http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/19/bush.poll/index.html
Mmmm, it’s filling up!
That’s a Saturday poll. The next poll will be taken after the ‘recent unpleasantness’ that we’re all watching with such a gimlet eye.
Well, looks like we found the real world Terry Rialto. OMDFG.
And it’s all about Roy Edroso too! (Kind of.)
[Insert standard observation on the continuing bonk-headed fucktardedness of the US press.]
Take it away, lead story on CNN*:
Bush: Secret wiretaps to continue
Defends eavesdropping on international communicationsPresident Bush said today he will continue the U.S. government’s use of secret wiretaps to monitor activities of people suspected of being connected to al Qaeda. “To save American lives we must be able to act fast and to detect these conversations so we can prevent new attacks,” Bush said during a year-end news conference at the White House.
And it goes on like that.
Because apparently, when you get a warrant for a search or wiretap (i.e. do it according to the law), the judge calls up the suspect and is all like, “Guess what, fella? I just signed a warrant to search or wiretap you!” But instead, because Al Qaeda is extra-sneaky and might be like, “Dudes, this judge just called me, so (cough cough) ixnay on the error-tay, por favor,” President Bush wants to do it ‘secretly.’ Meanwhile, critics are demanding an end to ‘eavesdropping.’
Or, if there’s some other way to explain how this lead paragraph makes sense, I’m missing it.
Does the notion of obtaining-warrants come up at all in this CNN story? Happily, yes! Take it away, Paragraph Eleven:
The NSA monitors billions of communications worldwide. Although the NSA is barred from domestic spying, it can get warrants issued with the permission of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. The court is set up specifically to issue warrants allowing wiretapping on domestic soil.
A fine bit of background color. But let’s edit that just a wee.
The NSA monitors billions of communications worldwide. Although the NSA is barred from domestic spying, it can get warrants issued with the permission of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. The court is set up specifically to issue warrants allowing wiretapping on domestic soil[, but President Bush ordered that wiretaps be done without FISA warrants — and this is the thing that people are so upset about.]
See, we can offer these corrections because unlike the shoestring operation that CNN is running, we have a massive and highly-trained organization of hypothetical cat minions. We simply have them outgunned.
*Woop, they changed it.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush defended using government wiretaps without court authorization to monitor terrorism suspects and urged the Senate to renew the USA Patriot Act during his year-end news conference Monday.
“Reeow! Hsfpt!”
This is much more serious. Much more:
Police whack giant snow penis
Bonus points: the caption that accompanied the first photo:
A snow stands next to and points to a pile of snow. The pile was a snow penis made by Jessica Sherer that was kicked down by New Windsor police.
Extra credit:
The last two nights of freezing weather has made the snow too stiff to sculpt, said Sherer. But she intends to rebuild.
Thanks to Chuckles for the link.
The A.P. reports that demonstrators picketed a Sacramento Wal-Mart last week.
“But why?” you ask. “Is it because Wal-Mart pays people crappy wages and has a reputation as the worst union-busting company in America?”
Sadly, no. These people were protesting Wal-Mart because they’re saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” in their advertising campaigns:
A group of religious protesters demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart superstore Saturday, hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer’s decision to use “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” in its seasonal advertising. […]
Controversy over the secularization of Christmas is nothing new, but this year religious groups are publicly taking on retailers who have decided to tone down the religious aspects of the holiday in their store decorations and promotional material.
In an online petition, the American Family Association recently gathered more than 500,000 signatures asking Target to include Christmas in its promotions. Stores such as Sears and Wal-Mart are facing boycotts.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Wyatt said the company has made no effort to remove Christmas from its holiday ads. She said a promotion set to run from mid-November to early January was simply misunderstood: its slogan is “home for the holidays.”
Y’know, I’m really amazed at the things today’s so-called “Christians” get outraged over. It doesn’t matter that Wal-Mart treats its employees like garbage (the lazy bastards should have worked harder and had their parents send them to business school, after all). But if they dare wish people “Happy Holidays,” the wingnut rube brigade will storm their castle with torches and pitchforks.
Gonna need one of these.
I’m watching Condi Rice on Meet the Press right now. She doesn’t look very good at all. She keeps falling back on the argument that “This is a new kind of war, and therefore we have to take away systems of checks and balances.”
This is starting to look very, very bad indeed.
We knew that the NSA was feeding intercepts to John Bolton (collected from 10,000 US citizens), and recently we also learned that the NSA has been conducting thousands of warrantless wiretaps, which could easily have been obtained legally. Something’s starting to smell a bit like an enemies list.
Another question this raises is whether any super-secret Patriot Act detentions stemmed from super-secret, warrantless NSA spying. One reason to set up secret tribunals off the legal grid is, of course, that the evidence shown in them need not be disclosed — and vice versa, in various interlocking ways. Plus, add torture to the mix, and you have all the necessary parts in place for a classic, functioning apparatus of political…well, ‘terror’ is such a harsh word. And luckily, we still have posse comita… Um. Otherwise the military…
Just saying. It really makes you step back a pace and think, “Wow, couldn’t that be abused in terrible ways in the hands of an irresponsible administration, should one ever come to power.”
And of course, it’s just one more reason to worry each time Andrew doesn’t update for a week or so.
Bonus item from the ever-interesting Capitol Hill Blue: ?Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,? Bush screamed back. ?It?s just a goddamned piece of paper!?
Michelle Malkin, easily the most despicable pundit of all time, continues her jihad against American freedom:
This morning, the Drudge Report–HUGE RED FONT and all–chose to aid and abet the civil liberties Chicken Littles at the N.Y. Times. That’s a shame.
Yes. That Drudge is such a left-wing hack.
The real headline news is not that President Bush took extraordinary measures to protect Americans in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but that the blabbermouths at the Times chose to disclose classified information in a pathetically obvious bid to move the Iraqi elections off the front pages.
Which is, if course, why the Times featured the Iraqi elections on its front page yesterday.
I’d normally have a lot more to say about this, but I’m far too tired to go on a profanity-laced tirade right now. However, this comment over at Eric Muller’s place sums up my feelings precisely:
I see the word “Chicken Little” attached quite frequently to liberals. I’m incredulous the mockery is coming from the same idiots working feverishly to stoke a fire under the “War on Christmas” meme. The same people who think letting gay people get married will destroy the morals and good homes of children everywhere.
Now, I guess everyone’s entitled to a little outrage and “alarmism.” But conservatives need to look in the mirror. If they’re worried that our cultural and moral values are crumbling upon the heads of good-hearted, Christian families everywhere, that’s kinda the same thing as suggesting that “sky is falling.”
And let’s not forget about Michelle’s obsession with… THE CRESCENT!!!!!!!!!
“GAAAAAAH!!!! I CAN FEEL IT EATING FREEDOM!!1!!1!”
[putt-putt-putt-putt…]
[putt-putt-putt-Erk! (slam)]
[piano theme]
“I’ve paid my dues…”
“Time after time…”
“I haff done mein zentence.”
“But committed no crime.”
“And bad mistakes…”
“We’ve made a few!”
Read the rest of this entry »