One of my other long-time pet topics

No, I have not posted on FISA for quite a while, but that doesn't mean the issue has vanished. Au contraire, mes amis, where opportunity exists Bush crime will thrive - especially when we are unaware or not paying attention.

Mcjoan (yes, I am a huge fan of hers) also has a post up titled "A Case Study in 8 Years of Lying and Ignorance." She begins with a great quote from Glenn Greenwald (from whom she took the post title):

Ever since The New York Times, on December 16, 2005, first reported that President Bush ordered spying on Americans without the warrants required by FISA, the clear illegality that was unveiled -- FISA said that X was a felony and Bush admitted to doing X -- was continuously obscured by a combination of deceit on the part of Bush followers and ignorance, sloth and confusion on the part of the media.

[Emphasis in the original]

There you have it, stripped of all the obscuring verbiage. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act proscribed certain activities that George W. Bush admits doing.

Read my lips: Bush. Broke. The. Law.

What part of "Bush broke the law" seems hard to grasp?

The true believers (kool-aid drinkers) and Village pundits are working hard to say that the recent FISA Court of Review decision vindicates Bush, which is simply not true. It addressed the authority of Congress to pass certain laws that might contravene the Fourth Amendment. It did not address real or potential criminality in the White House.

So don't let the Bush apologists (whether conscious apologists or enabling twits) sell you some bill of goods. Glenn Greenwald, Mcjoan, and I are trying to whack this misconception down before it becomes received wisdom.

As Greenwald writes:

The ruling had nothing whatsoever to do with the central question at the heart of the NSA controversy: namely, whether Bush committed felonies by ordering warrantless eavesdropping in the face of a Congressional statute that explicitly made such eavesdropping a felony.

Did I mention that Bush is a self-admitted felon?

And should have been impeached.

Good.


--the BB