HAIL DUBYUS!

An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum

I Could Swear That Garden Gnome Was Listening To Me…

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(WashPost/Reuters) US could prosecute reporters for leaks: Gonzales

(WashPost/AP) House Leaders Question FBI Search

Once again, this administration makes a judgement call and it calls for secrecy. Even if the government is acting in an illegal fashion, it is even MORE unlawful to blow the whistle on it or even be the recipient of said whistle-blowing information, according to the man who helped justify our use of torture. In a further demonstration that the principle of the separation of powers is considered null and void, a congressman’s office was searched by order of our own little Heinrich Himmler. Now, I will admit it looks bad for Jefferson (and The Party will undoubtedly use this incident to make the Democrats look as bad as the Republicans), but there is a principle at stake here. Does the executive branch trump Congress? And if so, why weren’t searches done of Duke Cunningham’s offices (as Steny Hoyer pointed out)? If Hastert and Boehner are complaining about this, this IS an issue!

Reach Out And Touch Someone :) And Add Them To The Database

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(Reuters) Bush denies spying infringes on privacy

(AP) Ex-Qwest CEO Balked at NSA Records Sweep

Hey, Our President says ordinary Americans have nothing to worry about. Of course, a few months ago, he said, tapping into phone conversations required a court order, and that was a lie, and then he said that it was limited to international calls and well, that seems to be fudging it just a little, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt…he’s got to tell the truth SOMETIME! As we all know, terrorism isn’t limited to al-Qaida either…druggies, protestors, all sorts of people “support terrorism.” And don’t you feel safer knowing that those cell phone calls you made from the No-Tell Motel when you were supposed to be at a meeting in Albuquerque are now part of the government database?

I’d prefer my skeletons remain in the closet, thank you … can you hear me now?

And If Things REALLY Get Bad, You Can Always Go On Oprah

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Catching up on things that went on while we were on vacation, we note that Our Leader has been using the NSA to spy on Americans…he assured us it was only people who had contact with al-Qaeda (and we’re supposed to take his word for it) and that he authorized the non-court-approved wiretaps because they needed to be done so fast, he couldn’t ummmm wait for a retroactive 72-hour court order? (AP) Poll: Americans Want Warrants for Spying Amazingly enough, 42% of Americans agree with him, despite the number of lies his administration has been caught in. I say, you can get a court order 3 days after surveillance has already begun, that should be fast enough for anyone because with the dirty tricks you guys have pulled, there’s no telling WHO you’re going to spy on if you’re given a green light to carry out espionage on American citizens without a court order.

In the meantime, Oprah ((AP) Oprah Dismisses Claims About Frey Memoir) has defended the memoir of some lad named Frey whom she’d touted to her book club and which memoir has been shown to have substantial fabricated content by The Smoking Gun. Now I agree that memoirs usually have some embellishment, but there’s a difference between embellishment and outright fabrication. I note that Frey originally tried to sell it as a novel and no publisher bought it. He marketed it as a memoir and it took off. Maybe I should take MY novel and tout it as a memoir–hey a lot of the stuff really happened–some of it not to me, and certainly not in the order I told it in, but hey, Oprah said it was OK for HER guy…

Quick Reminder, Monday is the Martin Luther King, Jr holiday…we will be off until Wednesday.