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ebonlockvia Eschaton
Well the Snoopgate story just keeps getting more interesting:
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John D. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.
And I bet I know a bunch of other Rethugs who are going to have a blue Christmas this year:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say.
Mr. Abramoff is believed to have extensive knowledge of what prosecutors suspect is a wider pattern of corruption among lawmakers and Congressional staff members. One participant in the case who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations described him as a "unique resource."
Heh.
Ah, but then I get this lump of coal in my stocking:
A U.S. appeals court today upheld the decision of a lower court in allowing the inclusion of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse display, hammering the American Civil Liberties Union and declaring, "The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."
...Writing for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Richard Suhrheinrich said the ACLU's "repeated reference 'to the separation of church and state' ... has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."
Suhrheinrich wrote: "The ACLU, an organization whose mission is 'to ensure that ... the government [is kept] out of the religion business,' does not embody the reasonable person." ...
That'll teach me to gloat, and to think it was only yesterday that the reality based community made headway in Pennsylvania. Well, two steps forward, three steps back I guess. And speaking of coal in one's stocking, this story just about breaks my heart:
I had the great privilege this past Sunday to speak with Laurel Hester, the woman whose terminal cancer has embroiled her in a domestic partnership benefits controversy with the local government in Ocean County, New Jersey.
Pam over at Pandagon says:
You've might have heard about the story of Laurel Hester, the NJ police officer who has terminal cancer. She has been fighting the Ocean County Freeholders, who have decided that she cannot leave her pension to her partner. How can these men sleep at night?
Law and Public Safety Chairman John P. Kelly, one of the Freeholders (all compassionate, conservative Republicans, by the way), said that if Hester's request was granted it would "violate the sanctity of marriage."
Read the rest of the story, but have a few hankies on hand. "Compassionate conservatives" indeed. Fuckers.
Well the Snoopgate story just keeps getting more interesting:
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John D. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.
And I bet I know a bunch of other Rethugs who are going to have a blue Christmas this year:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say.
Mr. Abramoff is believed to have extensive knowledge of what prosecutors suspect is a wider pattern of corruption among lawmakers and Congressional staff members. One participant in the case who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations described him as a "unique resource."
Heh.
Ah, but then I get this lump of coal in my stocking:
A U.S. appeals court today upheld the decision of a lower court in allowing the inclusion of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse display, hammering the American Civil Liberties Union and declaring, "The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."
...Writing for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Richard Suhrheinrich said the ACLU's "repeated reference 'to the separation of church and state' ... has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."
Suhrheinrich wrote: "The ACLU, an organization whose mission is 'to ensure that ... the government [is kept] out of the religion business,' does not embody the reasonable person." ...
That'll teach me to gloat, and to think it was only yesterday that the reality based community made headway in Pennsylvania. Well, two steps forward, three steps back I guess. And speaking of coal in one's stocking, this story just about breaks my heart:
I had the great privilege this past Sunday to speak with Laurel Hester, the woman whose terminal cancer has embroiled her in a domestic partnership benefits controversy with the local government in Ocean County, New Jersey.
Pam over at Pandagon says:
You've might have heard about the story of Laurel Hester, the NJ police officer who has terminal cancer. She has been fighting the Ocean County Freeholders, who have decided that she cannot leave her pension to her partner. How can these men sleep at night?
Law and Public Safety Chairman John P. Kelly, one of the Freeholders (all compassionate, conservative Republicans, by the way), said that if Hester's request was granted it would "violate the sanctity of marriage."
Read the rest of the story, but have a few hankies on hand. "Compassionate conservatives" indeed. Fuckers.
