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Still Trying to Read Poppy Bush's Lips

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emptywheel
Am I the only one that finds it especially ironic that Poppy Bush endorsed McCain one day after McCain came out with a "no new taxes" pledge? If the timing was unintentional, I'd consider it a rather inauspicious coincidence if I were McCain.
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GOP Poisoning Swing State Voters to Win Elections

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emptywheel
I'm not surprised the Administration is withholding the report showing polluted sites around the Great Lakes may be contributing to elevated cancer rates.
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FISA and the Warrantless Wiretap Briefings

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emptywheel
As we await certain doom because the NSA has to rely on FISA to authorize any new warrantless wiretaps (though it can continue all the programs currently in place), I wanted to correct what appears to be a common mistake about the earlier warrantless wiretap program. I've seen a lot of people claim that all of Congress knew of the program, that the Gang of Eight got regular briefings about it,
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Technical Glitches and Minimization

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emptywheel
The news that the FBI accidentally gave over all the emails from a domain--rather than just user of that domain--illustrates the importance of minimization in the FISA debates.
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A $40 Million "Comedic Gold" Pissing Contest with the Chinese

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emptywheel
The Bush Administration is about to spend $40 million to shoot down a wayward spy satellite--what amounts to a $40 million dollar pissing contest with the Chinese.

AJ Rossmiller: Why Bloggers Are Better Informed than Condi Rice

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emptywheel
AJ Rossmiller (he of AmericaBlog fame) nailed the 2005 Iraqi election. You might recall that as the election where, after it had long become clear Ahmad Chalabi had little base of support in Iraq, some anonymous sources in the Administration nevertheless had great hopes that somehow Chalabimight end up as Prime Minister.

More Charges for Dusty Foggo?

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emptywheel
Did Brent Wilkes, facing heavy jail time because he lied about his finances to get a public defender in his second case, flip on Dusty Foggo?
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Bandar Bush Kicks the Poodle

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emptywheel
The Guardian reports that Bandar allegedly threatened Tony Blair to force him to halt an investigation into BAE-related bribes of Bandar.
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Ode to Donna Edwards' Wheaties

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emptywheel
Both Silvestre Reyes and Harry Reid made good speeches today anticipating Bush's tired old attacks. Could it be that Donna Edwards' victory woke some people up?

Condi Ignores Doubts on the 16 Words

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emptywheel
Condi succeeded in dodging Robert Wexler's questions about Iraq intelligence. A pity, too, because she sure opened herself up for some doozy questions about the SOTU.

John Yarmuth (D-KY): 2006 Was About the Rule of Law

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emptywheel
John Yarmouth--who was elected in 2006--sounds like DFH blogger. While I disagree that 2006 wasn't about the war, I strongly agree with Yarmouth: Democrats were given control of Congress to reclaim the rule of law.

Conyers Has Gotten Cranky

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emptywheel
John Conyers begins to set up a legal paper trail to document his crankiness with the Unitary Executive.
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Will The House Honor Their Oath To Office, Or Follow The Senate's Lead And Cave To Fear?

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emptywheel
Some of us, okay, I am referring to myself, thought that FISA was cooked yesterday and that the fork might as well be stuck in. As I said in the last thread,...the House is putting on what appears to be a better showing than the Senate, but I have no doubt that it is all kabuki and the deal is done.
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House Oversight Committee Liveblog - Rocket's Red Glare

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emptywheel
A couple of people have inquired about a liveblog on the Clemens hearings. I was initially fairly uninclined to do that here because we usually deal with more important subjects. But I am fed up with FISA and the dereliction of duty of our Congress on that issue. I also have some time on my hands for a while today and think that there are many issues that really are important that are in play in the Clemens mess; so here we go.
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Roll Call--Then and Now

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emptywheel
We gained DiFi and Amy Kobuchar from the PAA vote. That's not so much.
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FISA: On to the House

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emptywheel
John Conyers reminds the Administration they're still sitting on all the documents relevant to FISA.
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FISA Liveblog And Trash Talk Thread Tuesday 2/12/08

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emptywheel
Another day, another sellout. Make a record. Because we are certainly going to be appealing what our Senate, and Congress, is doing to us and our Constitution by their cancerous and derelict actions on FISA.