Putting Constitution Back into the Constitution

Wednesday UPDATE: Check back later this evening about the Howard Dean visit to Columbus...Prissy is also going to try to make Paul Hackett's invitation today too! Check back for pictures and more!

But do not forget this! Not "new news" to Prissy Patriot readers... www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/politics/18niger.html?oref=login New York Times-2002 Memo Doubted Uranium Sale Claim-January 17, 2006

A four-star general, Carlton W. Fulford Jr., was also sent to Niger to investigate the claims of a uranium purchase. He, too, came away with doubts about the reliability of the report and believed Niger's yellowcake supply to be secure. But the State Department's review, which looked at the political, economic and logistical factors in such a purchase, seems to have produced wider-ranging doubts than other reviews about the likelihood that Niger would try to sell uranium to Baghdad.

The review concluded that Niger was "probably not planning to sell uranium to Iraq," in part because France controlled the uranium industry in the country and could block such a sale. It also cast doubt on an intelligence report indicating that Niger's president, Mamadou Tandja, might have negotiated a sales agreement with Iraq in 2000. Mr. Tandja and his government were reluctant to do anything to endanger their foreign aid from the United States and other allies, the review concluded. The State Department review also cast doubt on the logistics of Niger being able to deliver 500 tons of uranium even if the sale were attempted. "Moving such a quantity secretly over such a distance would be very difficult, particularly because the French would be indisposed to approve or cloak this arrangement," the review said.

Chris Farrell, the director of investigations at Judicial Watch and a former military intelligence officer, said he found the State Department's analysis to be "a very strong, well-thought-out argument that looks at the whole playing field in Niger, and it makes a compelling case for why the uranium sale was so unlikely."

The memo, dated March 4, 2002, was distributed at senior levels by the office of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Al Gore is the political Superman America was looking for. (GORE/EDWARDS 2008) Americans can be proud of Al and Bob Barr, along with their Herculean like effort to save the Constitution before it is declared null and void by Dubya.

Perhaps when mind numb representatives of the people wipe the blood from their collective chins, they will come to the realization they are Americans.

Neorepublicans will be glad for the "left-wing bleeding heart liberals"- they may forgive them easier than the ones whom become enraged upon their discoveries of what their once beloved government has done to them...

The damage is enormous. Politically speaking, the Republican Party as it currently stands, is done.

They are no better than a cheating lover...The Republican Party and their corporate owned media have repeatedly proved they cannot be trusted again. This will not be the first demise of a political party in American history. So never say never.

Hot Links

UPDATE: rawstory.com/news/2005/Gore_responds_to_White_House_hypocrisy_0117.html Gore responds to White House 'hypocrisy' comments...Via RAW Story

Published: January 17, 2006 Former Vice President Al Gore: "The Administration's response to my speech illustrates perfectly the need for a special counsel to review the legality of the NSA wiretapping program. The Attorney General is making a political defense of the President without even addressing the substantive legal questions that have so troubled millions of Americans in both political parties. There are two problems with the Attorney General's effort to focus attention on the past instead of the present Administration's behavior. First, as others have thoroughly documented, his charges are factually wrong. Both before and after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was amended in 1995, the Clinton/Gore Administration complied fully and completely with the terms of the law.

Second, the Attorney General's attempt to cite a previous administration's activity as precedent for theirs - even though factually wrong - ironically demonstrates another reason why we must be so vigilant about their brazen disregard for the law. If unchecked, their behavior would serve as a precedent to encourage future presidents to claim these same powers, which many legal experts in both parties believe are clearly illegal.

Go Al, hit them again with your powerful words! Their defense was weak in accordance to the strength of your argument. Chase him all the way down the street!

About the WP, from Downing Street Org www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6786 Washington Post Writer Advocates Military Propaganda (sorry, is that redundant?) Oh, and he is paid by MIT's Security Studies Program, which is almost certainly funded by the Pentagon.

This pillar of wisdom from the great British military strategist T. E. Lawrence -- better known as Lawrence of Arabia -- remains as compelling today as it was when he penned it in 1920, after helping engineer a victorious Arab revolt against the Ottomans. Yet revelations that U.S. forces in Iraq have surreptitiously purchased and placed stories in the local media to promote the quality-of-life improvements they have made possible and to highlight the country's democratic progress have provoked journalistic outrage here at home. Newspaper editorials have condemned the classified "information operations" program. A White House spokesman has said that President Bush is "deeply concerned." Most journalists I know have reacted with cynical disgust. "This time, someone really does have to be fired," wrote Christopher Hitchens, who otherwise supports the war effort, in Slate.

www.consortiumnews.com/2006/011106.html Consortium News-1/12/06-Alito & the Ken Lay Factor By Robert Parry

The Supreme Court's embrace of the "unitary executive" would sound the death knell for independent regulatory agencies as they have existed since the Great Depression, when they were structured with shared control between the Congress and the President. Putting the agencies under the President'’s thumb would tip the balance of Washington power to the White House and invite abuses by letting the Executive turn on and off enforcement investigations.

For instance, if the "unitary executive" had existed in 2001, Bush might have been tempted to halt the SEC accounting investigation that spelled doom for Enron Corp. and his major financial backer, Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay. As it was, the relative independence of the SEC ensured that the accounting probe went forward and the fraudulent schemes propping up the Houston-based company were exposed.

How pathetic can they get? They want this for America? Watch out for a new "terror warning" or worse to punish the American people for daring to demand their rights back. Bullies get angry when their bluff is called...

In Columbus, the progressive radio station is on AM. Sunday Prissy was trying to listen to Walter Cronkite on the AM station. The sound quality was poor, so course. Prissy felt like a Russian trying to listen to "Voice of America"! Is Mr. Cronkite the last trusted man in journalism? www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/15/entertainment/e154744S99.DTL&feed=rss.news SF Gate-Cronkite: Time for U.S. to Leave Iraq

(01-15) 22:14 PST Pasadena, Calif. (AP) -- Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq. "It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.

www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13639835.htm Mon, Jan. 16, 2006-By Iris Kuo -Knight Ridder Newspapers -Bush broke the law with domestic spying program, Gore says

WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore charged Monday that President Bush had broken the law repeatedly by authorizing domestic eavesdropping without court approval and warned that Bush's aggressive assertion of power puts "America's Constitution in grave danger."

Gore called for lawmakers to demand the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the National Security Agency's wiretapping of American citizens and criticized Republicans and Democrats in Congress for failing to stand up to the White House.

Indeed, maybe Dubya should have gone to law school like Al did. Oh that's right...Dubya was turned down by a public law college in Texas. Too too-pid.

Prissy laughs with mirth to think, that even with his kind of connections there was something he could not buy. That and competency...

ACLU Lawsuit from the source: www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/23486prs20060117.html ACLU Sues to Stop Illegal Spying on Americans, Saying President Is Not Above the Law (1/17/2006)

In addition to the ACLU, the plaintiffs in today’s case are: Authors and journalists James Bamford, Christopher Hitchens and Tara McKelvey

Afghanistan scholar Barnett Rubin of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation and democracy scholar Larry Diamond, a fellow at the Hoover Institution

Nonprofit advocacy groups NACDL, Greenpeace, and Council on American Islamic Relations, who joined the lawsuit on behalf of their staff and membership

"The prohibition against government eavesdropping on American citizens is well-established and crystal clear,” said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson, who is lead counsel in ACLU v. NSA. “President Bush's claim that he is not bound by the law is simply astounding. Our democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president can issue illegal orders that violate Constitutional principles.”

Well, well Christopher Hitchens and the ACLU? He really should be sweeter to liberals.

Those corporate spin doctors at the Post never stop... This was buried when it should have been front page news. It is not every day a popular professional attorney and politician with Gore's credentials will publicly state in Constitution Hall that the president is breaking the law of the land. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011600526.html Gore Says Bush Broke the Law With Spying Warrantless Surveillance an Example of 'Indifference' to Constitution, He Charges

In the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 51 percent said that "wiretapping of telephone calls and e-mails without court approval" was an acceptable tool for the federal government to use when investigating terrorism. Forty-seven percent said it was an unacceptable for the government to use those methods in order to catch suspected terrorists.

Post, your pants are on fire! Notice they did not ask "Is it OK if the president illegally taps the communications of innocent Americans who have no connections to terrorism?"

www.waynemadsenreport.com/ Wayne Madsen. Prissy gives him an 80% for accuracy, 100% for interesting topic. Read at your own risk.

January 16, 2006 -- Why is John McCain so supportive of Bush and Cheney after being so viciously attacked by them in the 2000 campaign? The answer to this question may partially rest in Navy records detailing the events that took place on the USS Forrestal in "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin at the end of July 1967. The neo-cons, who have had five years to examine every file within the Department of Defense, have likely accessed documents that could prove embarrassing to McCain, who was on board the USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, and whose A-4 Skyhawk was struck by an air-to-ground Zuni missile that had misfired from an F-4 Phantom.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/gore_domestic_spying Yahoo-White House Accuses Gore of Hypocrisy By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The White House accused former Vice President Al Gore of hypocrisy Tuesday for his assertion that President Bush broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval. "If Al Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters, we welcome it," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a swipe at the Democrat, who lost the 2000 election to Bush only after the Supreme Court intervened.

Oh Yeah, Scotty? Read this... from Glenn Greenwald -For the past 10 years, Glenn was a litigator in NYC specializing in First Amendment challenges (including some of the highest-profile free speech cases over the past few years), civil rights cases, and corporate and security fraud matters. glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/01/administrations-nsa-playbook-is-empty.html

It appeared from the beginning of this scandal -- and it has now become unavoidably true -- that there is something deeply dishonest going on here. It’s axiomatic that if someone provides a completely incoherent reason for why they did something, they’re not disclosing their real motive. The need for "speed" in eavesdropping is plainly not why the President ordered FISA to be violated, because FISA expressly allows for immediate eavesdropping, and it doesn’t get any speedier than "immediate."

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association's Paul Rieckhoff and Ohio Military Families Speak Out members welcome the IAVA group

Quotes of the Day

Today the ladies get the last word..."When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Elaine Boosler, Comedian

The Vatican is against surrogate mothers. Good thing they didn't have that rule when Jesus was born.~Elayne Boosler

One more reason women should make up at least 50% of the House, Senate and more...Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels.~Faith Whittlesey

Prissy is posting this again, there have been many requests for this satire ofToasted Duyba Gives Speech