The Heretik “How much must it suck to be Dick Cheney, to know you have Democrats with subpoena power looking for answers you said you didn’t have to give when Republicans were in charge, when Republicans didn’t ask questions anyway?
“I expect real answers, or we’ll have testimony under oath until we get them,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, who will head the committee beginning in January, said in an interview this week. “We’re entitled to know these answers, and in many instances we don’t get them because people are hiding their mistakes. And that’s no excuse.”
Leahy sent a letter to Alberto Gonzales.
“The American people,” Mr. Leahy’s letter said, “deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism around the world.”
Of course the White House will claim it must protect secrets, but it will soon be no secret it is protecting its own ass. Of course this begs the question of whether a building can have an ass. Just how many asses does the White House have?”

Crooks and Liars: “The Jurist:
US Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine has launched an internal investigation into the DOJ’s use of intelligence gathered under the NSA’s domestic surveillance program, according to a letter from Fine to Congressional leaders obtained by AP Monday. Fine has notified leaders of the House and Senate judiciary, intelligence and appropriations committees that his office is investigating the Justice Department’s ‘controls and use of information related to the program’ as well as its ‘compliance with legal requirements governing the program.’ Under the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program [.PDF], warrantless wiretaps are used to intercept telephone calls and e-mails of conversations of individuals suspected of being involved with the al Qaeda terrorist network if one of person is located outside the US.
After the program was first disclosed last year, inspectors general from both the DOJ and the Defense Department refused requests to investigate the program, with Fine citing a lack of jurisdiction. The DOJ request was referred to the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, but the internal probe into the role DOJ lawyers played in designing the program was dropped after the NSA denied investigators clearance to review all relevant documents. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales later said that President Bush personally put an end to the internal OPR investigation. “

The Republicans and their media friends are in counterattack mode. They’ve been stinking up the place during their decade-plus in power, so it stands to reason that Democratic ethics will be one of their major themes. ‘The Democrats are no better than we are’ has been their song for most of that time.

Lots of Democrats do have ethics problems, but that’s not why we’re hearing about them so much. A lot of the Republican stooges are better wreckers than builders (Limbaugh as much as confessed to that), and the wrecking is underway.

Some Republican voters and many independent voters are disillusioned with the Republicans, but the Republican core is as energetic and vicious as ever, and the media are zombified. So it’s still all up to us

http://www.haloscan.com/comments/glenngreenwald

“the warrant can be obtained retroactively, up to 3 days after the wiretap (15 days in time of war). Of course, the Bush admin was and is
not trying to obtain warrants even retroactively for some wiretaps”

HaloScan.com – Comments: “Who’d a’known,

If you google Diggs, wiretapping, NSA, and ‘federal court,’ you will quickly learn that Bush’s spy program has been declared illegal by a federal judge.

You may also not know that a judicial decision is not necessary to make an activity illegal when the activity is specifically prohibited by a statute. Congress defines what is illegal by enacting laws. In this case, it enacted a law making it a crime to conduct domestic electronic surveillance without first obtaining a specific type of warrant. Bush’s spy program intentionally conducts domestic electronic surveillance without obtaining the warrant that the law requires. See? It’s illegal. Is that really so hard to understand, or are you just goofing on everybody?”

Media Matters – Gender stereotypes and discussions of Armani suits dominate media’s coverage of Speaker-elect Pelosi: “Gender stereotypes and discussions of Armani suits dominate media’s coverage of Speaker-elect Pelosi
Summary: Since the Democratic Party won control of both the House and the Senate, the media have focused on such issues as Pelosi’s choice of attire and whether being female will affect her ability to lead. MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer wondered if Pelosi’s ‘personal feelings [were] getting in the way of effective leadership’ — a problem she suggested would not surface in ‘men-run leadership posts’ — and whether men were ‘more capable of taking personality clashes.’

Since the Democratic Party won control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections, in coverage purportedly about the leadership capabilities of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the incoming House speaker, the media have focused on such issues as Pelosi’s choice of attire and whether being female will affect her ability to lead.
On the November 18 edition of MSNBC Live, anchor Contessa Brewer wondered if Pelosi’s ‘personal feelings [were] getting in the way of effective leadership’ — a problem she suggested would not surface in ‘men-run leadership posts’ — and whether men were ‘more capable of taking personality clashes.’ Brewer then asked Republican strategist Brad Blakeman:
BREWER: Brad, do you see that there is a difference between the men-run leadership posts? I mean, are they more capable of taking personality clashes, setting them aside, and saying, ‘In order for me to get … from point A to point B, I’ve got to set aside my personal feelings towards this guy’?
Brewer questioned whether the ‘Democrats might revisit the issue’ of electing Pelosi speaker, because ‘there are two months left before”

Why I hate, rather than dislike, the Bush movement

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled against The New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing telephone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation concerning a terrorism-funding probe.The one-sentence order came in a First Amendment battle that involves stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon. The stories revealed the government’s plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation. more>

From the Desk of Patrick J. Fitzgerald: Just In The Knick Of Time…

International Herald Tribune: “NEW YORK: An angry crowd demanded to know why police officers had killed an unarmed black man on the day of his wedding and wounded two of his friends. The victim, Sean Bell, 23, was supposed to have married the mother of his two young children Saturday.
On Sunday, some in the crowd called for the removal of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. At one point, the crowd of a few hundred counted off to 50, the number of rounds that are estimated to have been fired.
The shootings Saturday took place outside the Kalua Cabaret, a strip club where Bell’s bachelor party had been held. The survivors were Joseph Guzman, 31, who was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, who was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition Sunday and Benefield’s condition was stable.
At a news conference Saturday, Kelly said that the department was still piecing together what happened, and that it was too early to say whether the shooting had been justified. The car driven by Bell was struck by 21 of the police bullets after the vehicle rammed an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan. (AP)”

…and of course horrible grammar:

“Somewhere in those five paragraphs Greenwald made it from not knowing their proof to knowing they had no proof, reminding me yet again that I could never cut it in the reality based community.”

JustOneMinute: Jane Harman Is *NOT* “Currently” Under Investigation