Civil Fibberties

Dim Son shows how much bigger than his pea-sized brain is the political hot potato that is domestic spying.

Bush’s Snoopgate.

No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.

[snip]

Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story—which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker. He insists he had “legal authority derived from the Constitution and congressional resolution authorizing force.” But the Constitution explicitly requires the president to obey the law. And the post 9/11 congressional resolution authorizing “all necessary force” in fighting terrorism was made in clear reference to military intervention. It did not scrap the Constitution and allow the president to do whatever he pleased in any area in the name of fighting terrorism.

Oh yeah, the president is committing a potentially impeachable offense by spying on Murkans in this manner, I know, but what's this about the NYT sitting their fat asses on top of this tremendously damaging story until the Dolt in Chief's criminal cabal had yet another chance to employ their favorite voting fraud tactics? W.T.F.??

Please, John Conyers, is there any way to impeach the NY Times?

Comments

[Diane]

The Times held onto the story for the simple reason that the White House asked them to. This "liberal" newspaper has done his bidding from the get-go. The fact that the NYT has served Bush so well is a gigantic piece of evidence that right-wing Americans pay no attention to fact, or to much of anything. Ask any of them who the enemy is, and they will tell you it's the New York Times.