Crossposted on ePluribus Media.
A recent diary topping the Recommended list at DailyKos with the title "BREAKING NYT: Data Mining Subject of Gonzales Hospital Visit (w/ WaPo Update) by MediaFreeze" got me thinking...what if solid evidence of the depth and level of malfeasance of the BushCheney Administration is simply one set of emails away?
It starts off simple...the diary provided some reference material to indicate that Data Mining may have been the topic of the hospital-bed visit by Gonzalez and Addington. Then, in the comments, speculation and snark abounded -- par for the course, given the level of "scandal fatigue" that has set in. But one comment led me to thinking that, perhaps after all this time, the true depth and level of blatantly illegal partisan politicalization perpetrated by the President and his party were just one set of emails away.
The relevant comment stream started here, with Simplify's comment:
"Impeach now"
means exactly this:
- The House Judiciary Committee deliberates over whether to initiate an impeachment inquiry.
- The Judiciary Committee adopts a resolution seeking authority from the entire House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry. Before voting, the House debates and considers the resolution. Approval requires a majority vote.
And here's the law, from FISA:
U.S. Code: Title 50,1809 - Criminal sanctions
A. Prohibited activities
A person is guilty of an offense if he intentionally:
(1) engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized by statute; or
(2) discloses or uses information obtained under color of law by electronic surveillance, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through electronic surveillance not authorized by statute.
B. Defense
It is a defense to a prosecution under subsection (a) of this section that the defendant was a law enforcement or investigative officer engaged in the course of his official duties and the electronic surveillance was authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
C. Penalties
An offense described in this section is punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.
by Simplify on Sat Jul 28, 2007 at 08:54:13 PM EDT
fugue then pointed out that Congress had already killed the TIA program, so that this would definitely be impeachable. litigatormom and fugue toyed with whether the BushCheney admin simply lied about stopping the data mining, and whether the data mined had direct implications for illicit use by the RNC to gain unfair advantage in the business world.
That's when litigatormom made a comment -- probably intended as snark -- that gave me pause:
Maybe it is being stored
on the RNC servers along with Karl Rove's e-mails.
You know, maybe it is.
Here's the response I left:
Actually, think of it...
...evidence that raw information from such illegal activity could have been used to formulate the basis for the Prosecutor Purge and certain political caging activity or to target "soft" political targets for coercion; there could be discoverable information on the RNC emails that indicate by direct citation the level of abuse.
That's a seriously good, important point there, litigatormom...
What else is the WH protecting on the RNC emails it won't release...?
What if the stalling and claims of "executive privilege" over the RNC emails -- the ones that illegally bypassed the Presidential Records Act and thus constitute an impeachable offense in and of themselves anyway -- what if those emails also contain evidence of data gleaned from the illegal wiretapping and data-mining, evidence that the GOP was directly using that data not for the security of the nation but for the betterment of their party?
There's such a deepening, wide river of corruption running through the Presidency of the George W. Bush and being protected by a herd of decrepit wild elephants that maybe, just maybe, we've come right up to the point where we almost have the evidence we need to send them packing -- Bush, Cheney, Rove, Hadley, Addington, Gonzales, half a dozen or more GOP congressional figures. The whole kit and kaboodle.
And the elephant they rode in on.