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S/SW blog philosophy -

I credit favorite writers and public opinion makers.

A lifelong Democrat, my comments on Congress, the judiciary and the presidency are regular features.

My observations and commentary are on people and events in politics that affect the USA or the rest of the world, and stand for the interests of peace, security and justice.


Friday, September 22, 2006

Domestic Intelligence or Domestic Spying?

Here it is September 22, 2006 and I am wrapping up some unfinished business that should have been handled long ago.

Dateline Sept. 22, 2006 - I wish that today's post need not have been written. But the fact is that the domestic spying program revealed late last year is still in place. A recent site visit to my blog from NCTC makes that abundantly clear. And Congress has not yet finished fixing the problem, as this recent CNet article lays out. To quote,
Published: September 14, 2006, 12:23 PM PDT

The chairman of a key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday called for swift passage of a controversial bill criticized as an expansion of the government's electronic spying powers.

The pitch from Sen. Arlen Specter on the Senate floor arrived one day after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee gave the green light to his National Security Surveillance Act, touted as a compromise with the White House to verify the constitutionality of programs like the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program. The vote, which had stalled for several weeks, was 10 to 8 along party lines.

"We will be moving ahead, I hope shortly, with the bill to the floor so that we can make a determination on judicial review procedure (and) whatever wiretapping that is going on is judicially approved," Specter said during a brief floor speech.

My current and past reactions - The remainder of today's post consists of two elements. The first section is my writing currently cross posted on TPM Cafe and DailyKos. The second section (in a different font) is a draft I wrote last December, but never published.

First the very recent cross post(s):Turkey has an article in its penal code (#301) that makes it against the law to insult the state. Amazingly, the subject of the article lives and works here in the United States. Here is the story of an author acquited under that article: It comes from Financial Times. I quote,


Turkey's most celebrated woman novelist was acquitted on Thursday of "insulting Turkishness", in a case regarded as a test of freedom of expression in the country.

Elif Shafak was cleared by the judge, Irfan Adil Uncu, shortly after the trial began because of lack of evidence she had committed an offence under article 301 of the penal code.

The author was not in court because she was recovering from giving birth last weekend. She had faced charges over comments made by her fictional characters on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War One. . .

Ms Shafak, whose best-selling novels often challenge the humourlessness of official Turkish attitudes to history, politics and culture, is the latest writer to be prosecuted in cases brought by a nationalist lawyers' group that has become obsessed with silencing liberals and intellectuals.


As a liberal Democratic blogger, I have probably been guilty of insulting the state on more than one occasion. I am thankful that there is not an "article 301" in the U.S. penal code. And the last time I checked, my right to free speech is guaranteed in the U.S. constitution.
But my speech is not exactly free. It comes at a cost to my peace of mind, occasionally, like today, for instance. I discovered that my blog had a reader from the National Counter Terrorism Center's web address at a military site. The reader had searched out one of my archived posts, linked here: South by Southwest. The post title is "Civil liberties have staying power in the long run." The subject of the post was domestic spying.
I have had visits from other NCTC offices in the past, as well as the House of Representatives Info office and the Sargeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate. I am almost certain that these readers are not fans. Oh, well . . .

Second, the original draft - In December of 2005 I drafted a post that I never published. It follows, just as I wrote it then (using a different font):

The story begins - The New York Times article exposing the administration's secret spy operation against American citizens was held for many months before it was published, according to a Newsweek story by Jonathan Alter. The story reveals that our current president asked the two people heading the Times to visit the oval office on December 6, 2005. At that time the president repeated his assertion that the story should not be published, but to no avail. Now we know what we know.
Reactions from others - This newspaper editorial from the Washington Olympian is very critical of the administrations policies on domestic surveillance.
This Josh Marshall thread explains a lot about what is probably going on with my visitor. My reaction is this: It is data mining using key words. the progression of my thoughts: Why would anyone at NCTC spend time on li'l ole me? . . . I am only one of thousands of little political bloggers. Yesterday the average number of people visiting my site was just 12, according to my SiteMeter service. The mass surveillance of the internet which may be automated.

More reactions - Common Dreams writes about FBI surveillance of activist groups . This activist invites her president to "come and get me." According to a Washington Post article, one of the FISA court judges has resigned, purportedly in protest of the administration's warrentless policy.
What I wrote - Here are links to my most recent post at TPM Cafe; and from one of my posts in November at TPM Cafe.

Original Site Meter Reference of December, 2005:

Details > Visit Detail=Visit 1,953
(Military)(NCTC)
NCTC=Location
Visit Entry Pagehttp://carol-sandy1.blogspot.com/2005/12/president-bush-on-offense.html
Visit Exit Page
http://carol-sandy1.blogspot.com/2005/12/president-bush-on-offense.html

Time Zone=unknown. Visitor's Time=Unknown .

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