50 Ways to Understand the Protect America Act
There is a new law on the books that affects all U.S. citizens. It has the potentially comforting but ironic title, "The Protect America Act." The law (PAA, for short) is the latest amendment to the...
View ArticleFISA-PAA: Engineering Our Own (In)Security
  The ultimate nerd blog Slashdot posted an article(PDF) soon to be published in IEEE, a very influential association that promotes the advancement of technology, about the security risks...
View ArticleIs Room 641A an Off Switch for the Internet?
If you've been following the news for any time, you know about room 641A. It's where AT&T helps the NSA Hoover the entire internet. That's awful, that's mind boggling, and on initial examination, I...
View ArticleDemocratic spine, the easy way! FISA Pt. II
Having grown the spine to let the FISA overhaul expire and leave Bush sputtering, "Turr! Turrists! 9/11!" to an empty hall, the Democrats in Congress have an easy way forward. If only, that is, their...
View ArticleSen. Webb Promotes Bush FISA Fear-Mongering
I am an ex-Congressional attorney. I used to work on House Judiciary matters for the second-ranking Democrat on the Committee. I am currently a television and talk radio host.For three days now, I...
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Heritage Foundation declines to buy own crap
In yesterday's mid-day open thread, I noted the Heritage Foundation's ridiculous "FISA Overtime Clock," with which the nutters were hoping to play the fear card once again, only to find out the card's...
View ArticleA Short Time Ago in a Galaxy Not So Far Away: Revenge of the Protect America Act
Often times when confronted with the cesspool that is modern politics, I am reminded of a line from one of the Star Wars movies. "So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause." It isn't quite...
View ArticleCongress: Bush officially bonkers.
Remember how the President played the FISA game back in August? He actually threatened not only to veto any FISA bill that wasn't written exactly as he wanted (and remember, he hadn't yet figured out...
View ArticleU.S House Democrats under attack on PAA
Defense of Democracies attacks House DemocratsI woke up this past Sunday half awake to find the following attack ad mixed in with my morning news broadcast. To say the least, I almost choked on my...
View ArticleMy FISA Letter to Hoyer and Pelosi
This is, in my mind, the most important issue going right now -- preservation of our constitutional liberties against the Bush/Rethuglican onslaught.Several diaries and stories have recently documented...
View ArticleObama and H.R. 6304
In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (50 USC Sect 1801 aka FISA). Last August, using bogus horror stories of an immanent attack on Washington D.C., the White House...
View ArticleHonesty at last from the Obama Campaign
Yesterday, Glenn Greenwald phoned Obama advisor Greg Craig regarding his claim in yesterday's NYT that "[Obama] concluded that with FISA expiring, that it was better to get a compromise than letting...
View ArticleObama's FISA reversal and the FISA timeline
Here is a timeline regarding the PAA, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, and statements by the Obama Campaign relating to those matters. Also, some quotes from those comments that might shed some light...
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