Of course it is. Obama's about to become President and we can't have a Democratic president shackled the way Bush was.

Heck, if a terrorist attack occurred, Obama might be blamed for it. And we can't have that blame falling on The One.

A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when AmericansÂ’ private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.

The court decision, made in December by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, is expected to be disclosed as early as Thursday in an unclassified, redacted form, the person said. The review court has issued only two other rulings in its 30-year history.

The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National Security AgencyÂ’s warrantless eavesdropping program three years ago that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the federal governmentÂ’s wiretapping powers. In validating the governmentÂ’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administrationÂ’s repeated assertions that the president has constitutional authority to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping.

The appeals court is expected to uphold a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August of 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications, according to the person familiar with the ruling.

I guess my snark about questioning the timing is a bit paranoid. But this is a a very rare public ruling from a court which usually delivers its findings secretly. Can I question the open nature of the ruling, clearing the path for Obama to do what Bush did without challenge?

There's this, of course:

Barack Obama, then a United States senator, was highly critical of the presidential wiretapping power claimed by Mr. Bush, and threatened to filibuster the final bill. But he ultimately voted for it, angering some of his liberal supporters. His administration is expected to examine possible changes in wiretapping law and operations, a review that will probably be affected by the findings of the FISA appeals court.

Among those liberal supporters angered? The New York Times, which argued passionately and quite wrongly this was all terribly, plainly illegal.

Which now reports this story, failing to note its own error.

I once again renew my charge of blackmail against the liberals and the MSM: Either put our boy in office, or we'll cripple America's ability to defend itself against terrorism. Our boy, or thousands dead. You choose.

Correction: Gabriel writes:

In point of fact, the decision won't be on whether the warrantless wiretapping treasonously exposed by the NY Times in December 2005 is or was legal. The decision is about whether Congress had the authority in August 2007 to pass legislation amending FISA which would make similar programs from that point going forward legal.

Despite Ed Morrissey's assertion that the ruling will implicitly support the scope of the President's authority to conduct terrorist surveillance, presidential authority supplemented by the authorization of Congress (e.g. the August 2007 amendment to FISA) is manifestly different from presidential authority on a subject for which Congress has already spoken in the contrary (the original FISA). Remember Youngstown?

The Youngstown reference is to the steel seizure case, where Justice Jackson (IIRC) elaborated a three-category analysis of war powers. Basically--

1) the president acting against Congress' express legally-promulgated will, in which case his war powers are at their weakest, as he has his inherent power but not a dollop of power Congress can bestow to him;

2) the President acting with Congress' express authorization, in which case the President's war powers are at their strongest, as he has all of his inherent power plus every dollop of additional power Congress can constitutionally grant him;

and 3) the "Twllight Zone" where the President acts in the face of Congressional silence, where his powers are somewhat middling; he relies on his own power, plus, I guess, that power he can exert given Congressional inaction.

The ruling is blessing a Category 2 situation (Congress authorizing the President). Bush's previous executive-only wiretapping was Category 3, the "twilight zone" situation, not apparently addressed by this ruling.

Posted by: Ace at 09:37 AM | Comments (62)
Post contains 793 words, total size 5 kb.

They've barely begun on talks to reduce wages and untangle the anti-productivity Gordian knot of work-rules, but already the GM CEO is asking for more bailout money. (Second item.)

And a Democratic bill is being circulated which would get rid of the original terms of the loan, easing the requirement of lowering wages and so forth. Thus insuring the company will never be solvent and never without its hand in our pockets.

Get rid of them. Gone. Good-bye.

Seems to me Ford would be healthier if GM and Chrysler shutter their factories. I'd rather have one solvent car company than three state-subsidized ones.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 AM | Comments (77)
Post contains 129 words, total size 1 kb.

He did remember to cash his reimbursement checks, though.

So that's something. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy.

IMF employees were expected to pay their taxes out of their own money. But the IMF then gave them an extra allowance, known as a “gross-up,” to cover those tax payments. This was done in the Annual Tax Allowance Request, in which the employee filled out some basic information — marital status, dependent children, etc. — and the IMF then estimated the amount of taxes the employee would owe and gave the employee a corresponding allowance.

At the end of the tax allowance form were the words, “I hereby certify that all the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments from the Fund.” Geithner signed the form. He accepted the allowance payment. He didn’t pay the tax. For several years in a row.

According to an analysis released by the Senate Finance Committee, Geithner “wrote contemporaneous checks to the IRS and the State of Maryland for estimated [income] tax payments” that jibed exactly with his IMF statements. But he didn’t write checks for the self-employment tax allowance.

Even the NYT pretends to be bothered:

Today, in a time of economic peril, the nation cannot afford a Treasury secretary with a tainted ability to command respect and instill confidence.

Republicans meanwhile are intent on confirming him, labeling him the best possible (i.e., least socialist) Treasury Secretary the Obama Administration could nominate.

I doubt that. Try again.

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 AM | Comments (52)
Post contains 285 words, total size 2 kb.

Eitherthat or space cows:

ALIEN microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, Nasa scientists believe.
The gas, belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes.

Nasa are today expected to confirm its presence during a briefing at their Washington HQ.

And the find is seen as exciting new evidence that Martian microbes are still alive today.

I think this is bunk, pushed by either crank or at least incautious scientists. The evidence seems to be that methane is usually produced by volcanoes, but there are no active volcanoes on Mars, and voila... alien life.

I'd wait to check to see what else might be producing methane before jumping to this big conclusion.

It doesn't help that this is being reported by the headline-happy Sun.

Thanks to Circa.

Posted by: Ace at 07:40 AM | Comments (130)
Post contains 184 words, total size 1 kb.

Oh, what a beautiful moooooor-niiiiiing. Etc.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:23 AM | Comments (60)
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

French cuffs and a sporty sash! Lipstick, meet Pig.

Seems the doggone drop in oil prices has Hugo reconsidering his recent spat of bad manners with global energy companies. He was still willing to do deals with the state-owned operations like the Chicoms and the Iranians. But they've got their challenges to deal with too. So he dusted off the welcome mat for those fucking capitalists ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total.

Until recently, Chávez had pushed foreign oil companies here into a corner by nationalizing their oil fields, raiding their offices with tax authorities and imposing a series of royalties increases.

But faced with the plunge in prices and a decline in domestic production, senior officials here have begun soliciting bids from some of the largest Western oil companies in recent weeks — including Chevron, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total of France — promising them access to some of the world's largest petroleum reserves, according to energy executives and industry consultants here.

This is a guy you can obviously do business with when the chips are down. Having kicked their asses around when prices were high, he still screwed up and drove down production. Now the problem is even worse, lower production and lower prices, not to mention having pissed off a few other industries enough to make them want to leave as well.

Under the current bidding rules, the onus for financing the new projects lies with the foreign companies, even though Petróleos de Venezuela would maintain control. Banks might balk at such a prospect. Distrust also lingers in dealing with Petróleos de Venezuela.

Well what the hell else is he gonna do, he can't afford to build the delivery systems himself, can he?

God sure did put a lot of oil under some real assholes, didn't He?

tipped from DrewM.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:31 AM | Comments (102)
Post contains 333 words, total size 2 kb.

Inclusiveness. That’s what we’re all about in the Obamassic Period. Or is it the Obametaceous Period? Let’s let the scientists work this out. We have more important things to discuss. Such as the passing of Ricardo Montalban. Yes, it’s posted over in the Top Headlines, but Mr. Montalban was practically everywhere in the late ‘70’s-early ‘80’s, so he deserves a more prominent sendoff.

Some highlights:

”As he approached midlife in the 1960s, Montalban made numerous guest appearances on television shows including "The Untouchables" and "The Lieutenant," eventually landing a recurring role as Damon West on the popular medical drama "Dr. Kildare."”

“During this period, Montalban secured his place in science-fiction history playing the evil but charismatic Khan in the first season of "Star Trek."”

“Montalban's dignified demeanor and rich accent added flair to the small screen on a number of television shows. It also established him as a popular pitchman for Maxwell House Coffee and Chrysler.”

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:51 PM | Comments (102)
Post contains 209 words, total size 3 kb.

Why in the world would a Socialist International organization have any interest in global climate change policy?

Another Clinton political hack scores a slot in the Obama administration, albeit a murky, ill-defined one at that, "climate czar(ina)". Former EPA administrator Carol Browner (not Brown, my bad), who recently served on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, will help direct one of the Obama administrations top priorities, namely finding new and exciting ways to separate businesses and consumers from their cash to save the children.

Here's a little blurb about their first git-together, listing the members, if it hasn't been tidied up yet.

This connection, between redistributionists and the Church of Global Climate Passion, it's a curious one isn't it? Whatever could such odd ducks find in common with one another?

On the plus side, I think the title "czarina" is cute. It makes her sound like a dancer. A clean-coal tippy-toe little dancer.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:24 PM | Comments (88)
Post contains 172 words, total size 1 kb.

(posted with Ace's permission)

Live show over. It will be archived soon at: Annie & Burl Live.

Thanks to all the Ace readers who stopped by.

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:41 PM | Comments (68)
Post contains 46 words, total size 1 kb.

strike me out

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:44 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.