(no subject)
These past few days have been very interesting. First and foremost in the news has been the fact that after September 11, President Bush illegally authorized the NSA to engage in domestic spying (primarily wiretapping phones) without first obtaining a warrant. This revelation has led to furious tirades by the administration, both lambasting the media for 'endangering the country' (the New York Times actually sat on the story for over a year at the administration's request, which to my mind is their real offense) as well as defending the program as necessary to defeat terrorism.
Of course, this is nonsense. The Patriot Act, bad enough in its own right, included provisions for domestic wiretapping of suspected terrorists. There is also a secret court set up under the FISA (Foriegn Intelligence Surviellance Act) whose sole purpose is to grant secret warrants, thus preserving judicial oversight without alerting those under investigation. And it's not like it's difficult to obtain such a warrant. Between 1979 and 2002, not a single request for a warrant under FISA was rejected. To date, only four have ever been turned down.
But what makes this truly disgusting is not just the fact that President Bush is trying to destroy the seperation of powers (much as he would like to do with the seperation of church and state), but the fact that he not only did this in secret, but then blatantly lied about it. During 2004, while defending the Patriot Act, he repeated time and again that the reason the Patriot Act is constitutional and should not be viewed as a threat to civil liberties is that is still requires a court order to be obtained before someone is investigated. He said straight up that before any wiretapping or other surviellance could be initiated, a warrant was required. Clearly, the president has no qualms about lying to the public if it's in the interests of his agenda. As if we didn't already know that.
Speaking of seperation of church and state, the lawsuit over the teaching of intelligent design in Dover, PA has been settled. The judge's 139-page decision can best be summed up by the following quote: 'We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom.' And since the nutjobs that instituted the policy were voted out of office in November, there's not likely to be an appeal. Looks like we've won this round.
Also of interest are the elections in Iraq. It looks like we've set the stage for a secular tyranny to be replaced by a Muslim theocracy (note that I'm not disparaging Muslims or Islam, I think a Christian theocracy would be just as terrifying). The secular/pro-West/liberal segment (it's sad that the progressives had to join forces with the pro-US camp, but what can you do?) had a rather poor showing. The Shia religious bloc will most likely hold a majority in the Council of Representatives. It seems somewhat ironic that, just as rhetoric against Iran is reaching a fever pitch we appear to have created a country just like it.
Of course, this is nonsense. The Patriot Act, bad enough in its own right, included provisions for domestic wiretapping of suspected terrorists. There is also a secret court set up under the FISA (Foriegn Intelligence Surviellance Act) whose sole purpose is to grant secret warrants, thus preserving judicial oversight without alerting those under investigation. And it's not like it's difficult to obtain such a warrant. Between 1979 and 2002, not a single request for a warrant under FISA was rejected. To date, only four have ever been turned down.
But what makes this truly disgusting is not just the fact that President Bush is trying to destroy the seperation of powers (much as he would like to do with the seperation of church and state), but the fact that he not only did this in secret, but then blatantly lied about it. During 2004, while defending the Patriot Act, he repeated time and again that the reason the Patriot Act is constitutional and should not be viewed as a threat to civil liberties is that is still requires a court order to be obtained before someone is investigated. He said straight up that before any wiretapping or other surviellance could be initiated, a warrant was required. Clearly, the president has no qualms about lying to the public if it's in the interests of his agenda. As if we didn't already know that.
Speaking of seperation of church and state, the lawsuit over the teaching of intelligent design in Dover, PA has been settled. The judge's 139-page decision can best be summed up by the following quote: 'We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom.' And since the nutjobs that instituted the policy were voted out of office in November, there's not likely to be an appeal. Looks like we've won this round.
Also of interest are the elections in Iraq. It looks like we've set the stage for a secular tyranny to be replaced by a Muslim theocracy (note that I'm not disparaging Muslims or Islam, I think a Christian theocracy would be just as terrifying). The secular/pro-West/liberal segment (it's sad that the progressives had to join forces with the pro-US camp, but what can you do?) had a rather poor showing. The Shia religious bloc will most likely hold a majority in the Council of Representatives. It seems somewhat ironic that, just as rhetoric against Iran is reaching a fever pitch we appear to have created a country just like it.