Officer Barbardy: “Ok people, move along. There’s nothing to see here.” (South Park)
“Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday” to the WaPo’s Charles Babington in Wednesday’s Feb. 15 edition.
Officer Barbardy: This is nothing out of the unusual. Cows turn themselves inside-out all the time.
The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a Democratic-sponsored motion to start an inquiry into the recently revealed program in which the National Security Agency eavesdrops on an undisclosed number of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents without obtaining warrants from a secret court. Two committee Democrats said the panel — made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats — was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it.
Officer Barbrady: Hey, I just thought of something. No, wait, that’s subtraction.
They attributed the shift to last week’s closed briefings given by top administration officials to the full House and Senate intelligence committees, and to private appeals to wavering GOP senators by officials, including Vice President Cheney. “It’s been a full-court press,” said a top Senate Republican aide who asked to speak only on background — as did several others for this story. … (From “Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt: White House Sways Some GOP Lawmakers,” WaPo
Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate Maine Republican, has gotten the big White House cattle-prod treatment, and backtracked so much she now says, “”I’m not sure it’s going to be essential or necessary.”
Jay Rockefeller pushed for wide-ranging hearings and is now expressing frustration. But then, the NSA leaks aren’t going to rock his privileged world, so … gentlemen must be gentlemen, don’t you think? And, yes, he does prefer sauce verde on his poached salmon. Rocky’s idea of pressuring the WH is as forceful as shooting a water pistol at a Bradley tank.
Mayor: Officer Barbrady, pretend for just a minute that we had a competent law officer in our town. What would he do?
Officer Barbrady: That’s a good question, ma’am. Let me get right on that … with thinking.
We the people appreciate all your hard thinking too, Rocky. Now move along, you and the senators. There’s nothing to see here. Glad the White House convinced any worried GOP senators. We were probably all just being a bit neurotic, huh.
South Park references: So. Park Quotes
How DO they do it? What do they offer these seemingly intelligent representatives to just lay down? It is mind boggling. It is after midnight here and I just watched a hearing on Cspan of a intelligence subcommittee about whistleblower protection. Tice and five others including two soldiers were testifying how they were either fired or their careers sabotaged for coming forward, including a soldier demoted for speaking out against torture at Abu Graib. The congresscritters on the panel came to the conclusion that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. DUH!!
Here’s a new article in the NY Times– Senate Scrubs Hearings as Politics Trump Policy in an Election Year— that sheds a little more light on Congress’ priorities: it’s an election year, ya’ know, and they’ve got, oh, fundraisers to attend and other similar such really pressing matters. This particular article is about the Katrina and budget hearings, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to infer that we could add “NSA spying” as well.
So glad to hear congress is doing its job. Wish this news was a surprise.
OT question:
John Perkins, interviewed this morning by Amy Goodman, said that it was the NSA who initially recruited him out of grad school. Can anyone explain that? I always thought the NSa dealt striclty with signals stuff.
Wasn’t he awesome? The interview before was great too. This is one of those Amy days when I need to watch again at 3pm or 4pm PT when she’s on LINK TV and FSTV.
And I can’t decide which angle/story to feature. He touched on so much.
Hey, Arcturus, I think i lost your e-mails to me … almost all of my e-mails went poof.
I missed the end of it, but it was a great interview. Am I missing something though, or is it odd that NSA recruited him?
Dennis Bernstein yesterday on Flash Points Radio was talking about torture with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, & Alfred McCoy, author of the forthcoming A Question of Torture : CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror that was outstanding!
McCoy shows how what has emerged from Guantanomo & Abu Ghraib were based on coercive techniques of “no touch torture” using sensory deprivation & self-inflicted pain devised by the CIA from experiments on psychiatric patients & prisoners in the 50’s & later taught at the School of Americas.
Naomi Klein has a review US has been using torture for decades available at dawn.com
I’ll fwd what you’ve lost . . .
The US political, chattering classes love hearings.
It gives them closure. Something, you see has been done.
A most valid point. Besides, it’s a way to acknowledge “wrong-doing” while covering up the deeper more nefarious aspects of the operation(s). See Iran-Contra.
First though, it’s imperative that congress get its act together & legalize these essential surveillance programs — let’s not get hung up in sticky constituional issues over events’long’ past.
Still, the more that comes out, the better. And I see a new UPI story on Tice is now out:
Whistleblower Says NSA Violations Bigger: