That's right, Republicans senators are putting party above country again. We don't want the telecommunication companies testifying about what they are giving the NSA, so we will hush it up. Bad for politics you know. That is the only reason to hush it up.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...ompanies_x.htm

Since it is all secret now, we will never know what they were really doing, or what the court finds. And even if the court finds it is illegal, will anything happen? Of course not, because the congress and senate are failing to perform their oversight.

If Congress wore pants with velcro flaps on the butt it would probably make Cheney's job a little easier.

An Administration success with a GOP-led Congress, all elected legally by the highest (yet still pitifully small) electoral turnout in recent voting history.

What's the problem here again? Didn't the voters get what they wanted? Why?

No

http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/218382.htm

This is the speech he should have given to be honest and let us know what we were really getting:


"Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow citizens: If I am fortunate enough to earn your vote, I promise to work toward bankrupting the United States Treasury during my first two years in office. I intend to turn our national surplus into the largest deficit in this nation's history, which I will do largely by giving massive tax breaks to multimillionaires and huge multinational corporations. I vow to work tirelessly to make sure the wealthiest Americans become even wealthier, and I promise to look the other way when millions of middle-class and lower-class Americans are thrown out of work. In fact, I promise that under my administration, more jobs will be lost in this country than during the Great Depression.

"In addition to squandering our national surplus, I promise to squander the good will of virtually every other nation on Earth. I vow to pull out of any international treaties and agreements that do not sit well with my corporate puppeteers. I shall seek to make the United States the most hated and reviled nation on the planet. My foreign policy will be modeled on the "my way or the highway" philosophy, and any nation who does not see things my way will be ostracized. I promise to disregard the authority of the United Nations whenever they disagree with my administration’s agenda.

"I promise to appoint more multimillionaires to my Cabinet than any other president in history. I will appoint a highly partisan and controversial right-wing theocrat to the position of Attorney General. I further promise to seek to appoint viciously conservative and reactionary judges to fill circuit court vacancies across the nation whenever possible, whether they are qualified for the job or not.

"If my administration receives word of an impending terrorist attack, I promise to take steps to make sure my own friends and family are safe, but I will not alert the American people to the danger. Instead, if an attack is imminent, I vow to go on a month-long vacation and play lots of golf. When an attack finally comes, I promise not to scramble military aircraft or give any orders to avert further catastrophe until it is too late. Should my administration learn that Osama bin Laden is behind an attack, I promise to have his relatives flown out of the country quickly and secretly. If it is revealed that a foreign government with close business ties to my family is complicit in a terrorist attack on American soil, my administration will block any attempts by the press, by Congress, or by anyone else to pursue the matter further, and we will cite "national security" as a blanket excuse for not cooperating with any investigation.

"Finally, I promise I will single-mindedly pursue a preemptive, unprovoked war against Iraq, at the cost of billions of taxpayer dollars, as well as the lives of thousands of Iraqi civilians and the lives of as many hundreds of American soldiers as it takes. I vow to slash military and veterans' benefits, so soldiers returning from war will have an even more difficult time meeting their most basic needs than they already do. I promise to encourage guerrilla attacks against our troops by daring the enemy to "Bring it on!" I also vow that after invading and occupying Iraq, my administration will not hold an open bidding process for contracts regarding the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure, but rather, the contracts will be handed directly to corporations owned and operated by my close friends, family, and business associates.

"Since there will be no legitimate or Constitutional justification for this war -- which my friends at PNAC have already told me I must pursue, no questions asked -- I promise to mislead the Congress and the American people with exaggerations, misinformation, and out-and-out lies. Furthermore, when called to task for broadcasting these lies to the nation during my State of the Union address, I will blame it on my speechwriters and on the CIA chief, rather than taking responsibility for my own words. In fact, I vow to you tonight that I will not accept personal responsibility for anything bad that happens during my entire term in office, and will instead seek to blame Bill Clinton for everything that goes wrong.

"In closing, my fellow citizens, if I’m fortunate enough to earn your vote, I vow to have the most rabidly conservative administration in this nation’s history. And if you think there’s gonna be any compassion mixed in, you’re dreaming. May God bless each and every one of you, and may God bless America."
http://www.geocities.com/anarchiebunker/speech2k.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/07/nsa/index.html

VP Cheney is now backdooring around moderate republicans even.


What does Cheney have to hide from the Senate ?????

Pretty hilarious. To cite mearly two examples of the extreme fetish they have for secrecy. For the first time in US history, 200 plus years, the Cheney led energy hearings were closed to the public no one was allowed to attend except the speakers and no notes were kept of what was said. Only 12 years ago Republicans blistered Ms. Clinton for secret hearings, even though those were not even hearings of the US government and not paid for by it.

The federal government has take actions such as reclassifying wide ranges of mateirals previously open to the public. In some cases this approaches high comedy. For instace they have demanded the Naitional Archives classify materials from the fifties and a wide range of material published in journals over the years (meaning of course that any removal of the material from the archives is totally useless).

Not since Nixon has any administration remotely approached the extreme secrecy and rejection of the public right to know even how its domestic polciies are being carried out as this one.