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Wow. I'm with Spencer Ackerman. If transparency is going to kill Americans, Mike McConnell just killed a lot more Americans blabbing to the El Paso Times than a Congressional debate with marginal transparency ever will. Consider this example, where McConnell tries to convince the reporter that the Administration is not data-mining on a massive scale: Now there's a sense that we're doing massive datamining.

Perhaps the most amusing aspect of Hayes' retelling of the Plame story in his biography on Cheney is his description of the events of fall 2003. Before I explain it, I should note that Hayes has a problem with time. He frequently alters the chronology of events so he can screw with the causality.

Several people noted the announcement that DOD was shutting down the TALON database, wondering if the database was just going to be renamed down the line, as TIA seems to have morphed. Apparently they missed this detail: It will be closed on Sept. 17 and information collected subsequently on potential terror or security threats to Defense Departmentfacilities or personnel will be sent by Pentagon officials to an FBIdatabase known as Guardian, according

Marty Lederman notes that Cheney's latest dodge includes a reference to the ruling that limits Congress' oversight over the Executive strictly to those areas where it pertains to legislation. From that, he argues that Cheney's response was premised on the belief that FISA itself is an illegal restriction on the Executive. Finally, the letter lists numerous reasons whythe VP's office might not release the requested documents.

I confess. I peeked ahead. Today, we're going to play a little quiz game. If you had to pick the parts of the CIA Leak story that Cheney's hand-picked propagando-biographer would leave out, thereby leaving a picture that Dick Cheney was not centrally involved in the leak, what would you leave out? The answers are after the jump. Hayes left out:The notes Cheney made on Wilson's op-ed, including the question "Or did his wife

From TPMM, though no details about why or when: Bradley Schlozman, a former Justice Departmentofficial who was at the center of the U.S. attorneys scandal and isunder investigation by the Departments inspector general for hisalleged efforts to politicize the Civil Rights Division, has finallyleft his post at the Department. And while we're counting people leaving DOJ, one of the good guys is leaving, too: DLA Piper US LLP today announced that Peter Zeidenberg, a

I only caught the tail end of Pat Leahy's uneventful press conference. But apparently, I didn't miss much. The deadline for the White House still stands--but they're going to miss it. And Leahy--he says he can't do anything until everyone returns in September. But there is something he can do now. Why don't those on the Senate Judiciary Committee--and anyone else in the Senate who'd like to join in--submit a friend of

Now that I've finally gotten around to the ACLU motion to unseal the FISC opinions on the warrantless wiretap programs, I'd like to recommend the original motion submitted by the ACLU. The motion catalogs a good deal of the Orwellian games the Administration is playing and collects, in one place, many of the Administrations evasive tactics regarding the warrantless wiretap program.

In a post on the $80,000 settlement BushCo had to pay for ejecting two people wearing an anti-Bush (that is, pro-America) t-shirt from a presidential rally, Pam Spaulding links to the Advance Manual used to prepare for such presidential rallies; the government turned over a very heavily redacted copy of the Manual during the suit.

Pow wow linked to this Jonathan Alter article that provides invaluable background to selise's diary describing how the FISA amendment vote went down in the House. Here's how selise chronicles the events of August 3: Friday, Aug 3, 2007 (floor summary) At 1:19 PM the House took up H.Res. 600 and it was passed (228-196) at 5:14 PMafter heated debate.