Friday, January 19, 2007

Whistles Down the Track



In a recent Countdown episode, Keith Olbermann discusses the latest purging of U.S. Attorneys by Bush (which was accomplished with the help of PA's own Senator Arlen Specter), see One Down, One to Go, as well as the supposed concession by the Administration to give up its warrantless domestic surveillance program. See, e.g., More Power than Law. As GW University law professor Jonathan Turley said, these actions are signs that the Administration is hearing "whistles down the track" from Congress and the courts, for routinely and flagrantly violating the constitution, which the President took an oath to uphold.

As to the supposed agreement to comply with FISA, as reported by the NYTimes in White House Shifting Tactics in Spy Cases, I think I'll put that one in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category. But of course, the problem is that we're not allowed to see -- or know -- anything, so we'll never know. And trust me doesn't do it for me, credibility-wise. Turley calls the Administration's actions nothing more than a "gaming of the system" until the point that the Administration might be held responsible, at which point, they just change course. See also, Dick Polman's discussion at American Debate. Not surprisingly, since he's usually right on target, I'm with Polman on this one.

(Video via Throw away your TV)

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