Wow, I just can *not* wait for the upgrade of Patriot Act II:
Expanding on the original, the new measure is said to instruct the government to build a database of citizen DNA information that could be collected without a court order on anyone suspected of wrongdoing; allow the government to wiretap anyone for 15 days and snoop on anyone’s Internet usage, including chat and e-mail, without a warrant; allow the government to strip Americans of their citizenship if they have been found to have contributed material support to organizations deemed by the government, even retroactively, to be “terrorist;” and allow legal permanent residents to be deported, without a criminal charge being filed or evidence presented, if the attorney general considers them a threat to national security.
Super Fun Happy Times!
More info here.
A year ago, Paul O’Neill was fired from his job as George Bush’s Treasury Secretary for disagreeing too many times with the president’s policy on tax cuts. O’Neill – who is known for speaking his mind – talks for the first time about his two years inside the Bush administration. This is a very sad read.
There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,” adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001.
Has some interesting info on Bush with the second round of tax cuts:
He says, Didn’t we already, why are we doing it again? Now, his advisers, they say, Well Mr. President, the upper class, they’re the entrepreneurs. That’s the standard response. And the president kind of goes, OK. That’s their response. And then, he comes back to it again. Well, shouldn’t we be giving money to the middle, won’t people be able to say, You did it once, and then you did it twice, and what was it good for?” Karl Rove is saying to the president, a kind of mantra. Stick to principle. Stick to principle. He says it over and over again, says Suskind. Don’t waver.
Sigh.