Catching up, yet again...

Okay, so I've been a tiny bit lax in keeping up with this blog. I blame my brother.

You see, Vern recently contacted me and asked me to, in his words, "fix my shit," meaning his MySpace page. In order to get in there and figure out how to make it work the way he wanted it to, I had to join and read the FAQ. And, being the kind of guy who feels a deep urge to get in there and take part once I've signed up for something, I ended up building a MySpace page of my own. If you're interested in my writing but are sick of listening to me bitch about the current administration, feel free to go over there and read the blog I've started, as it is completely devoid of political rambling. Go ahead. I'll wait while you click the link.

Are they gone? Good.

It's been a busy week and a half since my post about Stephen Colbert's incredibly hilarious (and laden with truthiness) presentation at the White House Correspodents' Dinner. As I mentioned in that post, the mainstream media pretty much blew him off. The blogosphere, however, was all over it, to the point where it drew attention to C-Span removal of it from their own site and how they made sites like YouTube and Google Video remove the clips from their own sites.

For four days, it was the big subject on Daily Kos, where I'd be willing to guess that a solid third of the posts were in some way related to it, and other sites. Some of it is still going on. However, there was a lot of other fun stuff happening, so it was sort of moved to the back burner. But that doesn't mean we don't love ya anymore, Stephen! We're just trying to keep up with all the scandals!

Speaking of...

Hookergate...The New Watergate!

The head of the CIA, Porter Goss, abruptly quit (or was fired from, depending on who you ask) his job last Friday. Oddly enough, this was at the same time that he was starting to be scrutinized by the Justice Department concerning poker parties (with hookers!) at the Watergate Hotel. (I know, I know... Another Watergate scandal, and right on time, as Dubya's numbers get closer and closer to Nixon's at the time of the original scandal. More on this in a moment.)

Shortly after Goss left, Dubya announced that his replacement would be General Michael V. Hayden.

Let me say that one more time, but with a little more detail.

Bush announced his nomination for the new CIA head, a post in a civilian governemnt organization normally filled by a civilian, to be filled by a current General, a man who also answers to the Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld.

The result? Lots of pissed-off lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans. The confirmation hearings should be a hoot, especially with new information that has come to light over the past couple of days. I'll get to that shortly.

*****

Dick Cheney: Narcoleptic?

This really doesn't need much of an explanation. This picture was posted on the front of The Huffington Post today:


Looks like someone's not getting enough sleep. It must be his conscience getting to him. Either that, or Mrs. Cheney snores really loud.

*****

The Snow Job Starts

Tony Snow gave his first press conference today, what is referred to as a "gaggling" - an unaired briefing for the press corps - and proclaimed it to be a complete failure. Not because of his ability to not answer questions (he was actually quite good at that, using his "new guy" status as a way to deflect questions that might be a bit difficult to answer with a straight face); he deemed the briefing a failure because he held it in his office, as opposed to the briefing room, and it was way too crowded. He also timed it badly, and scheduled it incorrectly, causing several reporters to miss the first ten minutes of the briefing.

It's okay, Tony. First time, they'll give you a Mulligan. But you better hunker down and start lying good and hard next time.

*****

George W. Bush Can Finally Stop Competing With His Father

Amid ever-decreasing poll numbers, the words "a new low" have become old hat to George W. Bush.

However, a new poll released today says that his approval rating has dropped to 29%, matching his father's lowest point during the Bush I presidency.

The only real challenge for him now (aside from regaining all the jobs lost during his presidency, repaying the deficit that he allowed the Republican-controlled Congress to run up with record spending, removing the corruption from Congress, finding Osama bin Laden, finally establishing democracy in Iraq, regaining the trust of the international community, rebuilding New Orleans, stopping global warming, and keeping Dick Cheney awake long enough to make it through a televised press conference) is to see how much lower than his father he can go. It might seem obvious to most of us that the lowest he could go is, theoretically, 0%, but as someone on Daily Kos pointed out, if the dead start rising and voting Democratic, he could actually end up in negative numbers. Now that would be impressive.

*****

Big Brother Is Listening! (Or at least keeping track of who you call.)

An article in USA Today on Thursday told of another program connected to the NSA's illegal wiretapping program. This newly discovered program consists of the NSA building "the world's largest database" to keep track of tens of millions of calls made on a daily basis. by average Americans "many of whom," the report states, "are not suspected of a crime."

"Many"? Like how many? Half? Two-thirds? Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that only one-third of those whose calls are being tracked are not suspected of a crime. That means that the innocent one-third are having their rights violated by the NSA and, more importantly, their phone service providers. Those phone companies specifically named include AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. The only company who has come forward and said that they denied the NSA's request was Qwest Comminucations.

Not only are those companies in violation of their own customer privacy policies, they may also be in violation of the law. Two class-action suits for $20 billion and $5 billion have been brought against Verizon as of today. I have no doubt that more will come.

Dubya, of course, insists that everything is on the up-and-up, and nobody's rights are being violated. We can trust him can't we?

Well, no. We can't. Here's why:

"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order."

- George W. Bush, April 20, 2004, Buffalo, New York

Hey, what about when you admitted that you circumvented the FISA courts and didn't bother to get warrants?

"While the president approved this program to respond to the new threats against us, he also imposed several important safeguards to protect the privacy and the civil liberties of all Americans."

- Alberto Gonzales, during his confirmation hearings to become Attorney General

Okay. That's all right, then.

Since the disclosure last week of the NSA's domestic surveillance program, President Bush and his senior aides have stressed that his executive order allowing eavesdropping without warrants was limited to the monitoring of international phone and e-mail communications involving people with known links to Al Qaeda.

- An article on Truthout.org, quoting the New York Times' article about the original NSA program

Oh, so it's just the international calls that they're monitoring. We Americans that aren't doing anything illegal are safe, right?

Right?

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

- From the USA Today article on Thursday

See what crotchety old CNN reporter Jack Cafferty has to say about it.

What next? Funny you should ask...

*****

"It's just the tip of the iceberg."

Let's get right to the quote, shall we? From CongressDaily (subscription required) via ThinkProgress.org (for free!):

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. …

[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.” …

Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. “It’s an angle that you haven’t heard about yet,” he said. … He would not discuss with a reporter the details of his allegations, saying doing so would compromise classified information and put him at risk of going to jail. He said he “will not confirm or deny” if his allegations involve the illegal use of space systems and satellites.

(Emphasis is in the original article.)

What? There's more? I can't wait until next week!

*****

Cinco de Fitzo - Coming Soon?

The word is that an indictment against Karl Rove will be handed down soon. Some expected it to be today. I'm willing to wait a few more days. Maybe Fitz needs to get rested up over the weekend for his big press conference next week.

The word is also that Rove has already informed the president that an indictment is forthcoming, and he will be resigning from his job in the White House as soon as the charges are announced.

Karl? Do you have anything to say in your defense?


Spoken like a true Bush appointee.

All the best,
Derek
(DCF)