The O carries a story from this afternoon describing a trio of Democratic Senators who are seeking a slowdown on the potential extension of some of the more egregious USA PATRIOT provisions otherwise set to expire. (Betcha didn't know the Act's title was actually in acronym form, didya? It's short for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism...Act.) Along with Russ Feingold of Wiscosin and Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois is our own Ron Wyden, who--compared to his stance on healthcare--is well out in front of his caucus on surveillance and civil liberty issues, and continues to lead progressive interests in the Senate:
Wyden is spearheading an effort to place tighter rules and oversight on the so-called business records provision in the law. Under the current law which expires Dec. 31, federal investigators can scoop up individuals' bank and financial records, medical information, DNA and other "tangible things" (the law's actual wording) without having to prove that the individuals have any connection to terrorist activities.
But Wyden and his allies believe the definition is too broad and too easily allows government officials to conduct "fishing expeditions" of people who may not have any involvement with terror activities.
The "business records" provision sets the standard that the government must meet to obtain an individual's personal information from banks, hospitals, libraries, retail stores and other institutions.
On a pure workload and intellectual basis I think President Obama can handle multitasking on a variety of issues, but the media and the general public may not be so facile. I've been aware of the business records provision and the attention it's been getting in prog-wonk circles, because it's among the most ridiculously overreaching of the PATRIOT provisions, and one that has great potential for touching the lives of ordinary Americans in their homes and businesses. But with stimulus and health care and climate and Afghanistan and banking all taking up chunks of our collective consciousness, we run out of things to devote your outrage and our energy to.
Diehard fans of H.R. 2651 charged the floor of the Senate chamber Tuesday after their bill, a 14-vote underdog nicknamed the Maritime Workforce Development Act, passed 51-49 with just moments to go in the legislative session...A champagne-soaked Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), whose last-second vote clinched the bill's passage, said the guys on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee deserved much of the credit, but that the biggest thanks should go to God.
We're all watching the slo-mo pershing of the giants and half-lings of the print media era, as newspaper brands fall off one by one for want of profitability or a buyer. There are a lot of lives affected, as in many industries around the country, but on a systemic basis I'm not shedding many tears for the franchise print media that exists in most cities. Their various outlets may have individual merit and seem innocuous under the nameplates people have grown accustomed to, but in many ways they are the media equivalent of Taco Bell or Best Buy for their communities--grafted and ingratiated into the citizenry, rather than grown from within it.
The truth is that the major papers will survive in one form or another, having shfited their content online and cut a wide swath of live bodies out of their delivery infrastructure. Will you be out of luck if you don't have a ready interent portal? Very likely. Will free news stop being free? Maybe, unless the big shift to online news makes advertising more viable. Or you'll get bare stories and pay for what's after the continue.
Where the wreckage will be more complete is in smaller markets, of which Portland is probably at the top end of "smaller." If the Oregonian fails, will news continue? Surely. Will it smell as musty as the old money and influence that dank up The Oregonian's pages? Probably not. For better or worse the now-not-just-weekly Willamette Week (and their .com, which has half the news but is 10x easier to navigate than OregonLive) has scooped The O when the latter was caught napping on its generous laurels.
Willy Week is just the tip of the iceberg, though. There's the Mercury, which is mostly for laughs but whose online component produces pretty sharp journalism; KBOO, an outlet that could use a wattage boost and a little funding stream; Street Roots, and the various blogs that cover the City and City Council. In Salem, the passive acceptance of the dance between legislator and reporter might be due a shakeup with new, less beholden players.
Whew! All of which was to say that you needn't pick up a daily paper to find strong reporting, including highly technical investigative journalism. Josh Marshall at TalkingPoints is writing the book on a sustainable model, Dave Niewert writes from Washington on racism and extremism, David Sirota is breaking into the established print media but publishes most of his best work at OpenLeft, et al.
And one of those et al is Marcy Wheeler, better known as emptywheel of FireDogLake. Her coverage along with site founder Jane Hamsher and others of the Valerie Plame case was so good the trad-med was forced to admit she was a godsend for info during the trial. Marcy has been working like a scrivener following the surveillance scandal of the Bush adminsitration, right on through the Presidential transition. The most watched case right now is the al-Haramain case, involving a charity that was originally founded in southern Oregon. But there's a lot more to it than that...we think.
The sword of Damocles may have just been raised against the Bush administration at its highest levels, by way of US District Judge Vaughn Walker, the judge overseeing the FISA lawsuit(s), particularly the one against the government by the Al-Haramain Islamic charity, once based in Ashland as the US headquarters of the Saudi concern. The judge is demanding what amounts to surveillance logs of tapped conversations among the plaintiffs and others ("involved" or not), something the Bush administrration has consistently refused to provide.
The excuse they've given is as preposterous as it is circular--we can't show you the logs because it's national security, and you can't prove that you're eligible to sue us because we won't show you the logs. And we don't have to show you the logs because the President says you can't see them. Not even you, Mr. Judge!
Apparently Mr. Judge has had quite enough of all that, and ordered an in-chambers review of whatever the documents allegedly held, in which case he would immediately rule on the standing of al-Haramain to sue--that is, whether the logs matched what the plaintiffs' lawyers said they said, and thus validating their legal claim to have been harmed by the policy. The lawyers were incredibly specific, isolating specific days of specific conversations. Walker gets his judgey voice on:
To be more specific, the court will review the sealed document ex parte and in camera. The court will then issue an order regarding whether plaintiffs may proceed — that is, whether the sealed document establishes that plaintiffs were subject to electronic surveillance not authorized by FISA.
And the kicker for it all is that at least one of the taps occurred on the very days that NONE of it was legal, no matter how twistedly it could be justified under the newly written law that hadn't taken effect. Gonzo and the rest of the thugs couldn't get a hospital-bound Ashcroft to sign off, and so if the allegations are supported in the logs, it couldn't be a clearer or more blatant violation.
When that domino falls--when a plaintiff is miraculously able to prove standing by showing the very thing the trial is supposed to review, whether they were spied on illegally--it opens the door wide for criminal culpability on a range of things already strongly alleged but left unindictable because of the evidentiary conundrum. Will this break a hole in the dike and lead to further judicial demands that the government cut the crap and habeas papyrus?
As is true with anything FISA or Plame-related, firedoglake is a must-visit source. Emptywheel in particular is better informed than any 5 pro journalists covering those stories.
I understand this is running in some rotation at KPOJ, so many of you may be familiar with this. I don't get near a radio much, and for those of you don't either, here's the audio of the ad. It's an ACLU 1 minute spot highlighting Smith's support of warrantless wiretapping and immunity for the telecomm industry. It's kind of a dry ad, but it's a complex subject and very nice that the national organization is running them for us. So here's the spot:
I've already been discussing in the comments to yesterday's story on Wyden and FISA, that after failing to stand publicly with Chris Dodd over the weekend and into this morning on his attempt to filibuster their own Majority Leader, it turns out he pulled a master twist job on Harry Reid that--coupled with the pressure of tens of thousands of activist progressives like the Loaded Orygun community--forced Reid to table the bill until next year. He came at Reid from multiple fronts, marketed it and integrated it with friendly resources, and basically overwhelmed Reid with problems. It's worth taking a closer look at now, but at the end I've got a wild theory to float.
To try to recap: on Monday morning Senator Dodd prepared to offer an amendment to the base bill that Reid had selected, from the Intelligence Committee rather than the Judiciary Committee. He claimed because the Intel bill passed by a stronger margin, tradition dictated he offer that one as the "base." So that was sneaky enough.
But then he did something that is really troubling and conspiracy-inspiring: he set the bar for amendments at 60 votes, on the ostensible theory that Republicans would filibuster their way to a 40 vote majority anyway if they didn't like it. Ah, the bold strategizing of Harry Reid. So Dodd was now faced with an amendment that itself could likely get majority but not filibuster proof votes. Filibustering to stop a bill without a majority is one thing, but doing it to favor an amendment without a by-rule majority behind it is really kinda just ego.
o Dodd was basically neutered by the tactic. But it begs the question: why on earth would Reid pre-capitulate on any amendment? Talk about filibuster by fear! Is he just inept, or is he doing it for another, more sinister reason? Good God almighty, what did we do to deserve these leaders. Why hast thou forsaken us...at CHRISTMAS! (We're sorry about Jesus, we really are. We were so primitive then! Can't you let us off the hook now? Please?) Ahem. Below the fold, Wyden's frontal assault on inertia, Senate style. {more}
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