Wow. I apparently missed one hell of a weekend on DU.

[WindRavenX]

So...um, can someone clue me in on the news? I've just worked 2 days of hell at the SBux and apparently...shit happened.


Oh, and smooches :loveya:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear WindRavenX...

GD was full of copycat threads after Will Pitt announced that he was leaving...

There's still some mopping up going on over there...

I'm not sure that anything really unusual happened in here, though....

I could be wrong, however!:shrug:

Smooches back atcha! :loveya:

[WindRavenX]

2. PITT left???

OMFG! :(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. That's what he said!

I'm not altogether sure he means it, though...

:shrug:

You can still read him at Truthout...

[Common Sense Party]

7. Again??? n/t

[Breeze54]

4. FISA spying bill was passed and the

the shit hit the fan. There are many threads concerning that topic.

People always post they're leaving and then a week later they're back posting.

That's really just a *big yawn* to me. Your mileage may vary.

Mr. Pitt can be found at PDA & ThruthOut.org


Hope you get some rest! ;)

[WindRavenX]

5. FISA...

...give me the 411 on how that stature was amended--wiki has it has last amended under the PATRIOT act, but did something happen?

[Breeze54]

6. It is now legal to spy on Americans! It's the law!!

ACLU Condemns Senate for Passing Spy Law Changes (8/4/2007)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [e-mail]

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the House and Senate for bowing to pressure from the Bush administration and rushing to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The administration lobbied heavily to alter the legislation before Congress recessed. The White House pushed for sweeping changes to the spy law after a FISA court judge recently rejected its use of wide-scale, untargeted surveillance. The bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 28, and the House is poised to take up the same legislation late tonight.

“We are deeply disappointed that the president’s tactics of fearmongering have once again forced Congress into submission,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “That a Democratically-controlled Senate would be strong-armed by the Bush administration is astonishing. This Congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act.”

The legislation that passed would allow for the intelligence agencies to intercept – without a court order – the calls and emails of Americans who are communicating with people abroad, and puts authority for doing so in the hands of the attorney general. No protections exist for Americans whose calls or emails are vacuumed up, leaving it to the executive branch to collect, sort, and use this information as it sees fit.

more...

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/31194prs20070804.html

[WindRavenX]

8. that is 100% fucked up.

Good lord, can someone let loose a pack of dingos into Congress? Worthless sacks of meat, they be...

[SeattleGirl]

9. Crazy, isn't it? Supposedly it's only good for 60 days, but just think

how much more damage the Bushies can do in the time frame.

[WindRavenX]

11. well, wtf was it even passed?

Didn't we have some domestic issues to attend to--I hear a bridge collapsed in fucking Minneapolis; shouldn't we be getting on that?

Canada is looking better every fucking day.

[Breeze54]

14. That topic was a lot of the debate on DU and why the rush,

and also the blue dogs who helped to make this law and
where they should go and how they should get there! :P

[WindRavenX]

15. I'm becoming v. suspicious of them

Why would they vote for such a bill?

[Breeze54]

16. Because they

are republicans!!! That's all they are! Out with them!!
Vote them out and replace them with Democrats!

And now * is out for blood! he wants to know who ratted him out!!

Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20121795/site/newsweek/
Aug. 13, 2007 issue - The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case told NEWSWEEK the raid was related to a Justice criminal probe into who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media. The raid appears to be the first significant development in the probe since The New York Times reported in December 2005 that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents without court warrants. (At the time, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said of the leak: "This is really hurting national security; this has really hurt our country.")

(more on site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20121795/site/newsweek/)

[Breeze54]

13. 6 MONTHS!!!

It supposed to be temporary for six months!
But they can spy on you for up to a year and you'll never know about it.

[SeattleGirl]

17. I would hate this if it were only 6 DAYS.

We are so fucked.

[Heidi]

18. I believe it expires in six months, rather than 60 days.

The law expires in six months, but Pelosi said she did not think "the American people will want to wait that long before corrective action is taken." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also promised to revisit the law, which has provoked widespread outrage from civil liberties groups who said it would impinge on Americans' privacy.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-05-FISA_N.htm

:hi: SeattleGirl! :hug: :*

(ETA excerpt from article)

[SeattleGirl]

19. We won't want to wait that long? Well no shit, Shylock!

:eyes:


Hi Heidi, gf!!!! :* :loveya:

[Breeze54]

10. Now gonzo has carte blanche!

Do you feel safer now?? Some are suggesting learning pig Latin when using VOIP, like Skype. ;)

[krispos42]

12. I postulated....

that the reason the Lounge was so empty was because... well, read it yourself...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6800424#6800430

[LostinVA]

20. Me too -- I was in NC visiting my parents