So even Ashcroft wouldn't approve the domestic spying

[warbly]

that is the big news in the puffy newsweek article today, and if ashcroft wouldn't and his deputy, James Comey refused, who at the justice dept. signed off on it who has the same authority as the AG?

The answer has to be nobody.

It looks like the bushies "circumvented" not only congress and the fisa court, but their own DOJ as well.

How is this going to play out?

[warbly]

1. as rosannerosannadanna would say - Never Mind

"Finally, sometime in the summer of 2004, a compromise was reached, with Comey onboard: according to an account in The New York Times, Justice and the NSA refined a checklist to follow in deciding whether "probable cause" existed to start monitoring someone's conversations."
from the newsweek article.
---
but they have been data mining, that is what TIA is. It is a vacuum operation. Sounds like Newsweek is parsing words with the monitor/detect just as bush has been doing.

Anyway, according to newsweek, Comey, the deputy AG eventually signed off on it.

[wtmusic]

2. doesn't matter

Just because Comey signed off on it doesn't make it legal. They still needed a warrant; they didn't get one.

Looks like it's up to Congress.

[EST]

3. I thought I was pretty caught up on this chapter.

When was it deduced that Asscrotch refused to endorse the little dick tater's shredding of the constitution?
Ass-etc wants the world to end before he, himself croaks, so, why should he care?

[notadmblnd]

5. I thought comey refused and Gonzolas and sidekick

went to hospital where Asscroft was suffering from gallbladder attack? could a swore I read that here earlier. has that changed?

[applegrove]

4. I hope nobody stepped on Woodward. He could well have been

under the hospital bed.....

[flordehinojos]

8. thanks for the smile ... i can actually imagine woodward as a

conniving serpent, with a microphone, or a steno pad, lying under ashcroft's hospital bed.

[applegrove]

10. He was rumoured to have done that when interviewing a cancer

ridden Reagan head of the CIA. Name of cancer victim starts with a C ( Casey I think). I think the story is he interviewed Casey and hid when the wife showed up - and there is nowhere to hide in a hospital room but under the bed.

Cannot remember exactly.

[flordehinojos]

11. hmmm. still like a lying serpent...wonder what guilt trip sent him hiding.

:)

[applegrove]

12. I think that he was interviewing a dyiing public official w/out the kin's

permission - during a scadal.

[flordehinojos]

13. what a low life!

in my book he is still one.
}(

[applegrove]

14. I still say he gives us information we might not have. Like Rummy -

pushing the generals around to lower the number of troops required for the invasion of Iraq - again and again.

Don't know if he is creepy. Or just overly ambitious. But I think you have to be a little bit of a creep to get the inside information he does.

I wonder if his books will improve once Bush is out of office and access is over.

We still need the facts.

Perhaps that is his kool-aid and excuse for all.

[flordehinojos]

15. can't argue with, "we still need the facts". we do!

[radio4progressives]

9. LOL!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[CarbonDate]

6. Ah. Would that be why....

...they replaced Ashcroft with Gonzales?

Just wondering....

[shance]

7. Where is Mr. Ashcroft these days?

Havent heard anything about him lately.

[warbly]

16. he's here in Missouri somewhere

I know he has a family place somewhere in this state. He's actually pretty well thought of from a humanitarian perspective around here, but not when it comes time to vote for him. He did after all lose to a dead man.
He has done a lot in Missouri for kids without parents, opening homes and such.

sheesh, when "let the mighty eagle soar" Ashcroft won't sign off on the plan, it must be invasive as hell and widespread.

I think this is much more widespread than the bushies are admitting, but they are admitting a little more each day.

When does congress go back to work again?

[ddeclue]

17. Really, John Ashcroft wouldn't???

Of all people I would have thought he would have been the first in line to sign.

He always gave me the creeps...

Doug D.