Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps(Grover Norquist)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNG24GTB8O1.DTL

Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror.

Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror.

Despite coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum, they agree on one other major issue: that the Bush administration's program of domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency without obtaining court warrants has less to do with the war on terror than with threats to the nation's civil liberties.

"My view on the terrorists is that we should find all of them and kill them," said Norquist. "But we should also protect our civil liberties, which the terrorists are trying to destroy."

<snip>

"For 40 years we always assumed the left would take care of our civil liberties," he said. "If there were problems, the Democrats were the ones who would push back. But now with a Republican Congress and a Republican in the White House, the ACLU can't get their calls returned."

[hatrack]

1. Gee whiz, Hoover Turdtwist is having second thoughts.

Little too late, ASSHOLE.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Gover is afraid they will catch him smoking pot or buying a dirty book

All that security shit is one thing, but don't try to take away gover's pot.

[AndyTiedye]

7. It's Much More Than That

Suppose you're in business and your competitor is a Bush "Pioneer".
Would the NSA pass your companies financials, their future plans and strategies, and all to your competitor?

Could anybody really have any confidence that they wouldn't?

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. In general sure, but I'll bet that's what really has grover's goat.

[Pirate Smile]

3. So what are you going to do about it Grover?

We need to exploit the split between Republicans.

Sen. Roberts is just (as usual) doing whatever BushCo wants.

In order to get any serious investigations, we need to get more Repubs to call for investigations or a special counsel.

In the Judiciary Committee, we need two Repubs to vote with the Dems for a larger investigations, subpoenas, etc. If Specter votes with the Dems, making it 9-9 does he get to break the tie or who would be most willing to vote against BushCo.?

[alarcojon]

4. This is why there is hope

Even a hard-core evil amoral shit-for-brains like Norquist doesn't want his phones tapped. It's a pretty universal feeling.

[UpInArms]

5. the complete undermining of the Democratic Party

by the power hungry usurpers has led to this:

"For 40 years we always assumed the left would take care of our civil liberties," he said. "If there were problems, the Democrats were the ones who would push back. But now with a Republican Congress and a Republican in the White House, the ACLU can't get their calls returned."

The corrupt corporate media has consistently minimized the voices of any "liberal" and has effectively silenced the very people that stand between the theft of our civil rights and the BFEE.

[bluestateguy]

6. Norquist is an asshole, but he's smart

He knows that someday these powers will be used by a Democratic president, and he fears the repercussions of that.

[creeksneakers2]

9. I don't believe Norquist

One cannot be a managing director of the vast right wing conspiracy and not love fascism.

[struggle4progress]

13. I agree

[Shakespeare]

10. OMG, I think a monkey just flew out of my butt.

But do I believe the nasty Norquist? Uh, no.

[annabanana]

11. Norquist called B*sh a TERRORIST!

"My view on the terrorists is that we should find all of them and kill them," said Norquist. "But we should also protect our civil liberties, which the terrorists are trying to destroy."

The only one I see destroying our civil liberties is you. know. who.

[Toots]

12. Al Gore went to one of Grover's "Wednesday Meetings" and gave a talk

He came away saying he was very well received and it was only a week or so later that he gave his Constitutional Crisis Speech which Bob Barr was going to open for. I do believe Bush* has way overstepped his bounds and some heavy shit is about to come down. Al Gore is no light weight and neither are Norquist and Barr. These men are the movers and the shakers.

[rodeodance]

14. good for him

[MagickMuffin]

15. Maybe Norquist connections to Terrorist might come back to haunt him

While deciphering the Abramoff, Scamlon, Reed emails, I came across this name Khalid Safari. Naturally I had to do more research and this was just one interesting article I found on him...:popcorn:


In 1998, along with Republican activist Grover Nyquist, Khalid Safari established the Islamic Institute in Washington

By all accounts, Safari put his new prominence to use, promoting the friends who had helped him achieve his newfound status and advocating for the issues about which they cared. One by one, he introduced them to President Bush and his entourage. With Saffuri frequently smiling in the background, they proudly posed for campaign photographs and, later, attended White House events.

Now, however, some of the very people Saffuri introduced to Bush and Rove are in federal prison on terrorism-related charges. Others have been expelled from the country. Still other former colleagues and donors have become subjects of a massive federal probe into U.S. funding of terrorist organizations that is code-named Operation Greenquest.

Norquist, the conservative fund-raiser and antipork president of Americans for Tax Reform, cofounded the Islamic Institute with Saffuri in 1998. Norquist insists that any attempt to tie Saffuri to terrorist supporters is "guilt by association." Those who make such accusations, Norquist tells reporters, are "racists and bigots."

But Saffuri's ties to radical Islamists and apologists for terror are neither superficial nor coincidental. An Insight investigation has uncovered a consistent pattern of fund-raising and influence operations in which Saffuri played a prominent role side by side with Abdurahman Alamoudi, a well-known Muslim activist who was Saffuri's employer at the American Muslim Council (AMC). Alamoudi was arrested last September on charges of illegally taking cash payments from the government of Libya in exchange for lobbying the Bush administration to lift sanctions against the Qaddafi regime.

http://www.looksmartstyle.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_2004_March_1/ai_113363777