Can They Hear You Now?

The eavesdropping accusations against Bu$hCo are piling up fast.  First, we learned of the Terrorist Surveillance Program™ - al Qaeda only, if you believe the Dear Leaker, who says he's not trolling for anything except perch.  But not so fast - it turns out the NSA's been getting calling information from every company but Qwest - this is on everybody (you included), not just those pesky terrorists.  The first lawsuit has been filed (against Verizon), and the Telcos could wind up paying billions in damages for illegally releasing our phone records.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier filed a suit against AT&T for helping with the first-round domestic spying, but of course Bu$hCo is trying to intervene and get the case dismissed. 

Now, we find out they've even been spying on us from satellites, and a whistleblower has said that what's now known about Bu$hCo's domestic spying is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  Another big non-surprise: in the weeks after 9/11, Darth Cheney said we should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mails without warrants.  Meanwhile, the Choicepoints of the world keep selling info to the government that it can't legally collect on its own (although that doesn't seem to have stopped Bu$hCo), including info about your DNA. 

What to make of all this?  One poll says Americans support the latest spying, a better-worded one says not.  Completely unreasonable person Newt "The Disgraced" Gingrich, though he said that the newly-revealed program could not be defended by "reasonable people," also refused to defend the program.  Some Rethugs are pissed off, some could care less, and Specter has vowed to hold more hearings (but not necessarily to hold anyone responsible).  Even Instapoundit concludes that, just maybe, his beloved President spied on him.  Little Michelle, on the other hand, visited a spy museum and concluded the NSA wasn't doing anything wrong.  The LGFers took a break from calling for the deaths of lots of Muslims to whine about how traitors were leaking NSA secrets and ruining the agency's ability to illegally spy on us - other wingnuts said the whistleblowers were trying to ruin the stock market.  Dems demanded an investigation of the NSA spying that, of course, they have no power to get.

Whew!  Do you suppose the politicians will band together to get rid of Bu$hCo now?

read more: bush at&t cheney impeach bush verizon qwest al qaeda electronic frontier foundation choicepoint gingrich specter instapundit michelle malkin nsa lgf little green footballs warrantless wiretapping domestic spying

Comments

[HelenWheels]

No! Nothing makes the Dems react... NOTHING!

[litbrit]

Terrific photograph.

Earlier today, CNN showed a statement by the CEO of Quest in which he flatly stated that he did not comply with the government's requests for private citizens' phone records because the fact that they did not have warrants--and that they stated the reason they did not go through proper legal channels was because so doing would likely result in said records being denied them--gave him reason to believe that what the government was doing was illegal. Point blank.

Expect that statement to be drawn from in the current and coming lawsuits. Bravo Quest.

We must all keep writing about this. And writing and writing. As for the Dems, I don't think it's a matter of them not wanting to do something--I think it is, right now anyway, a matter of them not being able to do something. They are in the dismal minority. That will (hopefully) change.

And when it does, I want them to start the payback process toute de suite. Payback to the motherfuckers who've been pulling these illegal stunts all these years (impeachment anyone?) and payback to those of us who've kept on supporting them through thick and thin (real, meaningful environmental protection legislations, anyone?)

[Robot Buddha]

An excellent post. You've been very busy.

[HelenWheels]

I'll say! That's a lot of readin' and reportin', pal.

[actor212]

I love a post with big links...

[enigma4ever]

Thank you for digging and linking the dirt on so many pieces of the Iceberg....gread work...very thorough...and let's hope that the Iceberg just keeps getting chipped at...

[M A F]

The LGFers are traitors to the Constitution and frankly surrendered to al Qaeda long ago with their worn cries of treason.

I had reading that Rove has apparenlty told Bush that he is going to be indicted on charges of perjury and lying to investigators. Bush could find himself challenging Cheney in the "how low can you go" catagory.

[Elizabeth Branford (Lily)]

No, they won't do anything... same old, same old...

[sumo]

Whew...I got worked up...need that cigarette!

[Rob Pastorio-Newman]

Thanks for compiling the links to stories into one ball o' wax I can send to friends and relatives on the fence. That is truly what's missing: the clicking off, list-like, of accumulating crimes so the horror can dawn on the oblivious and distracted.

Now, that's a day our dumb Dems expect will never happen. It's in our power to see that it does.

[Fred]

You vill all be made to vear the scarlet "L"

[Creature]

Nice work!

[glenda]

The politicos may have a line where they can actually be pushed past their endurance point.
other than a few weak and random individual sputterings, there has not been a good mass rage buildup yet. Dare we hope??

[Susan]

They (the politicians) can't band together now against Bush because he knows of every phone call to every known local hooker and every sex phone line and every call to every psychologists and psychiatrists, and calls to god-knows-what-else.....ever made by a US politician in the last couple of years.

And even if their record is clean, I'm sure that they can somewho twist things around... like how they smeared McCain because he adopted a child form overseas. IN 2000, in South Carolina, they insinuated that he had an illict affair that produced the adopted child.

What is amazing to me - I was talking to someone fairly liberal who claimed that the "government" would not do something illegal or immoral with the data they collect!!! This is after "they" started up a war for a pack of lies!

And today on ABC Sunday morning news show, Hagel and Biden both assured us that the NSA is looking for *patterns* not individual data.

They would not know a *pattern* if it slapped them in the ass.

[Michael Bains]

As Litbrit said, "We must all keep writing about this. And writing and writing."

And sharing ways to help people get their voices heard.

Nicely brought together post.

[Comandante Agi]

Where's V when we need him?

[jahf]

Do you suppose the politicians will band together to get rid of Bu$hCo now?

Um, no. They are in on the deal. The real question is, "Do you suppose the people have been raped enough to get up off their knees now?" Unfortunately, the answer to that question seems to also be "No."

Where's V when we need him?

V is a soothing, but dangerous, fantasy that distracts from the truth that people have more power when banded together as a group, a fact that the immigrant population of the USA seems to know better than the citizen population of same.