Something Smells Fishy As Congress Debates Intel
There's something fishy going on in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it smells like partisan politics.
If you are tired of watching day 3 of the Minnesota bridge collapse coverage on the cable TV news, turn on C-SPAN and watch the hyperbole in action.
The debate centers around changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it looks like the Democrats in the majority are trying to approve something before the Aug. 6 recess date that the intelligence community can live with to collect information on alleged terrorists operating on foreign and domestic soil.
But the Republicans are fighting approval of the bill, saying the White House and the Attorney General say the measure will not keep America safe.
There's not much on the wires about this now, but TPMMuckraker is covering it, including the big fight and walkout Republicans staged yesterday.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) ominously said Thursday that Congress needed to pass changes to the terrorist surveillance laws BEFORE leaving for the August recess, warning that otherwise "the disaster could be on our doorstep."
When asked if people should leave Washington, D.C. for the month, Lott replied, "I think it would be good to leave town in August. And it would probably be good to stay out until September the 12th," he said, implying that a terrorist attack on the nation's capital would be imminent between now and Sept. 11 - unless the Democrats pass the bill the White House wants and allow surveillance of Americans without a court approved warrant.
Now I don't know how closely you follow these things, but the only explanation that makes any sense is that the White House knows that a terrorist attack is going to happen and plans on blaming the Democrats when it does. This is the worst sort of politics imaginable, and the American people should see through this smoke screen and not allow it to continue.
The people of this country have the power, if they would just get involved and act, to force Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against the corrupt, corporate, militant forces who are playing politics with our safety. But it will take more than phone calls and e-mails to your Congressman.
Where in hell are the mass protests? Are we just a bunch of week-kneed couch potatoes in this country?
Comments
America needs a sense of urgency on the issue of White House directed spying before Congress can act. The urgency will become immediate when Congress discovers the additional spying besides the TSP.
The country is willing to allow government spying on terrorists, but the other spying will shock the public.
The other spying is political. Its purpose is to provide information about political and government leaders to the White House. The White House staff uses this information to determine people's loyalty to the Bush Administration. Whenever the White House needs to determine somebody's political loyalty, they spy on that person.
Telephone calls, conference calls and emails and internet data are monitored.
Congress will discover all of this spying and expose it to the country. Then the political leaders will feel the urgent need to impeach Bush and Cheney. The House will impeach them and the Senate will convict them.
Congress will discover the convergence of the spying scandal and the U.S. Attorney firing scandal. The White House spied on the U.S. Attorneys. All of their electronic communications are monitored, and Congress will discover the recordings and stored data.
The conference call that predicted the prosecution of the former Governor of Alabama is recorded and available in data storage archives at the NSA. Congress can get the recordings of this conference call and show the country that the White House spying is really political spying.
Posted by: Robert Poynton | August 3, 2007 08:34 PM
Thanks Robert. I think you are right about the spying, but no so sure about Congress. The Democrats seem intent on preserving the present system and just using the info against Bush and the Republicans for political advantage, not to preserve our rights.
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August 9, 2007 01:22 PM