They Can't Legislate $hit
Marty Lederman notes that Cheney's latest dodge includes a reference to the ruling that limits Congress' oversight over the Executive strictly to those areas where it pertains to legislation. From that, he argues that Cheney's response was premised on the belief that FISA itself is an illegal restriction on the Executive.
Finally, the letter lists numerous reasons whythe VP's office might not release the requested documents.
Wilkes Will Get an Enemy Combatant Lawyer for His Extraordinary Rendition-Related Trial
At least that's what I infer from the comments of the lawyer from the public defender's nonprofit that will now take on Wilkes' defense in one of two cases (thanks to chrisc for sending this on) he has been charged on.
A lawyer from Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc., a nonprofit thatrepresents indigent people accused of federal crimes, will representWilkes in the criminal case with co-defendant Kyle “Dusty†Foggo, theformer third-highest-ranking
What Stephen Hayes Doesn't Want You to Know about Cheney's Involvment in Outing Valerie Wilson
I confess. I peeked ahead.
Today, we're going to play a little quiz game. If you had to pick the parts of the CIA Leak story that Cheney's hand-picked propagando-biographer would leave out, thereby leaving a picture that Dick Cheney was not centrally involved in the leak, what would you leave out?
The answers are after the jump.
Hayes left out:The notes Cheney made on Wilson's op-ed, including the question "Or did his wife
Details on Cheney's FISA Documents
It appears that Dan Eggen has gotten a copy of the letter from Dick's office, detailing which documents he has that respond to FISA subpoenas. Among other things, Eggen's report appears to suggest that the warrantless wiretap program operated illegally for 9 days (and possibly as many as 22 days) before it was amended to satisfy DOJ; previously, we had only know it had operated illegally for one day.
Here're the
Schloz Shortened
From TPMM, though no details about why or when:
Bradley Schlozman, a former Justice Departmentofficial who was at the center of the U.S. attorneys scandal and isunder investigation by the Departments inspector general for hisalleged efforts to politicize the Civil Rights Division, has finallyleft his post at the Department.
And while we're counting people leaving DOJ, one of the good guys is leaving, too:
DLA Piper US LLP today announced that Peter Zeidenberg, a
Documents from Dick, not Bush?!?!?
As ThinkProgress reports, the Senate Judiciary Committee was about to issue subpoenas on the warrantless wiretapping program. And then Cheney told Specter no. And Specter did what Cheney told him to do. Lesson number 383,947 in why Specter is the most pathetic piece of haggis in the Senate.
In fact, we were about to issue subpoenas then and one of thesenators came to our meeting and said that the vice president had
Senate Friends
I only caught the tail end of Pat Leahy's uneventful press conference. But apparently, I didn't miss much. The deadline for the White House still stands--but they're going to miss it. And Leahy--he says he can't do anything until everyone returns in September.
But there is something he can do now. Why don't those on the Senate Judiciary Committee--and anyone else in the Senate who'd like to join in--submit a friend of
House GOP Mutiny
We've been hearing inklings of a BushCo plan for a veerrrrryyy slooowwww draw-down of troops. Scott Horton explains the reasoning more clearly than "serious" journalists would.
A major point driving the move has been the Congressional G.O.P. Bushwas told that if he pushed a straight continuation of the Surgestrategy after this fall, he would lose most of the CongressionalG.O.P.
The ACLU Motion
Now that I've finally gotten around to the ACLU motion to unseal the FISC opinions on the warrantless wiretap programs, I'd like to recommend the original motion submitted by the ACLU. The motion catalogs a good deal of the Orwellian games the Administration is playing and collects, in one place, many of the Administrations evasive tactics regarding the warrantless wiretap program.
Fred's Delays and FISA
[See the update below]
I never did comment on the FISC order for more briefing on the question of whether it--the Court--should turn over to the ACLU the Court's decisions ruling parts of the warrantless wiretap program illegal.
While the order is signed by the Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, I had a deja vu of the request Judge Walton (who joined the FISC about mid-way into the events that the ACLU
Rally Squads and Disappearing Demonstrators
In a post on the $80,000 settlement BushCo had to pay for ejecting two people wearing an anti-Bush (that is, pro-America) t-shirt from a presidential rally, Pam Spaulding links to the Advance Manual used to prepare for such presidential rallies; the government turned over a very heavily redacted copy of the Manual during the suit.
Why You Don't Have the Guys that Are Part of the Story...
...Covering the story...
Not surprisingly, when David Gregory had Karl Rove on Meet the Press this morning, he never called Rove on any of Rove's misrepresentations. That's par for the course, on NBC. When Russert had Bob Novak on, he didn't call him on any of the misrepresentations, either. (Though to NBC's credit, they had Matt Cooper on to smack Karl around after Karl was gone.) Of course, both Russert (as Libby's
The Democratic Cave
Pow wow linked to this Jonathan Alter article that provides invaluable background to selise's diary describing how the FISA amendment vote went down in the House. Here's how selise chronicles the events of August 3:
Friday, Aug 3, 2007 (floor summary)
At 1:19 PM the House took up H.Res. 600 and it was passed (228-196) at 5:14 PMafter heated debate.
Tom Davis, On the Record Source
By far the most interesting thing (to me at least) in today's WaPo story on how Karl Rove mobilized Administration resources to commit massive Hatch Act violations is this:
"He didn't do these things half-baked. It was total commitment," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III(Va.), who in 2002 ran the House Republicans' successful reelectioncampaign in close coordination with Rove.
Why Rove Resigned? To Grant the Administration Immunity
There have been a flurry of stories depicting the degree to which the Bush Administration has politicized ... everything. McClatchy described how Treasury and Commerce were making decisions based on the political value for the Republican party. And today, the WaPo describes how Interior and Labor were doing the same. And based on interviews and documents, the WaPo describes the whole process as more systematic than anything before.
But Rove, who announced
Electronic Surveillance
James Risen and Eric Lichtblau have a report today supporting what many around these parts have suggested--that one effect of the amendments to FISA is to expand the kinds of surveillance the Administration can do.
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month couldallow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go wellbeyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain typesof physical searches of American citizens and the
It's a Small World--Impugning a Witness Edition
Wow. Brent Wilkes co-conspirator John Michael is going after Tommy Kontogiannis hard. And they've got a very interesting way to do it (hat tip to CC for the alert).
As you'll recall, John Michael is the least famous of the thugs indicted in the larger Duke Cunningham scandal--Michael was involved in the mortgage company money laundering side of things.
Or Maybe It's the Hatch Act that Will Do Karl In
Pachacutec sent this in an email:
During the briefings at Treasury and Commerce, then-Bushadministration political director Ken Mehlman and other White Houseaides detailed competitive congressional districts, battlegroundelection states and key media markets and outlined GOP strategy forgetting out the vote.
Commerce and Treasury political appointeeslater made numerous public appearances and grant announcements thatoften correlated with GOP interests, according to a review of theevents by McClatchy Newspapers.
Stephen Hayes on Keller on Dick
Warning: I've just started to read Stephen Hayes' book on Cheney (thanks to the short line for the book at Ann Arbor's Public Library, I didn't have to pay Hayes a cent), so this blog will be a little propaganda-busting focused in the next few days. I haven't even gotten beyond the intro without a post!
When I sat down to start this book, I was grumbling to myself that the traditional
Skubick's Off the Record
I talked about Norm Pearlstine's Off the Record the other day. Well, here's a more fun Off the Record--my appearance (with three other bloggers) on Michigan's own "Timmeh," Tim Skubick's show, Off the Record, over the weekend on MI's PBS stations. I don't often link to my teevee appearances, but I had a lot of fun taping this.