FBI

While we ponder Barack Obama's puzzling vote on FISA, we can rest a bit easier knowing that at least one North Carolina Democrat is doing more than paying lip service to protecting the U.S. Constitution. Brad Miller not only voted against FISA, but he has quietly been working in Washington to make government agencies toe the line. That Republican rubber stamp congress did a lot of damage allowing these same agencies free reign without requiring any accountability.

FBI agents on Tuesday raided the offices of Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch, who oversees protection for federal whistle-blowers. The agents seized computers and shut down e-mail service as part of an obstruction of justice probe, as first reported by NPR News.

I entered a link, I thought, to the story on NPR's website, but it spat back at me that the page no longer existed, so I don't know what I did wrong there. [www.npr.org]

Doesn't anyone else think this sort of thing matters? I know the democratic primary race is a big deal, but there's been virtually nothing about this anywhere except NPR. I haven't seen a thing about it in the N&O, even days later (did I miss it?) and had to look pretty hard through the online edition of NYT to find it.

We're screwed.

I'm sorry. I can come to no other conclusion but that, we're screwed.

Surely you've heard of the FBI. It stands for Freaking Bumbling Idiots. It seems those all-important wire taps are finding dead air because the feds aren't paying their bills. From the AP via the Charlotte Observer:

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Whoa, that is a large watch list. Reminds me of the good ole days. McCarthy 08!