The "TSP"

Because I spend most of the time I have to write substantive posts writing about foreign policy and the war in Iraq, I don't have as much time to write anything decent about "little" things like the NSA domestic surveillance scandal, or the U.S. Attorney's scandal (except for snarky little posts here and there like the one below.) But of course I read about them all the time, as my interest in those issues (and many, many more) has never wavered, nor has my desire to get to the bottom of those issues. So in that spirit, I'm linking to Mary Lederman's post on AG Gonzales' somewhat-less-than-masterful dissembling on what the administration prefers to refer to as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program." Gonzales is not a clever lier; rather, he's lied in so many different ways that he appears to seek to confuse Democrats on Capital Hill with the overwhelming task of figuring out what he's lied about and what he hasn't. Lederman's conclusion is, in short, that yes Gonzales is lying about which program he was referring to in earlier testimony, and any other interpretation is possible only by applying a narrow definitional approach that would hardly save a teenager from grounding. Lederman also says that we still need to figure out what the administration was doing from 2001-2004 before the threatened DOJ revolt that forced changes to make the program legal (in the DOJ's opinion anyway.) He also links to a post where Glenn Greenwald says much the same thing in more detail. I recommend both, if you want to get a handle on the "real" issue at stake here.