A Couple of Things...

First, sorry for the slow pace of posts--I was busy a little earlier, and then Blogger was "down for planned maintenence" (and let's hope this might actually, oh, I don't know, actually make it reliable...although I'm not holding my breath)...anyway...

Had to run to our off-site "disaster recovery" location for a little of our OWN maintenence, but caught a little of NPR on the radio. One focus was on the racist GOP attack ad in Tennessee...and yeah, noting the GOP's even deeper foray into the racist sewer its been wallowing in since the 60's is more important, but...

One line in the attack ad is "terrorists need their privacy," presumably a reference to Shrub's warrantless wiretapping (and probably to the elimination of habeas corpus, the Eighth Amendment, and the Geneva Conventions). To focus strictly on the former, though, this lie, and that's what it is (i.e., Democrats won't wiretap terrorist suspects at all), has been looked at by bigger bloggers than me (see especially Glenn Greenwald)...but to add my .0002 cents worth, I wish like hell somebody with a spine would stand in front of the assclowns like Shrub--or Orrin Hatch--or Abu Gonzales--or whoever the hell is pushing this sort of nonsense and tell them something along the lines of "if you're TOO STUPID to fill out a one page form, then you're not suitable for holding high office. To wit:

THIS is a standard federal search warrant. That's it. One page. I looked for a FISA warrant, but was unable to find one online. I seriously doubt it's any more complicated.

Looking more generally at search warrants, you can see that hearsay evidence is acceptable, and there are exceptions for things like "plain view" or pursuit of a particular suspect. I think most folks reading this are also aware, more specifically to FISA, that warrants may be applied for retroactively up to three days after the fact.

Looking even MORE specifically at FISA and electronic surveillence, you'll also notice that provisions are in place for requesting physical entry to a premises...although most if not ALL wiretapping these days can and should be done at a CO (central office)...any additional material above and beyond electronic intelligence gathering could be sought by...filling out the one page application above.

How difficult is that?!?

And, I repeat: if it's TOO difficult for a particular office holder, i.e., if they're TOO GODDAMNED STUPID, then they should be looking for another line of work. Yeah, I realize that might be difficult, but there's always K-Street.

Alright...

Otherwise, I also caught a few minutes of the latest version of Shrub tries to speak in coherent sentences...and fails. Pa...the...tic.