- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a Republican mess, went on the offensive today re. the domestic spying case; dubbed 'snoopgate'. He said, "None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead." A shameful statement that was quickly neutralized by Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) who quoted Patrick Henry of the American Revolution in response: “Give me liberty or give me death.” He went on to add that Cornyn’s comments were “a retreat from who we are and who we should be.”

I had a similar encounter with a cousin of mine during the lead up to the War on Iraq. In response to an email I sent to my family, a cousin replied a typical ill-informed response telling me to shut up and that dissent never helped anything. I replied, simply, "what about 'no taxation without representation'?" That was the last I heard from him on the matter. We can only hope for the same from Cornyn.

(note: I love and respect my cousin very much. This isn't a personal attack or anything. You would know when if I was attacking you.)

- Think Progress takes care of the only right-wing talking point re. 'snoopgate' that, as usual, tries to blame Clinton.

- Brendan Nyhan spells out multiple contradictions of the Bush machine re. court approved warrants to spy via the FISA. The best one being from a 'discussion' about the PATRIOT ACT in 2004

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

No you don't Mr. Bush.

- More questions about the timing...

- The 'C' word, censure, hit the House floor today. (more) This was in no way related to 'snoopgate,' I'd imagine that's on the way.

- The reason that censure is its way is because most people, beyond wingnuts, the Washington Post hacks, and the AEI, think what has been reported is a serious matter and at least needs to be investigated in a bipartisan fashion. People like Alan Dershowitz.

- Woodward says Novak is wrong and the leak source isn't in the White House.

- The first church of the NeoCon

- Col. Lang backtracks on his hypothesis surrounding deals between the occupation and secular groups including insurgents that I mentioned below (previous post).

- Factchect.org looks at torture and the bush denial. Focusing on this quote

The United States of America does not torture. And that's important for people around the world to understand.

- Current and former Intel officials weigh in on 'snoopgate' including views from both sides of the spectrum. hint: They are not happy.

"It's drilled into you from minute one that you should not ever, ever, ever, under any fucking circumstances turn this massive apparatus on an American citizen," one source says. "You do a lot of weird shit. But at least you don't fuck with your own people."

Another, who's generally very pro-Administration, emphasized that the operation at least started with people that had Al-Qaeda connections -- with some mass-spying master list.
...
But this call chain could very well have grown out of control, the source admits. Suddenly, people ten and twelve degrees of separation away from Osama may have been targeted.

- Jerome a Paris weighs in on Iraqi oil and who is benefiting from our War on Iraq (must read).

Posted by Geoff