Cheney Rats Out Dem Leadership as His Co-Conspirators

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Monday December 22, 2008 · 7:51 AM PST

2008/12/22 · 07:51

I did a quick search and haven't seen anything yet on this very important story, which former dKos superstar Armando/BTD highlighted yesterday over at TalkLeft, and which the inestimable Glennzilla is all over in his post this morning:

Cheney says top congressional Democrats complicit in spying

Dick Cheney's interview yesterday with Fox's Chris Wallace was filled with significant claims, but certainly among the most significant was his detailed narration of how the administration, and Cheney personally, told numerous Democratic Congressional leaders -- repeatedly and in detail -- about the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program. And, according to Cheney, every one of those Democrats -- every last one -- not only urged its continuation, but insisted that it be kept secret[.]

packerland progressive

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Wednesday July 09, 2008 · 11:03 AM PDT

2008/07/09 · 11:03

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

more -->

packerland progressive

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Monday June 16, 2008 · 12:15 PM PDT

2008/06/16 · 12:15

Glenn Greenwald has the following queasiness-inducing news:

UPDATE: Speaking of fear-mongering, I've been working today on various campaigns to derail the Steny-Hoyer-led effort to vest lawbreaking telecoms this week with immunity. Quick -- and severe -- action will be required because the House Democratic leadership is conniving to negotiate this in secret and then pass all of this quickly so as to avoid debate and consequences. The campaign is going to expand well beyond Chris Carney and will include, at the very least, a massive effort directed at voters in Steny Hoyer's district to make them aware of just what he is doing. I hope to have more details and updates on all of this later today, but will, at the absolute latest, have it early tomorrow morning.

A concerted effort, lots of resources, and alliances with other like-minded factions and groups will be required to make this work. If, as appears, Congressional Democrats are intent on doing this, there should be a hefty and real price for them to pay for doing it.

packerland progressive

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Wednesday March 12, 2008 · 10:45 PM PDT

2008/03/12 · 22:45

UPDATED: ~~According to RawStory, Bush will give a speech on on Wiretapping at 9:20 EDT.~~ ~~(It's now 9:35 and nothing yet; the AP just says "Thursday morning."~~) (Apparently it was just a short statement rather than a nationally televised speech, which is what I was sort of expecting.)

UPDATEDx2: After some offline exchanges with those knowing far more about House parliamentary procedure than I pretend to know, I feel a little better. More just after the jump.

packerland progressive

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Wednesday March 05, 2008 · 8:52 AM PST

2008/03/05 · 08:52

If you are as angry as I am about the rumors that the House is ready to fall in line and give the President what he has "demanded;"

If, like me, you think that contacting Blue Dems and letting them know that there are an awful lot of people out here in the real world who care about the constitution is a good start, but you recognize that it might not be enough;

If, like me, you're not prepared to fall meekly back in line after such a sell-out occurs, and say "oh, well, it's really the REPUBLICANS' fault, not the DEMOCRATS' -- I guess we need to just work that much harder to get more people on Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi's team elected this fall;"

If, like me, you refuse to regard capitulation on telecom amnesty as a fait accompli;

If, in short, you're not ready to play nice,

then please read on, and please strongly consider recommending.

(more below)

packerland progressive

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Monday March 03, 2008 · 3:11 PM PST

2008/03/03 · 15:11

Let me begin by expressing my great respect and admiration for Representative Louise Slaughter. In addition to serving as Chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, she is also a committed progressive, with a long track-record of standing up and speaking out on behalf of women's rights, labor, the environment, and a sane foreign policy.

Oh, and she's also a fellow Kossack!

At this particular moment, it is her position as Chair of the House Rules Committee that I regard as the most salient fact about her. If you care about protecting the Fourth Amendment and stopping the House from caving on telecom immunity, so should you. Why? Because that powerful position puts her in a unique position to stop -- or to green-light -- such a capitulation.

(more below)

packerland progressive

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Thursday January 24, 2008 · 8:06 AM PST

2008/01/24 · 08:06

Last December, when it looked as if Harry Reid was all set to ram telecom amnesty down our throats, I sat down with the Senate Rules and put together a flowchart outlining just how long Senator Dodd could drag the process out if he was true to his word and tried to stop this outrage from becoming law.

Since my flowchart was apparently a hit (thanks in no small part to shoutouts, for which I'm grateful, from the likes of Kagro X (here and here), drational here, and a mention in kimoconnor's FISA Debate liveblog mothership and the follow-on liveblog diaries), I anticipated updating it for the new timeline on the assumption that our victory was only a temporary one, and Reid would be taking it up again shortly after the Senate's return.

(follow me down for much, much more procedural fun!!!)

packerland progressive

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Sunday December 16, 2007 · 12:48 AM PST

2007/12/16 · 00:48

This started out as a comment to mcjoan's excellent front-page diary this afternoon, which got to be way to long. Plus, in order to get it clear in my own head, I put together a visual flowchart, which I've included immediately below the fold.

In short, it appears that things are not as bleak as they might seem for the good guys at this point. If Dodd is true to his word and is really committed to stopping telco-immunity, he still holds an very strong hand and even if the very worst case has the ability to drag this thing out all week long until right before everybody hightails it out of town until January.

For some additional background, see this CRS (Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan Congressional office that analyzes legal issues for Congress) report on "Filibusters and Cloture in the Senate".

packerland progressive

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Friday November 09, 2007 · 12:51 AM PST

2007/11/09 · 00:51

It is early in the morning of Friday, November 9, 2007. Less than 5 hours ago, the United States Senate voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as the 81st Attorney General of the United States:

After the MCA, FISA, the "surge," the passive failure to enforce subpoenas in the face of flagrant contempt, the Kyl-Lieberman "Iran is the new Iraq" resolution, the Cheney impeachment fiasco, and now AG Mukasey, I have reached what seems to be the only reasonable conclusion: that our government is broken, perhaps (although I desperately hope not) beyond all hope of repair and redemption.

(More downstairs)

packerland progressive

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Monday August 06, 2007 · 1:35 PM PDT

2007/08/06 · 13:35

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

more -->

packerland progressive

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Thursday August 02, 2007 · 2:00 PM PDT

2007/08/02 · 14:00

Over the past six years, we've grown accustomed to buck-passing and excuse-making as standard operating procedure inside the beltway. "Nobody could have predicted" that terrorists would turn hijacked passenger airplanes into missiles, "nobody could have predicted" that removing Saddam Hussein would lead to sectarian civil war, "nobody could have predicted" that a major hurricane might hit New Orleans, "nobody could have predicted" that the levees might be breached, . . . and we're all bracing, of course, for "nobody could have predicted" that when a nation starves its infrastructure budget, levies will fail and bridges will fall.

And for the most part, the reaction (and rightly so) on the part of educated and intelligent Americans is disgust at the obvious lies belching forth from the mouths of Bush Administration officials. But after the flip, and with the help of one of my favorite authors, Milan Kundera, I'd like to consider a slightly different view -- that by focusing on the issue of mendacity, we might be missing the bigger point:

packerland progressive

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Tuesday July 24, 2007 · 6:04 PM PDT

2007/07/24 · 18:04

The showdown is looming. As you know, the House Judiciary Committee votes tomorrow to cite Miers and Bolten for Contempt of Congress. And as much as I'd love to see the Capitol Police frogmarch the two of them right into some asbestos-ridden room in the Capitol sub-basement, the plan seems to be to at least try the statutory contempt route before falling back on the ancient parliamentary prerogative of inherent contempt.

Just one problem, however: as the Post reported last Friday, the White House has already announced that "the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege."

So it's game over for statutory contempt, right? Bush tells AGAG to tell the U.S. Atty for DC not to bring the contempt citation before the grand jury; checkmate.

Not so fast -- follow me on the flip. Oh, and bring your ham sandwich -- we may be indicting it before this diary is through.

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