Checks and No Balance

December 29, 2005 8:14 AM

Checks and No Balance While previous presidents have at various times claimed the legal right to authorize searches and electronic surveillance without court warrants so as to gather foreign intelligence, those decisions have undergone scrutiny by either courts or congressional hearings. It's fair to say that Bush had no intention of allowing public scrutiny of his act, since he personally summoned the top executives of The New York Times to a private meeting on December 6 and pressured them not to run the story about the domestic spying
posted by Postroad (20 comments total)

[OLDNEWSFILTER]
posted by furtive at 8:20 AM on December 29, 2005

Original Newsweek story.
posted by smackfu at 8:25 AM on December 29, 2005

I love the Voice's Press Clips column, but I do miss Cynthia Cotts. Her columns always used to make me wonder 'However will this woman get another job in journalism when she's done here'.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:32 AM on December 29, 2005

Syntax error. `posted by` token should be preceeded by punctuation.
posted by odinsdream at 8:34 AM on December 29, 2005

An interesting tidbit from The Washington Post's version of the story: "The admission by two columnists that they accepted payments from indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff may be the tip of a large and rather dirty iceberg."

Not to distract from the President's office pressuring newspaper editors, but I think things will get very interesting as the Abramoff case progresses.
posted by ilsa at 8:39 AM on December 29, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/29/national/29cookies.html

Thank you for visiting the N S A site today, we would like to offer you some 35 year old cookies as a token of our sincerest regards...
posted by Oyéah at 8:39 AM on December 29, 2005

George Bush just cares enough about us to want to know what we're up to. Like a loving parent. It's sweet, really. Like when my mom wiretaps the phone in my apartment.
posted by chasing at 8:49 AM on December 29, 2005

GYOFB
posted by docgonzo at 8:52 AM on December 29, 2005

Get Your Own Flog Buckwit?
posted by caddis at 9:15 AM on December 29, 2005

Those checks are bouncing and the bank is calling me to pay them dammit!
posted by nofundy at 9:16 AM on December 29, 2005

gocdonzo is just a tad lysdexic.
posted by quonsar at 9:40 AM on December 29, 2005

"get your own fucking blog" most likely
posted by rxrfrx at 10:23 AM on December 29, 2005

GYOFB
posted by docgonzo at 11:52 AM EST on December 29 [!]

YGYOFB naa! naa! naa!
posted by juiceCake at 10:28 AM on December 29, 2005

YGYOFB naa! naa! naa!

Yog-Sothoth! Ia! Ia!
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:25 AM on December 29, 2005

I am glad the administration is doing this. (I am also a gigantic retard who pretends to agree with this kind of shit in order to derail threads.)

So hurry up and start talking about me for the next fifty posts.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 11:31 AM on December 29, 2005

I hope that was worth the five bucks, buddy.
posted by alumshubby at 11:43 AM on December 29, 2005

Do we get to take out Assad yet?
posted by spiderwire at 12:14 PM on December 29, 2005

No, you leave your assad right where it is, sonny.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:38 PM on December 29, 2005

StrasbourgSecaucus,

It cost you five bucks, but it left me grinning.
posted by mulligan at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2005

No, you leave your assad right where it is, sonny.

But I'm booooooored.
posted by spiderwire at 5:44 PM on December 29, 2005