By WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

The federal government apologized and settled part of the lawsuit for $2 million after admitting a fingerprint was misread. But as part of the settlement, Mayfield retained the right to challenge parts of the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism.

Mayfield claimed that secret searches of his house and office under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. Aiken agreed with Mayfield, repeatedly criticizing the government.

“For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised,” she wrote.

By asking her to dismiss Mayfield’s lawsuit, the judge said, the U.S. attorney general’s office was “asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so.”
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From a MySpace post forwarded by Cindy Sheehan:

As Harry (aka Harold) and I were taking the Metro from Bethseda Naval base, MD
to Washington to attend the Sep 15 march I met and spoke to the sister of SSgt
Jeremy Murphy who was also on her way to the march. Jeremy was one of the 7
soldiers who wrote the article “The War As We Saw It” that was in the NY Times
on Aug 19. He was shot in the head by a sniper before the article was in print
his sister told me. His sister invited me to visit Jeremy which I did on Sunday
morning before we flew home. His parents (from Seattle) were also in the room
with him. They along with his sister have stayed by his side for over a month.
They were visibly worn out but said that the worst was behind them. He was
sleeping but they woke him so he’d know I had been there. I spoke for a few
minutes and told him how proud of him everyone was that he spoke out about the truth as he saw it. I told him that he had many supporters that wished him the best.

So I just want to let everyone know about him and ask that if you have a minute,
please drop him a card, letter or note to let him know how you feel. I am sure
it will do wonders for him. He was vey lucky to have survived. He is still in
the hospital a month after the incident and has a very long road of treatment
ahead of him. In addition to disfigurement he has severe traumatic brain injury.
Two of his friends and co-workers who wrote the article with him died last week
when their vehicle had a blowout and overturned. His sister said at first they
wondered if it were a conspiracy to punish them for speaking out, but after
contacting those who were there and in the know they said that the vehicle was
speeding & went out of control when they had a blowout. It was an unfortunate
accident. Now he is also mourning the loss of his friends.

S.Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, Room #405
c/o Bethesda Naval Hospital
8901 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20889

Kagro X

After a long and painful illness, American news has finally succumbed to disease.

Things have been going downhill for years, and there’s plenty of blame to go around, to be sure. But here’s a snapshot.

1. Katie Couric goes to Baghdad. Asks “typical family” what it’s like “to live in fear.” (Answer: frightening).

2. MoveOn shows people just what Katie did in Baghdad:

3. Baghdad trip turns out to be not just a snoozefest, but also ratings poison:

The “CBS Evening News” tied a record low with just under 5.5 million viewers last week, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. Last week and Memorial Day week are the two least-watched CBS evening newscasts since at least 1987, and probably far earlier.

4. People who expected CBS to actually report something wrote in to complain, and CBS employees wrote back, saying the complainers probably read blogs, and everyone knows blogs suck.

5. Couric’s publicist threatens to sue WebProNews.com for reporting on the nasty e-mail exchanges.

6. And then, after all this, Couric tells a National Press Club audience:
* The rationale for the war was b.s.
* The war was a mistake
* Invading Iraq was ridiculous since the terrorists were in Afghanistan and Pakistan
* Iraq had no connection with Al Qaeda
* Bush botched the war
* Disbanding the Iraqi military was a disaster and…
* She would “feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, if required, on television.”

“If required.”

What the @#*%& does that mean? If required?

You mean, like, if it came up on your TelePrompTer? Is that when it’s “required?”

Oh, my sweet Lord.

And she’s not even done!

The former “Today” show anchor traced her discomfort with the administration’s march to war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable. And I remember feeling, when I was anchoring the ‘Today’ show, this inevitable march towards war and kind of feeling like, ‘Will anybody put the brakes on this?’ And is this really being properly challenged by the right people? And I think, at the time, anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic and it was a very difficult position to be in.”

Just who does Katie Couric think was going to swoop down from the skies and save her? Just who did she think were “the right people” to challenge the march to war?

And this is something she shares with those “in the Club,” but not the rest of America?

Oh my God! We’re so dead!

Help! Help! Someone please help us! We’re boiling alive and no one knows if it’s “required” to say so on the TeeVee News!

Via Talking Points Memo

In yesterday’s episode of TPMtv we brought you news of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, the backdoor use of force resolution against Iran. They just voted on the amendment in the Senate, and in today’s episode we bring you up to speed on what went down …

–Josh Marshall

Huntington Beach City Council declines to support a group determined to unseat president.
By ANNIE BURRIS | The Orange County Register

HUNTINGTON BEACH – For the past two months, a team of anti-Bush activists has targeted City Hall.

Members of Huntington Beach Impeach can be seen every other Monday, rallying on Main Street and Yorktown Avenue and then getting in line to speak at that night’s City Council meeting.

Their cause: to add Surf City to a list of 87 cities nationwide that endorse the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. No cities in Orange County have signed an impeachment resolution despite similar efforts by other activists throughout the county, in Anaheim, Irvine, Laguna Beach and Santa Ana.
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By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq’s government and the activities of U.S. security firm Blackwater.

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said State Department officials had told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee he chairs they could not provide details of corruption in Iraq’s government unless the information was treated as a “state secret” and not revealed to the public.

“You are wrong to interfere with the committee’s inquiry,” Waxman said in a letter to Rice. “The State Department’s position on this matter is ludicrous,” added Waxman, a vocal opponent of the Bush administration’s Iraq policies.

The State Department had no immediate comment on the letter or Waxman’s allegations of interference but it has in the past dismissed the California lawmaker’s comments as partisan.

Waxman said security contractor Blackwater, which was involved in an incident in which Iraqi civilians were killed last week, said they could not hand over documents relevant to an investigation without State Department approval.

“Congress has a constitutional prerogative to examine the impacts that corruption within the Iraqi ministries and the activities of Blackwater may have on the prospects for political reconciliation in Iraq,” Waxman wrote to Rice.
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Dennis Kucinich spoke today in Santa Barbara. Here he answers upon war profiteers and congress inablility to see the big picture of corruption

In Burma, tens of thousands of monks and protesters are marching through the city of Rangoon today in defiance of military orders. On Monday, Burma’s military junta warned that it was ready to take action against the anti-government protests that have rapidly spread across the country. We speak with Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of the US Campaign for Burma.

Listen to segment

In Burma, the ruling military junta is facing the most vocal popular uprising against its rule in nearly two decades. Tens of thousands of monks and civilians defied military warnings and staged new anti-government protests on Tuesday in the city of Rangoon. As many as 100,000 protesters took to the streets a day earlier. Buddhist monks dressed in maroon robes have been leading the marches. They have vowed to continue holding marches until they have “wiped the military dictatorship from the land.” The protests are the largest in Burma since 1988 when the military junta crushed a popular uprising by killing some 3,000 people.
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Today, the Senate is expected to vote on an “extremely threatening” amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The “sense of the Senate” amendment could “lead to a tit-for-tat escalation resulting in military confrontation between the US and Iran.”

The legislation accuses Iran of fighting “a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq” and threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran. The right wing has quickly circulated around the amendment, claiming it “unflinchingly…calls on America to win” against Iran.

As Jonathan Schwarz noted, the amendment is a “Sense of the Senate” resolution, “which means it has no legal force, but as the Congressional Research Service will tell you, ‘foreign governments pay close attention to [such resolutions] as evidence of shifts in U.S. foreign policy priorities.’”

Think Progress:
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke forcefully this afternoon on the Senate floor against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment. Durbin described the “sense of the Senate” legislation as a “dangerous effort to put us on the record for the use of military force in Iran.”

Noting that the language of the amendment suggests the use of “military instruments,” Durbin said:

What does that mean? Does that mean we are supporting the invasion of Iran? That we are supporting military tactics against Iran? Shouldn’t we be extra careful in the language of these resolutions when we find that the authorization for force for Iraq has dragged us into a war now in its fifth year, a war longer than World War II with bloody and deadly consequences for the United States and innocent Iraqis.
“I think it is dangerous language,” Durbin said, concluding his statement by saying he will oppose the amendment as it is currently written. Continue Reading »

By Logan Murphy of Crooks and Liars

Tucker substitute host David Shuster confronts Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) about the blatant hypocrisy of the Republican party when he asks about Rush Limbaugh’s Senator Betrayus smear against Senator Chuck Hagel and all Blackburn wants to do is rehash tired slams against the New York Times over the MoveOn ad.

As Blackburn prattles on about the NYT betraying the public trust and making sweetheart deals, Shuster turns the tables on her and asks her to name the last soldier from her district who was killed in Iraq — and what do you know? She had no idea what his name was, or even why she didn’t know. Watch Blackburn stutter and get backed into a corner, with Shuster proving she cared more about making partisan hits than she did about the dead soldiers from her own district.

MSNBC, get that man his own show!

Video Here

Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”

Blackburn:”The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -”

Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”

Blackburn: “I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name…”

Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org.”

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”