Congresswoman Melissa Hart

Was interviewed on Fred Honsbergers radio show on KDKA a few days ago. Fortunately, I was taking notes. It was a "report in" of sorts for the Congresswoman as she'd just returned from a fact-finding tour of Iraq.

She related one story that I found curious - if only when I peeked under the surface a bit. She said she'd visited the place where the Humvees are being "up armored" or fitted with new armor that would go all the way around the vehicle. She was told that they'd all be finished by the end of this March. And when the general in charge was asked what the congressional delegation could do (if anything) to get the newly armored Humvees out into the field sooner, he responded with a "any help we can get is welcome" type answer.

A few questions. The invation was in March of 2003 - and they're just finishing the process of armoring the Humvees now?

And I realise that I am responding to my notes that were based on what Missy Hart said that a general said (so how many layers of heresay is that????), but it looks like the general in charge of putting the new armor on the old Humvees is still looking for help. Again - three years after the invasion????

How does this fit in with the recent news of a certain Pentagon report about body armor (or the lack thereof)? Take a look:

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

Fred didn't ask. Of course not.

Missy Hart also said that when she was in Iraq, she tried to call Fred's show with her satellite phone. But unfortunately the phone didn't work. I guess that's a good thing, though. Imagine if it did work. Isn't the NSA tracing all the incoming e-mails and phone calls (including satellite calls) from Iraq? Wouldn't a call placed on a satellite phone from Iraq to the US end up among the calls traced? Imagine, again, if the satellite phone worked. What would Missy Hart say if she knew that the NSA was listening in on all of her phone conversations? Public AND private?

Fred didn't ask her about that, either.

On the NSA spying (which Fred Honsberger labelled as "Supposed NSA Spying") - she did her rightwing duty and attempted to extend the lie that "prior presidents did pretty much the same thing." Which "prior presidents?" Nixon? Well, that's true I guess.

But among the wing-nut crowd these "prior presidents" could only mean Carter and Clinton. But this we know to be a lie. Here's the Washington Post:

As members of Congress from both parties continued to criticize the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping yesterday, the Republican National Committee issued a news release portraying the critics as Democrats seeking to "play politics again with national security."

The RNC asserted that Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both authorized comparable forms of "search [or] surveillance without court orders."

The RNC quoted fragments of Clinton's Executive Order 12949, authorizing the attorney general to "approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information," and Carter's Executive Order 12139, authorizing the attorney general to "approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order."

The Clinton and Carter orders, which were published, permitted warrantless spying only on foreigners who are not protected by the Constitution. Bush's secret directive permitted the NSA to eavesdrop on the overseas calls of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

The RNC's quotation of Clinton's order left out the stated requirement, in the same sentence, that a warrantless search not involve "the premises, information, material, or property of a United States person." Carter's order, also in the same sentence quoted, said warrantless eavesdropping could not include "any communication to which a United States person is a party."[emphasis added]

If Missy Hart was talking about Nixon, I guess she was right. But then again Nixon was indicted for his abuses of power.

If Missy Hart was talking about Carter and Clinton, she was lying.

She did, however, loyally add that she wasn't sure whether the president violated the law and that we're winning the war in Iraq. History will tell whether she's bullshitting us on those two points as well.

IMPEACH