The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Constitutional issues and questions are posted to this category.
Remember when John Ashcroft assured us that the Patriot Act wouldn’t be used to access library records? Raw Story has a nice piece that explains how the government kept the truth quiet until the Patriot Act was reauthorized.
Read moreCitizens have been writing about the imperial aspirations of this White House since shortly after Bush’s first inauguration. Helen Thomas fired a tough broadside on the subject back in 2002. And just this week Gary Hart wrote a comprehensive summary of our current constitutional crisis.
Read moreUnbelievable, and yet true: The explicit goal of the police is to prevent law-abiding citizens from protesting. If this isn’t a totalitarian state, I don’t know what is.
Read moreRepublicans are packaging as “reform” a plan that would gut FISA, leaving the president free to spy on Americans without obtaining a warrant. A NY Times editorial expresses appropriate outrage at this cynical ploy to shield the president’s lawless behavior:
Read moreA couple in Rhode Island decided to pay off their J.C. Penney credit card, so they mailed in a $6,500 payment. They later learned their payment was being held until reviewed by Homeland Security because it was more than their usual monthly payment.
Read moreIn a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration’s original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago.
Read moreMy final word on the VP Dick Cheney shooting scandal.
Read moreWell, it is interesting that after Little Al Gonzales got ripped a new one during the Senate Hearings on King George’s domestic warrantless spying, the King suddenly decided it was OK to declassify some bogus “threat” so he could tell us about it (you know 9/11, airplanes into buildings, be afraid, be very afraid). Bush says he will not talk about specific security threats to America. Unless, of course, he needs to talk about a specific threat to Los Angeles to confuse the public and gain some cheap political advantage.
Read moreBush’s defense of his illegal domestic spying program in the State of the Union was almost entirely disputed yesterday by legal specialists across the ideological spectrum. “Bush’s assertion that his program was legal prompted a group of 14 prominent law professors, including both liberals and conservatives, to pen a joint letter objecting to his arguments.” Legal scholars disputed three false claims made by Bush.
Read moreSection 605 of the House version of the Patriot Act renewal legislation. It calls for the creation of a Federal Police Force. Your imperial presidency at work.
Read moreKarl Rove says that this year’s midterm elections will be about security. Were but that true.
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