The Pentagon is spying on peace groups and protesters, again here.
NBC News originally reported that a sample of about 1,500 "suspicious incidents" listed in the database included four dozen anti-war meetings or protests. What’s more, they are mishandling the data, failing to delete files that should have been deleted. We have been down this road before, with both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, with the result that paranoid (Johnson) and paranoid, anti-Semitic (Nixon) demands were made on U.S. law-enforcement to engage in police state tactics against patriotic American citizens. Does anyone trust the Bush administration not to engage in the same? Just take a look at how seriously these people take civil liberties. They insist that there can be no possibility that they would ever abuse the powers they enjoy under the “Patriot Act” and yet, to take one minor example from the recently released—and barely covered—9/ll commission report on compliance, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that is supposed to oversee this delicate balance has was deemed to have “funding [that] is insufficient, no meetings have been held, no staff named, no work plan outlined, no work begun, no office established.” (And they didn’t even get an “F” for that one.)
Really, thank goodness for Russ Feingold, and Republicans Chuck Hagel, Larry Craig , Lisa Murkowski, and John Sununu, who are at least drawing attention to the destruction of our Constitutional Protection under the guise of national security protection. They’ve circulated a letter Wednesday expressing their concern about "government fishing expeditions targeting innocent Americans" and demand further restrictions on provisions allowing government searches and access to private and personal information including medical and library records, here.
Quote of the Day: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), the lone Senator who voted against the Patriot Act when it was originally considered in 2001, appeared on C-SPAN at 8:00 am ET to discuss where things stand on re-authorization. He said he could not support the version of the Patriot Act currently before the Senate because it makes "essentially the same mistake" as the original legislation.
When a very angry caller asked Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI): "If we have another terrorist attack, are you going to say 'it's my damn fault?'"
Feingold answered: "Good morning to Texas."