What would you say if I told you the NSA's "Puzzle Palace" is getting ready to exceed its electrical capacity?  You know what happens when computers exceed their electrical capacity?  Here's a clue:  This could bring a whole new meaning to "dark ops".

I wish I was creative enough to have invented that plot device.  It sounds like something Kurt Vonnegut might write ... but you wouldn't expect him to actually publish it because no one would accept the premise.  Now you know why they say truth is stranger than fiction; it really is.  

You're not going to believe this but The National Security Agency is running out of juice!

Wait! There's more....

I am having a hard time digesting the Bush Administrations claims of the article's about the "financial data tracking" is a setback to our "National Security" and the talk of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were asked not to run the story due to the risk to National Security, I watched Wayne Simmons (a Fox news contributor) calling them traitors, and the publishers should be jailed, he called them the "Jihad Times" funny they kept forgetting to mention that Cavuto's favorite newspaper ran the same story on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, is that a "jihad Times" outlet to? Or is it okay for Republican papers to do "responsible" journalism and the only ones that have their patriotism questioned is the perceived left leaning papers?

Now that Gen. Hayden has been confirmed as the next CIA director, let's take a look into our future.

We can assume the NSA's version of TIA will find a new home at the CIA.  For the sake of argument, let's assume everyone involved in this program is committed to the rule of law and seriously interested in protecting America from threats.

Even if that is all true, we still have a problem.  How do you demonstrate the program's value to the people who pay for it without sharing classified information?  It turns out, Ronald Reagan had a solution to that sort of problem; he called it "trust but verify."   We can apply that approach to solve this impasse while meeting the legitimate needs of all the stakeholders.  Here's the proposed test:

CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT

There has been a lot of talk in the news recently about congressional oversight.  Unfortunately, it is hard to tell whether "oversight" means "supervision," or whether it means "lack of attention."  The Senate confirmation hearings for the new CIA Director are just the most recent example of this disturbing trend.  

It certainly requires considerable oversight to overlook some of the questions Gen. Hayden refused to answer in open session.  I'm sure some questions are answered best in private.  However, it's hard to believe he needs a closed session to say torture is not an acceptable method for interrogation.  

Yesterday, Bush "insisted... that the United States does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans."

Got that? 'Ordinary Americans'!

Bush doesn't spy on 'Ordinary Americans', but he didn't specify what an 'Ordinary American' is -- so many questions left unanswered, like...

...Do 'Ordinary Americans' wear a sign that tells everyone (including the NSA) that is their status?

Is there an 'Ordinary' scale used by 'Ordinary' Government workers that can standardize this appraisal?

Are there different levels or intensities of ordinary-ness? And is the level of spying dependent upon that rating? And if so, who does the rating?

Can you switch from 'Ordinary' to 'Unordinary' and vice-versa?

Are some 'Ordinary Americans' more 'Ordinary' than others?

What do you think the definition is of 'Ordinary American'? I tried looking it up in the 'American Heritage' Dictionary, but there doesn't seem to be any such entry.

So perhaps it would be appropriate to guess President Bush's working definition of 'Ordinary American' (which he obviously has, otherwise he wouldn't have used the term, right?)

President Bush defended his NSA data mining program by saying, "We are not mining through the personal lives of millions of innnocent Americans."

I believe he is telling the truth.

For starters, at least 16 million American children are too young to use telephones. We also know that Qwest refused to give their records to the NSA.  That accounts for another 14 million Americans.  So at least ten percent of Americans were not included in this round of data mining. Of course, that raises an important question...

What about the rest of us?

Unfortunately, at least 200 million Americans probably did have their personal information examined by the NSA.   When you consider this program has been around for a few years, it is likely they looked at a trillion individual calling records.

Many reports about the program suggest the only information provided was phone numbers.  However, a class action lawsuit already filed indicates there was more going on.  In addition to the number of origin and the number called, the records also included date, time, and duration of calls.  Obviously, the records are being subjected to some sort of social network analysis.

We have no president.

This isn't a treatise on unlawful rulings around Florida 2000, or election chicanery in Ohio 2004.  Neither is it a metaphorical thing, I'm not saying that "this man is not my president."  No, I'm saying the role of America president is vacant.

It wasn't the left that created this void.  There's been no citizen's impeachment.  It's not even the shrinking percentage of Americans that have any faith in this administration that left the office empty.

George W. Bush abdicated his role.

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted today not to investigate the crimes of President George W. Bush. Instead, it will create a subcommittee for "oversight" of the illegal eavesdropping program. Senator Snowe was telling Americans as of Friday that yes, she would vote in favor of the Senator Rockefeller's proposal to conduct a full inquiry into the program. Today, she voted against it. Senator Rockefeller had this to say after the committee's vote:

``This committee is basically under control of the White House,'' Rockefeller told reporters after the two-hour meeting today in Washington. ``It's an unprecedented bout of political pressure from the White House.''

Unprecedented indeed.  The administration is threatening members of Congress, it is strong-arming them like never before--in short, like a cornered animal it has pulled out every last stop, every last fang and growl to dissuade Congress from investigating this matter. The inference is obvious: the more fervent the desire to cover up, the more heinous the crime.

This is not just a surveillance program. This is not just data-mining.  There is something much greater here beneath the surface, an action that not only runs afoul our Constitutional rights, but that undermines the very core of our democracy.

This is not the end of the road. Attorney General Gonzales is likely to be recalled to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Several lawsuits are well underway.  And when the truth is exposed, Senator Snowe, Senator Hagel, and every Republican member of Congress who has assisted in this cover-up will be exposed as aiders and abetters to one of the most fundamental betrayals of the American people.

I served in the United States Air Force's "Electronic Security Command" in the early 80's. This was during the years immediately following Congress establishing restraints on U.S. surveillance practices through FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). This is a key point that needs to be made clear to the American people. FISA did not give the administration new power. It was designed by Congress to restrain power and provide for oversight by the courts.

Why FISA Was Born

The need for FISA arose from administration misconduct, including the tapping of phones of political opponents. The Supreme Court and Congress clearly stated that wire-tapping of American phones without a warrant is a serious breach of the 4th amendment of the Constitution. Each used the power granted to them in the Constitution to restrain and oversee the executive branch.

Bush Arguments Are Ridiculous

President Bush's argument that FISA can be ignored because Congress authorized him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq is, as lawyers love to say, completely without merit. His claims that technology has changed so much since FISA was written in 1978, and that he needed to act faster that FISA would allow are also spurious. FISA allows immediate capture of electronic communications, as soon as an intelligence agency determines it needs to be monitored. Within 72-hours after interception, the agency must go to the FISA court and ask for a warrant. I believe therefore that it was not a delay in the ability to eavesdrop that prompted the President to abandon FISA, it was a desire to keep the American targets of surveillance secret, even from the trustworthy and super-secret FISA Court.

I never thought former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.)and I would ever be on the same page.

First he joins the ACLU, which made me do a spit-take and wonder what was to become of my beloved organization.

Now he's one of the most vocal critics of the George W. Bush administration regime.

This has of course made Barr the enemy of the right. And he walked into the heart of their camp this week to confront them.

Alberto Gonzalez will be the leadoff witness for the NSA hearings starting tomorrow, and, as a long time Bush loyalist and knee-jerk defender of Bush's extra-constitutional assertions of Presdiential power (from back in the days of the "torture memo"), he can be expected to spout Administration talking points about how the NSA  is only targeting the phone calls of Al Qaeda operatives:

WE THE PEOPLE...

have decided to just let some clown from Texas make it up as we go along. We're just too damn busy and afraid to care.

http://actionalert.blogspot .com/2006/02/feingold-gonza les-perjury.html

 On Monday, Senator Russ Feingold will resume his questioning of Alberto Gonzales in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Wartime Executive Power and Surveillance Authory.  You may recall that Gonzales appears to have perjured himself in his responses to Feingold's previous round of questioning on the administration's warrantless wiretapping of American citizens.  

This note is a call for action requesting bloggers to help shape the terms of the debate in the media both before and after the hearing by contacting editorial boards at major daily newspapers in your local community to encourage them to take a position against attempts by the Executive Branch to circumvent the law.

Media contacts

I've been biting my tongue about the Bush Regime's secret NSA wiretapping / eavesdropping scandal. I wanted to let the ramifications sink in... to soak in to the cockles of my grey matter and see what stewed to the top. Usually an act as blatant as this doesn't take this much time to stew. However, once I grasped the enormity of this story... I had to wait for the anger to subside before I could process the emotions in to words.

As some of you might know, I've got my own mysterious connections that gives me access to some of the most evil and vile men.

For example, here was my interview with Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, Bill Frist.

Tonight I went even deeper into rabbit hole. Tonight I delved into Fort Meade -- NSA central -- to interview former NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden.