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NSA Surveillance Watch: US Supreme Court Affirms Appeals Court Ruling – OKs Bush Domestic Surveillance Program
The National Security Agency (NSA) logo is shown on a computer screen inside the Threat Operations Center at the NSA in Fort Meade, Maryland, January 25, 2006.
The United States Supreme Court earlier today let stand a United States Court of Appeals ruling that OK’d the Bush Administrations’s domestic warrantless surveillance program.
The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to civil rights and privacy advocates who oppose the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The justices, without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The action underscored the difficulty of mounting a challenge to the eavesdropping, which remains classified and was confirmed by President Bush only after a newspaper article revealed its existence.
“It’s very disturbing that the president’s actions will go unremarked upon by the court,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security project. “In our view, it shouldn’t be left to executive branch officials alone to determine the limits.”
The Terrorist Surveillance Program no longer exists, although the administration has maintained it was legal.
The ACLU sued on behalf of itself, other lawyers, reporters and scholars, arguing that the program was illegal and that they had been forced to alter how they communicate with foreigners who were likely to have been targets of the wiretapping.
A federal judge in Detroit largely agreed, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs could not prove their communications had been monitored and thus could not prove they had been harmed by the program.
Ann Beeson, the American Civil Liberties Union’s associate legal director and the lead attorney for the plaintiffs challenging the government’s wiretapping policy, addresses the media in Detroit, in this June 12, 2006, file photo. A federal judge ruled Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006 that the government’s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.
And, remember the original story about a federal judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, issuing an injunction for the program (the injunction was stayed while the ruling was appealed.)
The Bush Administration announced in January 2007 that it would put intercepts of communications on U.S. soil under the oversight of that court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And. last August, Congress made temporary changes to FISA that made the warrantless wiretapping legal in some instances and also extended immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies that help with the intercepts.
This law expired over the weekend in the midst of a dispute between the Democrat controlled Congress and President Bush over allowing telecommunications companies to receive immunity from lawsuits for their cooperation with the government.
This lawsuit is over but the issue remains contentious. The United States Senate passed legislation reauthorizing the August law but Democrat leaders in the House have refused to bring up the law for a vote – pending a request for additional information.
Stay tuned…….
Previous:
NSA Surveillance Watch: US Appeals Court Throws Out Ruling – OKs Bush Domestic Surveillance Program
NSA Surveillance Watch: Judge Orders Halt to NSA Surveillance Program
NSA Surveillance Watch: Mark Steyn – “To Connect the Dots, You Have to See the Dotsâ€
NSA Surveillance Watch: President Bush Defends Scope of NSA Surveillance
NSA Surveillance Watch: NSA’s Telephone Data Collection and Analysis Program – Is It LEGAL?
NSA Surveillance Watch: NSA Has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls
NSA Surveillance Watch: Senate Intelligence Committee Decides NOT to Pursue Investigation
NSA Surveillance Watch: Congressional Probe of NSA Surveilance Is in Doubt
NSA Surveillance Watch: Specter Skeptical of Domestic Spy Program
NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Testify
NSA Surveillance Watch: AP Poll- Most Say U.S. Needs Warrant to Snoop? – RECYCLED
NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: Vice President Cheney Strongly Defends Eavesdropping Operation
Cox & Forkum: One Man’s Whistleblower
Global War on Terror Watch: Why the NSA Monitors Communications of Al-Qaida
NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: President Bush Defends NSA SurveillanceNSA Leak Case Watch: New York Times’ Reporter James Risen
NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying Leak
NSA Surveillance Watch: President Had Legal Authority to OK Taps
NSA Surveillance Watch: Calls for Congressional Hearings
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Hillary Clinton Watch: Obama Guilty of Plagiarism? Part Two
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=wJDNzYp0Ecw[/youtube]
Senator Barack Obama addresses a crowd in Manning, SC
Top Clinton campaign officials Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson are holding another conference call with reporters now. Wolfson is pointing to a “pattern” of alleged plagiarism by Barack Obama, suggesting that reporters look at a blog entry by ABC’s Jake Tapper which suggests another example of Obama lifting material from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
The revelation that Obama was copying his friend the Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick is starting to grow some legs.
Will the MSM even notice and/or care?
How will Team Clinton use it to their advantage?
And, will it be enough to derail the Obama juggernaut?
The GOP will definitely use it – over and over again…….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6x1H08aFc[/youtube]
Barack Obama’s Wisconsin speech from 2/17/08
That speech contained language similar to Deval Patrick’s 2006 speech called “Just Wordsâ€.
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Missile Defense Watch: Failed Satellite To Be Downed on Wednesday, February 20
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=gXDLcUpD1Fw[/youtube]
Successful intercept of ballistic missile target by Aegis SM-3 missile
The United States Navy will make its first attempt to shoot down a failed satellite on Wednesday evening around 6:30 PM PST.
The U.S. government issued a formal notice warning ships and planes to stay clear of a large area of the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii.
The notice says the two- and-a-half hour window begins 2:30 a.m. Thursday Greenwich Mean Time, which is 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast, and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Hawaii.
The timing is also after the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to be safely on the ground.
Pentagon officials caution that the notice reflects the first opportunity to take a shot at the satellite, but it’s possible the attempt could be delayed until later.
A near miss or a direct “kill” of the satellite would mean that dangerous and toxic hydrazine fuel would burn up in the earth’s atmosphere and not be a threat to any inhabited areas below. The satellite is in a decaying orbit and if otherwise not touched would descend to earth sometime in early March.
Stay tuned……Previous:
Russia Says United States Has Ulterior Motive in Shooting Down Satellite
Missile Defense Watch: Failed Satellite – A Message to China
United States Speeding Up Missile Defense Plans – Russia
Missile Defense Watch: Putin Continues to Say NYET to Eastern Europe Missile Defense
Missile Defense Watch: US Proposes Joint Missile Defense with Russia
Missile Defense Watch: Operational
Missile Defense Watch: Vandenberg AFB Ground-Based Interceptor Missile Test is Successful
Missile Defense Watch: Gates – Missile Defense in Eastern Europe Continues
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Day By Day by Chris Muir February 19, 2008
The next few days will be cool and rainy here in Southern California. California needs the rain but Flap is happy that Spring is just around the corner.
Election day in Wisconsin today. Will Obama blow out Hillary and end her campaign?
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Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro is OUT
Cuba’s President Fidel Castro is seen sitting in Havana October 28, 2006. Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said in its Wednesday edition.
Castro today resigned his Cuban
Presidencydictatorship and has retired.An ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he was retiring and will not accept a new term when the new parliament meets Sunday.
“I will not aspire to nor accept – I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept – the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief,” read a letter signed by Castro published early Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The announcement effectively ends the rule of the 81-year-old Castro after almost 50 years, positioning his 76-year-old brother Raul for permanent succession to the presidency. Fidel Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery.
When does the revolution for democracy begin?
Previous:
Michael Ramirez on Castro’s Socialized Medicine
Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Decided to Avoid Colostomy?
Cuba Watch: Fidel Castro – Gravely Ill – Is He Done?
Cuba Watch: Cuba Awaits Verdict on Castro’s Health
Cuba Watch: Is Fidel Castro Dead?
Technorati Tags: Cuba, FidelCastro
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links for 2008-02-19
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McCain will put Bush out there in red states. Why not?
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And, Obama’s apparent plagiarism of Mass Gov. Duval plays into this line of attack. But, will Hillary exploit it and deny Obama the nomination?
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Does anyone think Iran is NOT developing a nuclear weapon?
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A win for a failure ……