Nine Dead US Troops In Iraq

    I see that our Tuesday morning is off to a roaring start so far as the mid east is concerned.

    Two attacks in Iraq have left nine of our US troops dead and another four wounded in the north and north-east areas of the country. both attacks were bombing incidents.

  Pentagon figures say that the US death toll is now at 3,182  since March 2003.    Source

   

      

Technorati tags: US troops, Iraq

White House Privacy Board Says Bush Spy Programs Okay

   Isn't it so nice to know that a White House privacy board gave Bush the go ahead on two of his surveillance programs? The two would be electronic eavesdropping and the tracking of finances and the board stated that these two programs don't violate the US citizens civil rights.

   Of course, the Democrats came to the same conclusion that I have and that is basically WTF, as the board came from the White House where honesty and integrity don't exist and even worse is the fact that some of the board members are close to the " Bush Department of Constitutional Shredding,Inc. "

   This board ( Privacy and Civil Liberties Board ) has been doing it's thing in secrecy for a year and it is now do to give a report on its findings to Congress next week.

    I am drooling on myself in anticipation of reading that piece of junk!

AP

"We looked at the program, we visited NSA and met with the top people all the way down to those doing the hands-on work," said Carol Dinkins, a Houston lawyer and former Reagan administration assistant attorney general who chairs the board.

"The program is structured and implemented in a way that is properly protective and attentive to civil liberties," she said.

   The Congress wishes to give the board more authority and to make it more independent of the president, which would be a good first step if this board is to stay around.  There were some individuals who did have some things to say about this up-coming report.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called it absurd that the White House board effectively gave the eavesdropping program its stamp of approval even before the administration was forced to backtrack and submit it to court oversight.

"I have no confidence in the current board in its ability to provide meaningful evaluation of important programs such as the no-fly lists, based on its work on the domestic surveillance program," he said. "It is critical that Congress make the civil liberties board independent of the executive branch."

The board does not have subpoena power, and the White House can change its annual reports before they go to Congress. The members serve at the pleasure of Bush, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has final say over whether officials must comply with the board's recommendations.

Separate House and Senate measures would require that the entire board — not just the chairman and vice chairman — be confirmed by the Senate.

   I would prefer the House version which is much the same as the Senate version except that the House would give the board subpoena power whereas the Senate would have the board go to the attorney general to have subpoena's issued.

   It's a safe bet that any member of the " Bush Department of Constitutional Shredding,Inc. " ( Gonzales ) isn't going to be issuing to many subpoena's when it comes to " the decider " and the rest of the boys in the hood.

 

Technorati tags: White House, Bush, Spy Programs, Congress