Top Items:
Joshua Roberts / Newsweek:
Bush's Snoopgate — The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security. — Bush says he had 'legal authority' to permit …
Discussion:
Brendan Nyhan, The Poor Man, The RCP Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, WTF Is It Now??, Right Wing Nut House, The Peking Duck, The Mahablog, IntoxiNation-News …, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The Washington Monthly, Let Freedom Ring, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Strata-Sphere, Prairie Weather, Macsmind, firedoglake, Donklephant, This Modern World, Booman Tribune ~ Boo!, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog, Hullabaloo and Running Scared
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James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story — The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say. — The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall …
Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show — WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment …
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Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked — FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records …
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Why Didn't He Ask Congress? — The president's authorization of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency contravened a statute's clear language. Assuming that urgent facts convinced him that he should proceed anyway and on his own, what argument convinced him that he lawfully could?
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
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New York Times:
Administration Cites War Vote in Spying Case — WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - President Bush and two of his most senior aides argued Monday that the highly classified program to spy on suspected members of terrorist groups in the United States grew out of the president's constitutional authority …
Washington Post:
Vital Presidential Power — A U.S. president has just received word that American counterterrorist operatives have captured a senior al Qaeda operative in Pakistan. Among his possessions are a couple of cell phones — phones that contain several American phone numbers.
Hindrocket / Power Line:
A REALLY OBVIOUS POINT — I haven't had time yet to study the legal arguments surrounding the NSA intercepts of international communications; Hugh Hewitt, for one, has addressed some of the technical issues. But there are a couple of fundamental points that, while obvious, haven't been made often enough.
Discussion:
World O'Crap
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Walid Phares / The Counterterrorism Blog:Catch them, but do not watch them!.. — "Use their systems …
Discussion:
Froggy Ruminations
Washington Post:
Senator Sounded Alarm in '03 — Rockefeller Wrote Cheney to Voice Concerns on Spying — John D. Rockefeller IV, a wealthy man representing a poor state, had been the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee for six months when he sat down to a secret briefing on July 17, 2003.
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Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:
LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE NSA DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM: Was the secret NSA surveillance program legal? Was it constitutional? Did it violate federal statutory law? It turns out these are hard questions, but I wanted to try my best to answer them. My answer is pretty tentative …
Discussion:
The University …, The Moderate Voice, Concurring Opinions, Patterico's Pontifications, The Decembrist, Confirm Them, Crooked Timber, Dean's World, Betsy's Page, The Right Coast, TigerHawk, The Washington Monthly, Kenneth Anderson's Law …, Hugh Hewitt, Decision '08, Secular Blasphemy and The Truth Laid Bear
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Daniel J. Solove / Concurring Opinions:Beyond His Power: Bush's Authorization of Warrantless NSA Surveillance
Discussion:
Balkinization, Obsidian Wings, NewsHog, SwireBlog, Stop the Bleating!, Prometheus 6, Confederate Yankee and Instapundit.com
Evan Coyne Maloney / >bt: Brain Terminal:
Strike Shuts Down NYC Subways & Buses — 20 December 2005 @ 3:43AM >> For the first time since 1980, the New York City public transit system is completely shut down due to a strike. Transit Workers Union head Roger Toussaint made the announcement shortly after 3:00AM local time.
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Washington Post:
President's Approval Rating Rebounds — President Bush's approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy …
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, CNN, Decision '08, Power Line, USS Neverdock, Mystery Pollster, Wonkette, AMERICAN FUTURE, In the Bullpen and The Claremont Institute
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Mark Blumenthal / Mystery Pollster:NOT SUCH AN OUTLIER AFTER ALL? … Advantage, Mr. Todd.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
WHAT IS THE NSA UP TO?....So what's the nature of the secret NSA bugging program? Why did the Bush administration feel like they couldn't continue to seek warrants via the usual FISA procedures? Take a look at the following quotes and you can see a single thread that starts to emerge:
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Opinion Journal:
Our Friends the Pakistanis — Support for the U.S. is surging in some parts of the Muslim world. — So much for the popularly peddled view that anti-Americanism in the Muslim world is so pervasive and deep-rooted it might take generations to alter. A new poll from Pakistan …
Bull Moose:
Big Brother W.? — The Moose doesn't think it's 1984. — The latest imbroglio over the revelation that the government eavesdropped into the international phone calls of U.S. citizens does not set the Moose's antlers on fire. The Administration is going to have to offer a better explanation …
Greyhawk / Mudville Gazette:
"MIKE" — Via email: — Came across your blog this morning, and thought I'd share my thoughts as the dad of an American Soldier killed in action four months ago. My son was standing cover flank for two buddies checking out a suspicous location in the roadway while on patrol at 2:20 A.M. 16 Aug when an IED exploded.
Barbara Boxer / boxer.senate.gov:
Boxer Asks Presidential Scholars About Former White House Counsel's Statement that Bush Admitted to an 'Impeachable Offense' — Boxer said, "I take very seriously Mr. Dean's comments, as I view him to be an expert on Presidential abuse of power. I am expecting a full airing of this matter by the Senate in the very near future."
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CNN:
Bush: Secret wiretaps won't stop — President accuses senators of 'playing politics with Patriot Act' — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush defended using government wiretaps without court authorization to monitor terrorism suspects and urged the Senate to renew the USA Patriot Act during his year-end news conference Monday.
