Bush's spying problems not going away

The news is breaking faster than I can follow it. Department of Defense spying on anti-war protestors. Bush spying on Americans without warrants. FBI spying on legal not-for-profit activist groups (e.g. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Greenpeace, Catholic Workers Group).

A judge on the FISA court has resigned in protest.

Congressional leaders said they were partially informed, ill informed, late informed, or told to keep quiet. Senator John Rockefeller from West Virginia released a letter he says he sent VP Cheney after he was briefed. If our elected Congressional representatives can't act on the news the governement is breaking the law because some law breaker classified the information then our government is broken. The people are screwed.

Over at TPM Cafe in some thread I've lost some commenters speculated the "secret program" Bush was raving about was actually mass monitoring of all emails and international phone calls among other things. Sounds plausible. If Bush knew there was no way he could get FISA approval for just sticking everyone in the country under surveillance it would explain why he didn't take it to the court.

On other blogs people are pointing out that throughout 2003-2004 Bush was saying the Patriot Act wasn't dangerous to civil liberties because any wiretaps need a court approved warrant. Say again?

George Bush is the threat to our democracy.

Thank goodness for Senators like Russ Feingold who goes on TV and says unequivocally that Bush broke the law, and John Conyers who has "...introduced a resolution (H. Res. 635) creating a Select Committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible impeachable offenses.".

Where are Seanator Dick Durbin and Senator Barack Obama? Where are the Illlinois Congressman? I just checked the Senators' and my Congressman's websites and there's nothing on them about this news rush on illegal spying!

Categories: Bush, illegal, spying, surveillance, civil, liberties, rights, secret, warrants, Senate, House, Congress,