Name:

I was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator and am now a journalist. I am the author of three New York Times bestselling books -- "How Would a Patriot Act" (a critique of Bush executive power theories), "Tragic Legacy" (documenting the Bush legacy), and With Liberty and Justice for Some (critiquing America's two-tiered justice system and the collapse of the rule of law for its political and financial elites). My fifth book - No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State - will be released on April 29, 2014 by Holt/Metropolitan.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Follow-up on the DeWine issue

I have been working a lot today with various people to try to induce certain journalists to cover the issues I posted about yesterday regarding the Administration's inexplicable and highly revealing opposition to the proposed 2002 DeWine amendments to FISA. For that reason, I have not been able to blog yet today. I hope to have a few posts relating to this matter and a few others up later today.

In the meantime, I can't help but note that, with rare exception, the usually vocal and responsive pro-Bush contingent in the blogosphere has been deathly quiet regarding this issue. There have been several screeching responses consisting exclusively of foul, childish name-calling, but very, very few substantive responses.

One of the few is this post from the always civil and thoughtful Mark Coffey at Decision '08. Although I intend to post a reply to all of the pro-Bush responses collectively, I posted an initial response in Mark's Comments section. Additionally, the generally pro-Bush blogger Marc Schulman of American Future has, to his credit, acknowledged that, at least preliminarily, there seem to be serious questions raised by the Administration's reaction to the proposed DeWine legislation.

I think that engaging pro-Bush advocates on the NSA scandal is important and constructive (and thus encourage anyone so inclined to engage Mark in his Comments section, as well as any other pro-Bush blogger who may awaken from their slumber and address the issue), both because that sort of interaction fleshes out the real issues more effectively than having two parallel, unconnected monologues, and because debates of that type bring greater attention to the NSA law-breaking issue, which I believe is a desirable goal.

I look very forward to seeing further responses to the DeWine issue, particularly from those pro-Bush bloggers who are typically eager to the point of hyperactivity to defend the Administration's every utterance on the NSA scandal.

My Ecosystem Details