ah…the power of the blogosphere…we can do the work that the journalists in the MSM don’t do and come up with a timeline that cuts through the White House’s obfuscations:

The Next Hurrah:

Commenter joejoejoe sent me a superb timeline to show the chronology of Congress’ building opposition to the Total Information Awareness program as it relates to the NSA’s domestic wiretap program[..]

I’d like to pull out just a few salient dates and add four (in bold italics) to what joejoejoe did. I think the time line lends support for the argument that one of the problems–a big problem–with the domestic wiretap program is that it violated clear instructions from Congress.

2/20/03 - President Bush signed reconciled House Senate version of above law with provision that terminates funding to TIA in 90 days and requires a Congressional update.(Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, No.108?7, Division M, §111(b) [signed Feb. 20, 2003])

5/20/03 - 90 days later, Pentagon changes name of TIA from Total Information Awareness to Terrorist Information Awareness and calls it new program. Problem solved!

7/17/03 - Briefing for Intelligence Committee leadership (Pat Roberts, Jay Rockefeller, Porter Goss, and Jane Harman) on domestic wiretap program. This would be the last briefing before the crisis March 10 meeting.

7/17/03 - After his SECOND briefing on the program, Jay Rockefeller writes his CYA memo to Cheney [..]

7/18/03 - Senate votes unanimously to block funding for the Total Information Awareness program. According to the Defense Department appropriations, no funding “may be obligated or expended on research and development on the Terrorism Information Awareness program.” - - over Bush admin. objections.