4 BACK OPERATIONS, NEUROPATHY, LOTS OF MORPHINE (LEAGALY IN THE HOSPITAL )AND I AM BACK HOME AT TRIBE- MISSED MY FRIENDS AND HOPEFULLY NEW ONES

Recovering from 4 back operations. Finally ok.Still need a FEMALE NURSE lol ;)
Before the operations in May, checked out
Fubar, other sites, so I decided to come back HOME to TRIBE! I missedmy friends here. The other sites were rude.

Now I am in Telecommunications for a company called ACN
A Sales Rep for NEW VIDEO PHONE (SEE IN REAL TIME, NOT AS BAD AS WEBCAM, with the "jerkiness" of a webcam IT IS THROUGH THE NET (BROADBAND) NO PHONE BILLS, LONG DISTANCE INCLUDED, and call fwding, all that you get on regular phones Until your friends get one, you still can call, cheap, just can't see the other party.
Also have wireless cell phones, Direct Tv, Dish Tv, Home Security. If you want to see the phone , go to mhosford.acnrep.com for a "flash picture, which shows it better, plus all the other products, or until I put a home picture in my photos, I "snagged" one to put up now but this pic doesn't do it justice, but you will get the idea.

you can mail me here, or the email on the web page, or call the number, you can alo tell how clear it is if you call. Skype is nowhere near us.it is my own business so no operators. It is MY Business, andmy phone.

Sorry for the long "pitch" just been in the hospital and long term care facility trying to learn how to walk again, as I still have Neuoapathy.,

t havebeen re-couping here since May, 2008 (it is now Feb, almost a year!) GAWD time goes by fast, so I'm really excited about FINALLY doing something!

When I am gone, I try to fwd. calls to my cell, butI DO have voicemail.
Abd yo can watch the March 22nd issue of Donald Trump's Apprentice. We have a dvd of him endorsing it, so I don't know what he is going to do on the show, but he will be using it.

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL III TONIGHT

STOP THE BUSHSHIT!

Go to: pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html

There is a vigil near you. Sorry for the late post/
We are having one in Oceanside Ca at:4:30pm (The press will be there at 5 pm)
LAST YEAR 500 PEOPLE ATTENDED, REGULAR FOLKS, VIETNAM VET., IRAQ VETS, AND WW2 VETS AND THEIR CHIDREN. WHATEVER YOU THINK OF MOVE ON & MICHAEL MOORE THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT A "MICHAEL MOORE DRIVEN THING" THIS IS THE 3RD ANNUAL VIGIL AS THIS IS THE 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF BUSH'S/CHENY'S MONEY MAKING USELESS WAR
CampaignSuccess StoriesDonateSign upAbout
Iraq War Anniversary Vigil
Americans across the country are more concerned than ever about our direction in Iraq. Now is the time for Congress to force a change.

On March 19th, thousands of us from organizations across the movement will gather together to observe the fourth anniversary of the war through candlelight vigils. We’ll solemnly honor the sacrifice made by more than 3,000 servicemen and women, and we'll contemplate the path ahead of us. We cannot send tens of thousands of exhausted, under-equipped, and unprepared troops into the middle of an Iraqi civil war.

Join us at a candlelight vigil on Monday, March 19th. Honor the sacrifice. Stop the escalation. Bring the troops home.
Click here to organize your own vigil, or sign up for one near you.



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Draft Gore Petition

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Please sign below and spread the word to all your friends and fellow activists. With your help, we can create an unprecedented show of support for Al Gore that will hopefully make a Gore candidacy in 2008 a reality. Thank you.

Dear Vice President Gore:

Americans from every corner of our nation are calling on you. Please listen to our plea and run for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States in 2008.

Never before has America needed a leader of your stature, vision and experience more than now. The next presidential election will be the most crucial one in our history, and you are the only Democrat who can unite the country and lead us to victory. And this country -- indeed, the entire world -- cannot afford anything less.

Our nation and the planet itself are entering “a period of consequences,” as you so well stated in “An Inconvenient Truth,” but in more ways than one. We are ruled by a government of the powerful and for the powerful -- a government that tramples our Constitution, wages unjust war in our name, sacrifices our economic future, and puts our very planet on the endangered species list.

America and the world need you now more than ever. Be our candidate. Run for president. And we pledge that we'll be there for you every day until the last vote is counted.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned,

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IMPEACHMENT DAY

Sept. 1st is IMPEACHMENT DAY everyone is being asked tyo post this on blogs, etc

Al Gore: Bush 'Broke the Law'

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:56 a.m. EDT

Al Gore charges that President George Bush has "broken the law” and implies that Congress should have initiated impeachment proceedings against Bush for unspecified crimes.

In a fund-raising e-mail sent out under the banner of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with the subject line "Unprecedented,” Gore declares:

"The evidence now makes it hard to avoid the conclusion that George Bush has repeatedly and insistently broken the law and the corrupt Republican Congress has shirked its constitutional duty to hold him to account."

While Gore omitted using the "i" word, the consititutional remedy for a president who breaks the law is the House's impeachment process followed by a trial before the Senate.

"In my view, a president who breaks the law poses a threat to the very foundation of our democracy," Gore said, noting the seriousness of his allegation. "As Americans with a stake in the future of our country, we must act quickly and decisively. We have less than five months to win the six seats we need to control the Senate – and pull our country back from the brink of a constitutional crisis.”

Gore states that Bush’s "nightmarish regime” has been responsible for an "unprecedented expansion” of executive power and says: "I have never seen leaders that act with the contempt for the truth that I have witnessed in George Bush’s administration.”

The e-mail seeks contributions of $50, $75, or more to aid senatorial candidates and sets a goal of raising $1 million before June 30 to counter the Bush administration’s "truly breathtaking disregard for American values.”

Ironically, Gore notes that he has run for president twice and says: "I know what it takes to win.”

Can 'We The People' Impeach?

PLEASE REPOST Can 'We The People' Impeach? Repost
Category: News and Politics

PLEASE REPOST

NEWS RELEASE
June 26, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

CONTACT: Abraham Kneisley, info@constitutionsummer.org, 510.816.0563

Berkeley Considers First Ballot Initiative to Call for Presidential Impeachment

BERKELEY, CA The Berkeley City Council will vote tomorrow on whether to include an initiative advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney on the Berkeley municipal ballot in November. If passed, the initiative will be the first of its kind and will allow Berkeley's 74,836 registered voters to decide if there is sufficient cause for the impeachment and removal of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Several resolutions calling for impeachment have passed in cities around the country, but a ballot initiative allowing voters to weigh in on the issue would be unique. Constitution Summer, a coalition of student activists from more than a dozen universities, believes that Congress' reluctance to investigate the merits of impeachment justifies taking the question to the people. True to the roots of the Free Speech Movement that still informs the culture of Berkeley, the group feels it is simply exercising its constitutional right to redress of grievances under the First Amendment.

Geoffrey King, a Democrat and President of Constitution Summer, sees impeachment as a non-partisan concern. According to King, it is not a question of whether the President should be impeached, but why he hasn't been. "President Bush has arrogated unto himself powers that in some cases went out of fashion in 1215, and in any event, in 1776. He has shown a wish and a willingness to corrupt our representative system of government by tracking the calls of and wiretapping Americans despite a federal statute that makes doing so a felony; by normalizing torture; and by revoking the right of Americans not to be disappeared and held indefinitely without charge or trial. These abuses fit perfectly with what the Framers intended the impeachment power to address. It is time to use it."

Saba Sahouria, a Republican and Treasurer of Constitution Summer, added, "The President says we must give up essential liberty to defeat al Qaeda, and yet, we are inexplicably embroiled in an unnecessary war that diverted CIA agents, Special Forces commandos, money, and ground troops from crushing the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in order to invade Iraq, which had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and which had no operational links to al Qaeda. By invading Iraq, the President has undermined our long-term security. There is no other way to describe the President's actions but as a radical, extreme, and legally baseless power grab, because they make little sense in any other context."

The current proposed ballot initiative was introduced by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Citing the High Crimes listed above, the ballot initiative calls on the City of Berkeley to petition all members of the United States House of Representatives and all members of the California State Legislature to bring articles of impeachment against the President and Vice President. State legislatures may send articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives via Rule 603 of Thomas Jefferson's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.

Critics of the impeachment movement, such as Rush Limbaugh, have said that it would be a gift to Republicans to push for impeachment because it would drive the Republican base to the polls and affect the mid-term elections in November. Others have noted that the Republican base includes many people mindful of liberty under law, and that a level-headed and realistic campaign to impeach would drive independents, progressives, liberals and libertarians to cast their votes as well.

In any case, King is unapologetic. "Our country is in a constitutional crisis. The President and Vice President are making claims to power that would have terrible implications for the American ideal of liberty if left unchecked."

"They have tricked, threatened, and spied on all of us. They have tried to pit Americans against each other by politicizing security, all while making us less safe by invading Iraq."

"In doing these things, they have forced Americans to choose between loyalty to them and loyalty to the country. They do not understand the character of the American people. It is coming time to remind them."

PLEASE REPOST

Currently reading:
Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush
By Center for Constitutional Rights
Release date: By 01 March, 2006

Sign up at www.constitutionsummer.org

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic phone record collection program.
Enlarge By Roger Wollenberg, Getty Images
Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic phone record collection program.

REACTION
From the White House:
The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.
''The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,'' said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence activities.

From Capitol Hill:
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel ''to find out exactly what is going on.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, sounded incredulous about the latest report and railed against what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the media was doing the job of Congress.
''Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda?'' Leahy asked. ''These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop?''
The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper, added: ''Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents.''

The report came as the former NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden - Bush's choice to take over leadership of the CIA - had been scheduled to visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday. However, the meetings with Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were postponed at the request of the White House, said congressional aides in the two Senate offices.

Source: The Associated Press

NSA SURVEILLANCE
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
Questions and answers
Fractured phone system consolidating once again
Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry
On Deadline: Post your comments Thursday

TIMELINE

OFFICIAL WORDS ON SURVEILLANCE

Bush administration officials have said repeatedly that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is carefully targeted to include only international calls and e-mails into or out of the USA, and only those that involve at least one party suspected of being a member or ally of al-Qaeda or a related terror group.

Some comments related to what the administration calls the "Terrorist Surveillance Program," and surveillance in general:

Gen. Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of national intelligence, and now Bush's nominee to head the CIA, at the National Press Club, Jan. 23, 2006:

"The program ... is not a drift net over (U.S. cities such as) Dearborn or Lackawanna or Fremont, grabbing conversations that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or data-mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about.

"This is targeted and focused. This is not about intercepting conversations between people in the United States. This is hot pursuit of communications entering or leaving America involving someone we believe is associated with al-Qaeda. ... This is focused. It's targeted. It's very carefully done. You shouldn't worry."

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Feb. 6, 2006:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "Only international communications are authorized for interception under this program. That is, communications between a foreign country and this country. ...

"To protect the privacy of Americans still further, the NSA employs safeguards to minimize the unnecessary collection and dissemination of information about U.S. persons."

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.: "I don't understand why you would limit your eavesdropping only to foreign conversations. ..."

Gonzales: "I believe it's because of trying to balance concerns that might arise that, in fact, the NSA was engaged in electronic surveillance with respect to domestic calls."
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: The NSA record collection program

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated Monday by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic call-tracking program. Hayden declined to comment about the program.

The NSA's domestic program, as described by sources, is far more expansive than what the White House has acknowledged. Last year, Bush said he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and international e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. Warrants have also not been used in the NSA's efforts to create a national call database.

In defending the previously disclosed program, Bush insisted that the NSA was focused exclusively on international calls. "In other words," Bush explained, "one end of the communication must be outside the United States."

As a result, domestic call records — those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders — were believed to be private.

Sources, however, say that is not the case. With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

Don Weber, a senior spokesman for the NSA, declined to discuss the agency's operations. "Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operational issues; therefore, we have no information to provide," he said. "However, it is important to note that NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."

The White House would not discuss the domestic call-tracking program. "There is no domestic surveillance without court approval," said Dana Perino, deputy press secretary, referring to actual eavesdropping.

She added that all national intelligence activities undertaken by the federal government "are lawful, necessary and required for the pursuit of al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorists." All government-sponsored intelligence activities "are carefully reviewed and monitored," Perino said. She also noted that "all appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on the intelligence efforts of the United States."

The government is collecting "external" data on domestic phone calls but is not intercepting "internals," a term for the actual content of the communication, according to a U.S. intelligence official familiar with the program. This kind of data collection from phone companies is not uncommon; it's been done before, though never on this large a scale, the official said. The data are used for "social network analysis," the official said, meaning to study how terrorist networks contact each other and how they are tied together.

Carriers uniquely positioned

AT&T recently merged with SBC and kept the AT&T name. Verizon, BellSouth and AT&T are the nation's three biggest telecommunications companies; they provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers.

The three carriers control vast networks with the latest communications technologies. They provide an array of services: local and long-distance calling, wireless and high-speed broadband, including video. Their direct access to millions of homes and businesses has them uniquely positioned to help the government keep tabs on the calling habits of Americans.

Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.

Qwest's refusal to participate has left the NSA with a hole in its database. Based in Denver, Qwest provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest. But AT&T and Verizon also provide some services — primarily long-distance and wireless — to people who live in Qwest's region. Therefore, they can provide the NSA with at least some access in that area.

Created by President Truman in 1952, during the Korean War, the NSA is charged with protecting the United States from foreign security threats. The agency was considered so secret that for years the government refused to even confirm its existence. Government insiders used to joke that NSA stood for "No Such Agency."

In 1975, a congressional investigation revealed that the NSA had been intercepting, without warrants, international communications for more than 20 years at the behest of the CIA and other agencies. The spy campaign, code-named "Shamrock," led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was designed to protect Americans from illegal eavesdropping.

Enacted in 1978, FISA lays out procedures that the U.S. government must follow to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches of people believed to be engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States. A special court, which has 11 members, is responsible for adjudicating requests under FISA.

Over the years, NSA code-cracking techniques have continued to improve along with technology. The agency today is considered expert in the practice of "data mining" — sifting through reams of information in search of patterns. Data mining is just one of many tools NSA analysts and mathematicians use to crack codes and track international communications.

Paul Butler, a former U.S. prosecutor who specialized in terrorism crimes, said FISA approval generally isn't necessary for government data-mining operations. "FISA does not prohibit the government from doing data mining," said Butler, now a partner with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C.

The caveat, he said, is that "personal identifiers" — such as names, Social Security numbers and street addresses — can't be included as part of the search. "That requires an additional level of probable cause," he said.

The usefulness of the NSA's domestic phone-call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear. Also unclear is whether the database has been used for other purposes.

The NSA's domestic program raises legal questions. Historically, AT&T and the regional phone companies have required law enforcement agencies to present a court order before they would even consider turning over a customer's calling data. Part of that owed to the personality of the old Bell Telephone System, out of which those companies grew.

Ma Bell's bedrock principle — protection of the customer — guided the company for decades, said Gene Kimmelman, senior public policy director of Consumers Union. "No court order, no customer information — period. That's how it was for decades," he said.

The concern for the customer was also based on law: Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, telephone companies are prohibited from giving out information regarding their customers' calling habits: whom a person calls, how often and what routes those calls take to reach their final destination. Inbound calls, as well as wireless calls, also are covered.

The financial penalties for violating Section 222, one of many privacy reinforcements that have been added to the law over the years, can be stiff. The Federal Communications Commission, the nation's top telecommunications regulatory agency, can levy fines of up to $130,000 per day per violation, with a cap of $1.325 million per violation. The FCC has no hard definition of "violation." In practice, that means a single "violation" could cover one customer or 1 million.

In the case of the NSA's international call-tracking program, Bush signed an executive order allowing the NSA to engage in eavesdropping without a warrant. The president and his representatives have since argued that an executive order was sufficient for the agency to proceed. Some civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, disagree.

Companies approached

The NSA's domestic program began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the sources. Right around that time, they said, NSA representatives approached the nation's biggest telecommunications companies. The agency made an urgent pitch: National security is at risk, and we need your help to protect the country from attacks.

The agency told the companies that it wanted them to turn over their "call-detail records," a complete listing of the calling histories of their millions of customers. In addition, the NSA wanted the carriers to provide updates, which would enable the agency to keep tabs on the nation's calling habits.

The sources said the NSA made clear that it was willing to pay for the cooperation. AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to help the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman; SBC, headed by Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.

With that, the NSA's domestic program began in earnest.

AT&T, when asked about the program, replied with a comment prepared for USA TODAY: "We do not comment on matters of national security, except to say that we only assist law enforcement and government agencies charged with protecting national security in strict accordance with the law."

In another prepared comment, BellSouth said: "BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority."

Verizon, the USA's No. 2 telecommunications company behind AT&T, gave this statement: "We do not comment on national security matters, we act in full compliance with the law and we are committed to safeguarding our customers' privacy."

Qwest spokesman Robert Charlton said: "We can't talk about this. It's a classified situation."

In December, The New York Times revealed that Bush had authorized the NSA to wiretap, without warrants, international phone calls and e-mails that travel to or from the USA. The following month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T. The lawsuit accuses the company of helping the NSA spy on U.S. phone customers.

Last month, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales alluded to that possibility. Appearing at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Gonzales was asked whether he thought the White House has the legal authority to monitor domestic traffic without a warrant. Gonzales' reply: "I wouldn't rule it out." His comment marked the first time a Bush appointee publicly asserted that the White House might have that authority.

Similarities in programs

The domestic and international call-tracking programs have things in common, according to the sources. Both are being conducted without warrants and without the approval of the FISA court. The Bush administration has argued that FISA's procedures are too slow in some cases. Officials, including Gonzales, also make the case that the USA Patriot Act gives them broad authority to protect the safety of the nation's citizens.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., would not confirm the existence of the program. In a statement, he said, "I can say generally, however, that our subcommittee has been fully briefed on all aspects of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. ... I remain convinced that the program authorized by the president is lawful and absolutely necessary to protect this nation from future attacks."

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., declined to comment.

One company differs

One major telecommunications company declined to participate in the program: Qwest.

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers' information and how that information might be used.

Financial implications were also a concern, the sources said. Carriers that illegally divulge calling information can be subjected to heavy fines. The NSA was asking Qwest to turn over millions of records. The fines, in the aggregate, could have been substantial.

The NSA told Qwest that other government agencies, including the FBI, CIA and DEA, also might have access to the database, the sources said. As a matter of practice, the NSA regularly shares its information — known as "product" in intelligence circles — with other intelligence groups. Even so, Qwest's lawyers were troubled by the expansiveness of the NSA request, the sources said.

The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

In June 2002, Nacchio resigned amid allegations that he had misled investors about Qwest's financial health. But Qwest's legal questions about the NSA request remained.

Unable to reach agreement, Nacchio's successor, Richard Notebaert, finally pulled the plug on the NSA talks in late 2004, the sources said.

Contributing: John Diamond

NSA SURVEILLANCE SPYS ON US---data from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth

NSA secret database report triggers fierce debate in Washington
Bush said Americans' privacy was 'fiercely protected' under the program.

By Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A fierce debate erupted Thursday over the legality and appropriateness of a massive secret database built by the National Security Agency that contains the phone records of tens of millions of Americans.

USA TODAY reported that the NSA has been collecting data from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth since the Sept. 11 attacks to search for patterns that might help identify terrorist networks. NSA collected records from landlines and cellphones at homes, businesses and government offices across the country, including calls by individuals not suspected of wrongdoing.

At the White House, President Bush said the administration acted within the law and "fiercely protected" Americans' privacy while doing everything possible to prevent terrorist attacks. "Al-Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans," he said. "We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans." He didn't address specifics of the program and walked away without responding to reporters' questions.

VIDEO: Bush defends program | Sen. Leahy reacts

On Capitol Hill, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy expressed outrage. "Are you telling me tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaeda?" said Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would call phone company executives to a congressional hearing "to find out exactly what is going on."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said she asked Speaker Dennis Hastert to launch a bipartisan review.

The furor threatened to ensnare the nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Hayden, director of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, led the agency when the database project was launched and built.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has spoken favorably of his nomination, predicted the revelation is "going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation of Gen. Hayden." She is a member of the Intelligence Committee, which plans to begin confirmation hearings next week.

Senators in both parties predicted the hearings will be a forum to pursue unanswered questions about the program.

The White House postponed meetings scheduled Thursday for Hayden with Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Incoming White House spokesman Tony Snow said there is no question about going forward with the nomination. "We support Gen. Hayden 100%," he said.

The telephone database was built without court warrants or the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a panel of federal judges established to issue secret warrants, according to people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

A key question: Is it legal?

Bush has argued that he has far-reaching authority to approve NSA surveillance under his constitutional role as commander in chief. He also has cited a congressional resolution, passed just after 9/11, authorizing him to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against those responsible.

"If all they're doing is have a computer program anonymously select people who are making phone calls to known terrorists or something like that, I don't see a problem," said Robert Turner, director of the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law. "That's not comparable to going into our bedrooms or even listening to our conversations. The goal of stopping terrorist attacks is the greatest of our national interests."

Critics said the administration's warrantless programs violate the Fourth Amendment — it bars "unreasonable searches and seizures" and requires warrants for searches — as well as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that established the secret court.

Harold Koh, dean of the Yale Law School and author of The National Security Constitution, called the scope of the database "shocking."

"If they had gone to Congress and said, 'We want to do this without probable cause, without warrants and without judicial review,' it never would have been approved," said Koh, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. "I don't think any FISA court would have approved this kind of scale of activity."

As a general rule, telecommunication companies require law enforcement agencies to serve them with a court order before turning over a customer's phone records. Under Section 222 of the U.S. Communications Act, telephone companies are prohibited from giving out information about their customers' calling habits.

Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned why the phone companies would cooperate with the NSA. "Why are the telephone companies not protecting their customers?" he said. "They have a social responsibility to people who do business with them to protect our privacy as long as there isn't some suspicion that we're a terrorist or a criminal or something."

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., called the outcry over the program "nuts" and said, "We are in a war, and we have got to collect intelligence on the enemy."

One major telecommunication company, Qwest, refused to participate in the NSA program because of concerns about the expansiveness of the program and the lack of judicial oversight, USA TODAY reported.

'An issue of our times'

Bush said in his remarks that "the intelligence activities I authorized. .. have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat." Pelosi acknowledged that she had been briefed "on some of it."

The Intelligence Committee has oversight responsibilities for the NSA. Senators on the Judiciary Committee complained that the news account was the first they had heard of the program. Specter said that made it impossible for the panel to "perform our constitutional oversight responsibilities to determine the constitutionality of the program."

"Unfortunately, a lot of this goes on clandestinely and. .. it takes a journalist to discover its existence," said Clayton Northouse, editor of Protecting What Matters: Technology, Security and Liberty since 9/11.

"Congress doesn't know what's going on and is dependent on the news media to tell them what's going on in DOD (Department of Defense) or the CIA, just because there's no formal mechanisms for oversight."

Northouse said the increasing use of huge databases by the government is "an issue of our times" — the conflict in an Information Age between protecting civil liberties while also pursuing data trails that might identify terrorists and other criminals.

Data-mining uses computers programmed with sophisticated statistical algorithms to review vast quantities of digital information in an effort to identify patterns of activity. Banks and credit card companies use the process on millions of financial transactions to identify people suspected of committing financial fraud.

Skeptics question whether terrorists can be spotted in the same way that credit card scam artists can — making the databases a potential waste of resources in the war on terror. They also warn that innocent people could be falsely identified as potential terrorists.

Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of the program, USA TODAY reported. But the telephone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

"Most Americans believe that their private lives should remain private," Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said when he introduced legislation to provide congressional oversight of government databases a year ago.

The bill, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, would require federal agencies to report to Congress on what data-mining programs they are using, how they're working and what steps are being taken to protect privacy.

Scanning for terrorists

The Bush administration has defended the NSA for another program that wiretaps calls between Americans and people overseas suspected of terror links without obtaining court warrants.

In that program — unlike this one — the conversations themselves are recorded. Bush has said that program is narrowly targeted at suspected terrorists.

During that controversy, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll asked Americans whether they thought they had been wiretapped by the federal government.

Most didn't. In a survey in February, 52% of Americans said it was "not at all likely" that the federal government had ever wiretapped their telephone conversations; 24% said it was "not too likely."

One in five said it was very or somewhat likely that they had.

Those polled were split over whether the eavesdropping broke the law — 49% said it definitely or probably did, and 47% said it definitely or probably didn't — and over whether it was a wise idea: 50% said the program was "wrong;" 47% said it was "right."

The Pentagon has built several large databases of information, part of its intelligence-gathering within the borders of the USA that has dramatically expanded since 9/11.

The Wall Street Journal detailed a program last month called Talon — short for "Threat and Local Observation Notice" — which uses reports filed online by members of the armed forces who notice unusual activities around military bases.

A Pentagon data-mining program called Total Information Awareness sparked a firestorm when it was disclosed in 2003.

The project scanned information in e-mails and the commercial databases of health, financial and travel companies in the USA and overseas in an effort to spot patterns linked to terrorism. The leader of the program was John Poindexter, a Reagan national security adviser implicated in the Iran-contra scandal.

After protests from liberal and conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups, Congress voted to prohibit the use of TIA technology against Americans without congressional approval.

The protests Thursday over the telephone database also crossed party and ideological lines.

"This is an outrageous invasion of privacy and a frightening expansion of government power," said Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman and conservative Republican who served as one of the House managers of President Clinton's impeachment.

Ralph Neas, president of the liberal group People for the American Way, used similar language, calling the program "an unconscionable infringement on the rights and freedoms that are the birthright of every American."

He added, "We can destroy the terrorists without shredding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he is "concerned" about the program. "I'm not sure why it was necessary for us to keep and have that kind of information," he says.

On the other hand, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., argues that the controversy was being overblown.

"I don't think this action is nearly as troublesome as being made out here," he says, "because they are not tapping our phones."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, "Whether this is acceptable data-mining or an unacceptable intrusion into privacy is a question that needs to be answered."

Contributing: Leslie Cauley, Kathy Kiely, Andrea Stone, wire services

Neil Young’s 'Let’s Impeach the President' Lyrics

Author Roger Friedman had some high praise for the piece that many would be surprised to read at the Fox News website: “Young has been clever enough to write the catchiest protest song since Country Joe and the Fish’s anti-Vietnam ditty, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die.” So, without further ado:

Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god he’s racking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God