Progressive Minds

The Department of Homeland Security recently updated it's threat level to include Secretary Michael Chertoff's "gut."

In an interview yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had a "gut feeling" about an increased risk of a terror attack here in the United States during the summer.

There's just one (MAJOR) catch.  Chertoff's dire warning wasn't based on any new intelligence.  He based his comments on his view that al Qaeda likes the summertime!  He said "Summertime seems to be appealing to them. We worry that they are rebuilding their activities."

Perhaps before Mr. Chertoff goes trying to scare the American people out of their witts, warning of attacks, he should come with some actual intelligence.

This does nothing but reinforce for me (and many others, I'm sure) that this Administration wants to keep the American public in a perpetual state of fear and paranoia.  And by extension, begin supporting this baseless war in Iraq.

Homeland Chief: "Gut Feeling" About Attack

 

So after listening to Sara Taylor appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, the most telling thing, for me, was this exchange between her and Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Taylor: "I took an oath and I take that oath to the president very seriously."

Sen. Leahy responded by giving Ms. Taylor a lesson from Civics 101. He reminded her that she took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States; not to uphold George W. Bush. He said: "Your oath is not to uphold the president."

We've seen this same pattern in people like Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers. Their loyalty for George W. Bush trumps their sense of loyalty to their country. Gonzales can't seem to remember that he no longer represents George W. Bush as his personal lawyer, but that he represents the American people now.

I have no problem with a President asking people they feel they can trust, to serve in their Administration. The problem arises when that person can't separate the personal from the professional, and remember that their obligation, first and foremost, is to the American public, not the President of the United States.

That's the problem when a bright-eyed, bushy-taled 32-year old like Sara Taylor comes to Washington to serve in a political position. They're so eager to please and prove themselves as true believers and loyalists, that sometimes they end up tossing the constitution and our nation's laws aside.

Wow.....is that a backbone I see growing in Senate Democrats?  Who knew?

A Senate panel today voted to defund Dick Cheney's office, until Cheney decides to actually abide by the law and obey an executive order on the handling of classified information.

From the Associated Press:

Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to cut off funding for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office in a continuing battle over whether he must comply with national security disclosure rules.

A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president's budget until Cheney's office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

Cheney's office, with backing from the White House, argues that the offices of the president and vice president are exempt from the order because they are not executive branch "agencies."

More at: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/10/america/NA-GEN-US-Democrats-Cheney.php

NOTE TO DICK CHENEY: You are not a government branch unto yourself.  And if you want to say that you don't fall under the executive branch of our government, perhaps you shouldn't receive any funding for the Office of the Vice President, and you can live off of your salary as President of the Senate.

 

During an appearance on Capitol Hill today, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona accused his former boss of putting politics before science.  Carmona says the Bush Administration muzzled him on issues such as embryonic stem cell research.

As he testified before a House committe, Carmona said:

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried."  He added "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party."

More at:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070710/pl_nm/bush_surgeongeneral_dc_3

A little over two years ago, Alberto Gonzales made a trip to Capitol Hill as Congress as he lobbied for renewal of the U.S. Patriot Act.

During that time, Gonzales (the nation's top law man, no less), assured Senators that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had NOT abused its newfound powers under the Patriot Act.   He said then "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse."

As they say on Capitol Hill, Mr. Gonzales might want to revise his previous remarks.

It turns out that dear old Alberto wasn't exactly being truthful when he made that statement.  I'm just shocked, I tell you!

According to the Washington Post, in the three months PRIOR to his testimony, Gonzales received at least a half dozen reports of legal or procedural violations.

From the Post:

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.

The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as national security letters (NSLs), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March.

More at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19685278/