Bush’s Snoopgate

Bush’s Snoopgate
The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005
Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10536559/site/newsweek/

Great for a man who guzzles Absolut.

Not so great for the proletarians, though.

<snip>

No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story—which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker. He insists he had “legal authority derived from the Constitution and congressional resolution authorizing force.” But the Constitution explicitly requires the president to obey the law. And the post 9/11 congressional resolution authorizing “all necessary force” in fighting terrorism was made in clear reference to military intervention. It did not scrap the Constitution and allow the president to do whatever he pleased in any area in the name of fighting terrorism.

<snip>

no comments...no email...just moved without explanation :(

Although a couple things in there were news to me.

theme music comes to mind, even without the 'y.'

WipinghisasswiththeConstitutiongate?

I can't think of anything really snappy...

he did it for uuuuuuuuuuuuuus.

...Constitutional crisis?

Constitutional crisis, indeed! If there ever were one in the 62 years of my life, this is it.

It's not just for Democrats any more. Besides, it's their turn.
The lawyer had it right, this is detection not surveillance. It is looking at anything and everything anytime they want to with no justification or need to inform anyone. Like Rocky said, this is Poindexter's Total Information Agency that Congress refused to go along with. No legal authority exists for this. And the scary thing is that because they are doing this without authority they don't have to keep records. This sounds more like the mob than a representative government. It is Congress's sworn duty to impeach this President, indict the other involved and give them a fair and speedy trial. I'm a mere 61 and a half but this is close as I've seen my country come to a fascist state and if we don't stop this right now we better just take down the flag, fold up the Constitution and line up. We can't depend on the Democrats or the Republicans to defend us, though some are giving it a try. It is our country and our Constitution that these bastards are walking all over. It is our flag that they are dragging through the mud all over the world. I have this dream of literally millions of Americans surrounding the White House standing silent with our arms folded. Waiting for him to leave. Please, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Great Spirit, Santa Claus, Americans; make my dream come true.

"I have this dream of literally millions of Americans surrounding the White House standing silent with our arms folded. Waiting for him to leave."

This is one of the most powerful images summarizing our frustration for what these filth have done to our country that I have yet come across. Thanks you.

Impeachment indeed. As soon as possible. You're right--they are the mob.

Because it had become public knowledge? So this was simply a way to keep it going, even though it was supposed to be dead? Is that what Rockefeller was referencing?

exactly where it needs to be - right at the top of the homepage.

Alter lays it out clearly and concisely - Bush is a criminal. The only thing saving him are the syncophants that populate the Republican party.

The meeting with the NYT's editor and publisher is such a fascinating part of the story. Really makes Bush look like the desperate fugitive he is.

however short a time that may be.

is paved with good intentions.

Chimpy can try all he wants to convince
everyone that he commited a crime
in order to protect the country...
but it does not change the essential
fact that he DID break the law.

The only responsible and rational action now
is that the president MUST be impeached
to answer for the crimes he commited.

Nuff said... congress must act ...or fold.

or "impeached" as the proper term is.

It ain't gonna work - get ready to do the frog march.

but it chose to sit on it, letting Bush escape the voters's wrath.

the Times had no problem aiding and abetting bush in his run-up to the invasion of Iraq. They carried bush's banner for him and more than anyone else were responsible for swaying public opinion in bush's favor.
They could have ended this terrible national nightmare over a year ago, yet they decided to sit on this story while the Constitution of the United States was shredded and shit on by these treasonous crooks. Sulzberger should resign. He has been, without question, the WORST chairman and publisher of the New York Times, ever! He's run the the grand old lady into the ground and made it a joke and a propaganda tool for the bush white house. There should be TWO resignations here; one from george w. bush and the other from Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. They've both run their respective charges into the ground.

Could it really finally be hitting the fan... :popcorn:

I just went back to the MSNBC main page to see if this story was still listed on the top and :mad: :puke:

With all the secrecy in this Administration since their very first day in office, this title is so fitting for the scandal they have given birth to.

and they are starting to realize it.
IMPEACH NOW.

A writer for a mainstream US news magazine has declared that bush is a dictator and a law breaker. John Lewis is on record advocating impeachment as a possible response to the ape's wrong-doing. John Conyers appears poised to release a damning expose of administration crimes. Would someone please contact the Japanese embassy and ask if a couple hari kari knives might be sent to the white house. These filth deserve everything that's coming to them.

bush broke the law, and he did it knowingly. No lame excuse about protecting us is going to work anymore. He's cried 9/11 way too many times. And fuck the NY Times for sitting on this story so long. Why did they finally decide to run the story, a year after they knew about it.

Sonia

from a hardliner totalitarian regime?

Welcome to DU!!:toast: DC

Yesterday I saw a picture of Bushie in Iraq with his ever more graying hair. He increasingly looks like a man on the edge, and one huge catastrophe would just decimate him. Now please don't get me wrong, I am not in any way advocating for a nuke to blow up somewhere, and kill scores of people. I think though that after Iraq, DeLay, Scooter, Katrina, it would just take one thing to push ole Georgie over the edge. Any thoughts on what that could be, because I want to be in line to throw the first punch. Heck - I just got an idea. As a born and raised bible belt homosexual, I would love to see states distance themselves as being part of the United States. Only when we as a nation start taking drastic moves like that, will our entire nation finally comprehend, that this is not a fight to get IT out of the WH. It is to regain control of our country, to rebuild the true essence of what the United States is about as One Nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. And NOT One Regime, under GOP, with health and liberty to those that can afford it.

As I stated on my last post, I have been reading DU for some time, but only recently started posting. We collectively keep on screaming IMPEACH IMPEACH, but yet I see no tangible proof, at least for the time being that is going to happen. Why do we sit by, saying we are emailing our elected officials (not saying that most of you don't)? And yet we see no action. It is very admirable to scream IMPEACH IMPEACH...do something about it. Have a rally or march in your area. Lets have a "Free America" protest, march, etc.

It is easy to sit behind a keyboard, but put your words to action before Big Brother shuts us all down, and we all become like Mr. Anderson. Personally, I would rather be a Neo. Who's is with me?

If you are in Dallas - or surrounding area - lets meet.

I am in the Dallas area, but do you know the number of neocons around these parts? They must be 5x our numbers :(

and told him it is okay for him to spy on people, as long as they're Muslims, or Democrats, or black, or......................... Only the little people have to obey laws and follow rules, not our great leader of the free world Bushitler! Heil Bushitler! Long live Bushitler!

I knew from the start he would be a terrible president, but I can't believe how fast our country has deteriorated in 5 years under his rule. To think that some of our political "leaders" are actually condoning torture and whisking people away to far reaches of the world to do who knows what to them.

To think that during a so-called "war on terror", only the working class and middle class citizens are asked to sacrifice with their lives and their finances, while the wealthy are asked to sacrifice nothing and, in fact, benefit greatly due to huge tax cuts and lucrative contracts.

To think that our precious natural resources and environment have been pillaged and stripped, so that Clean Skies Initiatives lead to more air pollution, Healthy Forest Initiatives lead to deforested forests, tax incentives are offered for the biggest gas guzzlers, tops are blown off mountains to "mine" them, environmental regulations are ignored or altered to allow ever more development of pristine areas, our national parks are in danger of being sold off to the highest (or most politically connected) bidder, endangered animals are no longer considered endangered so that the habitat in which they live can be developed, global warming is considered junk science, etc.

To think that one must go to the internet to get reliable, accurate news, because the newspapers and television stations and radio stations are all owned by a handful of huge media companies who skew the reporting of the news (or eliminate it entirely) to fit their agenda.

To think that our election process is no longer ruled by "one person, one vote" but instead is ruled by media spin, smear campaigns, corporate donations, and unethical and discriminatory voting machines and practices.

I could go on and on, but it's really too depressing. I really don't know if our country can ever get back what we've lost.

after he was appointed by the Supreme Whores in 2000 I told my daughter, "well, how much could he screw things up in four years"? I never imagined it could be this bad. Then when they stole election 2004 I knew the coup had been completed and we were in for a shit-storm of bad news. My only hope is that this mental midget is not allowed to finish out this term, that Congress does the right thing and sends this loser back to his pig farm in Crawford ASAP.

He's been monkeying around with our rights ever since he was appointed by SCOTUS and PNAC in 2001. We have so much dirt on the chimp that there IS NO ESCAPE for the little twit.

This is a serious offense - snoopgate sounds like a nosey neighbor who just got caught listening to your conversation.

Hee. This is even better than Cunning-Scam.

Bush’s Snoopgate
The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security.


Bush says he had ‘legal authority’ to permit the National Security Agency listen in on American citizens without a warrant

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005
Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting,
but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.

The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden’s use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists—in fact, all American Muslims, period—have long since suspected that the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that “the fact that we are discussing this program is helping the enemy.” But there is simply no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking being a “shameful act,” it was the work of a patriot inside the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab.

No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story—which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker. He insists he had “legal authority derived from the Constitution and congressional resolution authorizing force.” But the Constitution explicitly requires the president to obey the law. And the post 9/11 congressional resolution authorizing “all necessary force” in fighting terrorism was made in clear reference to military intervention. It did not scrap the Constitution and allow the president to do whatever he pleased in any area in the name of fighting terrorism.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10536559/site/newsweek/

over his shoulder
on his little TV set.

What a clown.

we need a better rubric than "snoopgate." This is too serious for that.

Nominating

Since this a corruption at the highest levels, not debunking all the scum it sits on, or feeds it..but how about Judicigate or Judigate. Exemplifying the level of shame and degradation at the highest level of our country. Thoughts anyone?

:)

have been to overwhelming for the election to be stolen? Alas, we will never know. :grr:

Excellent..

<snip>

This will all play out eventually in congressional committees and in the United States Supreme Court. If the Democrats regain control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment introduced. Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974.

In the meantime, it is unlikely that Bush will echo President Kennedy in 1961. After JFK managed to tone down a New York Times story by Tad Szulc on the Bay of Pigs invasion, he confided to Times editor Turner Catledge that he wished the paper had printed the whole story because it might have spared him such a stunning defeat in Cuba.

This time, the president knew publication would cause him great embarrassment and trouble for the rest of his presidency. It was for that reason—and less out of genuine concern about national security—that George W. Bush tried so hard to kill the New York Times story.

For this presidency, every part of his cabinet, every member of his cabinet, all his cronies, all his "supporters", just be torn down one by one. I want Bush to be remembered on the same level as Hitler, not a the White Knight who rode the jackass to town, or is that the other way around???? Anyone - I just want 20, 30, 40, 100, 200 years from our children and legacies to come to know what horrible harm this cabinet and "scoff" President or PISADENT as I refer to him has done to our great nation. Is that to horrible to ask? I want Bush to be booed wherever he goes for the rest of his life, knowing the great, horrible pain, suffering, and deep bitter division he has wrought as the self avowed "hand of god" on our once great nation.

Current rating: 2.5 by 9175 users

Impeachment not going to happen, by the time Sen Specter request a hearing on this it will be old news. The Democratic party does not have the power to start impeachment hearings. The powers that be will uphold this Administration through thick and thin and you know the talking point mantras will continue until people believe he has the right to spy on Americans. I remember people thought the Downing Street Memo's was the issue to bring this ass hole down but he is still kicking and lying.