Hal O'Brien

That was what Casey Stengel used to ask, watching the hapless Mets play baseball.

I've used it before, when talking about Los Amigos Arbusto.

Well, there's reason to bring it out again. In the new (to me) blog firedoglake, they have a post pointing out the Pandora's Box opened by the NSA wiretaps, when it comes to prosecutions.

Brief summary: Just about every defense lawyer for any terror-related suspect can now at least claim the evidence against their client was obtained illegally. This may or may not be true, but it essentially puts the various US Attorneys in question on the defensive in every single case.

Had the Bushies just, you know, followed the rules, this wouldn't be a problem at all. But, as it is...

So I guess there's no real reason for the administration to be upset about the lack of an extension to the USA PATRIOT Act. Turns out the NSA wiretaps are a stealth repeal of the act, for all practical purposes.

It's almost enough to make you Google the term "failure", with "I Feel Lucky" turned on.

From an article in Time magazine:

""Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase. The Senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile. The President left the room."

Note the date. 2002, not 2003.

Which means Bush has been lying for 51 of the last 52 weeks, with his whole, We-haven't-made-a-final-decision line.

But it mostly shows my previous post was not rhetorical hyperbole.