The post-Bush pep talk backlash appears to be leaving veep Dick unfazed, as well as “senior” Republican shills morons congressmen. Even though the sane two-thirds of the nation is protesting it, the Washington Post tells us that Il Duce’s wiretapping bill is being manipulated just as he wanted.
The bill, set for Judiciary Committee consideration today, would have forced the administration to seek a warrant for surveillance within 60 days and bolstered consultations with Congress on the program. But last-minute changes pushed by senior Republicans may allow warrantless surveillance to largely continue without those controls.
Maybe senile is what the Post meant to write.
Bill proponents claim there will be “checks”, after a fashion, in place, but the methods are disturbing, saying they
[W]ould allow but not require the administration to submit the program to a secret court for a constitutional review.
Given the admin’s track record for telling the truth, is anyone really stupid enough to believe the White House would be up-front about anything? I mean, come on — if Il Duce went on the air claiming the sky was blue, I’d have to check just to be sure.
But apparently some really are that dumb:
“I do not think it is our intent to . . . ‘rein in’ the NSA,” said House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) […] “I listen to my Democrat friends, and I wonder if they’re more interested in protecting terrorists than in protecting the American people,” Boehner said.
I guess I can understand the worry. We know how hard Ohio was hit on 11 September.
Apparently this “Boner” guy doesn’t understand that the constitution trumps his political cause celebre. Or maybe Mr. Bonehead just flat doesn’t give a shit about the oath he swore to uphold hat constitution and defend the US against all threats, foreign and domestic … including, obviously, himself.
Hey, Boehner: It doesn’t matter what your intent is. It is your duty to rein in the NSA.
Not surprisingly, Dick “Dick” Cheney is also pushing for more control with less oversight, trying to get his kangaroo courts hopping.
The biggest sticking point, [senators] said, was how narrowly to define practices that might subject CIA interrogators or others to charges of committing war crimes.
Torture, in other words. They’re trying to set things up so interrogators can’t be charged with torture.
Given the joke that is airport and seaport security, given the horror we have become in the eyes of our allies, given that any person’s chances of being killed in a “terror” attack are still one in a million (literally), is it worth it? Are we actually safer? Do we sleep more soundly? Do we balm our conscience about Abu Ghraib by mumbling, “Well, at least our kids are safe; there’ve been no attacks since then…”?
How these people live with themselves is totally beyond me.
Speaking of airport “security”, NPR passed along an interesting tidbit this morning. There’s a cap on the number of screeners that can be employed nationally; that number is 45,000. That’s why you see two of them working a line that’s 500 people deep. And it’s why so many passengers are successfully getting banned items on board aircraft.
[M]any people are inadvertently taking banned liquids and gels through security in their pockets and carry-on luggage, according to interviews with several dozen travelers at local airports and with pilots and security officials.
Some passengers are deliberately smuggling items aboard, such as lip balm to handle the too-dry air inside aircraft; some sneak body lotion or cologne or perfume on board. It’s their way of sticking it to the Fed, I guess. Most seem to be getting away with it.
Security is (surprise!) not amused.
“Travelers must realize this isn’t a game,” [TSA spokeswoman Ellen] Howe said. “The threat is real and it continues, and we appreciate the public’s cooperation. Is it the perfect system? No. But does it make it right to sneak things through security? No, it doesn’t.”
She’s right. It isn’t a game.
It’s a fucking joke.
Last and certainly least, Il Duce is once again giving props to his Sky Daddy, predicting a “third awakening” (which I guess follows a “second coming”, if I’m any judge of men), heralded by a
[R]eligious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation’s struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as “a confrontation between good and evil.”
He defended this idea by telling “a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels” — meaning he hears them say things like, “Oh my God, here comes Bush,” and assumes it to be prayer.
But I think the most egregious overstep of that particular horror came here.
Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln’s strongest supporters were religious people “who saw life in terms of good and evil” and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.
You read correctly. Il Duce is seriously comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, who is probably the greatest president this nation ever had.
Where is Lloyd Bentsen when we need him?
Probably waiting to get through his flight check-in, caught with a tube of toothpaste.
