Bitch.

I hope you're happy.

I hope you choke on it.

 Fuck you.

You had nothing when I met you.

Nothing.

You were homeless.

 Staying in a fundiloon women's shelter.

 I reached out and pulled you up out of the gutter. I brought you into my life. I defended you from the criticisms of people that said you were no good; that you would drag me down.

I kept you through a number of screaming tantrums that could have cost me my job.

I kept you after you fucked up my face then called the police on me and said that I beat you.

 Did you know that that detective told me to get rid of you? That you were nuts?

Toby Wills, remember him?

 Then you began to lie.

Stories about a dead baby that never existed, stories that I believed at the time but no longer do, about how your father made you blow him, forced you into a marriage at 15, and on and on and on.

I kept you through all of that, because I loved you.

 I told you on Day One that I didn't want any more kids.

You had other plans.

For once, and like only once, you were right.

Those boys are the only thing I have to show for 15 years of being with you. I wouldn't change that for anything.

I worked two jobs, I was doing three radio shows a day, commuting by bicycle, and just barely keeping us afloat.

When I lost it all, I didn't stop looking for work until I found something.

I got burned out of three jobs by the same guy who denied my unemployment, which I fought to get, and every dime of what little money I got went to caring for our child and you.

We had to hide out from CPS - now I know it's because Julian's placenta tested dirty for cocaine; a drug you always said would kill you if you used it.

Yep, I just found that out earlier in the year.

Something else you probably kept from me.

Then, we left California for Ohio. Then my mom died. You know what you did.

You tortured me. For five days while my mother lay dying in a hospital bed, you tortured me with nightly telephone calls threatening divorce, suicide....you tortured me as my mother lay dying.

 And yet, I kept you. Fifteen years and five states. I kept you.

You were never homeless, hungry, or cold.

You took all I had to give and gave back very little.

Not even love: I think you and I define the word differently.

 Millions of times in Vermont the cops came to the house.

And only one person ever got arrested and charged with assault.

We both know who that was.

 And people started hating on ME. Because of YOU.

 Was I perfect? No. But you had enough about me that was TRUE to where if you'd felt the need to talk shit, you didn't have to lie. You would be amazed how many people have come to me for FORGIVENESS since you left. To clear their consciences of the guilt they felt for believing your lies about me, without checking my side of it.

 Let's see: You had cancer and I refused to take you for chemo.

You were pregnant and afraid to tell me for fear I'd beat you to make you miscarry.

There was no food in the house and I was too drunk to take you to the store.

I made you fuck other guys in Stockton for cigarettes.

 For CIGARETTES!

 And on, and on, and on.

 And finally, you tried to kill me.

What if I hadn't raised my arm?

You were aiming for my head.

I should have gone to the doctor. My arm tingles all the time like I'm getting stungunned. It's tingling now. My left index fingertip is numb.

Fifteen years and five states.

You saw shitloads of concerts, hobnobbed with stars, you were the envy of a lot of women, more than you know.

 And this is how it ends. You join my sworn enemy for my entire adult life: the Christian Right.

And you married a bum. A church-dependent bum. Good fit.

And you tell me in a courthouse, "Third time's the charm"?

Fuck you for that.

Thoroughly, completely, and permanently. It took every ounce of self control I had not to say that right then and there.

Once both these boys are 18, you are dead to me.

Don't look to me to bail you out again. It won't happen.

And get my family name off your facebook page. You have four kids, and none of them have the same last name as you. Are you proud?

And based on what I could find out about your new husband, you will, for however long this marriage lasts, have exactly what you deserve: nothing.

 And I hope you choke on it.

This damn thing is still here.

Be interesting to see if anyone finds this. Gotta do something. Just gotta.

Depressed. The last year has been a living hell. Last year OR MORE.

My marriage has ended, for one thing. I want her back, but I don't want the bullshit.

At one point, I could have had what seemed at the time like a better thing on any number of levels, but like a fool, I went and fucked it up. I'm good like that.

And I'm starting to feel...rushed? in the relationship I have now. Its positives are extremely strong; its negatives few and superficial. I wonder if I'm superficial?

I've been banished from my home on the internet for the last six years. I don't agree with the characterization of what I said that led to that, I don't agree it qualifies as the specific offense it was deemed to be.

That puts me in a hell of a position, it makes it hard to decide how to frame a request for reinstatement. So far I'm being ignored.

It's his blog, he can do what he wants, but it did amputate a part of my life that I valued. I don't feel like I deserved that. But what I WON'T do is run around talking shit like others have done. Nothing to revel in here, kids.

Running around talking trash and groveling for mercy have one thing in common: they both represent a lowering of my standards. I'm trying to salvage what dignity I have left.

I keep seeking empty refuge. Dialing back on drinking, that can't help but be a good thing.

I think I'm also overemphasizing the importance of sex.....or maybe not. Maybe not. I'm in a very, very strange place right now.

And I don't like it.

I feel incredibly isolated.

I do have one of my sons back now. That's a good thing. The other needs continued therapy but someday......someday. I'm just worried he'll become a casualty of the system. I feel powerless to help him.

I feel rather useless sometimes.

Let me out.

Cobalt is done.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.
It was fun.
If you have any additional thoughts, feel free to post them.
Thanks to Glade, Cliff, BlueRager, Tammy, Drew, Sam, Allen, and every one else who posted and made this blog what it was.
Tried to be different, more fun, less wonky....I hope we succeeded in at least some small measure.
And here and there, we made some noise. it was worth it.
I'm still alive, on Daily Kos and at greenmountaindaily.com.
Please remember that we'll never get our values out front and understood by compromising them.
Best to all, and keep fighting the good fight.

Rosemarie

(Crossposted from Defending Rosemarie )

Rosemarie Jackowski is an advocacy journalist living in Vermont. On March 20, 2003, her 66th birthday, she was arrested for participating in a peaceful protest against the war.

Principles are not always convenient....
UPDATE: A message from Rosemarie

It is an amazing time in my life. I thought that I would be sitting in a rocking chair and learning how to crochet, instead I may be heading off to prison one of these days. It will be worth it, if more people will take a look at the Robert Fisk photos of the bombed Iraqi children. They can be accessed by googling Robert Fisk War Photos. Those photos say more than any writer can ever express in words. That's all I ever wanted. That is what I still want.
LOVE....rosemarie

The legal struggle continues.

^{This diary dedicated to the memory of Robert P. Scanlon.}

March 20, 2003. I'll never forget the day.
Having just been invested with the title of Program Director at WZEC in Bennington, VT, I was at a lunch meeting at Carmody's on Main Street with Ken, the corporate COO and Doug, the station's general manager. On a TV over the bar, CNN was showcasing the shock and awe.
Usually it's me that's the distractable one, but on this occasion, the entire meeting was a little hamstrung by the awful news of the day.
Just as we managed to get the meeting back on track, an angry klaxon from an 18-wheeler cut somebody off midsentence. We looked out the window, and traffic was backed up as far as wee could see in either direction.
Doug and I exchanged grins, knowing what this had to be.
Ken picked up on it immediately. I think I was squirming like a little dog under a "sit 'n' stay" command that wanted to go outside.
"Why don't you go see what's going on, Ed," said Ken, and I happily obliged.
At the Four Corners, the protest was underway. Angry people lined the sidewalks, shaking their fists and shouting. The supporters were closer in, appauding and flashing peace signs.

Later protests at the Corners.

Rosemarie is in red, on the right.

In the center with the long blonde hair is Wendy Woods. Second from left is Claude De Lucia. Feel free to jump in and identify any others if you can.

There was one hyper, greasy little guy with dark hair, running up and down the sidewalk, screaming incoherently about how he wanted to go into the street and start beating up protestors. "One at a time! I'll kick ALL their asses!"
I caught his eye. "Calm DOWN, dude. You're being stupid."
"Oh YEAH?", he said, suddenly up in my face.
"How 'bout I kick YOUR ass? Huh? HUH?"
It was ludicrous. I lost the battle not to burst out laughing when Adam, the kid doing afternoons for me, came running out of the radio station, laughing himself.
"I got your back, Ed! I got your back, brothah!"
In the intersection, protestors moved in with banners, then out, goup by group, at the direction of the police, who had clearly been preparing for this day.
(Let me take a moment here to commend the Bennington Police Department. They were businesslike, restrained, and professional, and I was rather pleased with them.)
The final group remained in the street - twelve protesters, some of them costumed, who clearly planned to be arrested. The police went about their business. As the protestors stood in a line, a plainclothesman asked them one by one to leave the street. Each refused, and was handcuffed and led away in turn, as the onlookers cheered. You would have had to ask each of them precisely what it was they were cheering to be really sure.
The street was cleared, and traffic began to move again.
At trial, each of them pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received a fine and diversion, except one:
Rosemarie Jackowski.

Rosemarie with a future peace activist whom we all hope won't have much cause for activism by the time he grows up...

Published on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 by the Bennington Banner (Vermont)
War Protestor Will be Retried
A grandmother whose conviction for disorderly conduct was over turned by the Vermont Supreme Courtwill be retried, according to the county prosecutor.
Rosemarie Jackowski, 69, appealed her conviction for disorderly conduct at an anti-war protest at the Four Corners to the Supreme Court in September 2005. She was convicted by a Bennington District Court jury of intending to block traffic and annoy drivers while she stood in the middle of Bennington's busiest intersection.

Retried?
Double jeopardy, anyone?
State's Attorney William D. Wright:

"At this juncture, we are going forward with the case. We think that the evidence was overwhelming in our view, and we think that the jury should have another opportunity to decide Ms. Jackowski's guilt or innocence."

Ooooo-kayyyyy....here's the state's argument for retrying her:

Jackowski's intent — whether or not she meant to block traffic and cause an annoyance — was the main focus of the jury trial. The state Supreme Court overturned the trial jury's verdict, ruling three to two in favor of Jackowski after the court found that (District Court Judge David) Suntag had made mistakes during the trial, including taking away the jury's responsibility to decide Jackowski's true intent. According to the majority opinion, Suntag made a mistake by telling jurors that if they found Jackowski knew that she would block traffic during her protest, then she must have intended to block traffic.

Not really sure I get that, but Rosemarie's cool with it...if a little surprised:

"That's fascinating. I had not heard that. I am kind of shocked and blown away by that. ... I guess he is just doing the job the way he sees it," she said.

Jackowski is the only person arrested that sought a jury trial. (She) said she does not fear another trial, and said she will be more prepared the second time around.

"I'm very willing and ready to go trial again. It will be much more easy for me this time. I will have experience at being a defendant in a criminal trial," she said while laughing.

But there is a fly in the ointment, and now we get to the real reason I'm blogging this:

Finding a new lawyer might be difficult, said Jackowski. Her former attorney, Stephen Saltonstall, who argued her case in trial and before the Supreme Court, said he can no longer represent her because former prosecutor Daniel McManus has joined his law firm as a defense attorney. She said she would consider representing herself.

"I hope that someone will come forward to represent me. ... It's not a big concern or worry. I think the facts are so simple and straightforward that I would like to tell a jury about that day and what I did," she said.

So if anyone reading this would care to step up to that plate, this dear, sweet granny with a heart of gold and a spine of steel could sure use the help.
Rosemarie: hugs from me, Julie and the kids.
Good night, and good luck.

Staring into candles

Lately, I have found that humming A-flat below middle C while sitting full lotus and staring into a candle flame has a calming effect on me. But tonight, things went a little different.



I lit a candle again tonight when I got home, and sat on the floor once again, and stared for the thousandth time into the guttering, yellow-orange flame.
But this time, I decided to try something different. The flame was blurred, a deeper gold than usual, and filtered through a whitish haze of frost. I decided to stare into the flame through a cold pint of india pale ale.
I don't know whether it was the race between the beer and the candle, to see which would reach bottom first, or if it was the wild mushrooms found under a cow pie that we put in the omelet we had for dinner, but things began to take on a surreal quality at that point. The sun was down, of course; and the day's torrential rains had gone as quickly as they had come.
Odd. Somehow, I missed the rain. I wanted the sounds, the chaos of off-white noise from the storm battering my window. But the sounds weren't there. Only distant traffic, if you strained to hear it, the occasional child or two at play, and somewhere, a medium-sized dog barking his head off in odd numbered bursts.
Seven, seven again, three, five, five. Nine, five, seven. Seven twice.....
(Cat is in my yard right now. Cat is in my yard right now. Let me go. Let me off this chain. Let me off this chain. I can't get the cat that's in my yard. Let me off this chain. Cat is in my yard right now.....Cat is in my yard right now. Cat is in my yard right now.......)
and a funny, whirring noise, getting louder and closer. Something bumped against the window.
I wondered what would come in if the window opened, and the noise moved into the room. The wind kicked up, and I shivered and it occurred to me that damn window needed to be shut. I jumped a little at the bang - I don't know my own strength sometimes. This was sufficient to break my focus on the cold-filtered flame, and I looked up to see what I knew had to be there.
There was a little grey saucer, looking exactly as if someone had welded a couple of snow saucers together, hovering in midair. It was emitting a melodic whirr.
But the really amazing thing was the little green dude sitting in a seat dead center of the thing. It was the damndest thing. He looked just like that little green alien you see on keychains and posters and just about anywhere else.
He raised a hand in salute.
What to say? I was making First Contact. I had a visitor from another star system in my home. I knew I must consider my next words carefully.
I raised my hand in response.
"Nanu nanu."
The bulbous green head tipped quizzically to one side.
` I decided to try something different.
"Gort, Klaatu barada nikto," I said brightly. The black eyes seemed to narrow.
"Oh, shit," I thought. "I have made him SO ANGRY. VERY angry inDEED."
As if by their own volition, I felt my fingers part in the middle, into a V formed by ring and pinky on one side, middle and index on the other. My thumb was quivering a little as it hovered parallel to the floor.
"Uh.....live long and prosper?" I said nervously. the saucer gave a little bobble, and the huge black eyes widened again. The little guy actually smiled.
Whew. At least now I wouldn't have to deal with the Eludium Q-36 Space Modulator.
"I would take you to my leader, but I don't really have one. I'm a liberal," I said to the little green man.
He nodded somberly, and a little door appeared out of nowhere on the seamless surface of his saucer. An eyeball floated out, tethered to a ropy stalk. It lit up inside, a hellish orange red.
"I got some Visine for that if you want some," I said, when suddenly, the orange-red glow turned white, and an image projected on the wall behind me.
It showed the World Trade Center sprouting a ball of fire, and the smiling images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein laughed and gibbered together in the flames. They were riding donkeys, the both of them.The donkeys brayed raucously, WEEEEE....HATE AMERICA! WEEEEEE....HATE AMERICA!
A disembodied voice said, "I'm George W. Bush, and I approved this message."
I've had the baseball bat for years. I found the lead in a junkyard in Akron, and melted it down on the stove, then poured it into the hollowed-out bat, and sealed the end back on with epoxy resin and a couple of 4-inch wood screws.
The saucer rolled on its axis five or six times when the bat made contact, but it didn't seem to leave a scratch, much less a dent, despite the BANG that caused the neighbors across the parking lot to flip on their porch light.
I wanted the damn thing to fly out the window and away, which it did, and the window banged shut again when I realized the thing might fly back in if the window was opened.
I let out a sigh - I had been holding my breath -and my head dropped reflexively.
That's when I saw the little green bastard struggling to get up off the floor, where he'd been dumped when the saucer went ass over teakettle.
I still had the bat in my hands.
All told, I think I dealt with the experience pretty well.
I do have one problem, though, that I hope you can help me with:
How do I get all this green shit out of this beige carpet?

Finish it

Saul Alinsky:
Last guys don't finish nice.

Winston Churchill:
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

It is time.
The moment is here; carpe diem.
What have we endured for the last six to ten years? A constant stream of mischaracterizations of our positions, projection of their fears onto us (which many of us have tacitly accepted through inaction) and endless spate of fear-mongering, hate and division; the relegation of the word "Liberal" to the status of a pejorative

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
-John F. Kennedy

"I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East, and sending liberals to Guantanamo."
-Ann Coulter

As we see from this, the "liberals" serve as a convenient boogeyman for the Right:
along with the homosexshuls, the activist judges, the terr'ists, the atheists, and the flag burners, the liberals are essential to the effectiveness of the conservative sales kit.
Because without demons, without enemies, conservativism cannot function. It cannot function because it has nothing positive to offer; no benefit, no goodness, no happiness, and the only freedom it claims to offer is a freedom from danger.

This was a time bomb waiting to explode. It required their desperation to reach critical mass, and that is what happened last Tuesday night. The only problem for the replicants is, they got too close to the explosion. They couldn't back away from it. They had to massage the warhead with robocalls and voter intimidation and right-wing "broadcasters" and macacas and marriage amendments and "Call me, Harold" and videotapes of Osama and Terri and the shit finally blew up in their faces.

Now, they lay helpless from the concussion, flat on their backs, bleeding from every orifice: from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses; from their penises, vaginas, and anuses.

This is our job, netroots Democrats:
To come to their side as they lay there helpless.
To rush to their side in their time of need.
And to drop a knee into their fucking spleens, to gouge their eyes out, and to kick them and kick them and kick these motherfuckers in the head until they stop moving.
Forever.
INVESTIGATE. IMPEACH. INDICT. IMPRISON.
Your country deserves no less.
Be heard.

Da bomb!

LET'S GET 'EM!


Working tirelessly toward a return to the private sector for:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Why have I done this?

I was signing up for an account so I could post a comment non-anonymously on somebody else's blog, when suddenly the process grabbed me by the throat.
"You will now create a blog." Click....whirr. "YES. I-WILL-CREATE-A-BLOG." Click.....whirr.
I got ahold of this parody song called "I Saw George Bush Tapping Santa's Phone." And I played it on the air.

About an hour later, my boss got this email, into which I will jump periodically with my obsevations:


Dear Steve,

Not long ago I wrote to you and expressed concern that recent newspaper reports indicated that W??? would be leaving the area. However now I must say that your departure can't come any too soon for me. It wasn't enough for you to just do what you do best … play the old songs; you and your fellow broadcasters have to delude yourselves into believing that because you have a live mike in your face, you have something of editorial value to say.

(I like that "editorial value". It reduces the issues at hand to the level of mere rhetoric. And, as you'll see as you read on, I didn't - according to the letter writer - SAY anything. Actually, I did, but either I didn't bring it off well, or he wasn't listening to what I was saying - all he heard was the song. Not paying attention, which is interesting in the sense of the details he gives about his background later in the email. You paid this man's salary.)

It would be easy for someone like myself to say the "musical ownership" of radio stations and their respective formats is stupid; because to me it makes no sense.

Yeah. What you said. This statement is stupid; because to me it makes no sense.

However I am confident that in the broadcast industry there is a clear justification for such actions. Every business and industry has its peculiarities and such lesser know factors often make the difference between the success and failure of the organizations. Because of this reality I avoid spouting off about "all the idiots around me who never do anything right;" after all, maybe if I knew what they knew, I'd make the same decision that they made.

Uh....so they know their business better than I do, and I should just shut up, right?
Wrong. If the President is breaking the law, which appears to be the case, that is my business. I MAKE it my business, it's my business because I say it is, and fuck you thoroughly if you don't like it.

Just now Eddie Garcia played a stupid song about "I saw George Bush tapping Santa's phone". Now it's not like I ever thought Eddie was the sharpest knife in the drawer,

(waall thank yew vury much four yer seport.)

(he would do well to talk less and play more records);
This is a typical thing that people say if you do one thing that pisses them off. I play at LEAST the same amount of music as anyone else, and a lOT more than the morning show.

but that was the breaking point for me. I spent many years in US Foreign Counterintelligence working with Iranians and Libyans … it was dirty work and I am thrilled to be out of it and hope to remain as far away from it as possible. However it is also necessary work that keeps people like loud-mouthed DJs free to run their mouths irresponsibly.

Ah. So my government paid you to listen to things and to analyze data. Funny. Because going into the song I said, 'Hope you had a merry Christmas, and please, have an impeachy-keen new year. And you didn't hear that, because obviously, if you had, you'd have shit pink bricks. You'd have quoted me, and since I brought up the "I" word, we would doubtlessly heard the sad tale of the prevarications resultant from the scourge of the Clenis.

There are powerful efforts that are active right now and their goal is (among other things) to silence "trash" radio stations that play rock and roll. This is not my opinion, this is a fact!

Prove it. But first, you might explain what the hell you're talking about.

The interesting thing about truth is that it requires no endorsement to maintain its status; if something is true, our believing it or not believing it cannot change its stature. Either OJ Simpson did it or he didn't do it! Whether or not a jury believes it or a judge believes it or I believe it does not and cannot alter what actually happened!

And this statement is offered in reference to?

For the record, what George Bush has done is not a problem for me; in fact I am thrilled. It is also nothing that wasn't done by previous presidents such as Clinton and Carter.

(see footnote -ed)

No, I do not worry that someone is illegally tapping my phone … my life isn't nearly interesting enough to justify anyone's time.

IN OTHER WORDS: "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." This is cowardice of the most contemptible sort. It is unpatriotic, unAmerican and subversive. A person such as this who refuses to stand up for the values we are taught this country represents has no place here. This person should leave, and I will contribute money toward his passage. This is an individual who is willing to surrender his freedom in exchange for a promise of security. This is a person willingly victimized by a protection racket. This is a person who chooses to cower in fear and place blind trust in the Government to defend him from the "bad ole ter'rists", blind, deaf and dumb while the Government shows itself to be the very enemy it claims to defend against.



However, tapping phones is incredibly easy and private investigators do it illegally all the time. People should be more concerned about abuses such as that. We all spend a great deal of time and money trying to protect our computers and networks from viruses and hackers that are literally trying to break into our lives and steal our money and identities. That my friend is a far greater threat that anything that the NSA might consider … but where is the outrage?

And here, we see the typical attempt to change the subject. I guess Bill Clinton's lies about what he did with his dick don't serve the cause this time.)

I resent radio personalities that use their microphones to spread opinions about which they know little if anything. I've enjoyed most of what you guys have done … but no more. I have Direct Satellite here at our office and that contains XM satellite radio stations to meet every need. They don't play stupid commercials and they don't develop diarrhea of the mouth.

OOO! Satellite radio! That works; you can't blame him for playing that card. I remember when I was pissed off at the cable company once in Ohio and I told them I was going to get a satellite dish. I tell you, it was like I'd threatened to rape their firstborn daughter. Whatever it was that was pissing me off, they fixed it the next morning.

(writer's name and email addy removed by management as a condition of my receiving a copy of the letter)

Footnote:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512240002

4: Clinton, Carter also authorized warrantless searches of U.S. citizens

Another tactic conservatives have used to defend the Bush administration has been to claim that it is not unusual for a president to authorize secret surveillance of U.S. citizens without a court order, asserting that Democratic presidents have also done so. For example, on the December 21 edition of Fox News's Special Report, host Brit Hume claimed that former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton issued executive orders "to perform wiretaps and searches of American citizens without a warrant."

But as the ThinkProgress weblog noted on December 20, executive orders on the topic by Clinton and Carter were merely explaining the rules established by FISA, which do not allow for warrantless searches on "United States persons." Subsequent reports by NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell and The Washington Post also debunked the conservative talking point while noting that the claim was highlighted in the December 21 RNC press release .

From ThinkProgress, which documented how internet gossip Matt Drudge selectively cited from the Clinton and Carter executive orders to falsely suggest they authorized secret surveillance of U.S. citizens without court-obtained warrants:

What Drudge says:

Clinton, February 9, 1995: "The Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order"

What Clinton actually signed:

Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) [50 U.S.C. 1822(a)] of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.

That section requires the Attorney General to certify is the search will not involve " the premises, information, material, or property of a United States person. " That means U.S. citizens or anyone inside of the United States.

The entire controversy about Bush's program is that, for the first time ever, allows warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens and other people inside of the United States. Clinton's 1995 executive order did not authorize that.

Drudge pulls the same trick with Carter.

What Drudge says:

Jimmy Carter Signed Executive Order on May 23, 1979: "Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order."

What Carter's executive order actually says:

1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.

What the Attorney General has to certify under that section is that the surveillance will not contain " the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party." So again, no U.S. persons are involved.