John Ashcroft was the United States attorney general from 2001 to 2005. He now heads a consulting firm that has telecommunications companies as clients.
Hey, I wonder if Ashcroft's firm funnelled any money to Rockefeller? That would be too, too funny, wouldn't it?
And now the nut graf from Crisco Johnny's at-this-point entirely predictable Op-Ed from the Times:
If the attorney general of the United States says that an intelligence-gathering operation has been determined to be lawful...
Note the very revealing use of the passive voice. Determined by whom? Some Federalist Society operative chained up in Cheney's dungeon under the Naval Observatory?
We know that Bush bypassed the "sole means" for determining legality, the FISA Court, until 2006, when Democrats got elected to Congress. So, when the telcos were briefed that Bush's program of warrantless surveillance was legal, did they ask "Who made the determination and why?" If they did, I want to know the answer, and so should Congress. If they did not, they were negligent, and should be held to account.
... a company should be able to rely on that determination.
Isn't it pretty to think so.
"Should," indeed, except in the unlikely event that the government has been taken over by a gang of criminals.
LONDON -- Britain's first Muslim government minister said he was "deeply disappointed" Monday after his luggage was searched for explosives at a United States airport as he returned from official talks.
International Development Minister Shahid Malik was detained for about 40 minutes at Washington Dulles airport Sunday by the Department of Homeland Security after meeting officials from the same department to discuss terrorism.
That's all Internet traffic, foreign and domestic, data and voice. And the decision to do this was taken, not because of 9/11, but as soon as Bush took office. As was the decision to ignore the rule of law. So much for the idea that the extremely benevolent and trustworthy Bush administration was reacting to 9/11, and just wants "surgical" surveillance* to keep us safe from terrorists, eh? Read below the fold...
First Blackwater attacks Air Force Officers. Next, they lie about "returning fire" in Iraq. Then, they lie about what kind of money they're making undermining the US Military abroad. From a Dkos Diary on Prince's testimony, Tennessee Congressman John Duncan reveals the escalation in costs of Blackwater's services during the past three fiscal years: Read below the fold...
In this booming economy which is so full of promise that we can hardly keep U.S. consumers from beating down the doors at the malls to buy the Holy Stuff ... more great news.
The service sector, where the burger flippers who used to sell you sub-prime mortgages or manufacture your American cars or something silly like that, took a dive. Read below the fold...
CBS owned 41% of broadcast media, in clear violation of Federal law, in 2000. CNN sat at the crossroads of a merger AOL and Time Warner wanted, for profits; but the Clinton FTC didn't let it happen. Along comes W, promising less regulation, and the stage was set. Suddenly all the media had a bottom-line motive for scuttling any political opponent of W. Not just "mainstream media" but the ENTIRE news industry: W promised them PROFIT$. Read below the fold...
