Warrantless Surveillance
A federal judge dealt a setback to the Bush administration on its warrantless surveillance program, ordering the Justice Department on Thursday to release documents about the highly classified effort within 20 days or compile a list of what it is withholding. Article
What really got my attention was the at the end of the article it stated;
"Routine FOIA requests are to be handled within 20 days while expedited requests have no set time limit under the law, prompting the Justice Department to take the position that the amount of time for expedited requests could be longer than that for the routine 20-day handling."
That has to be one of the most backwards legal arguments I have ever heard. It makes you wonder what the government is hiding. As Nixon showed us, it often isn't the act that gets people into trouble, but rather the coverup.
posted by Me @ 3:15 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
NHS -
I'm enjoying your political commentary / awareness-raising these days. We need folks with ideas/perspective/opinion involved in this here democratic process. I'm with you, the current administration is a scary one. Recactionary - yes. Trading bureaucracy for easily solved local solutions, also - yes, they are.
In terms of the surveillance issue, I personally feel that this Bush Administration action is by far the most overreaching of executive powers in a very long time. I know folks unneccesarily overuse comparisons between the current US admin and that of the 3rd Reich, but hell, why shouldn't they? It is what it is.
Tapping phone conversations and other forms of communication must me terribly fun - I'd love to listen in on one of RU and Fiances converations for the entertainment value alone.
We're consdering major abuses of power. As my old man would say - Bill got a blow job - it didn't affect me personally. The actions of the BA affect us all, and I guarantee it's not going to be a pleasure.
We need to stop this crap now. It's not a lot of work. One letter, one phone call does make a difference. In many states a couple of calls have helped to sway house votes and turned votes on critical election issues.
We cannot let these power-hungry folks destroy the quality of life we currently (or at least used to) enjoy in this country.
That's my two cents - for today at least. Keep it up.
jsg
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