The Democrat Thread

[Balta1701]

And I quote from their caption:

 

"Governor Sarah Palin keeps talking while turkeys get slaughtered behind her."

 

[StrangeSox]

"Breaking News" used to mean something important was happening. Now its used by the cable news networks to mean "story we are currently talking about whose details may be at least 24 hours old."

[HuskyCaucasian]

"Breaking News" used to mean something important was happening. Now its used by the cable news networks to mean "story we are currently talking about whose details may be at least 24 hours old."

:notworthy

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

 

I'll have a TV on in my office and hear the breaking news jingle and think "OMG, what just happened?". I look over... a man is caught in a tree!

[HuskyCaucasian]

And I quote from their caption:

 

"Governor Sarah Palin keeps talking while turkeys get slaughtered behind her."

That guy in the background is funny.

 

He keeps looking at the camera as if to say "are you REALLY going to have her talk with me in the background killing turkeys?"

 

Also, isnt there some funny symbolism that she just keeps talking and talking while carnage is going on behind her?

Edited November 21, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[Steve9347]

Also, isnt there some funny symbolism that she just keeps talking and talking while carnage is going on behind her?

The woman shoots wolves with high powered rifles from helicoptors... I think it's just part of the culture up there. Animals need to be controlled and/or are used for food. Just because you don't see it, it doesn't mean that turkey you eat next Thursday wasn't killed the same way. This is just an honest moment.

 

Seriously, it's time to get over Sarah f***ing Palin. She doesn't affect you anymore.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow: Ann Coulter's Jaw Wired Shut

Ann Coulter may be completely silenced, at least for a while.

 

If the New York Post's Page Six report is true, Coulter broke her jaw and her mouth is wired shut:

 

WE HEAR...THAT although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reaction- ary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut...

[lostfan]

BigSqwert, this is what I was trying to say yesterday, but it's explained a lot better here.

 

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezrakle...ty_ofcompetence

THE AUDACITY OF...COMPETENCE?

 

Rahm Emanuel sez:

 

 

He stressed that the new administration would "throw long and deep," taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy. "The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington," Mr. Emanuel said.

Of course, the key is not what they want to achieve, but what they can achieve. The clear theme of Obama's transition team, White House staff decisions, and leaked cabinet appointments has been experience. Rahm Emanuel. Tom Daschle. Eric Holder. John Podesta. Hillary Clinton. Jim Messina. Pete Rouse. Phil Chiliro. And on, and on, and on. There's not much "change" here. Rather, the emphasis is on folks who know how Washington works, with the clear operating theory being that they'll know how to get things done. That's a different conception of "change" then presidents who come in and bring a lot of new people, which is what Clinton did (though, to be sure, Clinton didn't have a successful recent administration he could draw on for talent). But it's very similar to what Obama did in the primary.

 

And give him his due: It worked. David Plouffe was a former Gephardt staffer. So was Bill Burton. Axelrod did some DCCC work in 2006 and served as national spokesman for John Edwards in 2004. After watching Gephardt and Edwards' 2004 runs, did anyone expect that their former staffers could execute something like Obama's campaign? Seemed unlikely. But the idea was that they had incredible technical competence that just needed to be matched by moment, candidate, and money. And that turned out to be correct.

 

The transition argument seems to be something similar: The longtime Democratic operatives and wonks are really quite good. Paired with this president, and this moment, and this congressional majority, they can go much further than they did under the Clinton administration. It's hard to say whether that'll prove right or wrong. But deciding to shorten the executive learning curve as much as possible and appoint folks with the experience to harness a transient opportunity isn't an implausible strategic decision. The staff will carry out the president's agenda. What's being sought out, then, is not brilliant new ideas for what that agenda should look like, but indisputable technical competence. If the e-mails I'm getting from Obama supporters are representative, however, it's nevertheless not the approach most of them expected.

[BigSqwert]

I get it. I've been reading a lot about this topic but would have preferred a little sprinkling of progressive minds.

[lostfan]

He's still going to push progressive policies that a lot of liberals want to see, but he's directing his political capital where it's best used for now. He can't push them all. I'm sure he'll have some progressive appointments in his cabinet before too long, but the emphasis is on the what, not the who or the how.

[mr_genius]

I heard that Dick Durbin is trying to get George Ryan's sentence commuted.

[Balta1701]

Stealing thoughts about the man who's kind of still in charge. Sort of.

He very easily could have asked Congress to send him a stimulus bill, even a modest one, amid an intensification of what will likely be the worst recession in thirty years, if not longer. It would have made a difference. It would have made the season a little more bearable for the growing numbers of unemployed, and it would have made Obama’s task a little less daunting.

 

Instead, he’s spending his waning days weakening environmental rules, helping his cronies get jobs in the professional bureacracy, and preparing his pardons. What a stupid, despicable man. History can’t judge him too cruelly.

[Balta1701]

Pool report stolen from Kos of What the Obamas did today.

Exiting the podium after meeting the press, Obama was asked his plans for tomorrow and replied that he and Michelle are hosting "a whole bunch of people" at their home.

 

Five minutes after the press conference concluded, the President-elect left the Hilton at 10:08 a.m. and arrived at his home 11 minutes later. The motorcade departed again at 10:55 with Michelle and the girls in tow and arrived at 11:03 at Saint Columbanus Catholic Church, a South South parish that operates a food bank every Wednesday.

 

The Obamas were at the church and adjoining school for about an hour. They emerged into a small parking lot between the church and school where the food distribution operation had been set up in a U-shape.

 

They were all bundled up against the brisk, sunny weather; Michelle and her daughters were wearing toboggan caps; the President-elect had on a brown leather car coat, muffler, chinos and was bareheaded.

 

The First Family-to-be were positioned at the start of the food line; their job was to hand out white plastic bags filled with fresh chicken. Recipients then moved down the line to receive bags of potatoes, apples, loaves of bread and large boxes of staples including macaroni and cheese, tomato sauce, peanut butter, canned corn, oatmeal, Miracle Whip, mixed fruit and other items.

 

Obama called out: "We're ready, let's go, bring 'em on in," and the distribution began.

 

Clearly, those lining up for food hadn't been told they had an importangt guest helping out. this day. Many of them lit up; some shrieked with delight and hugged one or more of the Obamas. One elderly woman bowed; all seemed very appreciative. One and all were greeted with handshakes, hugs, and hearty "Happy Thanksgivings."

 

The daughters behaved like troopers for a half hour or so before the cold caught up with them, and they retired for a few minutes to warm up.

 

One sixty-something neighborhood resident named Daryel Namdan was asked how it felt to have Obama there. "It makes me feel very special," he said, before choking up.

 

Father Matt Eyerman of Saint Columbanus said the church feeds 450 to 500 every week. They start lining up at 5 a.m. to make sure they get a ticket to assure them food.

 

An Obama aide said the family has been to this particular food bank before and has pitched in here or elsewhere at least two other years.

 

After about 40 minutes on the line, Obama decided to go say hello to about 200 students.

 

After shaking hands with the food bank volunteers, he came over to the pool and had this to say:

 

"The number of people who are getting food this year is up 33%. It gives a sense times are tough - and I think that on Thanksgiving it's importat for us tpo remember there's a need for support.

 

"These folks were already oftentimes having a tough time, and it gets tougher now." He encouraged all Americans of means to help out however they could. "This is part of what Thanksgiving should be all about," he said.

 

Asked why he'd brought his daughters along, he replied: "I want them to learn the importance of how fortunate they are and to make sure they're giving back."

 

Then the family walked into the basement auditorium of the school, where about 200 kids from several grades were seated on the floor. When the Obamas walked onto the stage just befofe noon, the kids went nuts, leaping to their feet and cheering. "How's everybody doing?" he asked, coming down off the stage to mingle and inquire about their Thanksgiving plans.

 

He inquired about their collective menus, starting with turkey. "How about macaroni and cheese? How about green beans? How about sweet potato pie? How about cranberry sauce?" With each question, his audience erupted in more cheers.

 

He warmed the hearts of the teachers by delivering an earnest little homily/pep talk about working hard and paying attention. If they diligently pursued their reading and math et al, "There's nothing you can't do. You guys might end being the President some day." Still more cheers.

 

He took two questions from his entranced charges. A sixth-grader asked what it was like to be POTUS.

 

"I'm not the President yet. ..Once I'm sworn in I'll let you know."

 

The second question had to do with his new life. He began by talking about his Secret Service detail. Michelle interjected: "Secret Service, raise your hand." None did. The kids loved the moment more than the squirming, ever-anonymous agents.

 

In his new life "you don't have a lot of privacy," he told them, mentioning that going to Walgreen's and riding a bicycle are now far more involved than before.

 

He wished them all a Happy Thanksgiving, shook more hands, and was rolling north at 12:07 p.m. The family arrived home at 12:17 p.m.

 

Happily, a lid for the day has been declared. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

 

Tom DeFrank

New York Daily News

[BigSqwert]

[Balta1701]

This is probably about as much of a partisan callout article as you'll get from the AP.

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

 

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

 

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

 

"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

 

The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of a philosophy that trusted market forces and discounted the need for government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s.

 

"We're going to be feeling the effects of the regulators' failure to address these mortgages for the next several years," said Kevin Stein of the California Reinvestment Coalition, who warned regulators to tighten lending rules before it was too late.

 

Many of the banks that fought to undermine the proposals by some regulators are now either out of business or accepting billions in federal aid to recover from a mortgage crisis they insisted would never come. Many executives remain in high-paying jobs, even after their assurances were proved false.

 

In 2005, faced with ominous signs the housing market was in jeopardy, bank regulators proposed new guidelines for banks writing risky loans. Today, in the midst of the worst housing recession in a generation, the proposal reads like a list of what-ifs:

 

_Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.

 

_Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.

 

_Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn't be crippling.

 

_Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.

 

_Regulators urged banks to help buyers make responsible decisions and clearly advise them that interest rates might skyrocket and huge payments might be due sooner than expected.

 

Those proposals all were stripped from the final rules. None required congressional approval or the president's signature.

 

"In hindsight, it was spot on," said Jeffrey Brown, a former top official at the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, one of the first agencies to raise concerns about risky lending.

 

Federal regulators were especially concerned about mortgages known as "option ARMs," which allow borrowers to make payments so low that mortgage debt actually increases every month. But banking executives accused the government of overreacting.

 

Bankers said such loans might be risky when approved with no money down or without ensuring buyers have jobs but such risk could be managed without government intervention.

 

"An open market will mean that different institutions will develop different methodologies for achieving this goal," Joseph Polizzotto, counsel to now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, told U.S. regulators in a March 2006.

 

Countrywide Financial Corp., at the time the nation's largest mortgage lender, agreed. The proposal "appears excessive and will inhibit future innovation in the marketplace," said Mary Jane Seebach, managing director of public affairs.

 

One of the most contested rules said that before banks purchase mortgages from brokers, they should verify the process to ensure buyers could afford their homes. Some bankers now blame much of the housing crisis on brokers who wrote fraudulent, predatory loans. But in 2006, banks said they shouldn't have to double-check the brokers.

 

"It is not our role to be the regulator for the third-party lenders," wrote Ruthann Melbourne, chief risk officer of IndyMac Bank.

So, to summarize....the changes were out there, proposed, that could at the very least have softened the sharpest parts of the bubble. The Executive Branch could have added those regulations without Congressional approval. Congress probably could have jumped in and added them if they thought they were important enough. A bunch of banks said no, we can't do that. Those banks are now all dead.

[southsider2k5]

This is probably about as much of a partisan callout article as you'll get from the AP.

So, to summarize....the changes were out there, proposed, that could at the very least have softened the sharpest parts of the bubble. The Executive Branch could have added those regulations without Congressional approval. Congress probably could have jumped in and added them if they thought they were important enough. A bunch of banks said no, we can't do that. Those banks are now all dead.

 

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editoria...nancial_fiasco/

 

Frank's fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco

By Jeff Jacoby

Globe Columnist / September 28, 2008

 

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'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."

Discuss

COMMENTS (575)

 

That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "

 

In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.

 

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits -- many of whom have been learning lately just how pitiless the private sector’s discipline can be -- they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

 

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

 

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

 

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

 

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

 

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

 

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

[Balta1701]

Ok, read article, decide before checking link...am I or am I not linking to the Onion here?

A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky's Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can't keep the state safe without God's help.

 

American Atheists Inc. sued in state court over a 2002 law that stresses God's role in Kentucky's homeland security alongside the military, police agencies and health departments.

 

Of particular concern is a 2006 clause requiring the Office of Homeland Security to post a plaque that says the safety and security of the state "cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty God" and to stress that fact through training and educational materials.

 

The plaque, posted at the Kentucky Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort, includes the Bible verse: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

 

"It is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I've ever seen," said Edwin F. Kagin, national legal director of Parsippany, N.J.-based American Atheists Inc. The group claims the law violates both the state and U.S. constitutions.

 

But Democratic state Rep. Tom Riner, a Baptist minister from Louisville, said he considers it vitally important to acknowledge God's role in protecting Kentucky and the nation.

 

"No government by itself can guarantee perfect security," Riner said. "There will always be this opposition to the acknowledgment of divine providence, but this is a foundational understanding of what America is."

[BigSqwert]

Supreme Court Overturns Bush v. Gore

December 9, 2008 | Issue 44•50

 

WASHINGTON—In an unexpected judicial turnaround, the Supreme Court this week reversed its 2000 ruling in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore, stripping George W. Bush of his earlier political victory, and declaring Albert Arnold Gore the 43rd president of the United States of America.

 

The court, which called its original decision to halt manual recounts in Florida "a ruling made in haste," voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of the 2000 Democratic nominee.

 

Gore will serve as commander in chief from Dec. 10 to Jan. 20.

President Gore, retroactively determined

by the Supreme Court to be the winner of the 2000

election, is sworn in for his six-week term.

 

"Allowing this flaw in judgment to stand would set an unworkable precedent for future elections and cause irreparable harm to the impartiality of this court," said Chief Justice John G. Roberts in his majority opinion. "Furthermore, let me be the first to personally congratulate President Gore on his remarkable come-from-behind victory. May he guide us wisely into this new millennium."

 

Added Roberts, "The system works."

Former Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush

gets some much-needed rest Monday after his 2000

presidential campaign loss to rival Al Gore.

 

Moments after the court's noontime announcement, Gore was flown to Washington, D.C. aboard Air Force One, sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and immediately escorted to a brief victory rally at the National Mall. By 4:30 p.m., his 15 cabinet appointees had been vetted, contacted, and brought to Washington, where they were all simultaneously approved by a majority vote in the Senate.

 

Gore then delivered the first of seven consecutive State of the Union addresses.

 

Shortly after being notified of the court's historic decision, a gracious George W. Bush appeared at a press conference with four hastily packed suitcases to congratulate his 2000 opponent on the decisive victory.

 

"Al Gore has fought a strong and patient campaign, and he has prevailed," said the former Republican candidate and Texas governor. "I wish him nothing but the best, and hope that his leadership will help see this nation through a catastrophic recession, an unending war in Iraq, and the single largest housing crisis in history. Congratulations, Mr. President."

 

In his first and last 42 days as president, Gore will reportedly visit U.S. troops overseas, meet with dignitaries from France, Great Britain, China, Azerbaijan, Japan, and Eastern Europe, formalize a plan to bail out the struggling airline and automotive industries, sign the Kyoto Protocol, take a photo of himself and wife Tipper in front of the White House Christmas tree, and ensure a smooth transition between his own administration to that of incoming president-elect Barack Obama.

 

"Great humility, honor, I'm President," Gore said to a crowd of tourists hastily shuffled into a White House corridor to hear the president deliver his acceptance speech. "Thanks, bye."

 

According to political analysts, the road ahead for President Gore is not an easy one. During his first conference call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, NATO, OPEC, and the United Nations, Gore admitted that making good on his campaign promises in the next six to eight weeks might be difficult. The president noted his pledge to provide affordable health care to every single child in the U.S. by 2004 as "specifically in need of possible amending."

 

Gore also withdrew his intentions to pay off the national debt by 2012.

 

Although the president has already instituted a number of impressive environmental initiatives, he has drawn criticism from Republicans who claim that he is completely unprepared to deal with the current national climate.

 

"Throughout the entirety of his 2000 campaign, never once did Gore mention the tragedy of 9/11, or our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said. "Does he not care about our national security? Does Al Gore plan to ignore the needs of our brave men and women on the ground? What kind of world does Al Gore think we still live in?"

 

President Gore will not be the only new arrival in the White House to face criticism, however. Joseph Lieberman—the former independent senator from Connecticut who in just two months has gone from the short list of possible Republican running mates to nearly being ousted from the Democratic Caucus to becoming the first Jewish Vice President—will also have much to answer for.

 

"Uhh," Lieberman said in his first official address Wednesday. "Umm…yeah."

 

LINK

[Balta1701]

Newsweek seems to have broken 2 of the key "Bush's illegal wiretapping program" stories in the past 2 days.

 

First, a detailed summary of what they were doing that was so illegal that it prompted the revolt of even the Ashcroft folks in the DOJ which led to the whole Gonzalez trying to get drugged up Ashcroft to sign off on it in hospital bed scene. Basically, every email you sent, every call you made, no matter who you were, they dumped it all in to a giant database that they could try to filter for key words or trends.

Two knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that the clash erupted over a part of Bush's espionage program that had nothing to do with the wiretapping of individual suspects. Rather, Comey and others threatened to resign because of the vast and indiscriminate collection of communications data. These sources, who asked not to be named discussing intelligence matters, describe a system in which the National Security Agency, with cooperation from some of the country's largest telecommunications companies, was able to vacuum up the records of calls and e-mails of tens of millions of average Americans between September 2001 and March 2004. The program's classified code name was "Stellar Wind," though when officials needed to refer to it on the phone, they called it "SW." (The NSA says it has "no information or comment"; a Justice Department spokesman also declined to comment.)

 

The NSA's powerful computers became vast storehouses of "metadata." They collected the telephone numbers of callers and recipients in the United States, and the time and duration of the calls. They also collected and stored the subject lines of e-mails, the times they were sent, and the addresses of both senders and recipients. By one estimate, the amount of data the NSA could suck up in close to real time was equivalent to one quarter of the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica per second. (The actual content of calls and e-mails was not being monitored as part of this aspect of the program, the sources say.) All this metadata was then sifted by the NSA, using complex algorithms to detect patterns and links that might indicate terrorist activity.

 

Secondly, Newsweek has ID'd the hero who broke the story to the NY Times. He's lost his job, had himself investigated thoroughly by the Feds, and has to suffer the pain of having had a conscience about the President breaking the law, because you know, that's the way it's supposed to be when a guy betrays the don President.

But still, Tamm says he was fully committed to the prosecution of the war on terror and wanted to play a bigger role in it. So in early 2003, he applied and was accepted for transfer to the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR), probably the most sensitive unit within the Justice Department....But after arriving at OIPR, Tamm learned about an unusual arrangement by which some wiretap requests were handled under special procedures....Tamm says he found the whole thing especially curious since there was nothing in the special "program" wiretap requests that seemed any different from all the others. They looked and read the same. It seemed to Tamm there was a reason for this: the intelligence that came from the program was being disguised.

 

....At one point, Tamm says, he approached Lisa Farabee, a senior counsel in OIPR who reviewed his work, and asked her directly, "Do you know what the program is?" According to Tamm, she replied: "Don't even go there," and then added, "I assume what they are doing is illegal." Tamm says his immediate thought was, "I'm a law-enforcement officer and I'm participating in something that is illegal?" A few weeks later Tamm bumped into Mark Bradley, the deputy OIPR counsel, who told him the office had run into trouble with Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the chief judge on the FISA court. Bradley seemed nervous, Tamm says. Kollar-Kotelly had raised objections to the special program wiretaps, and "the A.G.-only cases are being shut down," Bradley told Tamm. He then added, "This may be [a time] the attorney general gets indicted," according to Tamm.

 

....The next few weeks were excruciating. Tamm says he consulted with an old law-school friend, Gene Karpinski, then the executive director of a public-interest lobbying group. He asked about reporters who might be willing to pursue a story that involved wrongdoing in a national-security program, but didn't tell him any details. (Karpinski, who has been questioned by the FBI and has hired a lawyer, declined to comment.) Tamm says he initially considered contacting Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter for The New Yorker, but didn't know where to reach him. He'd also noticed some strong stories by Eric Lichtblau, the New York Times reporter who covered the Justice Department — and with a few Google searches tracked down his phone number.

[bmags]

did you see his interview on Maddow? It was pretty wonderful.

[BigSqwert]

This Cesca fellow cracks me up.

[NorthSideSox72]

This Cesca fellow cracks me up.

Of all the stupid things Bush has said and done, that isn't even on the radar. Talk about overanalyzing and overparsing someone's words.

 

[bmags]

Of all the stupid things Bush has said and done, that isn't even on the radar. Talk about overanalyzing and overparsing someone's words.

 

ha, it was a joke north side.

[NorthSideSox72]

ha, it was a joke north side.

The article was a joke? Or Sqwert saying he likes Cesca was a joke?

 

[bmags]

the blog post.

[BigSqwert]

Of all the stupid things Bush has said and done, that isn't even on the radar. Talk about overanalyzing and overparsing someone's words.

 

I think the blog post was merely a funny observation. Nothing more. A good portion of his blog posts are comical in nature.