HULK SMASH!!!
"Come on reporters, do some reporting!"-Atrios
"Reporting? They didn't cover that in my journalism class."-Reporters everywhere
Yeah, reporting. Isn't that like research or something? Chris Matthews doesn't have to research! He's a journalist, right?
If you read everything carefully, it's possible that Ashcroft is being deliberately misleading, not flat-out lying. There were already library-search powers granted to the FBI before the passage of the PATRIOT Act (Title 50 Section 1862/FISA 501) which were superceded by Section 215.
So it's possible that what Ashcroft meant (assuming the quote is accurate) is that the new powers of 215 were never used.
It's instructive to note that in the year before 9/11 libraries reported FBI requests for information over 700 times. So it's not like this is new, which may be the most distressing fact of all.
That said, no matter what Ashcroft should be raked over the coals for what he said. But it's important that we have all the facts straight.
It is good to see the right-wing getting so cocky that they are exposing themselves left and right. They have duped the American people so long, distracted them with Manolo Blahniks and Playboy pinups so thoroughly, overwhelmed them with crumbling schools and homicidal teens so effectively, that they were getting away with the gradual erosion of constitutional rights. But now they have reached out on the limb just far enough that they may very well fall into their own crap.
If we do a little investigation into the Dinh quote, we find that the DOJ long ago posted a clarification of his testimony. Again, the implication is that the new Section 215 powers were not used.
It is not the case that before the PATRIOT Act library records were inviolable. Ever since the McCarthy era the govt. has looked into library records. And that's the real crime.
I recommend beSpacific's Patriot Act coverage for some high-powered blogging on this issue.
They're just books, right? And if we're not breaking any laws, we have nothing to worry about, right?
Adam, Dinh says, "Most, if not all of these contacts that we have identified were made in the context of a criminal investigation and pursuant to voluntary disclosure or a grand jury subpoena, in that context." Comstock's press release changed it to a definitive.
Even if the DOJ has peeked into a few library records, that's more than zero, and Ashcroft is a liar.
I meant to say, "Even if the DOJ has peeked into just a few library records using Section 215 of PATRIOT, that's more than zero, and Ashcroft is a liar."
What is going on now with the Bush administration and their lies. First Cheney lies about Saddam and 911 and Rumsfeld, Rice and Bush all contradict him. Now Ashcroft's own lacky contradicts his previous statement. What's going on? These guys must be losing their touch or getting desperate or both. They can't even get their lies straight.
Hey, Gene Lyons!: Do you get all the nourishment you need from gulping down Bill Clinton's sperm?
I think people are confusing the new powers of the Patriot Act with older powers the government already had, according to the June radio comments of a US Attorney in New Hampshire. See my blog entry at
http://www.davidappell.com/archi...es/
00000312.htm
DAVID EHRENSTEIN IS AN IGNORANT FUDGEPACKING HACK. ANYONE HEARD OF HIS STUPID, FAGGY HOLLYWOOD "JOURNALISM" BEFORE HE STARTED SLUMMING HERE? I DIDN'T FUCKING THINK SO. GO FUCK SOME SOME BOYS, DAVID. I'M SURE SURE MOM AND DAD WOULD BE PROUD
Excuse me for being dense here, but if library records have never (since McCarthy) been inviolable, then what's the new provision FOR? By the way, the stuff about bookstores handing over their records...if a terrorist wants to purchase some scurrilous publication [say, Al Franken's book 
], then what's to stop them from purchasing their dangerous books IN CASH?? Don't tell me cash book buyers have to show ID now, do they?
Came over here from your AOL chat room did you?
Um, that was directed at 'Just Interested', not you, Kate.
DAVID EHRENSTEIN: IF YOU FEEL LIKE FUCKING LITTLE BOYS, YOU SHOULDN'T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oliver: I certainly agree. Moreover, I think the general media has been irresponsible in its unquestioning coverage of Ashcroft's claim. Surprisingly enough, the only critical reporting came from... The Washington Times.
AND DONT YOU EVEN DARE COMMENT ON MY REPEATED LATENT PEDOPHILIC COMMENTS
Oh, this can't be good.
http://www.vheadline.com/readnew...ws.asp?
id=11090
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias says he has secretly-recorded video of a CIA officer instructing would-be coupsters in surveillance techniques
President Hugo Chavez Frias has revealed that his government is in the possession of a secretly recorded video of a US CIA officer giving instruction to would-be Venezuelan coupsters on surveillance techniques ... evidence that the CIA remains involved in clandestine activity (i.e. espionage) in Venezuela even after the US-backed coup attempt in April 2002. He also says he has clear and certain evidence of US involvement before and during the coup d'etat ... "some day these pieces of evidence will be released to the public."
Chavez Frias says the CIA's surveillance techniques training couldn;t have been very good since his security services were able to film the CIA officer "in action!"
Journalists have probed the reasons why President Chavez Frias had canceled his trip to the United States next week ... he was scheduled to have given a speech at the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York and to visit the projected site of the new PDVSA-owned CITGO HQ in Houston. He was also to have given a speech in Harlem.
Chavez Frias refused to give details of the "security reasons" which form the basis for the decision to cancel the US trip, but said he regrets having to drop out of the Harlem engagement ... he admitted that he's not bothered about UN speeches other than that he simply doesn't like them: "I go there, and I don't feel like speaking because practically no one listens ... it's a dialogue of the deaf; it's silly . You go there to listen to one discourse after another, one day after the other and for what? What is the purpose?"
Please don't forget the Patriot Act also slaps a preemptive gag order (is that redundant?) that prevents librarians from telling anybody whether they've been visited or not.
Maybe Ashcroft thought he could lie because anybody that contradicted him could be prosecuted.
I've been out all day, so I unfortunately missed the earlier thread about Ashcroft and Libraries. (see a few posts below). But In the comments section, someone named Librul posted something that I think bears repeating:
Librarians suffer from such a lousy stereotype (the repressed, mousy women with hair in dark bun and navy-blue or black suit, who likes to shush people.) Many librarians are intelligent nonconformist anti-censorship types, as are the library support staff. The library world isn't going to just roll over for Ashcroft.
I can see librarians resolutely going to jail for refusing to keep their mouths shut over Patriot Act invasions.
BTW, the stereotypical hairdo for a female librarian is now "chopped short as possible," because librarians don't like fussing with their do's.
I'm gonna share that last comment with a long-haired librarian who I love and who better not cut off her hair. But I digress.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...&
category=11153
KerryGraham04.com on eBay! It's for sale!
Isn't it nice to see such nasty little boys know how to type. Too bad they don't know how to think. Maybe we should just tell them they have to type every naughty word they know for fifteen minutes, it might get it out of their system and show them how silly it makes them seem.
If this had happened during the Clinton years there would have been investigations in both the House and Senate. Maybe someone should hound Jim Leach to prove that he's the nice, fair, moderate he's been pretending to be all his life. There are also Shays, Snowe, Collins, Specter, Chaffee,... Make them earn the role they play on TV.
here is the difference.
Patriot says that searches of library records can now be made WITHOUT subpoena. The DOJ must go before a Fed judge but that of course is secret. The search is secret, the results of that search are secret, the library are held to secrecry under threat of imprisonment.
So... if I go to the public library and borrow say a copy of the Koran I could actually find myself at camp xray without anyone knowing where I am and without anyone responsible for putting me ther under any obligation to say that they had put me there or for what reason.
I guess that just makes me hysterical.
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