The Tony Snow Show Thread, Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Tony Snow is back and better than ever! Tony's guests and topics on today's Tony Snow Show include:

War on Idiots
The War on Christmas is over. Now Tony is declaring a War on Idiots. Certain politicians don't want to eavesdrop, and don't want to wiretap, and don't want terrorists to be subject to coercive testimony. So how do they intend to get the bad guys?

Shadow Government
Caller "Pete" helpfully tipped us to the "shadow government"--a loose and nefarious cabal of moneyed interests and Beltway insiders who are controlling the Bush administration. Grab your tinfoil hats! The truth is out there...

A Very Jackson Christmas
Step aside, Charlie Brown. Move over, George Bailey. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. says we need to recapture the real meaning of Christmas.

You can find out more information about the line-up, stream Tony's show, find local radio stations as well as other fun stuff off his website.

CLICK HERE and follow the "Listen Live" link to stream the show which runs from 9 AM est to noon.

WMET airs Tony’s show on the web from 9-12 EST. Another way to hear Tony’s show is by streaming it at 7pm
CST on klif.com

Yet another source of the show is at 1190wamt.com which streams at least part of Tony’s show during its regular air time.

By the way, if you miss anything, the show is streamed again immediately after the three hours. Please feel free to add thread narrative about what is aired on the show as a group effort is helpful to get more of the content posted and is much appreciated by those reading the thread later.

If you’d like on or off the Tony Snow Show ping list, please post a request.
All requests happily honored.

"Woof" is used in broadcasting to say "stop," "that's enough" or to mark a specific point in time
-- which is what is done in this case. "Tony's show starts in 3 minutes: WOOF!" Means in 3 minutes from-- NOW!

Nevermind... found the 11th judge.

I have Hilton, Kotelly and Robertson as the three. I can't find the newest list.

Found the amendment on the number:

SEC. 208. DESIGNATION OF JUDGES.

Section 103(a) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803(a)) is amended by--
(1) striking 'seven district court judges' and inserting '11 district court judges'; and
(2) inserting 'of whom no fewer than 3 shall reside within 20 miles of the District of Columbia' after 'circuits'.

History

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Congress in 1978 established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as a special court and authorized the Chief Justice of the United States to designate seven federal district court judges to review applications for warrants related to national security investigations. Judges serve for staggered, non-renewable terms of no more than seven years, and must be from different judicial circuits. The provisions for the court were part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (92 Stat. 1783), which required the government, before it commenced certain kinds of intelligence gathering operations within the United States, to obtain a judicial warrant similar to that required in criminal investigations. The legislation was a response to a report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the “Church Committee”), which detailed allegations of executive branch abuses of its authority to conduct domestic electronic surveillance in the interest of national security. Congress also was responding to the Supreme Court’s suggestion in a 1972 case that under the Fourth Amendment some kind of judicial warrant might be required to conduct national security related investigations.

Warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are drafted by attorneys in the General Counsel’s Office at the National Security Agency at the request of an officer of one of the federal intelligence agencies. Each application must contain the Attorney General’s certification that the target of the proposed surveillance is either a “foreign power” or “the agent of a foreign power” and, in the case of a U.S. citizen or resident alien, that the target may be involved in the commission of a crime.

The judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court travel to Washington, D.C., to hear warrant applications on a rotating basis. To ensure that the court can convene on short notice, at least one of the judges is required to be a member of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The act of 1978 also established a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, presided over by three district or appeals court judges designated by the Chief Justice, to review, at the government’s request, the decisions the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Because of the almost perfect record of the Department of Justice in obtaining the surveillance warrants and other powers it requested from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the review court had no occasion to meet until 2002. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 (115 Stat. 272) expanded the time periods for which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court can authorize surveillance and increased the number of judges serving the court from seven to eleven.

Thanks anyway.

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