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New Details on How the FISA Bill Got Passed

Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus in the Washington Post have some behind the scenes details of how the FISA Amendment passed.

It doesn't change anything. The Dems caved and Speaker Pelosi promising to revisit the bill doesn't make their rollover any more palatable.

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    Elmer Fudd (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by squeaky on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 10:06:20 AM EST
    They were seeking thousands of warrants???  

    For guys that pass notes to one another?

    Unknotting the FISA Celtic Knot (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by Ellie on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 12:37:21 PM EST
    Re the cited WaPo article, TL locals might be interested in Kevin Drum's checklist to make linear sense of the developments outlined in WaPo article. He's trying to pin down some of the distinctions that became blurred in the murk of business as usual.

    As for suggestions upstream to clutter the automatic warrantless listening with static: ask your friends abroad to use public computer locales to contact the Congress Critters themselves, giving preference to the goofs that rubber stamped this.

    If they have excellent recipes for Red Flag Bhaba Ghanoush and Hey NSA Hummous to share: COOL! If s/he knows a great little Central Asian takeout that serves rilly kickass veggie shawarma, all the better.

    (Actually, bcc me on the latter. My connection closed down before I could beat the secret yoghurt sesame sauce rec out of them, so I'd risk food poisoning for a replacement that could overnight a decent sammy.)

    A new look (1.00 / 1) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 05:25:12 PM EST
    The NYT has a different take on things.

    At a closed-door briefing in mid-July, senior intelligence officials startled lawmakers with some troubling news. American eavesdroppers were collecting just 25 percent of the foreign-based communications they had been receiving a few months earlier.

    Now what might have caused this?? Could it be that some judge threw a monkey wrench in the works?

    After all, I have been assured time and again that such a thing would never happen. (And the check's in the mail, the beamer's paid for....)

    The prelude to approval of the plan occurred in January, when the administration agreed to put the wiretapping program under the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The court is charged with guarding against governmental spying abuses. Officials say one judge issued a ruling in January that allowed the administration to continue the program under the court's supervision.

    A ruling a month or two later -- the judge who made it and its exact timing are not clear -- restricted the government's ability to intercept foreign-to-foreign communications passing through telecommunication "switches" on American soil
    .

    The security agency was newly required to seek warrants to monitor at least some of those phone calls and e-mail messages. As a result, the ability to intercept foreign-based communications "kept getting ratcheted down," said a senior intelligence official who insisted on anonymity because the account involved classified material. " We were to a point where we were not effectively operating."



    Hahahahahaha (5.00 / 2) (#10)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 05:41:42 PM EST
    You're not pretending are you?

    You'd be on the phone or sending email even if you knew they were listening or reading.

    ...........

    "It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you."
    --Frank Zappa

    Parent

    Frank Zappa :-) (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by Sumner on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 07:02:31 PM EST
    Frank Zappa links (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Sumner on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 07:05:55 PM EST
    Here - enjoy

    Parent
    Sumner and squeaky (1.00 / 1) (#12)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 07:04:51 PM EST
    Can you explain to me the source of your parnoia??

    Just curious.

    Parent

    false premise to your question (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by Sumner on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 07:09:45 PM EST
    Look here

    Parent
    Sumner (1.00 / 1) (#20)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:40:32 PM EST
    As I hinted, your parnoia is astounding.

    No one is listening in on your conversations. No one is looking at your emails.

    Get over it.

    You just aren't that important.

    Parent

    Projecting again, ppj? (5.00 / 0) (#21)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:45:18 PM EST
    It's paranoia, not parnoia.

    And yours is astounding.

    You just aren't that important.

    Get over it.

    Parent

    Ever Hear of (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by squeaky on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 08:17:36 PM EST
    Constitution, the 4th amendment?

    What country are you from?

    Parent

    Squeaky - You still up?? (1.00 / 1) (#18)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:34:19 PM EST
    The US of A. You ever hear about it??

    Oh, I forgot. You live in New York City.

    Parent

    insight into ppj (5.00 / 1) (#25)
    by Sailor on Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 12:20:58 PM EST
    The US of A. You ever hear about it??
    Oh, I forgot. You live in New York City.
    pro-torture;against the constitution, thinks NYC, ya know, where 9/11 actually happened, isn't part of the US.

    Parent
    He's Just (5.00 / 1) (#26)
    by squeaky on Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 04:49:18 PM EST
    Showing his GOP stripes again. Most Republicans seem to have the same feelings toward NYC as they did NOLA. And we all know how ppj felt about the people there: just shoot em.

    Parent
    We're not the ones (none / 0) (#15)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 07:12:29 PM EST
    whose bowels go all loose from the paranoid fantasy of billions of boogeymen about to swarm the beaches, overrun the land, kill everyone in their beds, and replace the constitution with Sharia Law, as soon as the smarten up enough to buy explosives to blow up an airport before they're arrested on the word of a paid FBI collaborating infiltrator. If they can get the pizza store to deliver a map of the airport.

    But we know you figure that only Rudy can save the world, ppj. Have faith.

    Parent

    edgey edger is (1.00 / 1) (#19)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:37:17 PM EST
    Yep, I have been so frightened that once upon a time  I joined Naval Aviation with the intent to protect the country.

    I sure am glad I didn't know about the likes of you. I probably would have gone AWOL. Puking all the way.

    Parent

    Weak stomach, huh? (none / 0) (#22)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:48:01 PM EST
    Not surprising. Maybe this will help. But I doubt it.

    Parent
    Nope. No weak stomach. (1.00 / 1) (#23)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:58:34 PM EST
    Just allergic to people like you.

    Parent
    No elephants--that rolled up (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by oculus on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 08:45:11 PM EST
    newspaper is working.

    Parent
    Navcy Pelosi's promises are empty. (none / 0) (#1)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 01:54:48 AM EST
    She did not have to allow the FISA Amendment to come the floor of the House for a vote, any more than she had to allow the Iraq occupation funding supplemental.

    She is less than useless. She is complicit.

    Saturday NYT also had a lengthy (none / 0) (#2)
    by oculus on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 01:56:40 AM EST
    account of the run-up.  "intelligence" dropped 25%.  Quick--somebody do something--anything.

    Eaxctly... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 02:12:53 AM EST
    flood the internet and the phone (none / 0) (#4)
    by patag on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 02:56:49 AM EST
    We should all become persons of interest. The NSA cannot possibly keep up with millions of emails containing hotbutton words, like "terrorism" and whatever. Heck, they are already doubtless tracking the word "impeachment" every time and everywhere it appears.
    One way or the other, we are all enemies of the State (newly rechristened State, Inc. in 2001).

    Pelosi and her so-called "Democratic leadership": what are they leading, exactly?

    When was the last time that Congress willingly postponed its vacation at the  behest of a lame duck president?

    Why, oh why, should they have believed any "recent intelligence" from an administration who is known to lie copiously - who fudged its own intelligence after the CIA, masters of lying, refused to lie for it in order to invade a country that never threatened the US; who still denies its use of torture while simultaneously promoting and justifying that use?

    And why should anyone believe that this is the real reason that the Democrats passed the new FISA bill? We have way of knowing what was said in the closed-door meetings.

    Heh! (none / 0) (#5)
    by Edger on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 08:35:05 AM EST
    Spam McConnell/Gonzo/Bush to death???

    Every democratic programmer should get busy writing spambots now!

    Parent

    Protect and defend... (none / 0) (#6)
    by RAM on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 09:21:27 AM EST
    I keep wondering when members of the House and Senate will finally wake up and remember their oaths of office that require them to protect and defend the Constitution.