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01/22/2004 Archived Entry: "My blood is boiling over here...."
My blood is boiling over here....
These law-breaking thugs must be removed from office this year. They break the law in any way they see fit, and they must be called on it. From the Boston Globe:
Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.
The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.
With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers -- including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.
[...]
Democrats now claim their private memos formed the basis for a February 2003 column by conservative pundit Robert Novak that revealed plans pushed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to filibuster certain judicial nominees. Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi nuclear programs.
Citing "internal Senate sources," Novak's column described closed-door Democratic meetings about how to handle nominees.
Its details and direct quotes from Democrats -- characterizing former nominee Miguel Estrada as a "stealth right-wing zealot" and describing the GOP agenda as an "assembly line" for right-wing nominees -- are contained in talking points and meeting accounts from the Democratic files now known to have been compromised.
Novak declined to confirm or deny whether his column was based on these files.
And that decrepit sonovabitch Novak should be in prison right now.
I urge every reader of this blog to contact their local paper, refer them to the Boston Globe article, and demand that they cover this story. I've been in contact with a few of the reporters who interviewed me for the 'Miserable Failure' story. Let's all contact local reporters and light a fire under this baby.
Replies: 8 people speak up
DAMN. Where's this story from? This is nothing less than a high-tech Watergate break-in.
Posted by Hoffmania! @ 01/22/2004 11:12 AM NY
That's just what I said damnit. This... BTW, Democratic Strategy? Are ReThugs looking to learn the subtle art of the Chicken-out?
Posted by Nunoff @ 01/22/2004 11:57 AM NY
That's just what I said damnit. This... BTW, Democratic Strategy? Are ReThugs looking to learn the subtle art of the Chicken-out?
Posted by Nunoff @ 01/22/2004 11:57 AM NY
I really don’t think that bush can spell Watergate, and im sure he wouldn’t understand the significance of it. After all, that happened back in his drinking days. He probably doesn’t even remember the 70’s; it’s all just one big white powdery blur. Hopefully someone will explain to him that this sort of thing has taken down bigger men than him.
Posted by justin @ 01/22/2004 12:05 PM NY
On the overall topic here of computer security, this story makes it all the more urgent that we set up a good howl over plans to allow "overseas absentee voting" over the Internet. This is from that radical left-wing rag (snicker, snort) InformationWeek.com
Posted by Xan @ 01/22/2004 02:34 PM NY
Check out Manuel Miranda's, ahem, "interesting" defense of his actions:
" 'There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule,' Miranda said. 'Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document. . . . These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent [Democratic] staff.' "
Can you say, "WTF???" boys and girls? I knew you could.
Raijin>>
Posted by Raijin>> @ 01/22/2004 04:51 PM NY
can we just overthrow the government now? pretty please?
yeah yeah, i know, who would keep the power running and the sewage treatment plants going...
Posted by justin @ 01/22/2004 05:21 PM NY
Our priorities are screwed. Here it is, one day after this story breaks, and what are the top news stories on Yahoo? Two stories on the "official" breakup of Bennifer, a story about American Idol 3, "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancee", the sequel to "Meet the Parents", and a fire in India that killed 50 people! God, I am so pissed. Where the F**K is the outrage over this?!?
"Liberal Media", my ass.
Posted by The Tater @ 01/23/2004 11:35 AM NY
