fisa

Once thought to be a longshot, movement to reinstate FISA provisions picks up momentum.

You’re a maddening figure, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). You seem like a nice enough gentleman. And then you say things like this — via Josh Orton at MyDD –  during last year’s debate over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (video after the jump):

The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency improperly wiretapped a member of Congress who was “part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006.” Greg Sargent wants to know who it was. Don’t we all. To the Googling stations!

Pulled from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: It turns out that carving out the institutional safeguards built into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as the Democratic-led Congress cravenly acquiesced to in 2007 under pressure from the Bush administration, results in massive abuse in domestic surveillance collection. From The New York Times:

The National Security Agency intercepted [...]

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco today rejected the Obama Justice Department’s attempt to continue to conceal evidence of warrantless wiretapping.
As I wrote in my story today, the government filed an emergency appeal last week hoping to halt the release of documents showing that the National Security Agency, under [...]

In addition to Guantanamo Bay and torture, the big topics of the day seems to be warrant-less surveillance and Federal Intelligence and Surveillance Act and nailing Eric Holder down on whether or not he’ll break from the recent history of the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) spoke briefly of his past [...]

Mike McConnell, the outgoing director of national intelligence, basically had one overarching goal for his tenure: secure congressional approval for the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program through the revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, helped him do it.
So it’s hardly surprising [...]

You know that Flamin’-Hot-Cheetos-drive-me-crazy story from NPR? The one that was an awesome internet meme a while ago? Well, a similar burst of temporary insanity appears to have afflicted Sen. Arlen Specter, who recently called the FISA telecom-immunity provisions that he voted for twice a “festering wound.”
Absent an explanation, the ACLU is noticing the [...]

As Republican delegates gather in St. Paul this week, two liberal groups are storming their hotels. The Campaign for America’s Future lays out its advertising campaign:
When Republican delegates check-in to their hotel rooms in St. Paul this week, they will receive a “thank you” message on their televisions. An ad called “Thanks For The [...]