Elliot Spitzer is clearly guilty of paying for sex, and of all manner of betrayals and hypocrisy in this matter.  It is the intent of this diary to begin to explore the possibility that the events leading to the investigation of Spitzer were not just some fortuitously wild coincidence.

The Feds would have us believe that they accidentally came across some suspicious records of unusual financial transactions that led them to initiate an investigation into a "prostitution ring".

And that may be true.

But what if it isn't?  

What if Spitzer was being illicitly electronically monitored for all manner of partisan reasons concerning his war with NY Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and the perpetrators happened to come upon the fact that Spitzer was frequenting prostitutes.

What if the investigation initiated last October was just a pretext upon which to nail Spitzer the next time he needed to scratch his itch?

What would it take for such a cynical hypothesis to be true?  

In work settings these days, Powerpoint is the required means of communication, even though reducing arguments to bullet points in many cases is obviously ridiculous.  But in the case of the Bush Administration, our current stenography press corps actually needs to have the lies and deceptions of BushCo bulleted out for them in very simple terms.  

So, after reading Jane Hamsher and Anonymous Liberal's case against Gonzales I put a few slides together to illustrate how Gonzales attempted defense with his strict definition of the NSA wiretapping "program" is clearly false.  And how, as Glenn Greenwald points out, the focus on the definition of the meaning of "program" is itself a smokescreen which raises more questions about criminal spying activity by Bush.  

Slides after the jump.  Updated below: Slides available for download on Slideshare.

I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm afraid I just gotta.  You see, I read and hear so many complaints about this Administration's "abuse of power" as if you rant and rave with such conviction that they are willfully breaking the law and ignorance of the Constitution.

But you see, they just clearly are not doing what you think they're doing.  I know, you have all this "evidence" against this Administration as if that really means something, and you complain and moan here and to Congressional members who perform that "oversight" thingy that's just so incredibly important to you.  But you just have to get over the very simple concept here -

you're just interpreting the law YOUR way.

The Bu$h malAdministration announced today that it will retreat from its dictatorial and totalitarian position that they can wiretap any American, under any circumstances, at any time they feel like it, without FISA Court authorization.

Update II: It's been rightly pointed out that this has been diaried elsewhere. So visit those for further substance.

Moments ago, Howard Fineman on NBC news reported that the Bush administration is now reversing course on it's lawbreaking practice of warrantless wiretapping, and it's reported that they are already seeking approval from a special court for new wiretaps at this very moment..

As the November mid-term elections rapidly approach, Congress finds itself rushing against the clock. Out of concern for the campaigning requirements of its members, it has set October 6 as its target adjournment date for the year. This means that the legislature has given itself only a scant few weeks between its August recess and its October adjournment to take care of several pieces of outstanding business. At a September 15 press conference, President Bush identified two such issues he felt that Congress must address before it recessed: military commissions for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay and new rules for the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. It is surely possible that the time constraints Congress has placed on itself will motivate legislators to reach resolution either or both of these contentious issues. But it is more likely that such pressure will prove counterproductive, resulting in neither useful public policy nor a positive image of the United States abroad.

I am just a "normal" American, I grew up in the late 50's early 60's and watched some of the best of times and the worst of times, "Leave It to Beaver" America, the assasinations of J.F.K, his brother Bobby, and M.L King, the Vietnam War, the Cuba Missile Crisis, the end of the Cold War.

I saw the Berlin Wall when it seperated the West from Communists, we watched it fall. I remember Munich 1972 and the rebirth of terrorism in our lifetime, what was the name of the other groups? Bader Mein Hof  etc, Entebbe, Idi Amin, Qadaffi and his terrorism. But we came very close in the past few years of losing many of our "freedoms" as we know them because of "fear" of terrorism, rightly so or not, the Neocons used this to try and take our society as we know it away, our safety nets.

I don't understand why there aren't at least 3 headline posts on DKOS about stopping the abandonment of torture, NSA wiretapping, and habeas corpus occuring in the congress right now.  Mostly I see election polls, election ads, and info on democratic candidates.  The election is important, but over torturing innocent people and stripping away our most basic legal rights?

If we let the president have these powers, what in the world will the 2006 elections matter?  In terms of history, I think it much more important to stop these measures from getting through congress than it is to win back a few seats.  

Just read this over at Raw Story, thought that it was very interesting...

One of the highest-level executives at Verizon Communications--one of three major telecommunications firms originally alleged to be providing the National Security Agency with customer phone records under contract and without a warrant--has strong, decades-long ties to Central Intelligence, Congress and the Department of Justice, RAW STORY has learned.

more below

Looks like the Bush administration knows no bounds.  Here's the Chronology:

August 15th - Boulder DA issues arrest warrant for John Karr for the murder of Jon Bonet Ramsey.

August 16th - Boulder DA begins coordinating with the Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin the process of bringing John Karr back to Boulder.

August 16th - Within two hours, the ICE leaks the information to the media and all hell breaks loose.  We have another dead blond white girl story to occupy the MSM until further notice.

August 17th - Judge Taylor rules the NSA Warrantless Wiretapping program illegal and unconstitutional.

Does Torquemada Cheney know something we don't? The Senior Prince of Darkness weighs in again on that pesky court ruling upholding constitutional law:

Vice President Dick Cheney predicted Monday that a recent federal court ruling finding a warrantless surveillance program unconstitutional will be overturned on appeal..."It's hard to think of any category of information that would be more important to the safety and security of the United States...The recent ruling by a federal judge ordering an end to this program is just dead wrong. We are confident it will be reversed on appeal.

Proof? I don't need no stinkin' proof. I just want some high-profile Democrat to lay that charge out there and let the Bush Administration try to deny it.

Because once that charge is out there, and they have to start denying it, it will make some people start to think, "Hey, wait a minute. Could they really be doing that?" And it puts the argument where we want it -- abuse of power -- instead of where they want it, which is to pretend it's a regrettable but necessary step to keep our children from being blown to bits.

A false (or unprovable) charge can have the effect of immediately reframing an issue.

American politics is a tiresome game: one side cheats, lies, and steals, while the other plays a pee-wee league game of special rules and gentlemanly handshakes.

Case in point: NSA Warrantless Wiretapping.  The GOP lies its ass off, and the Dems play a gentleman's game and fall right into the trap.

Democrats are allowing the general public to believe that we think it's wrong to wiretap terrorists. This is ridiculous, and this issue is going to kill us at the polls unless we do something about it.

The usual conversation goes something like this:

GOP: We need to wiretap terrorists to protect America!
Dems: But Bush's wiretapping is an illegal invasion of privacy!

Gee, let me guess which argument the American people are going to agree with??  The one that makes them feel safer--the one that makes them sleep better at night.  The one that they trust.  The Republican argument.

In fact, most Americans find the so-called Progressive argument here pathetic--and rightly so.

Fresh from reading the entire NSA decision, I read this editorial from Investors.com. I have never used the word insanity on any piece of writing about politics ever, and in the spirit of never devolving to name calling, etc. I am tempted not to use it, and just lay out a clear response and let what I think is insanity be shown or not be shown by the content of my response.

I've been meaning a write a short explanation of why email should be encrypted.  Today I had a little time and put the following up on my personal webpage.  I thought it might do well to share it here too:

The incomparable Bob Somerby should always be consulted when thinking about a meta-story about media bias, and the Daily Howler seldom disappoints.

For forty-plus years, they've yelled "liberal bias"--going all the way back to a time when the complaint might have been justified (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/14/03). And now, at long last, just this week, Mike Allen has written a "news report" so perfectly awful that we can finally, definitively say it--after reading Allen's "news report," you'd really have to be out of your mind to believe in that tired old cry.

Somerby was writing about the Washington Post's reporting on Al Gore's Inconveniet Truth, but he certainly could have been writing about the New York Times and the NSA wiretapping scandal and the revelation that the Times knew about the program before the last presidential election, and sat on the story.

There is "bias" in the media -- but I wouldn't call it "liberal."  It's not necessarily conservative either.  There's an institutional bias in favor of covering the publication's own ass.

Despotism: A lesson for Specter from 1946

I wanted to share a little video lesson on despotism and rubber stamp legislatures with Arlen Specter (although I'm sure a lot of others like Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez... heck the whole administration could probably use a refresher course on democracy.)

I made this video, which is on my blog, courtesy of YouTube by slicing together parts of a larger educational film by Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1946, called "Despotism".  

Some 59 percent said they disapproved of his work. This number was buried inside the report under the heading Americans blame Hezbollah for Lebanon conflict: poll. These so called MSM have lost any sense of decency. Shrub's numbers are down and will remain down because of us.
http://news.yahoo.com/...

The poll also showed Americans felt insecure about the current state of international relations, with 76 percent saying the world was more dangerous now than at any other point in their lives.