Shallow Thoughts: People Are Corporations, Too edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

If we could get the Supreme Court to rule that people are corporations, then we'd have us some real justice.

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

Why I cried

By GottaLaff

I don't know if it was due to feeling weakened and vulnerable from a week of having the flu, or a legitimate emotional response to what has occurred over the past few weeks, but at 7:30 this morning, I broke down in tears. I sobbed. It was way too early in the day to feel much of anything, let alone an avalanche of despair. But I did.

Or was I mourning? With each L.A. Times page that I turned, my eyes filled with more tears, no matter how hard I tried to talk myself out of them.

With each report on the Supreme Court's decision, with every sentence about the current Prop 8 court battle, with every photo of the devastation of Haiti, with every twist and turn in the health care "debate", with each postmortem of the uncanny Coakley loss to a former centerfold whose policy positions frustrate me no end, with every military death, with each inept, biased piece of news reporting, I found myself succumbing to tears that I tried like crazy to resist.

My sons are facing a world of things I can't even fathom. Where I had hopes, I now have anxiety. Where I thought the world would be safer for them, I see growing dangers that I thought would dissipate over time, not intensify. Health care hurdles, hatred, financial roadblocks, discrimination, wars, political obstruction, you name it.

Who do they turn to for justice? How can fairness be achieved? What happened to judicial objectivity? Who can provide that for them? Certainly not the highest court in the land.

Five people have changed my kids' futures. Five people have made voting seem nearly meaningless. Five people who should be standing up for fairness and democracy have instead slammed a whole lot of doors in my children's faces. And mine. And yours.

And so I cried. I cried because I, along with so many of you, continue to fight, and continue to lose to irrationality. We do what we can, both individually and collectively. Speaking for myself, I donate, I tweet, I post, I Facebook, I try to get a message out, I vote, I scream, I explain, I quip. But it hasn't been enough.

I feel smaller than I've ever felt, more insignificant even though I'm reaching thousands on a daily basis. I fight as hard as I can, and give as much as I can give, but this latest body blow from SCOTUS really hurt.

And so today I finally broke down and cried.

However...

As impotent as I feel, and I suspect many of you are feeling the same way, I have no intention of giving up. None.

I'll continue to donate, tweet, post, Facebook, vote, scream, explain, quip. But just like you, I need to vent sometimes in order to unload the negative and start all over again with the positive.

I hope you understand, I'm not whining. I'm not surrendering. I'm not walking away. I haven't lost my resolve. I'm simply sharing the overwhelming rush of emotion I had this morning, because if I didn't, my head would explode.

And having done that, it's time to start over, breathe, and do everything in my power to make the world better for my kids, myself, and anyone who wants to join me.

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

By GottaLaff

Under whose watch again?

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

There's a whole lot more here.

The GOP is afraid of Dawn Johnsen. I bet she'd be all over this.

The real reason for their vehement opposition is that Johnsen is committed to overturning the Bush administration’s policies on torture and warrantless surveillance that would clip the wings of the imperial presidency.

As for today's DoJ, the ones who made it in:

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

I'm all a-flutter.

Homeland Security said to kill spy satellite plan

By GottaLaff

Good:

The Bush administration plan to use satellites for domestic surveillance is reportedly axed after state and local officials say they have higher priorities.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has decided to kill a controversial Bush administration program to use U.S. spy satellites to collect domestic intelligence for counter-terrorism, law enforcement and security, a senior Homeland Security official said Monday evening.

The National Applications Office program was established in 2007 to provide up-to-the-minute electronic intelligence to local and state law enforcement. But it has been delayed due to concerns by privacy and civil liberties advocates -- and by some lawmakers -- that it would intrude on Americans' lives.

The senior Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified, said Napolitano had decided to nix it after consulting with state and local law enforcement officials and learning that they had far more pressing priorities than using satellites to collect information and eavesdrop on people.

How about, she decided to nix it after realizing it was an invasion of privacy?

House conservatives seek PATRIOT Act extension

By GottaLaff

Here we go again:

More than a dozen of the GOP’s most conservative members on Thursday introduced a bill to reauthorize controversial PATRIOT Act provisions set to expire later this year.

The group of House Republicans – which include Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Judiciary Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) – want to extend for an additional 10 years the ability of national security agencies to conduct “roving” wiretaps, have access to library patron information and greatly expand the reach of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Those provisions of the PATRIOT Act were set to expire this year. [...]

“The national security provisions we’re seeking to reauthorize are proven and effective,” Smith continued. “They have helped investigators track down terrorists and prevent attacks.”

Those provisions in particular drew the ire of liberals and privacy groups who said they trampled on Americans' civil liberties. [...]

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) did not sign on as an original cosponsor.

Those House Republicans who did include: Judiciary Committee Members: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.); Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.); Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.); Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-Calif.); Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa); Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.); Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio); Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.); and Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.); and GOP Reps. John Sullivan (R-Okla.); Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.); Rep. Duncan Hunter (Calif.); Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.); and Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.).

Welcome to 2001, the Rushpublican default year.

Undoing BushCo: Intel edition

By GottaLaff

The past three days have been, how you say, orgasmic:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

More, more!

Dennis Blair, President Obama's nominee to become the Director of National Intelligence, took a swipe at the Bush administration's methods of gathering intelligence. [...]

Blair, a retired Navy admiral who headed the Pacific Command, pledged a new approach to counterterrorism requiring the intelligence community to carry out missions "in a manner consistent with our nation's values, consistent with our Constitution and consistent with the rule of law," he said in a statement at his confirmation hearing Thursday.

He made a point to stress that he would not support any surveillance activities that "circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization."

"I believe in the importance of review and regulation of the use of those surveillance authorities," he added.

Blair also stressed that there must be clear standards for humane treatment of detainees that should apply to all government agencies.

Blair, who will likely be confirmed, also invited independent monitoring of the agencies he will lead to prevent abuses and protect civil liberties.

Yes. Yes. Yes!

Asked To Name Highest Moment In Office, Cheney Comes Up With '9/11'

Of course it was Darth, since it slid ya'll right into your power taking, civil liberty neutering niche.

FBI spied on N.Y. Times, Washington Post reporters

By GottaLaff

Yeah, yeah, we spied on you. Whatevs. Sorry. So what's for lunch?

That's the message from FBI Director Robert Mueller to the executive editors of the New York Times and the Washington Post, after an inspector general discovered that the agency had seized telephone records from four US reporters without a grand jury.

Mueller called Times' editor Bill Keller and Post chief Len Downie Friday, "expressing regret" that agents had not followed "proper procedures. The "lapse" occurred nearly four years ago and involved four staff members of the papers.

"The FBI discontinued use of the emergency letters after privacy advocates and internal watchdogs cited hundreds of cases in which agents intentionally, or out of sloppiness, did not follow up their 'exigent' requests with paperwork that linked the submission to a genuine matter of national security," Washington Post reporter Carrie Johnson wrote in an article Saturday.

Um, yeah. It's kind of a no-no.

The records were obtained through what is called an exigent circumstances letter, a demand made by the agency in a practice that skirts civil liberties protections that has flourished in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

Neither Mueller nor his agency offered any explanations regarding the nature of the subject of the investigation that involved spying on American reporters based overseas. Writing in the Post today, Johnson noted that the reporters were writing about Islamic terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Why should he have to explain? He's just the Big Boss of the FBI, responsible for spying on innocent citizens because he can.

"FBI agents involved in the undisclosed national security probe stated at the time of the request that they would follow up with subpoenas from a U.S. attorney, but 'no subpoena was ever issued for your telephone toll records,' according to a letter that Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. received yesterday from FBI General Counsel Valerie Caprone," she added.

Such records listed the phone numbers the reporters called and received, but not the actual conversation, similar to the warrantless wiretapping program the Bush Administration has employed in tracking calls American citizens have placed to overseas destinations.

I can't tell you how much safer I feel knowing our government is keeping a close eye on me things.