful members of Congress and the executive branch,” writes Salon’s Michael Scherer.
In a memo that was read during a Capitol Hill hearing on November 2, from Scanlon, former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land, Tex.), sent to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, outlining his plan for protection of Tribe’s gambling businesses:
“The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees… Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.”
It is no surprise to many how the GOP uses and abuses the religious right for political reasons but shocking that that no one within the party calls them out on it.
Bush to Nominate Alito to Supreme Court
President Bush is set to announce his Supreme Court nomination “do-over” with the appointment of Judge Samuel Alito from the Third Circuit Appeals Court.
Already, there has been much uproar over this pick as many akin him to current Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, earning him the monikers of “Scalito” and “Scalia-lite.” Despite what one Republican strategist claims is a racial slur towards Mr. Alito’s Italian heritage, Faiz of Think Progress highlighted five years of “liberal media” using the nicknames and explictly pointing to his “judicial philosophy” as the reason.
While Alito’s resume is nothing to scoff at, his rulings on a number of cases in race and sex discrimination are alarming to say the least. People for the American Way have an extensive fact sheet on Alito. Jonathan Turley, professor at George Washington University’s law school, weighed in on Alito’s nomination, on NBC’s Today in an interview with Katie Couric:
“He’s the top choice for particularly pro-life people. Sam Alito is viewed as someone is likely to join the hard right in likely narrowing and possibly voting to overturn Roe … There will be no one to the right of Sam Alito on this Court. This is a pretty hardcore fellow on abortion issues.”
Politicians are already coming out of the woodwork, drumming their war-drums and rallying the armies for a fight. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) released a statement and said:
“Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not strength.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) also released a statement concerning the nomination of Alito saying he was “disappointed” by the nomination for “several reasons” as he categorized this selection as “not the product of consultation with Senate Democrats.” Reid also expressed disappointment due to the lack of diversity on the court:
“This appointment ignores the value of diverse backgrounds and perspectives … The President has chosen a man to replace Sandra Day O’Connor … For the third time, he has declined to make history by nominating the first Hispanic to the court … And he has chosen yet another federal appellate judge to join a court that already has eight justices with that narrow background. President Bush would leave the Supreme Court looking less like America and more like an old boys club.”
There’s a flipside to this coin. Obviously the left is up-in-arms over Alito’s nomination so how is the news received on the right?
Adam C. of RedState, as many Republicans and right-wing advocates will be doing in the coming weeks, cites Alito’s exceptional resume of fifteen years served on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. No one is debating his qualifications. All hell would have broken loose if Bush fumbled his nomination on a obviously unqualified choice. But as Adam continues, he labels Alito as “ordinary in a good way.” He cites Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) that a Democrat filibuster “will not stand.”
Michelle Malkin provides nothing much more than a reference guide for sources on Alito. I am not surprised after the brutal bashing she has received on her “journalistic integrity.”
PoliPundit reviewed how some politicians would potentially vote up or down on Alito, concluding that “confirmation is almost absolutely assured.”
Updated 10/31/05 at 3:12pm: Since the nomination of Alito, some right-wing nutjobs were trying to say that critics were making racially derogatory nicknames by calling him “Scalito.”
In every news article I read about him, the writer always noted why he had that nickname. The truth about it? People refer to him as “Scalito” because of his judicial philosophy-likeness to that of Antonin Scalia, not because of his Italian-heritage.
The allegations are completely false and the right-wingers are just fishing for some kind of moral high road when every path in front of them sinks below sea level.
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