Conservative Corner (my brother, Dan)
Naked and Unashamed (my brother, Scott)
Crazy Aunt Purl
(my friend Laurie)
There's Pie In the Lunchroom
(my friend Chuck)
Too Fat For Ponies
(my friend Sam)
Nashville Junk
(a Tennessean insider)
Recent posts:
2006
Jan 30-Feb 2, 2006
Jan 23-27, 2006
Jan 16-20, 2006
Jan 3-11, 2006
2005
Dec 27-30, 2005
Dec 19-22, 2005
Dec 8-16, 2005
Dec 1-7, 2005
Feb. 9, 2006
Uh-oh. It looks like Alberto Gonzales may have lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the illegal wiretapping program. In the WaPo, there is a story which contains some interesting information:
Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events.
The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen.
[...]
Shortly after the warrantless eavesdropping program began, then-NSA Director Michael V. Hayden and Ashcroft made clear in private meetings that the president wanted to detect possible terrorist activity before another attack. They also made clear that, in such a broad hunt for suspicious patterns and activities, the government could never meet the FISA court's probable-cause requirement, government officials said.
So it confused the FISA court judges when, in their recent public defense of the program, Hayden and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales insisted that NSA analysts do not listen to calls unless they have a reasonable belief that someone with a known link to terrorism is on one end of the call. At a hearing Monday, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the "reasonable belief" standard is merely the "probable cause" standard by another name.
Ouch.
Frist may as well kiss any presidential aspirations he has goodbye. Gannett News Service is running a story that says he and Speaker Hastert inserted language in the Defense Appropriations Bill that protects pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits. They put the language in the bill after it had been voted on in the resolution committee. No one on the committee, charged with resolving the differences between the approved House and Senate bills, got to read the language or vote on it.
Frist denies that this happened. But Keith Kennedy, Sen. Thad Cochran's staff director for the Appropriations Committee says it happened in Hastert's office with Frist in attendence.
"There should be no dispute. That was an absolute travesty," Kennedy said at a videotaped Washington, D.C., forum sponsored by the Center on Congress at Indiana University.
"It was added after the conference had concluded. It was added at the specific direction of the speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate. The conferees did not vote on it. It's a true travesty of the process."
The real travesty is that, evidently, this sort of behavior is not against House rules. Well, why do we bother to have a vote?
You will no doubt recall President Bush's tour last year in which he attempted to get everyone onboard with his Social Security privatization plan. At nearly every stop he was met with hostility and the more Americans heard about the plan, the less they liked it.
During the recent SOTU, Bush said that Congress failed to act on his plan to save Social Security. This was met with cheers and a standing ovation by Democrats. What's really funny, though, is that Bush never submitted a plan to Congress. In fact, if you'll recall, he said several times when asked about his plan that he hasn't put forth a plan.
Regardless, Bush didn't get the changes he wanted to Social Security last year. So, he just wrote them into his budget this year.
Brownie is getting a bit uppity. Bush doesn't want Congress to have copies of the communications between the White House and FEMA pre-Katrina. Michael Brown, ex-FEMA director has told the White House that he will turn over the correspondence unless the White House specifically asks him not to and pays for his defense.
Scooter Libby has testified that Cheney and other "White House superiors" authorized him to leak classifed information to reporters in an effort to defend the administration's pre-war stance on Iraq.
Rick Santorum is lying about his lobbyist-sponsored traveling.
So far, Max has had a really good week at school. Yesterday was "hump" day and I explained to him that it was a particularly important day for him.
"Last week you had good days on Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday, you'd lost it," I said. "Make this week different. Go in there and stay focused."
By golly, he did it. This morning, the weather meant that his school was opening two hours late, so I told him to keep the momentum going.
"You're getting a two-hour head start today," I said. "Make the most of it."
We have a deal. For as long as Max has heard the term "purple nurple" he's been curious as to what it is. His mother and I have held off on telling him for fear that he will introduce his classmates to the practice. But I told him if he had a good report every day this week, I'd let him in on the secret.
Feb. 8, 2006
George Deutsch has resigned his post at NASA. Good riddance.
Deutsch was a political appointee, given the job in NASA's public affairs office after serving as an intern in Bush's reelection "war room." He's 24 years old with a background in journalism from Texas A&M. I say background, because evidently, he didn't graduate.
He said he did, on both his application and resume, but as it turns out, he lied.
Now, a young political appointee with questionable credentials might learn to keep his head down and do his job without making waves. Not Deustch. He made it his job to tell NASA scientists what they can say about science.
The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," he instructed one person working at NASA. "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator ... This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."
Leave aside that it isn't NASA's job to push a religious view of cosmological origin. The Big Bang isn't simply someone's "opinion." It is a theory based on research and observation. As we learn more about our origins, the theory will be revised, but at this point, it is the accepted model. To expect a scientific body to discount it's own science in favor of politics or religion is daft.
He also told staff members to limit press availability to NASA's top climate scientists because he knew they would talk about global warming. Deutsch was a hack who didn't belong at NASA because he was unqualified. But he toed the party line and he was a good soldier for Bush, so he got an appointment.
This all came to light, by the way, when scientists at NASA complained to the NYT that their work was being politicized by political appointees. Then a fellow Texas A&M student who actually graduated posted on his blog that Deutsch may have lied about his qualifications. The next thing you know, he's gone.
Let's hear it for the bloggers.
Senators on both sides of the aisle are beginning to wake up to Bush's power grab. Smart members of Congress understand that Bush is term limited. He's gone in 2008 regardless of which way the winds of war blow. But they will still be there.
If they let Bush get away with, as Sen. Lindsay Graham put it "neutering the other two branches of government," then the next president will do the same. My brother Dan may not mind if Bush taps his phone, but how would he feel about President Hillary doing it?
One of the more interesting things coming out of the hearings is that, under direct questioning, Gonzales refused to say that there were any limits at all to the president's war time powers. As far as our attorney general is concerned, Bush can read your mail, tap your phone, demand Google turn over your internet search records, hold you in jail indefinately without charges or trial or ship you off to a foreign land where you'll be tortured.
If Bush doesn't have to obey the FISA law, then is there any law he has to obey?
The Jack Abramoff investigation has moved into the White House. Recently uncovered emails have Abramoff detailing his relationship with President Bush, which are contrary to Bush's account.
You'll recall Bush saying he couldn't remember ever meeting Jack Abram-mam-off. But Jack says differently:
HE [Bush] HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN’T RECALL THAT HE HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS.
And yes, writing your emails in all caps is rude. Abramoff was invited to Crawford on August 9, 2003, but declined the invitation because he would have had to travel on Shabbos.
None of this is illegal, of course. President Bush can see whomever he wants. But as always the coverup gets you in more trouble than the crime. Abramoff is going to take a bunch of people down with him. Bush is trying to make sure he isn't one of them. I believe he's going about it the wrong way. Lying about knowing the guy, when he's been such a big player in D.C. for so long just makes Bush look dishonest, much like it did when he claimed he didn't know Ken Lay very well.
This morning on the way to work I got behind a person who was a menace to the rest of us on the road. She was weaving side-to-side within her lane, was slow to get moving when the traffic in front of her moved and was slow to break when it stopped.
As I got closer, I saw that she was wearing headphones. Well, okay, that's not the safest thing in the world to be doing, but to each his own, I though. Then I noticed that she kept looking down toward the passenger seat.
What the heck was she looking at to the detriment of her driving? Then I saw it. She picked it up to move it and I saw what it was that was holding her attention.
She was watching a DVD on a portable player. Unbelievable.
What do you do in a case like that? Do you write down her license plate number and call the cops? Do you just drive around her and hope for the best?
At one point, she even littered on the interstate by flicking a cigarette butt out the window.
Bush went to New Hampshire today and the three major newspapers all took him to task over his budget.
Now there's something you don't see every day. A CIA agent has been arrested for breaking into houses and stealing money, antiques and women's underwear.
Feb. 7, 2006
So Alberto Gonzales testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Bush's illegal wire tapping. He didn't molify the senators very well, especially with lines like this:
President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.
There are a couple things wrong with this. President Washington wasn't fighting a war and he couldn't have authorized electronic surveillance. The others may have done so, but it all happened before the FISA act of 1978, which made it illegal to tap a phone without a court order.
Is the argument supposed to be that if something was ever legal than it is always legal? Laws are not voluntary, not even for the president.
Of course the president and Porter Goss say that just by talking about this, we're damaging national security. Think about that statement for a minute. If you're part of al-Queda, then don't you assume that the U.S. is tapping your phone? Do you need the NYT to spell it out for you?
Sen. Joe Biden asked that very same question of General Gonzales.
BIDEN: Thank you very much.
General, how has this revelation damaged the program?
I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.
I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?
GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.
And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.
But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.
The next note in the transcript reads "[LAUGHTER]."
Nicholas Kristoff, a columnist for the NYT, has a running feud with Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly started it by calling Kristoff a "left-wing idealog." Kristoff called O'Reilly a "bully" and suggested he accompany him to Darfur and demonstrate some traditional family values by drawing attention to the devestation going on there.
O'Reilly said he can't because he's too busy with his shows. Kristoff replied that with modern technology, O'Reilly could do his show from anywhere. So, Kristoff has started a fund to send Bill O'Reilly to Darfur. Those who would like to pledge money to pay for O'Reilly's trip can send their pledges to sponsorbill@gmail.com.
I would donate a few bucks if I could stipulate that it was a one-way ticket.
$300,000,000,000
That's the latest estimate of the cost of the war in Iraq. These costs are not included in the budget bill being considered, by the way. These cost are "off budget" meaning the money comes from supplemental requests a few billion at a time. The money is then authorized by congress and borrowed from Social Security and by selling T-bills to China.
$300 billion dollars. Early on, when White House Economic Advisory Larry Lindsey said the war will probably top $200 billion, he was fired.
Asked yesterday if the administration owes Lindsey an apology, Budget director Josh Bolten said "I don't think so. The costs of the war are what they are."
On Sept. 23, 2005, Patrick Fitzgerald informed Alberto Gonzales that the investigation of the Valerie Plame leak would encompass staff at the White House. The call was to let Gonzales know that he should give the order to preserve any communication records and evidence dealing with the case.
Gonzales said that he got the call in the afternoon after most everyone had gone home for the day, so he would give them the news in the morning. The only person he told was Andy Card, the president's chief of staff.
Twelve hours went by before Gonzales gave the order to preserve the evidence.
Now, Fitzgerald has just warned Scooter Libby that he believes some of the email originating from the Vice President's office and the President's executive offices were destroyed and not archived in the usual manner.
So, like many of us were screaming back in September, that 12-hour gap shouldn't have happened. But here's the thing. When the subpeona came from Fitzgerald, the White House stonewalled the order for two weeks before turning everything over. They said they needed to review it before releasing it.
But the law doesn't work that way. The subject of a subpoena does not get the opportunity to scrub his files before turning them over.
But as we've seen, this White House cares very little about the law.
Why do I keep hearing how it's the Republicans who are supporting the troops? I believe true support would be to supply them adequately, give them good leadership, bring them home alive and help them find work, education and healthcare when they get back.
Evidently, Rumsfeld believes soldiers should have to pay for their body armor if they get wounded.
1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV went to West Point, graduated with honors, spent four years in active duty, chose infantry and went to Iraq. Six months in, an explosive sent shrapnel into his arm, leading to a discharge.
Now he's unemployed and the army demanded he pay $700 for the body armor he got wounded in and was stripped from his body on the battlefield. If this is how the army treats it's West Point officers, then how do they treat the poor grunts who are just trying to get a G.I. Bill?
Late update: AmericaBlog -- a liberal blog run by a gay activist -- had a quick fundraiser and collected $5,000 to help this guy out. Where are the Republicans on this?
InSight Magazine is reporting that Karl Rove is threatening the Republican senators on the Judiciary committee with blacklisting if they choose to side against the president on the illegal domestic spying hearings.
I don't put a lot of faith in InSight, but I have even less in Rove or the Republican senators.
Here's a web site that is keeping a running tab of the number of kills Jack Bauer has on "24."
Coretta Scott King's funeral service got political very quickly. President Jimmy Carter brought up the secret government wiretaps of the Kings and Hurricane Katrina. Rev. Joseph Lowery who presided over the service brought up WMDs and the Bush's record of cutting progams for the poor and the lack of affordable health insurance.
Then President Bill Clinton spoke:
The audience showed where its allegiance lay when former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, came to the podium to wild cheers and a long standing ovation. He opened by saying that he was honored to be with the other former presidents. Someone in the crowd yelled out, "Future president!" in reference to his wife's possible 2008 bid.
"We can honor Dr. King's sacrifice," Bill Clinton said. "We can help his children fulfill their legacy. ... Every one of us are in a way the children of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King."
Personally, I don't like the idea of using someone's funeral to grind a political axe. But Coretta Scott King's life was political and she made it a habit of speaking truth to power. Plus, I'm all in favor of anything that makes the Bush's squirm a little.
And because I don't say it often enough: O'Reilly's an idiot.
Yeah, what Sen. Russ Feingold said:
"This administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms somehow has a pre-9/11 world view. In fact, the President has a pre-1776 world view. Our government has three branches, not one. And no one, not even the President, is above the law."
Guy goes bankrupt remodeling his home to be like Star Trek: Voyager. His wife left him, too.
I'm asked fairly often why I don't trust this administration. And while my first instinct is to ask "Why should I?" I do try to answer without being snarky. The most obvious answer is because Bush lies to us.
The National Journal has posted an expose on the Gitmo prison as well as an opinion piece on the prison camp. Bush said that these detainees were picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan. McClellen said that they're dangerous killers.
But the National Journal has shown that many of these detainees have no connection to al Queda, have no ties to terrorists, were not picked up on any battlefield and weren't a threat to the U.S. In fact, many were turned over by warlords and villagers looking to collect some of that cash the U.S. was spreading around at the beginning of this conflict.
Nothing about Guantanimo Bay, the war on terror or the war in Iraq seem American to me. My country has fallen so far since Bush came to power that it's hard to recognize it any more. And there's still three more years to go.
Feb. 6, 2006
I attended Badger's Superbowl Party last night. It has become a tradition, which is what he wants, I guess. It's always a good time. I saw some people I hadn't seen in years. Murfreesboro, despite it's rapid and uncontrolled growth, is still a small town.
Badger invited a couple from church and it turned out I knew them from college. Nearly everyone at the party had some connection to this couple. They spent about as much time catching up as they did watching football.
For the record, I picked the Steelers. Badger picked the Seahawks +4. And while I didn't bet, Badger lost all his winnings during the season because he didn't listen to me.
Brand spanking new Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner's first act as leader? Putting an end to the lobbying reforms sponsored by Speaker Hastert. Evidently, they "go too far."
Well, Bush says it's a vital, needed and effective tool in the war on terror. Those who are actually involved with the illegal domestic spying program say otherwise. The WaPo has a report that says virtually none of the intercepted calls have produced any credible leads.
Arlen Specter has begun holding hearings on the program and AG Gonzales is testifying today. Oddly, Specter doesn't want him to be put under oath for his testimony. He was under oath during all the previous instances when wiretapping came up. Why not now?
It could be because he's having to "clarify" many of his previous statements which have been proven false. No. More likely it's an image-management ploy. Since it is illegal to lie to Congress whether you're under oath or not, the only real difference would be whether the photographer get a picture of Gonzales with his hand raised.
Here's a little SOTU followup. Harken back to that speech by Bush when he said:
Tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative - a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research - at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy.
We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars, and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.
Now look at the New York Times report which says:
The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.
A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol.
People ask me why I don't trust Bush. It's because he's not trustworthy.
I'm not a big fan of White Castle. But this idea is hillarious. They're setting up their dining rooms and encouraging guys to bring their sweethearts to White Castle for Valentine's Day. You need to make a reservation, but once you do, you'll be treated to candelight, soft music, hostess seating and and indigestion.
I gave up watching wrestling a long time ago. My brother Scott wrote recently about giving up watching it in his house as well. I'm sure we gave it up for different reasons, him because he felt it was a bad influence on his family; me because I can't stand that jerk Vince McMahon.
Turns out we were both right. McMahon has been accused of trying to grope and kiss a tanning salon worker after showing her nude photos of himself on his camera phone.
Here's a story about a Pitsburgh woman who asked her doctor to induce labor so she wouldn't miss the Superbowl. Steelers fan, natch.
Of course the big sporting event I'm really looking forward to is the 2006 World Beard and Mustache Championships.
In Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. a group of gifted elementary school students have decided, after learning about nutrician in class, to refuse to sell fundraising candy to their classmates, even if it means having to cancel their week-long field trip to Washington D.C.
Good for them. Ironically, we need more people like that in D.C.
Crystal Meth is a big problem in Tennessee. I've never encountered the drug, so I'm not one to ask about its appeal. But the Partnership For a Drug Free America set up a site where you can look at the mug shots of people who have been arrested for using meth. Each shot (they come in pairs) shows the first offense and the most recent offense. Together, you get a very vivid idea of what this drug does to people.
The phishing jerks are getting more sophisticated. We've all seen the emails. A bank emails you to say your information has been compromised and you need to follow a link and log in to verify your information. But the link doesn't go to your bank and logging in will only give the thieves your password.
The approaches are many and varied:
A new email address has been added to your PayPal Account . . .
Your Amazon.com account has been suspended . . .
We're updating our records . . .
It's annoying and I hope no one falls for them. The other day I got a particularly creative version. I came as a message from an eBay member wanting to let me know he hadn't received an item I sold him. I hadn't sold anyone anything on eBay in weeks, so I knew they had the wrong person and I almost followed the link to tell him so.
Wait. Stop. Hold the phone. Almost had me there. But not this little black duck. I forwarded the whole thing to eBay's fraud folks.
Here's a tip for anyone who is unsure about whether the email you've received is legitimate or not. Click on whatever link they tell you to. It will most likely take you to a logon page. Input anything, just make something up. I prefer vulgarities, but that's just me.
If it is a legit site, then you'll get an error saying the username doesn't match the records. If it accepts it and asks for you to update your credit card information . . . don't .
I've had the same email address now since 1994. I'm in a lot of databases. I get email scams by the dozens each week. I can't begin to count how many times I've won lotteries in countries I've never been. I've been contacted by more corrupt Nigerian government officials looking to smuggle money out of the country that I seriously wonder if there are any legitimate government officials in Nigeria.
It gets a little tiresome.
Jim Gaffigan has a special on Sirius radio today at 5 p.m. central time. He's a funny, funny man.
