For months, the president and top [tag]administration[/tag] officials have vigorously defended Bush’s [tag]warrant[/tag]less-search program by emphasizing that their only interest is in international communications. Asked why they don’t just expand their power to purely domestic phone [tag]calls[/tag], everyone — from [tag]Bush[/tag] to [tag]Alberto Gonzales[/tag] to [tag]Michael Hayden[/tag] — said the administration had the [tag]authority[/tag] to […]
In the last post, I talked about the practical problems of the White House argument that Bush can leak [tag]classified[/tag] information because, as [tag]president[/tag], he can declassify anything he wants. In this post, let’s look at the political problems associated with this defense. Even if the practice is legal, and it very well may be, […]
The papers are filled this morning with analysis from legal experts on the [tag]president[/tag]’s apparent decision to authorize [tag]Scooter Libby[/tag] to leak portions of the classified National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times. The consensus seems to be that, as a legal matter, [tag]Bush[/tag] can [tag]declassify[/tag] whatever he wants, whenever he wants. In other […]
This is exactly why the [tag]president[/tag] doesn’t like to leave his [tag]bubble[/tag]. Q: You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me […]
As I understand it, reporters and political observers who were watching Watergate unfold in the early ’70s would frequently grow frustrated by the ebb and flow of the scandal. There would be a few weeks in which the story was front-page news every day, followed by a few more weeks of nothing. It would then […]
For the better part of five years, people concerned with the integrity of news casts, particularly at the local level, have had to worry about the [tag]Bush[/tag] administration’s habit of producing taxpayer-financed [tag]propaganda[/tag] in the form of fake-news [tag]segments[/tag]. As far as the administration is concerned, they’ve been doing it, they’ll keep doing it, and […]
[tag]James Hansen[/tag], the longtime director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has spoken out repeatedly lately, explaining to anyone who will listen that Bush administration officials have tried to censor scientific information about [tag]global warming[/tag]. Apparently, it goes well beyond [tag]NASA[/tag]. Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has […]
These two never fill me with confidence, but this kind of infighting just makes matters worse. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of “tactical errors” in handling the war in […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * If you’ve ever wondered why state Sen. [tag]Tom Kean[/tag] Jr. (R) continues to fare well in statewide polls for this year’s Senate race in New Jersey, pollsters at the Rutgers University-Eagleton Center […]
The Department of [tag]Homeland Security[/tag] has been slowly imploding for months. There have been high-profile disasters such as DHS’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, but there have been a series of lesser fiascos, including the department’s inability to secure its own headquarters, its inability to set up a list serve, and a Washington Post series explaining […]