Think Progress » In Radio Address, Bush Hypes Consequences of Wiretapping Law Expiration

In his weekly radio address, President Bush not only blames Congress for tonight’s expiration of the Protect America Act, he says that his government will have a harder time keeping you safe:

Because Congress failed to act, it will be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack. At midnight, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence will be stripped of their power to authorize new surveillance against terrorist threats abroad. This means that as terrorists change their tactics to avoid our surveillance, we may not have the tools we need to continue tracking them — and we may lose a vital lead that could prevent an attack on America.

Nothing about the measure’s expiration prevents either law enforcement or intelligence officials from carrying out new surveillance against suspected terrorists. They will simply need to get a warrant. Nor is exigency a factor, as warrants can even be obtained after the surveillance has begun.

Furthermore, Bush’s hype over tonight’s midnight expiration is undermined by the words of his own top aides. Just 24 hours ago, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told NPR:

Some of the [surveillance] authorities would carry over to the period they were established for one year. That would put us into the August, September time-frame. However, that’s not the real issue. The issue is liability protection for the private sector.

McConnell let slip that the real goal in the debate over the Protect America Act is not to protect America, but to protect the telecommunication companies being sued for assisting in Bush’s illegal wiretapping. The president claims he wants to protect these companies to ensure their future cooperation. However, legal warrants compel cooperation.

The only reason to insist on telecom immunity is that the telecom lawsuits are the only remaining avenue for bringing to light the administration’s illegal activities. And that is what Bush and his conservative allies will not permit, regardless of how real the cost is to America’s intelligence-gathering apparatus.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/16/bush-paa-deadline/
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The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

In order to be able to discover enemy — the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate; they won’t help us; they won’t help protect America. [mjh: Why do Republicans defend corporations if those corporations are so un-American?] Liability protection is critical to securing the private sector’s cooperation with our intelligence efforts. The Senate has passed a good bill, and has shown that protecting our nation is not a partisan issue. And I congratulate the senators.

Unfortunately, the House has failed to pass a good bill. And now House leaders say they want still more time to reach agreement with the Senate on a final bill. They make this claim even though it is clear that the Senate bill, the bill passed last night, has significant
bipartisan support in the House.

Congress has had over six months to discuss and deliberate. The time for debate is over. I will not accept any temporary extension. House members have had plenty of time to pass a good bill. They have already been given a two-week extension beyond the deadline they set for
themselves. If Republicans and Democrats in the Senate can come together on a good piece of legislation, there is no reason why Republicans and Democrats in the House cannot pass the Senate bill immediately.

The House’s failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened. And it will become harder for us to uncover terrorist plots. We must not allow this to happen. It is time for Congress to ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. It is time for Congress to pass a law that provides a long-term foundation to protect our country. And they must do so immediately.

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Think Progress » Experts: FISA will suffice as PAA expires.

On its front page today, the conservative Washington Times reports that “intelligence scholars and analysts outside the government say that today’s expiration of certain temporary domestic wiretapping laws will have little effect on national security, despite warnings to the contrary by the White House and Capitol Hill Republican leaders.” One scholar said “there’s no reason to think” America is “in any more danger” than it’s already been in since 9/11:

Timothy Lee, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, said the last time Congress overhauled FISA — after the September 11 terrorist attacks — President Bush praised the action, saying the new law “recognizes the realities and dangers posed by the modern terrorist.”

“Those are the rules we’ll be living under after the Protect America Act expires this weekend,” Mr. Lee added. “There’s no reason to think our nation will be in any more danger in 2008 than it was in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/16/experts-fisa-will-suffice-as-paa-expires/
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NPR: What Happens If Protect America Act Expires?

In August, Congress passed the Protect America Act, which granted the Bush administration legal authority to spy on Americans’ communications overseas without individual warrants. That law expires Saturday, and Congress is deadlocked on a new bill to replace it.

President Bush says to delay is dangerous, but many intelligence experts, including Suzanne Spaulding, say very little will actually change Saturday, even if the bill is allowed to expire.

Spaulding, who spent 20 years working on national security issues for the government and is now a private attorney in Washington, D.C., talks with Michelle Norris.

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House Defies Bush on Wiretaps
By Dan Eggen and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers

Democrats immediately said that the expiration of the temporary law would have little, if any, immediate impact on intelligence gathering. “He has nothing to offer but fear,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters after Bush’s address.

“I regret your reckless attempt to manufacture a crisis over the reauthorization of foreign surveillance laws,” Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a letter to Bush, in defense of his colleagues in the House. “Instead of needlessly frightening the country, you should work with Congress in a calm, constructive way.”

House Defies Bush on Wiretaps

ABQjournal Opinion: Letters

Only 300-Plus Days Left of Bush

AS I LISTENED to the president’s final State of the Union address, all I could think of was, thank God that there are only 357 days left of the most incompetent administration since Warren Harding.

It was apparent from the speech that this president is out of touch with the American people and doesn’t realize that “it’s the economy, stupid.” With the economy in shambles and in or near a recession, a few words of reassurance would have been helpful and uplifting.

This president is so engaged in the war in Iraq that he fails to recognize that people are concerned with health-care costs, fuel prices, the mortgage crisis and the looming recession.

I find it hard to believe that the president would not give us any hope that the war in Iraq will end any time soon even when two-thirds of the American people want an end to this mistake. Instead, he still tries to peddle his misconceived notion that he can bring democracy to the Middle East.

One can only hope that in the next 357 days, Mr. Incompetent will not screw up the country any further.

BOB BACA
Albuquerque

Killing Never Solved Anything

BARBARIANS. As I listened to President Bush’s State of the Union address that word came into my mind. Our president was talking about killing people in foreign lands, and our elected representatives were cheering wildly.

I am a veteran and a retired employee of Veterans Affairs. I know a little bit about our military’s victims— both intended and collateral. One of my mottoes has become “if you have to hurt someone to solve a problem, you are the problem.” Barbarians would disagree.

TERRY DUBER
Albuquerque

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

REMARKS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT AT THE CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ACTION CONFERENCE

President Bush has been tough and courageous. He’s made the right decisions for the right reasons, and he always reflects the best values of the American people. I’ve been proud to stand by him and by the decisions he’s made. And I would support those same — and would I support those same decisions again today? You’re damn right I would. (Applause.)

The important thing to remember, six and a half years after 9/11, is that the war on terror is still real, that it won’t be won on the defensive, and that we have to proceed on many fronts at the same time. …

[W]hen the last chapter is written, it’ll be said that our nation became more prosperous and more secure because George W. Bush was President of these United States. (Applause.)

Cheney At CPAC: Would I Do It Again? “You’re Damn Right I Would” – Politics on The Huffington Post

The crowd was adoring. There was a standing ovation as Cheney entered, and a woman shouting: “We Love You!” Attendees clamored for a good “Cheney shot,” with one young conservative pumping his fist after catching an unobstructed wide lens take of the Vice President on his camera.

And they got some red meat. …

The crowd loved it, and him. As Cheney said upon entering the room to a grand applause:

“A welcome like that is almost enough to make me want to run for office again.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/07/cheney-at-cpac-would-i-d_n_85514.html

TheHill.com – Clinton, Obama steal Bush’s final show

“After his speech, Bush sought out Kennedy, his former partner in education reform, to exchange greetings. He also shook Obama’s hand and said hello in typical Bush fashion: “Hey buddy, how’s it going,” he said, according to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who also sat next to Obama for the speech.”
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ConservativesBetrayed.com: Let the lame duck fly! By Jeffrey A. Rendall

A seemingly calm and relieved George W. Bush made his final trip down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to deliver his final State of the Union speech on Monday night, and there was one thing that everyone in the House chamber could probably agree upon – they were glad this was the last one.

There was no sentiment, no long, drawn out ovations, no calls of ‘four more years,’ no urgent push to amend the Constitution to somehow keep this man in power.

George W. Bush has exhausted the nation with his presence. He’s alienated his conservative base, isolated the executive branch from the rest of government, wore out his welcome with the citizenry and made a mockery of the constitution’s separation of powers.

Bush came to Washington on a set of assumptions, few of which ever came true – he was supposed to fight for a more Reagan-esque conservative set of ideals, and instead we got warmed over cooperation with Democrats in expanding the welfare state, a war that we started (Iraq) and can’t seem to end, and a conservative movement that’s so fractured that we’re having a difficult time selecting a successor to Bush.

No wonder there’s such Bush fatigue – and it’s not just on the faces of the Democrats.
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Richard A. Viguerie, issued the following statement regarding President Bush’s policy announced in the State of the Union address regarding earmarks in appropriations bills:

“Instead of killing the earmarks in last year’s huge omnibus appropriations bill, President Bush will leave in place all of the 11,735 earmarks, totaling $16.9 billion.

“And instead of saying that he would veto any bill containing earmarks, Bush said he would veto legislation that did not reduce the earmarks by 50 percent.

“Whoop-de-doo.

“President Reagan vetoed the Highway Bill in 1987 because it contained 121 earmarks. But President Bush has given the go-ahead to 5,867 earmarks–half the current number. Obviously, the Republican team in the White House and Congress has abandoned all pretense of governing as fiscal conservatives.

“President Bush came into office sounding like a conservative Republican. He is leaving sounding like a liberal Democrat. Bush seems disinterested in the future of the GOP, as it drifts without leadership and is in danger of imploding. [mjh: Damn, Duhbya did one good thing, after all!]

Think Progress » FBI agent: Saddam viewed bin Laden as a threat.

Last night, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired an interview with FBI agent George Piro, the man who was charged with interrogating Saddam Hussein over the course of seven months. Piro reported that he asked Saddam whether he had any relationship to Osama bin Laden. Saddam responded by saying he was “wary” of the 9/11 mastermind and “didn’t want associate” with him. Moreover, Saddam viewed bin Laden “as a threat to him and his regime.”

PELLEY: Among the most important questions for U.S. intelligence was whether Saddam was supporting al Qaeda as had been claimed by some in the Bush administration.

PELLEY: What was his opinion of Osama Bin Laden?

PIRO: He considered him to be a fanatic. And as such was very wary of him. He told me, “You can’t really trust fanatics.”

PELLEY: Didn’t think of Bin Laden as an ally in his effort against the United States in this war against the United States?

PIRO: He didn’t wanna be seen with Bin Laden. And didn’t want to associate with Bin Laden.

PELLEY: Did he think bin Laden was a threat to him and his regime?

PIRO: Yes.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/28/fbi-agent-saddam-viewed-bin-laden-as-a-threat/

Think Progress » Bush, Congressional Conservatives Fearmonger On FISA: ‘The American People Should Be Frightened’

In his weekly radio address this weekend, Bush ominously threatened that “we cannot afford to wait until after an attack.” Speaking to NPR today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell bellowed that “the American people should be frightened”:

“It’s not about frightening the American people. The American people should be frightened and remember full well what happened on 9/11. They also remember with gratitude that this has not happened again for six years.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/28/bush-gop-fisa-fearmonger/