Joe Klein smackdown
As many people who may have stumbled upon this are probably aware, Joe Klein of Time Magazine (commonly known on the Time Swampland blog as Joke Line) tends to be fact challenged.
He portrays himself as an independent and sound judge of “tonedeaf” Democratic policies but pretty much is just another MSM panderer to the right.
So! It was with delight that in TWO consecutive issues of Dead Tree Time (12/17, 12/24) I saw smackdowns of his blatant disregard for accuracy by U.S. Lawmakers:
If you can stomach it, Joe’s original piece is here. Without further ado, the first smackdown:
Klein called the Democrats “Tonedeaf” for acting on the demands of the American people that we bring the Iraq war to a close. And he says we’re “well beyond stupid,” but he got most of the facts wrong about the debate over changing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Klein falsely claimed that the bills supported by Democrats in the
House and Senate would require individualized warrants to wiretap calls made by foreign targets. Instead, the bills require such warrants only when the government targets Americans, something we should all agree is necessary. Klein was also flat-out wrong when he suggested that there is bipartisan agreement that the government should destroy any records on nontargeted Americans that it obtains using this broad new authority. In fact, the Administration and its allies are fighting against far more modest proposals to protect innocent Americans who are swept up in this new, essentially warrantless surveillance. For nearly 30 years, the secret FISA court has provided judicial supervision and oversight when the government carries out surveillance of Americans. President Bush ignored and bypassed that court and the law in approving a warrantless wiretapping program after Sept. 11. Only after the program was revealed to the public in December 2005 was the Administration forced to comply with the law. Now the Administration is asking for broad new powers that could very well lead to the collection of vast numbers of communications involving U.S. citizens at home. Congress must make sure that the new law requires independent court review and that it protects the privacy of innocent Americans, as required by the Constitution. That’s not tone-deaf; that’s our sworn and solemn duty.Russ Feingold, U.S. Senator, Wisconsin
And the second:
Joe Klein recently criticized the RESTORE Act, also known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), claiming that it “would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target’s calls to be approved by the FISA court” [Dec. 3] This is incorrect. The RESTORE Act creates “basket” authorization to allow widespread surveillance of foreign powers (like al-Qaeda) and their agents. To prevent a repeat of the Bush Administration’s extralegal warrantless-wiretapping program, the court must approve the parameters of the group surveillance to ensure that warrants are still obtained for Americans’ communications. But no court orders are required for surveillance of foreigners reasonably believed to be outside the country. The bill simply will not make our intelligence agencies get thousands of warrants for foreign terrorists. The RESTORE Act’s blend of Executive Branch flexibility, court approval and congressional oversight is calibrated to ensure that the fight against terrorism is conducted in an efficient and constitutional manner. We would hope that Klein, having studied the RESTORE Act further, is no longer so confused as to continue to characterize our system of constitutional checks and balances as “well beyond stupid.”
John Conyers Jr.
and
Silvestre Reyes
Chairmen, House Committee on Judiciary and House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence