CBS: White House Wants NSA Lawsuits Nixed

[Robbien]

The Bush administration asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss a pair of lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigation would jeopardize state secrets. In legal papers filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers said it would be impossible to defend the legality of the spying program without disclosing classified information that could be of value to suspected terrorists.

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte invoked the state secrets privilege on behalf of the administration, writing that disclosure of such information would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security. The administration laid out some of its supporting arguments in classified memoranda that were filed under seal.

. . .

In New York, the Center for Constitutional Rights has asked a judge to stop the program, saying it was an abuse of presidential power. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have filed a similar lawsuit in Detroit.

. . .

Shayana Kadidal, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the administration's motion "undemocratic." Ample safeguards could be put in place to allow the case to continue without disclosing classified information, he said. The Center has also argued that the court already has enough information in hand to decide whether the spying program was legal, based on admissions the administration has already made about the effort.

"The Bush administration is trying to crush a very strong case against domestic spying without any evidence or argument," he said in a written statement. "Can the president tell the courts which cases they can rule on? If so, the courts will never be able to hold the president accountable for breaking the law."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/27/politics/main1662817.shtml

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Fuck the WH and its Fascist pseudo-government n/t

[hlthe2b]

2. I PRAY we still have some judges that believe in the

constitution and are independent and couragious enough to take this to its conclusion.

[Charlie Brown]

3. who still supports these people?

Using "state secrets" language to intimidate judges has to be the most contemptible form of communication from elected officials possible, I don't care if they're "conservative" or "liberal."

This argument gives the government the power to do ANYTHING, no matter how questionable, and hide its actions behind the phony veil of immunity of "state secrets."

[robbedvoter]

4. "They make the laws and I execute them" W on separation of powers

He'll execute the judges too if they don't obey!

[Mz Pip]

5. This is where the rubber hits the road

If we lose our ability to challenge these creeps in the courts we are truly in a constitutional crisis. Might as well just disban congress and the courts and let the mf*ers have at it.

Separation of powers and checks and balances are close to be a memory.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Old and In the Way]

6. Trust Us.

We wouldn't use this massive, intrusive spy appartus to check what our political opposition might be planning or thinking. We would never use it to consolidate our power by collecting dirt and information to bribe/blackmail those who would stand against us.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

7. "It's legal, but we can't tell you why."

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

20. About sums it up.

[Mr_Spock]

8. I wonder if enough people would protest this insanity?

I'm really fed up with the circular "we'll do something illegal and claim state secrets if you challenge us" routine.

Is our best protest to vote out the ruling junta? Something has to be done to preserve the Union.

[Robbien]

13. The ACLU has a campaign going, you can add your name to theirs

The FCC has the authority and the obligation to investigate the NSA spying scandal, despite their wrong-headed refusal to act. Add your name to the public record and support our formal demand using the form below. If you live in a state where we are filing a complaint with local regulators, we will also add your name to our local demand for action.

https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DTT_FCC_spies_off_line

At least the ACLU is trying to keep the issue from being buried.

[Mr_Spock]

14. I've signed 3 (three) ACLU petitions and renewed my membership

I just feel like there must be something more we can do to express our displeasure with the current regime...

[CountAllVotes]

16. I am a member of the ACLU too

I signed their petition re: the spying today. I will sign every petition they have going. They are after all, THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION. We need them now more than ever. Anyone can join the ACLU, anyone.

They seem to be the only ones out there that are looking out for our Constitutional rights.

More power to you the ACLU!! :thumbsup:

:kick:

[OKthatsIT]

21. Member here, too

[bdamomma]

38. Me too and proud of it!!!!

[stepnw1f]

9. Without Privacy, You Have No Rights at All

These psychos are pulling a Hitler on the people of this country. I hope people are up to the task to do the right thing by standing up and fighting this administration.

[0rganism]

10. Ve are not likink you vanting to know vy ve are spyink on ze e-mail

you are stoppink mit ze askink of ze question now, or are forcink to use Sekret State Power to be disappearink your family, yes?

[Zynx]

11. It is wrong to know if they are violating the Constitution?

If the administration was randomly killing people "for the sake of national security", would we not have a right to know?

[Tin Man]

12. How facism begins - Classify everything, so the courts have no purview

...the Congress really needs to put a stop to this insanity. Will they find the guts to do it?

[bdamomma]

39. the congress!!!

they will be kicked to curb too, just like us, if they don't hurry and realize we are being screwed by this regime.

[UpInArms]

15. The Age of Anxiety

http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture10.html

We live, not feeling the country beneath us,
Our speech inaudible ten steps away,
But where they're up to half a conversation --
They'll speak of the Kremlin mountain man.

His thick fingers are fat like worms,
And his words certain as pound weights.
His cockroach whiskers laugh,
And the tops of his boots glisten.

And all around his rabble of thick-skinned leaders,
He plays through services of half-people.
Some whistle, some meow, some snivel,
He alone merely caterwauls and prods.

Like horseshoes he forges decree after decree --
Some get it in the forehead, some in the brow,
some in the groin, and some in the eye.
Whatever the execution -- it's a raspberry to him
And his Georgian chest is broad.

---Osip Mandelstam, We Live, Not Feeling, 1934?

The Age of Anxiety, the age of the lost generation, was also an age in which modern Fascism and Totalitarianism made their appearance on the historical stage. By 1939, liberal democracies in Britain, France, Scandinavia and Switzerland were realities. But elsewhere across Europe, various kinds of dictators reared their ugly heads. Dictatorship seemed to be the wave of the future. It also seemed to be the wave of the present. After all, hadn't Mussolini proclaimed that this century would be a century of the right? Of Fascism? And this is what bothered such writers as Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937), Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), Karel Capek (1890-1938) and George Orwell (1903-1950). It was a nightmare world in which human individuality was subsumed under the might of totalitarian collectivism. The modern totalitarian state rejected liberal values and exercised total control over the lives of its subjects. In this way, totalitarianism became a new POLITICAL RELIGION for the Age of Anxiety. How this indeed occurred is the subject of this lecture.

It goes without saying that the governments of Europe had been conservative and anti-democratic throughout their long histories. The leaders of such governments -- whether monarch or autocrat -- WERE the government, and by their very nature, prevented any incidence of social or political change that might endanger the existing social order. Of course, there have been enlightened monarchs but few of them would have been so enlightened to have removed themselves from the sinews of power.

<snip>

Modern totalitarian regimes made their appearance with the total effort required by the Great War. The reason for this is quite simple -- war required all institutions to subordinate their interests to one objective at all costs: victory. The individual had to make sacrifices and so their freedoms, whatever they might have been, were constantly reduced by increasing government intervention. The invisible hand of Adam Smith had to be replaced by the visible hand. Governments could not longer remain idle hoping that some "laissez-faire" mentality would carry them through the day. No. Governments had to intervene and the great event which made this notion of intervention a necessity, was the Great War.

...more...

[WiseButAngrySara]

26. Excellent post. Thank you. ....n/t

[HuffleClaw]

17. this national security 'defence' is being abused horribly by this criminal

administration. what it really is an admission of guilt.

[NoodleyAppendage]

18. D-I-C-T-A-T-O-R-S-H-I-P. Pure and simple.

We are beginning to see further errosion of any sort of checks/balances on the Executive Branch, almost to the point of full-fledged dictatorship.

I think we need to have the press ask King Chimp if he is planning on cancelling the 2008 elections if there is another "terrorist" attack.

J

[IndianaGreen]

28. Bush sees the American people as potential terrorists

and as a threat to his Divinely-ordained Presidency.

[sarcasmo]

19. The Decider says you better drop those lawsuits or else.

Kick and Nom to the top.

[yodermon]

22. This is as far as i needed to read:

"The Bush administration asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss a pair of lawsuits ..."

This statement alone, regardless of the content of the lawsuits, is prima facie evidence of a dictatorship, QED.

[Miss Chybil]

23. I don't know. I'm not a lawyer, but can't anybody ask a judge to

dismiss a suit that has been filed against them? Then the judge judges the merits of the case?

[treestar]

32. Yeah though they must have some reason based on the law

It would be interesting to see what they cited, but there is probably no precedent for dismissing a lawsuit just because the executive branch says it would jeopardize national security.

They could say that about anything. They probably at least have to prove to the judge that there would be some danger from revealing certain information, not just a blanket dismissal of a lawsuit because they say so.

But this is probably the usual bad journalism on all things legal. They sum it up into something simple but also simple minded, ergo the people in this country have little concept of the rule of law unless they really look into it for themselves.

[President Kerry]

33. I'm not a lawyer either, but I think the problem is that they

can't tell the judge the exact reason for it to be dismissed because it's all classified behind the veil of National Security. It's their silver bullet.

I truly hope the judge preserves his independence, and if the suit is dismissed, it's done with legal merit, not because of intimidation or smokescreens.

[genieroze]

24. Up theirs!

[WiseButAngrySara]

25. The constitution was writen to prevent tyrannical abuse of power.

The arrogance and hubris of B* has to be ended!

:kick: and R!

[CrispyQ]

27. Another day, another outrage.

:kick:

[Rex]

29. Guess what, Bushmorans, the judge IS part of the State.

Hence the FEDERAL tag. This is some weak ass shit from the WH; are they calling the judge a terrorist if he wants to look at 'states secrets'? As Cartman would say, 'lame!'

[CountAllVotes]

30. kick!!

:kick:

[Wise Doubter]

31. This would be a heck of a lot easier....

if this were a dictatorship. As long as I`m the dictator.
- George W Bush

[bdamomma]

40. bush was telling the truth in that comment.

[ananda]

34. Sep. of powers is only valid..

.. when the FBI raids the offices of legislators.

All other times it doesn't operate.

[Supersedeas]

35. a license to violate the Constitution

[Laelth]

36. Kick

:kick:

-Laelth

[gauguin57]

37. Eat my Fruit of the Looms, Bush Administration.

Good lord.