Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I know what "Ambit" means


The Los Angeles Times (gavel bang to Bashman) is reporting on a 1986 memo I wrote supporting the FBI's right to investigate Federal Employees as security threats and for the IRS to tape record conversations with taxpayers without telling them.

They report:

He cited a 1947 order issued by President Truman that gave the government broad power to check on the loyalty of its employees and to root out communists and subversives. "The plain language of that order clearly states that all federal employees fall within its ambit," Alito wrote.

And this is considered, somehow, "news." I mean, I have to be consistent. If I'm going to allow secret detentions and waterboarding, I have to allow the FBI and IRS to poke around with impunity, no?

12 comments:

Ian Richard said...

It's true; your strongest quality is your consistency, no matter how evil.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald said...

Sam,

You da man and big brudda! Literally.

Rosemary Welch said...

You mean to tell me we were not being watched before by the banks, the grocery stores, the street lights, the phone, the this and that...? Gosh, I have to get rid of all that aluminum? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

You guys need to take a chill pill. I would prefer NOT to have subvergents among us. Or would you prefer to die? I don't know.

With all this talk about, "Who knew, and when did they know it?", you would think you would want us to find the freakin' enemy first. You go, Sam!

Harriet said...

Hey, I agree with Rosemary. Mr. Alito and the government know best; why shouldn't the government get all of the powers needed to investigate the bad guys? The normal, good, God fearing Americans have nothing to worry about. It is just THEM.

Oh, and I love the photo here though I think that the author of this article might be picking on you.

Anonymous said...

Your opening ambit gambit, sir, draws unnecessary attention to things that you (may have) said for perfectly good poli-, I mean legal reasons 19 years ago, when a mere (if mature) lad.

Nice pic on ollie's link, with room for a full autographical message. (Make that "To dus7, with warmest um affection"..)

Consistency is nice (I'm thinking pudding but you decide), but isn't this supposed to be about the Constitution?

SamuelAlito said...

Rosemary:

The aluminum foil helmets, alas, amplify rather than block the radio signals, as these MIT Scientists discovered.

Thanks everyone else for coming to my side. I worry that things are going to get hairy from here.

Harriet said...

Sir to help you out, I'll give you a practice exam:

is it constitutional to allow the states to pass laws requiring that certain groups of people wear these tinfoil helmets?

Patrick J. Fitzgerald said...

If government were perfect we wouldn't need businesses, if businesses were perfect we wouldn't need government.

Harriet said...

Ok, ok, let's get something straight. People who have power have it because the Almighty wanted them to have it. THEY, those in power, KNOW WHAT IS BEST.

If we insist on disrupting that natural order, (example: by giving "rights" to workers, or to citizens for that matter) we are asking for trouble.

Our Mr. Alito KNOWS this; that is why he joined CAP to begin with.

So, it is time to "quit horsin' around" and for you to call you're senator to get Mr. Alito confirmed!

After all, if we can't have the most qualified nominee (Harriet) we can have the second most qualified nominee.

SamuelAlito said...

Blue:

It's the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (renamed from "Conservative Alumni of Princeton"). You can read all about it here.

Harriet said...

Bluewild, I think you are finally getting it.

You see, our beloved Harriet may have been a female (and still is), but she KNEW HER PLACE.

You need a refresher course on our pol...er...judicial philosophy as it pertains to females. On this very blog, you can read about it here .

We don't want to be mean to the girls, but when you start admitting them, well, they aren't all like our beloved Harriet. You get troublemakers like I described in my comment on Mr. Alito's "no girls at Princeton" post, and, even worse, you can get REAL troublemakers like Dr. Lisa Randall.
You see, if she would have known her place, she could focus on important things like eyeliner, instead of worring her pretty little head about guy stuff like supersting theory, black holes and all that.

SpaceCommand said...

It sounds like a term in chess, gambit without the G.

Well what do you know; the ambit is the province of G-men!

Aside from that I cannot think of anything less appropriate than expanding the complexity of the federal government, when it is already overburdened with largely unnecessary tasks. Just a few more vitamins, and a majority of people passing the eighth grade exam from a century ago which college students cannot do today, and most of the Federal Government ruling over alleged "dummies," would be unnecessary.

Besides there are diminishing returns in observation eventuating in control. There is too much drudgery trying to micromanage everything. It misses the point, since such things are local events, and all politics is local. Oh but are we simply concluded in those Shakespearean dramas, such controversy and such an adversarial system. It seems like rewriting the dictionary is a full time job for people who think they are powerful, but are wearing most of us out.

But remember that Orwellian drama, "An American Family," on public television. On a grand scale it will erode into a dysfunctional America, just as that seemingly solid family became dysfunctional. Too much power empties minds, until the powerful rule over ruins. Excuse me if this is all too true.