Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
We’ve been hearing inklings of a BushCo plan for a veerrrrryyy slooowwww draw-down of troops. Scott Horton explains the reasoning more clearly than “serious” journalists would.
A major point driving the move has been the Congressional G.O.P. Bushwas told that if he pushed a straight continuation of the Surgestrategy after this fall, he would lose most of the CongressionalG.O.P.
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.
[See the update below]
I never did comment on the FISC order for more briefing on the question of whether it–the Court–should turn over to the ACLU the Court’s decisions ruling parts of the warrantless wiretap program illegal.
While the order is signed by the Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, I had a deja vu of the request Judge Walton (who joined the FISC about mid-way into the events that the ACLU
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.
…Covering the story…
Not surprisingly, when David Gregory had Karl Rove on Meet the Press this morning, he never called Rove on any of Rove’s misrepresentations. That’s par for the course, on NBC. When Russert had Bob Novak on, he didn’t call him on any of the misrepresentations, either. (Though to NBC’s credit, they had Matt Cooper on to smack Karl around after Karl was gone.) Of course, both Russert (as Libby’s
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.
By far the most interesting thing (to me at least) in today’s WaPo story on how Karl Rove mobilized Administration resources to commit massive Hatch Act violations is this:
“He didn’t do these things half-baked. It was total commitment,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III(Va.), who in 2002 ran the House Republicans’ successful reelectioncampaign in close coordination with Rove.
There have been a flurry of stories depicting the degree to which the Bush Administration has politicized … everything. McClatchy described how Treasury and Commerce were making decisions based on the political value for the Republican party. And today, the WaPo describes how Interior and Labor were doing the same. And based on interviews and documents, the WaPo describes the whole process as more systematic than anything before.
But Rove, who announced
James Risen and Eric Lichtblau have a report today supporting what many around these parts have suggested–that one effect of the amendments to FISA is to expand the kinds of surveillance the Administration can do.
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month couldallow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go wellbeyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain typesof physical searches of American citizens and the
Wow. Brent Wilkes co-conspirator John Michael is going after Tommy Kontogiannis hard. And they’ve got a very interesting way to do it (hat tip to CC for the alert).
As you’ll recall, John Michael is the least famous of the thugs indicted in the larger Duke Cunningham scandal–Michael was involved in the mortgage company money laundering side of things.