EXCLUSIVE: CIA Nominee Hayden Linked to MZM

By Justin Rood - May 8, 2006, 11:33 AM

While director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center of the Cunningham bribery scandal, according to two former employees of the company.

Hayden, President Bush's pick to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA, contracted with MZM Inc. for the services of Lt. Gen. James C. King, then a senior vice president of the company, the sources say. MZM was owned and operated by Mitchell Wade, who has admitted to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts. Wade has also reportedly told investigators he helped arrange for prostitutes to entertain the disgraced lawmaker, and he continues to cooperate with a federal inquiry into the matter.

Questions Raised for Phone Giants in Spy Data Furor

Qwest executive who held out against domestic spying left in 2002 pursued by insider trading claims. Was it retaliation?--BUZZFLASH

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: May 13, 2006

The former chief executive of Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest phone company, rebuffed government requests for the company's calling records after 9/11 because of "a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," his lawyer said yesterday.

The statement on behalf of the former Qwest executive, Joseph P. Nacchio, followed a report that the other big phone companies — AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon — had complied with an effort by the National Security Agency to build a vast database of calling records, without warrants, to increase its surveillance capabilities after the Sept. 11 attacks.

US in secret gun deal

Small arms shipped from Bosnia to Iraq 'go missing' as Pentagon uses dealers

Ian Traynor in Zagreb
Friday May 12, 2006
The Guardian

The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient.

Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Sat May 13, 6:29 AM ET

WASHINGTON - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission.

Feminist Mystique

Author Caitlan Flanagan proves Betty Friedan’s point: Motherhood can make you crazy.

By Kirsten A. Powers
Web Exclusive: 05.04.06

The ongoing “Mommy Wars” has been building with such ferocity that it seems destined for an old-fashioned rumble. The Greasers and the Socs used knives and tire irons; the working mothers will hurl blackberries and briefcases, while the stay-at-homes try to run them over with their minivans.

Barrels of ink have been expended to make unequivocal cases for the “right” way to be a mother, when any reasonable person knows there are no simple answers, and there is no panacea for raising emotionally healthy, productive children. So, why can’t we all just get along?

Digby: Baby Huey vs The Dauphin

They really didn't need to do this poll on whether Clinton outperformed Bush. It's obvious to anyone who lived through the era. What the story fails to mention is that Clinton outperformed Bush while fighting off the rabid, slavering GOP congress of Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott that was determined not only to thwart his program but used every institutional lever of power they had to destroy him personally. He wasn't perfect, but the guy had the most amazing grace under pressure I've ever seen. He even showed good humor about it most of the time:

"I'm a lot like Baby Huey. I'm fat. I'm ugly. But if you push me down, I keep coming back."

Bush by contrast has had a free hand.

Barbara Ehrenreich: The Class of ’06

What is spring without the torment of folding chairs and long-winded platitudes involving the future and all the glories it holds? I’ve been to two college commencements in the last few weeks – one where my nephew received his degree in computer networking, and one at which I was given an honorary degree in “humane letters” – and I’ve seen the happy, uplifted young faces as well as those slightly blurred by drink. At UConn-Storrs, where I was honored, graduates enlivened the proceedings by bouncing large blow-up balls around the bleachers, to the consternation of college president, who whispered to me, “This is the problem with having the commencement in the afternoon. Some of these people have been partying for hours.”

There are reasons, whether the graduates know them or not, to want to greet one’s entrance into the work world with an excess of Bud. At one point, back when I got my own real, non-honorary, BA in the sixties, a college degree was a more or less guaranteed ticket to the middle or upper middle class. With that diploma in hand, I could kiss my waitressing days goodbye. Today, no one even thinks of a college grad as being overqualified for tray-carrying. In some urban restaurants, a degree almost seems to be required, if only so you can pronounce the day’s specials.

Digby: Terror Management

Here's an interesting post at Thought Theatre about something called Terror Management Theory, which is a fascinating study of how people react to the knowledge of their own mortality. It's particularly relevant to this ongoing sense among some Americans that terrorism is an existensial threat even if they live in Topeka (or especially because they live in Topeka.)

When looking at the fact that nearly two thirds of Americans polled seemingly accept a program of widespread domestic surveillance, the theory offers a plausible explanation. Essentially, anything that helps assuage the fear of death can potentially be seen as an acceptable situation whether it be rational, real, or imagined. To offer an analogy, one might look at those who refuse to fly in an airplane…despite statistics demonstrating that flying is safer than driving, the fear of what is perceived to be a more certain death can overcome the logical data. I suspect this same thinking is, to a degree, at play in these otherwise confounding numbers.

Digby: Groundhog Day

This premature poll in the Wapo this morning has predictably led the little kewl kidz to conclude that the nation is so afraid of terrorism that they will go along with any number of invasions of their civil liberties. That may be true (although I have my doubts.)

But I wonder what the nation would think if they knew that the very same people who initiated this program in the name of the war on terror tried this long before there was any war on terror: more than 30 years ago. From Jason Vest at POGO blog:

None too pleased about AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth doing the National Security Agency's (NSA) bidding, Arlen Specter says he's going to haul the three telecom companies before the Judiciary Committee for some pointed questions. Deja vu; in 1976, the now-deceased Rep. Bella Abzug did the same thing with three telegraph companies for their similar handmaiden-to-NSA roles. Looking back to those events, we can't help but wonder if there's more history that will repeat itself--will the Bush Administration try, as the Ford Administration did, to extend executive privilege to private industry.

Digby: More Bad Guys

This diary over at DKOS illustrates why we should be worried about the administration asserting they are only targeting "the bad guys."

We stood with about 50 others on rte 674 and when the motorcade came by there was assault rifle OUT the window pointing at ALL of us and the cars all looked like I remember seeing in the Hitler motorcades in the movies when I was a child, all boxy and black and one had the Pres seal and American flag on the sides. It was absolutely chilling!

Digby: Bad Guys

One senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak publicly about the classified program, confirmed that the N.S.A. had access to records of most telephone calls in the United States. But the official said the call records were used for the limited purpose of tracing regular contacts of "known bad guys."

"To perform such traces," the official said, "you'd have to have all the calls or most of them. But you wouldn't be interested in the vast majority of them."

Digby: See No Evil

With primary election dates fast approaching in many states, officials in Pennsylvania and California issued urgent directives in recent days about a potential security risk in their Diebold Election Systems touch-screen voting machines, while other states with similar equipment hurried to assess the seriousness of the problem.

Digby: Freefall!

President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January.

Digby: Fiercely Protecting Our Privacy

I love to bash the Bush hadministration as much as the next person, but all this talk about trashing the Bill of Rights has got to stop. The administration has a stellar record of protecting American's civil liberties, even in the darkest early days, just a couple of months after 9/11. I'm sure you all remember this:

Ashcroft Blocks FBI Access to Gun Records

Critics Call Attorney General's Decision Contradictory in Light of Terror Probe Tactics

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page A26

The FBI will not be permitted to compare the names of suspected terrorists against federal gun purchase records, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the Senate on December 6, offering no encouragement to senators willing to guarantee the FBI the authority to do so.

Digby: Man's Better Hells Angels

It appears that Judge Michael Luttig learned the hard way that believing certain men can be entrusted with extra-constitutional powers because they are "good" is foolish. You'd think that a member of the "Federalist Society" would have known better since the main author of The Federalist Papers made it pretty explicit that this was the reason for the three separate branches of government. Luttig got burned in the worst possible way; he put his reputation on the line and they used it like toilet paper and then threw it away. And predictably they are now busily smearing his character:

When the opinion was issued on Sept. 9, Judge Luttig delivered a coup: a unanimous opinion, written by himself, declaring that the president's powers to detain those he considered enemy combatants apply anywhere in the world, including the U.S.

Digby: Doctrine From Hell

Matt Yglesias recommends this new book by Will Marshall. It is, apparently, a series of essays by various writers critiquing the Bush administration's foreign policy ideology and offering an alternative path for progressives in the liberal, internationalist tradition. It sounds interesting.

Yglesias says, however, they the book never mentions Iraq and wonders how any candidate can possible expect to get away with not addressing that vital question:

Obviously, any candidate for office in those elections is going to be expected to say something about Iraq. Among other things, we have over 100,000 soldiers currently fighting a war there, which is a situation being are going to be asked to comment on. And, of course, while one's view of the wisdom of the initial decision to invade hardly determines one's view of what should be done from here, the questions have a certain obvious interrelationship.

Digby: Oh NO!

Howard Fineman writes:

The way I read the recent moves of Karl Rove & Co., they are preparing to wage war the only way open to them: not by touting George Bush, Lord knows, but by waging a national campaign to paint a nightmarish picture of what a Democratic Congress would look like, and to portray that possibility, in turn, as prelude to the even more nightmarish scenario: the return of a Democrat (Hillary) to the White House.

Digby: Preparing The Ground

I'm sure that most of you read Daily Kos and have come across this diary by thereisnospoon, but if you don't you really should check it out.

Do you see how this works? Systematically, piece by piece, the GOP takes what had been considered impossibly radical positions and makes them worthy of consideration just by talking about them--and then makes what had been considered outside possibilities truly possible. Now, I happen to believe that legalization of homeschooling is a good thing (though there should be oversight)--others may disagree.

Digby: Hit After Golden Hit

Atrios is doing a fun series on Richard Cohen's greatest hits. If you haven't been over there to read them, check them out. The man has a very interesting history. He thinks racial profiling is perfectly understandable --- and really gets upset when his readers aren't perfectly polite in their disagreement with him on that. He thinks that women are asking for it. They should be aware that it's their fault if dirty old men like Cohen lose control when they think a woman is dressed provocatively in the office. (That's why Allah invented the Burka!)

Digby: That's Our Fratboy

Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report caught this little gem. Those fancy pants Connecticut blue bloods sure do have lousy manners:

The AP ran a report last night on Bush visiting Florida to tout his Medicare prescription drug plan. It was mostly boilerplate stuff, with one exception.

Digby: For History's Sake

Ms. Harris was on hand this morning to meet President Bush as he stopped in Tampa en route to a Medicare event in this nearby, senior-rich town — just one day after Governor Jeb Bush said publicly that he did not believe Ms. Harris could win against the Democratic incumbent Senator here, Bill Nelson.

Digby: Getting Played

I certainly hope that Democrats aren't going to follow John Dickerson's tepid analysis that concludes they shouldn't mention investigations or risk losing in November. They are being played.

Over at Political Animal, Zachary Roth writes:

It's also worth noting that Republican attempts to highlight the investigations issue have come almost exclusively in fundraising emails. In other words, they're using it as a tactic to gin up their plugged-in supporters, but not, so far, as a part of their broader message to ordinary voters. And when you think about it, you can see why they might not be too enthusiastic about a campaign message that draws voters' attention, even obliquely, to the slew of scandals and screwups of the Bush years. After all, it's not exactly inconceivable that voters might welcome the prospect of a party pledging to look into, and then fix, the policies of a president with a 32 percent approval rating.

Digby: Spook Kabuki

Now here's something to make you scratch your head. Jason Vest over at the Project For Government Oversight blog points out that the congress always intended for the CIA director or his deputy to be someone from the military, active or retired, and until recently it was actually explicit:

First, pertinent legislative history about intelligence chiefs: Since the CIA’s beginning, it has been, as our august legislators put it, "the sense of Congress" that "it [wa]s desirable" to have as either Director or Deputy Director "a commissioned officer of the Armed forces, whether in active or retired status," or someone who has "by training or experience, an appreciation of military intelligence activities and requirements." Congress specifically stated that only one position could be filled by an active duty officer, and further mandated that such an officer be removed from the Defense Department’s chain of command.

Digby: Nothing A Glass of Bourbon Couldn't Cure

I got in late last night and was able to only muster a short spurt of lefty blogger vitriol for Richard Cohen before I collapsed, but I've had my coffee and I realize that I'm not finished with him.

First, let's just stipulate that this "war" between the blogosphere, its readers and the mainstream media is completely understandable. People like Cohen's only feedback for thirty years has been a letter or two from cranky old ladies in Bethesda and a good natured spirited debate about motherhood over a bottle of fine 1998 Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir at George Tenent's house. He is out of touch. And that is the problem.

Digby: Crawling With Liberals

You can't make this stuff up.

Yesterday I wrote this:

Today, the CIA is crawling with liberals. The military is crawling with liberals. The Bush administration itself is nothing but a bunch of liberals as must be the GOP congress since they signed off on everything Bush has proposed. The media are, needless to say, nothing but squishy liberals.

The country is going to hell in a handbasket. The president and the congress and all their policies are dramatically unpopular. This, then, is just further proof of the failure of liberalism.

Digby: If You Build it, They Will Use It

As Bush continues to push his party over the cliff with this nomination of Michael Hayden, I'd like to look once again at the Hayden quote I posted over the week-end:

I'm disappointed I guess that perhaps the default response for some is to assume the worst. I'm trying to communicate to you that the people who are doing this, okay, go shopping in Glen Burnie and their kids play soccer in Laurel, and they know the law. They know American privacy better than the average American, and they're dedicated to it. So I guess the message I'd ask you to take back to your communities is the same one I take back to mine. This is focused. It's targeted. It's very carefully done. You shouldn't worry.

This same man, also quoted in that post, became indignant when asked if the NSA was spying on Bush's political enemies. He seems to truly believe that the nation must trust him and all the other people in the government to do the right thing because they are good people. This is the same attitude we see coming from George W. Bush.

Digby: Beautiful Monday

Here's a little piece of news to start your week off with a bang. The good kind. (Well, not that good...)

From Newshounds:

TVNewser reports

"Young viewers just don't watch The O'Reilly Factor like they used to. April marked Bill O'Reilly's lowest-rated month in the 25-54 demographic since August 2001.*

His 415,000 demo viewers in March was a new low, but O'Reilly managed to lose a few more in April, averaging 412,000 in the demo. Here's his post-Katrina track:

Digby: Embarrassing Us All, As Usual

Reader RM translated the first part of Bush's German magazine interview for your reading pleasure. Try to keep your eyes from rolling back in your head. He mentions once again that he knows nothing about the carpet, leaving out the fascinating detail that he "delegated" the chore of picking it out to Laura. I do not know why he finds this story so interesting.

"This Office is the Shrine of Democracy"

BILD and BILD am SONTAG in the White House! For 45 minutes the most powerful man of the world took the questions of BamS publisher and BILD editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann.

But the president didn't only give a big interview – he also led us personally through most famous office of the world: the Oval Office!

Digby: "Real Conservatism Has Never Been Tried"

That has a kind of familiar ring to it doesn't it? Get used to this new permutation of a very old trope. It's about to enter the lexicon. Predictably, like the Trotskyites about whom the fathers of the modern conservative movement obsessed, (and the fathers of the neocons were) the modern conservatives are reaching the point at which that sad rationalization is all they have to hang on to.

There is a very interesting discussion taking place all over the left blogosphere about how the conservatives have discovered that the entire Republican establishment, particularly the George W. Bush administration, are liberals. Glenn Greenwald has been directly taking on Jonah Goldberg on this subject (which is something like my cat "taking on" his toy mouse), Hunter at DKos has written a lengthy and fascinating explication of the process, and Kevin Drum, in a different vein, discusses political Lysenkoism as the consequence of conservative loyalty over policy.

NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’

CongressDaily reports that former NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Tice will tell Congress that former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden, Bush’s nominee to be the next CIA director, oversaw more illegal activity that has yet to be disclosed:

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. …

US in Secret Gun Deal

By Ian Traynor
The Guardian UK

Friday 12 May 2006

Small arms shipped from Bosnia to Iraq "go missing" as Pentagon uses dealers.

The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient.

Senior western officials in the Balkans fear that some of the guns may have fallen into the wrong hands.

Basics, Not Luxuries, Blamed for High Debt

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 12, 2006; D01

Why are Americans so deeply in debt? It's not because they are using credit cards to buy plasma TVs and premium coffee drinks at Starbucks. The real culprits, according to a new analysis, are the rising costs of housing, health care and education.

The debt of the typical American family earning about $45,000 a year rose 33.1 percent from 2001 to 2004, after adjusting for inflation, according to a study based on data compiled from the Federal Reserve Board's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances. The Fed report, released in February, gave raw numbers on debt levels. The new study analyzed the data more closely to determine the sources of debt. It was conducted by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank that describes itself as progressive and is run by former Clinton White House chief of staff John D. Podesta.

Michael Kinsley: Please Don't Remain Calm

Instinctual response in the wake of crises like 9/11.

By Michael Kinsley
Posted Friday, May 12, 2006, at 6:18 AM ET

The story of United Flight 93, more than any other tale—true or fable—of our lifetime, makes you wonder about yourself. These were not young soldiers in battle. This was not the culmination of some long crisis with time to ruminate and firm up your resolve. These were ordinary, middle-class and (mostly) middle-aged Americans going about their everyday lives, when—bang!—they faced the ultimate test. And passed. "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide," goes the old hymn. But usually it's not literally just a moment. These people were not just courageous. They were instinctually courageous.

I think I'd flunk. Oh, perhaps optimistically, I give myself a 50-50 chance of having the courage to rise from my seat and join a charge toward the cockpit (once I'd concluded I was almost certainly going to die anyway). What I find harder to imagine is disobeying the instructions from authority figures—flight attendants, anonymous voices over the public-address system, telling me to stay seated and remain calm.

Cheney and Rumsfeld Shielded Telecoms from Domestic Spying Charges in the 1970s

Posted by Jon Ponder | May. 12, 2006, 4:34 am

President Bush’s illegal domestic spying program is not the first instance of the government spying on American citizens in our history. To understand how the present controversy will probably play out, we need look no farther back than the Ford Administration:

After World War II, the NSA’s predecessor, the Army Signal Security Agency, sent representatives to the major telegraph companies and asked for cooperation in getting access to all telegraph traffic entering or leaving the United States. The companies complied, over the objections of their lawyers. When these practices came to light as part of a 1976 investigation into intelligence abuses, President Gerald R. Ford extended executive privilege, which shielded those involved from testifying publicly, to the telecommunications companies on the recommendation of then chief-of-staff Dick Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, according to the Project on Government Oversight.

Billmon: Finger to the Wind

Ken Silverstein at Harper's and Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker give us some more details on the life and times of Brant Bassett -- a.k.a. "Nine Fingers," the CIA operative who lent a bit of Austin Powerish international-man-of-mystery flair to Brent Wilkes's poker and prostitution parties, which otherwise read like something from the script of Porky's II.

Or, to quote a T-shirt from an Alaska bar that used to be (and maybe still is) famous in certain elite drinking circles: Liquor in the front, poker behind.

But I liked Nine Fingers a lot better before he had a name, when we could imagine him tracking Bin Ladin across the scorching sands of Baluchistan, or running a mole inside the Russian embassy in Islamabad, or refusing to cry out as Hezbollah kidnappers cut off his pinkie and mailed it to the CIA station chief in Beirut along with their ransom demands. You know, spy shit. With someone who looks like Harrison Ford, except craggier.

Billmon: Nobody Fears You When You're Down and Out

From the LA Times via Laura Rozen:

Administration allies said Monday that by reviving debate over the spy program, which Hayden oversaw when he led the National Security Agency, his nomination would provide a welcomed opportunity to reopen a tried-and-true election-year playbook in which Republicans portray Democrats as weak on national security . . .

Still, there were signs Monday that the White House might have miscalculated. Rather than Democrats leading the charge against Hayden, some of the most vocal opposition came from Republicans, including steadfast White House backers such as House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who will lead Hayden's confirmation hearings, has declined to endorse him.

Atrios: Money

The telcos may be complying with the NSA simply because they're being paid a lot of money to do so, or at the very least being. promised payment for other services.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

House Panel Urges Reworking of Leases for Oil Drilling in U.S.-Owned Waters

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: May 11, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 10 — Amid a growing uproar over lucrative government incentives for oil and gas producers, the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would order the Interior Department to renegotiate about 1,000 leases for companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The bill, an amendment to an appropriation bill for the Interior Department, would require the Bush administration to revisit scores of leases that permit companies to produce billions of dollars worth of oil and gas in publicly owned waters without paying royalties to the government.

The Case of Roberts's Missing Papers

Investigators Are Still Unable to Locate File On Affirmative Action

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006; Page A25

The country has John G. Roberts Jr. as its newest chief justice. What it doesn't have is an answer to the mystery of the missing file of his work papers on affirmative action.

The file, compiled during Roberts's tenure as an associate counsel in the Reagan White House, vanished in July when lawyers from the Bush administration were reviewing the materials at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., as part of a vetting process before Roberts's formal nomination to the Supreme Court.

NSA Stymies Justice Dept. Spying Probe

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press WriterThu May 11, 6:59 AM ET

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program.

"We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program," OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey's office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

Excerpt: How Would a Patriot Act?

By Glenn Greenwald, AlterNet. Posted May 11, 2006.

In an excerpt from his new book, Greenwald explores how fear-mongering became the most potent political tool in Bush's arsenal.

In one sense, it is difficult to understand how the Bush administration has been able to embrace such radical theories of executive power, and to engage in such recognizably un-American conduct -- first in the shadows and now quite openly -- without prompting a far more intense backlash from the country than we have seen

That is because the Bush administration has in its arsenal one very potent weapon -- and one weapon only -- which it has repeatedly used: fear. Ever since September 11, 2001, Americans have been bombarded with warnings, with color-coded "alerts," with talk of mushroom clouds and nefarious plots to blow up bridges and tall buildings, with villains assigned cartoon names such as "dirty bomber," "Dr. Germ," and so on

The higher the hierarchy, the greater the aggression

It only seems to be off topic.--Dictynna

Individual variation in social behavior is one of the most striking features of cooperative animal societies. In a new study from the June issue of American Naturalist, Michael A. Cant (University of Cambridge), Justine B. Llop (University of Cambridge), and Jeremy Field (University College London) investigate the extent to which differences in aggressive behavior within a cooperative society can be explained by "inheritance rank"--the likelihood that an individual will get to mate successfully in that society based on their rank--or place in the social hierarchy. They can only pass on their genes when they reach the top of the hierarchy, usually after those ahead of them in the rank have died and they have inherited the right to reproduce.

"Certain group members inflict or receive many more acts of aggression than others. In some cases, these acts (which include bites, shoves, mounts, and charges) appear to regulate cooperative activity in the group by activating lazy workers, for example, or punishing defectors," write the researchers.

Students feel safer in ethnically diverse schools, UCLA psychologists report

Middle school students are more likely to feel safer, less bullied and less lonely in ethnically diverse schools, psychologists from UCLA and UC Davis report in a new study of more than 70 sixth-grade classrooms in 11 Los Angeles public middle schools with predominantly minority and low-income students.

"Bullying happens in every school, and many students are concerned about their safety," said Jaana Juvonen, UCLA professor of psychology, chair of developmental psychology and lead author of the study. "However, our analysis shows students feel safer in ethnically diverse classrooms and schools."

Record air pollution above the Arctic

Last week Scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research observed the highest air pollution on record since measurements began in Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. Monitoring instruments displayed significantly increased aerosol concentrations compared to those generally found. Aerosols from eastern Europe have been transported into the Arctic atmosphere due to a particular large-scale weather situation.

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAYThu May 11, 7:21 AM ET

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.

Harold Meyerson: The GOP's Bankruptcy of Ideas

Wednesday, May 10, 2006; Page A25

The emerging Republican game plan for 2006 is, at bottom, a tautology: If the Democrats retake Congress it will mean, well, that the Democrats retake Congress. (Cue lightning bolt and ominous clap of thunder.) Karl Rove and his minions have plumb run out of issues to campaign on. They can't run on the war. They can't run on the economy, where the positive numbers on growth are offset by the largely stagnant numbers on median incomes and the public's growing dread of outsourcing. Immigration may play in various congressional districts, but it's too dicey an issue to nationalize. Even social conservatives may be growing weary of outlawing gay marriage every other November. Nobody's buying the ownership society. Competence? Ethics? You kidding?

NYT Editorial: Social Security Endures

The New York Times | Editorial

Monday 08 May 2006

Buried in the newly released 2006 annual report on Social Security, there is good news on the program's long-term health. But don't expect to hear President Bush talking about it. His main comment on the new report is that the system is "going broke." He apparently still wants people to believe that their only options are ending up with nothing from the government in old age or relying on financial markets. That's a false choice and Americans recognized it as such when they rejected his push last year for private accounts.

Projected "cost rates" in this year's report show smaller annual deficits in Social Security than had previously been assumed, starting around mid-century. The 75-year projection ends in 2080 with a shortfall that is less than last year's estimates by $57 billion, in today's dollars. That's important, because the smaller the deficit, the less drastic the reforms needed to keep the program going strong.

The deficit is lower because government statisticians now assume that American women will have two children, on average, versus an earlier estimate of 1.95. The happy result for Social Security is that more taxpayers make for a healthier system. That is not to suggest that increased fertility is the key to strengthening Social Security. It obviously helps, as would more immigration or stronger wage growth.

Threat Seen From Antibacterial Soap Chemicals

The compounds end up in sewage sludge that is spread on farm fields across the country.

By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
May 10, 2006

Tons of chemicals in antibacterial soaps used in the bathrooms and kitchens of virtually every home are being released into the environment, yet no government agency is monitoring or regulating them in water supplies or food.

About 75% of a potent bacteria-killing chemical that people flush down their drains survives treatment at sewage plants, and most of that ends up in sludge spread on farm fields, according to Johns Hopkins University research. Every year, it says, an estimated 200 tons of two compounds — triclocarban and triclosan — are applied to agricultural lands nationwide.

Is it a Massachusetts 'Miracle'?

The Heritage Foundation plays key role in a new health care initiative that promises to cover 95% of the state's uninsured

A few weeks back UC Berkeley's Nicholas C. Petris Center on Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare (named after the former California State Senator whose legislative career was marked by his deep concern with California's health care issues) sponsored a seminar on health care. One panel in particular examined the current status of California's Proposition 63 -- the State's 2004 mental health initiative funded through a tax on millionaires.

While many considered the passage of Proposition 63 something of an electoral "miracle," these days just about everyone involved in health care policy is talking about another "miracle" -- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's plan to provide healthcare insurance for 95 percent of the state's uninsured.

House to Vote on $70B Investor Tax Cuts

Wednesday May 10, 2006 4:16 PM

AP Photo NYET777

By ANDREW TAYLOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republican leaders are ready to move forward on tax breaks worth $70 billion over five years to investors and some middle-income families now that they've sorted out a disagreement among themselves.

The breakthrough Tuesday set up a vote in the House late Wednesday.

South Texas Hold ’Em

The feds and private prison companies bet on an immigration “endgame”

by Forrest Wilder

For the savvy investor looking for a growth industry, South Texas offers a sure thing. The business calculus is simple: More immigrants than ever are being apprehended. That means the federal government needs more detention centers and more people to run them. No matter how the national debate on immigration plays out in Congress, the corporations that have moved into the business of building and operating detention centers are likely to see a steady stream of revenue for years to come.

The United States Marshals Service, for example, is now soliciting bids from private companies to build, own, and operate a 2,800-bed detention facility near Laredo. The “superjail,” as it has come to be called, will serve the federal criminal court in downtown Laredo, which is loaded up with immigration-related cases in what the Marshals Service calls an “emergency [detention] situation.” The $100 million superjail is expected to be one of the largest private detention centers in the nation, and will join a growing chain of county and local jails and private detention facilities all over Texas that coordinate with federal agencies to hold immigrants—some destined for trials or hearings, others for deportation.

Blair: I'll quit next year - trust me

By George Jones, Political Editor and Brendan Carlin
(Filed: 09/05/2006)

Tony Blair abandoned his election promise to serve a full third term last night, indicating that he could stand down next summer.

Although he refused to set a timetable for his departure, saying that it would paralyse government, he anointed Gordon Brown as his successor and promised to give him sufficient time to establish himself before the next election.

Video :Gen. Michael Hayden refused to answer question about spying on political enemies at National Press Club.

At a public appearance, Bush's pointman in the Office of National Intelligence was asked if the NSA was wiretapping Bush's political enemies. When Hayden dodged the question, the questioner repeated, "No, I asked, are you targeting us and people who politically oppose the Bush government, the Bush administration? Not a fishing net, but are you targeting specifically political opponents of the Bush administration?" Hayden looked at the questioner, and after a silence called on a different questioner. (Hayden National Press Club remarks, 1/23/06) (video ) (audio )

Paul Krugman: Who's Crazy Now?

The New York Times
Published: May 8, 2006

Some people say that bizarre conspiracy theories play a disturbingly large role in current American political discourse. And they're right.

For example, many conservative politicians and pundits seem to agree with James Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, who has declared that "man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Of more immediate political relevance is the claim that the reason we hear mainly bad news from Iraq is that the media, for political reasons, are conspiring to suppress the good news. As Bill O'Reilly put it a few months ago, "a good part of the American media wants to undermine the Bush administration."

Bush Moves to Circumvent Court in Guantanamo Case

President Bush has done it again. Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear oral argument Qassim v. Bush, the Guantanamo case involving the Uighur detainees from Western China who have been held without charges for four years. (Background here.)

On Friday, the Administration filed a motion seeking to declare the case moot, because it had just agreed to release the men to Albania where they will be resettled as refugees.

Ex-NSA Chief Blasts Taps, Calls for CIA Breakup

Former NSA director Admiral Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps – and called for the CIA to be broken up in two. It's one of the first times a former high-ranking intelligence official has criticized the program in public, analysts say.

"This activity is not authorized," Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping, sponsored by the New York Public Library. The Bush administration "need[s] to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it."

Molly Ivins: Hookergate: Poker, hookers and the Watergate building

Malfeasance in government

Congress For Sale: Take action!

AUSTIN, Texas -- Of course I am above sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. So serious a servant of the public interest am I, I can fogey with the best: On my better days, I make David Broder look like Page Six.

I don't care what anyone smoked 20 years ago, I approve of those who boogie 'til they puke, and I don't care who anyone in politics is screwing in private, as long as they're not screwing the public.

Bush Nominates Another Crony and Political Hack to the Court - Kavanaugh Was Investigator for Ken Starr

Posted by Jon Ponder | May. 10, 2006, 7:21 am

President Bush and Republicans are hoping to rally their increasingly disengaged base around the troubled nomination to the judiciary of Brett Kavanaugh, a White House staffer who was heavily involved in the Clinton wars as a staffer for prosecutor Ken Starr — and whose rating by the American Bar Association (ABA) was recently downgraded due to his lack of experience, partly because he has never tried a case that reached a verdict.

Kavanaugh is married to the former Ashley Estes, who was a personal secretary to President Bush, and who serves on the search team for the president’s library in Texas, along with another Bush secretary, Harriet Miers, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rescinded by President Bush in a storm of criticism from rightwingers last year.

Our racial identity affects who we see

A study published in the current issue of Psychological Science finds that a person's racial identity influences who he or she sees. The authors asked biracial participants (one Black and one White parent) to think about their Black parent's ethnicity. After, they could spot the presence or lack of a Black face in a crowd of White faces with the same speed and accuracy as a monoracial Black person. The same held true when asked to think of their White parent. Although all detected Black faces faster than white faces, biracial students were affected by thinking about one half of their racial identity and then behaved as if they were monoracial.

Abstinence debate roils talk on STDs; PSU student eliminated from panel

By Dawn Fallik
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Researchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed a congressman to include two abstinence-only proponents, bypassing the scientific approval process.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who chairs the House subcommittee on drug policy, questioned the balance of the original panel, which focused on the failure of abstinence-until-marriage programs. In e-mail to Health and Human Services officials, his office asked whether the CDC was "clear about the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective."

FBI Puts SOA Watch under “Counterterrorism” Surveillances

By Matthew Rothschild

May 4, 2006

The FBI has been keeping tabs on SOA Watch, the human rights group that monitors the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

In fact, the FBI has elevated its concern to “priority” level, claiming that the group is subject to “counterterrorism” monitoring, according to documents released on May 4 by the ACLU and its Georgia chapter.

SOA Watch was founded by Father Roy Bourgeois back in 1990, and it organizes annual protests at Fort Benning that now draw about 10,000 protesters. (The School of the Americas, in a PR stunt, has changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.)

Contra-Contraception

By RUSSELL SHORTO

Published: May 7, 2006

The English writer Daniel Defoe is best remembered today for creating the ultimate escapist fantasy, "Robinson Crusoe," but in 1727 he sent the British public into a scandalous fit with the publication of a nonfiction work called "Conjugal Lewdness: or, Matrimonial Whoredom." After apparently being asked to tone down the title for a subsequent edition, Defoe came up with a new one — "A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed" — that only put a finer point on things. The book wasn't a tease, however. It was a moralizing lecture. After the wanton years that followed the restoration of the monarchy, a time when both theaters and brothels multiplied, social conservatism rooted itself in the English bosom. Self-appointed Christian morality police roamed the land, bent on restricting not only homosexuality and prostitution but also what went on between husbands and wives.

Don't Feed the Beast

Bush Should End This Tax Cut Myth

By Sebastian Mallaby

Monday, May 8, 2006; Page A19

George W. Bush is not the sort of president who reads journals such as the Atlantic Monthly. But at least someone at the White House should check out the piece in the new issue by Jonathan Rauch. For honest believers in tax cuts, it's devastating.

It's been a long time since honest believers argued that tax cuts pay for themselves. When you have extremely high rates of taxation -- say, 70 percent-plus -- there may be something to this claim: When rates are that high, the rich go to extraordinary lengths to evade taxes and aren't motivated to earn more, so it's not crazy to argue that tax cuts might boost tax receipts. But you have to go back to the 1970s to find tax rates that high. When the top income tax bracket is in the 30 to 40 percent range, nobody serious believes that tax cuts change behavior enough to pay for themselves.

No more cancer screenings for you

Posted by Deanna Zandt on May 8, 2006 at 5:48 AM.

Just the way everyone wants to start their work week -- with word of their healthcare benefits being stripped away. Via Christy at Fireddoglake, there's a bill in Congress right now, the Enzi bill (S. 1955), that would allow insurers to bypass state regulations requiring insurers to cover:

• cancer screenings,
• contraception,
• emergency services,
• mental health care, and
• diabetic supplies.

Our brand is better than their brand

Think of the political implications...--Dictynna

New study shows that 'positive framing' makes consumers less biased

While these messages seem only subtly unlike, they cause consumers to focus on different pieces of product information, according to a new study in the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. That's because one employs "positive framing" – focusing on the superiority of one brand over another – while the other highlights how the competitor's product is not as good , or "negative framing."

"Developing a richer, more complete understanding of the moderating role of message framing is important, not only in the comparative ad domain, but also in the broader context of information processing," explain Anne Roggeveen (Babson College), Dhruv Grewal (Babson College), and Gerry Gotlieb (Western Kentucky University). "We tested the moderating impact of framing in a variety of situations and find results which can consistently be explained by the fact that the positive frame engenders more thorough analysis of message cues than negative frames."

Glenn Greenwald: The Bush administration is radical, but not ideological

There have been several interesting responses to the post I wrote regarding the emerging (and largely unprincipled) effort by conservatives to disassociate their political movement from the wildly unpopular George Bush by now proclaiming that Bush is not only a non-conservative, but is actually a liberal. The goal seems to be to ensure that liberalism, rather than conservatism, is to be blamed for Bush's collapsed presidency.

The branding of Bush as a "liberal" is something that appeared in this National Review article by Jonah Goldberg, and my subsequent exchange with Goldberg has spawned further posts on the subject -- including this reasonably substantive new reply from Goldberg himself, this thorough examination from Hunter at Daily Kos of how self-proclaimed "conservatives" actually govern (as opposed to how they theorize), and this not particularly coherent protest from Josh Trevino (at the new, "interestingly" named blog Swords Crossed), which almost entirely misses all of the points that have been made. I wanted to post a further reply because I think these issues are both interesting and important.

Digby: Spinning Class

Referring to Laura Rozen's provocative post (linked below) Kevin Drum wonders what's up with the press corps. Why are they buying this pile of sliced and diced baloney?

Two words: Tony Snow.

They are giving him "the benefit of the doubt." He's a nice guy. They are establishing a new relationship --- it wouldn't be nice to be skeptical of him before he's even had a chance to prove them wrong.

Billmon: The Very Hungry Congressman

Over the past eight years, [Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA] has spent about $80,000 of campaign treasury funds — donated money that congressional ethics rules say should be used for “bona fide campaign or political purposes” — on restaurant meals. His dining choices range from high-end establishments like The Monocle, a Capitol Hill restaurant popular with lawmakers and lobbyists, to the humble Cracker Barrel . . .

Weldon shows no sign of slowing his spending pace. His most recent filing shows that he dined four times at The Monocle between October 14, 2005, and November 17, 2005, running up a tab of $495.

Harper's
How Do You Handle a Hungry Man?
May 4, 2006

In the light of the moon, a little campaign lay on a leaf. One November morning the voters came out, and POP, out of the campaign came a tiny, very hungry Congressman. He started looking for some food.

Tap water may raise bladder cancer risk: study

Fri May 5, 1:40 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pooled data from six case-control studies suggest that higher consumption of tap water-based drinks may slightly increase the risk of bladder cancer among men.

The increased risk of bladder cancer with tap water consumption was "consistently found in all six studies, making chance an unlikely explanation," write investigators in the International Journal of Cancer.

John Dean Rips New 'Deep Throat' Book in Review

By E&P Staff

Published: May 06, 2006 2:35 PM ET

NEW YORK John Dean, the former Nixon counsel, knows a thing or two about Watergate, and in a review to be published in The New York Times on Sunday, he lacerates the new memoir by (or claimed to be by) "Deep Throat," a.k.a. W. Mark Felt.

Dean writes bluntly that the book "adds absolutely nothing to our understanding about Felt's role as Bob Woodward's source during Watergate."

Panel Faults Pfizer in '96 Clinical Trial In Nigeria

Unapproved Drug Tested on Children

By Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 7, 2006; A01

A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that Pfizer Inc. violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.

That finding is detailed in a lengthy Nigerian government report that has remained unreleased for five years, despite inquiries from the children's attorneys and from the media. The Washington Post recently obtained a copy of the confidential report, which is attracting congressional interest. It was provided by a source who asked to remain anonymous because of personal safety concerns.

Paul Krugman: Our Sick Society

The New York Times
Published: May 5, 2006

Is being an American bad for your health? That's the apparent implication of a study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

It's not news that something is very wrong with the state of America's health. International comparisons show that the United States has achieved a sort of inverse miracle: we spend much more per person on health care than any other nation, yet we have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, Japan and most of Europe.

But it isn't clear exactly what causes this stunningly poor performance. How much of America's poor health is the result of our failure, unique among wealthy nations, to guarantee health insurance to all? How much is the result of racial and class divisions? How much is the result of other aspects of the American way of life?

Spies Among Us

Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans

By David E. Kaplan

5/8/06

In the Atlanta suburbs of DeKalb County, local officials wasted no time after the 9/11 attacks. The second-most-populous county in Georgia, the area is home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI's regional headquarters, and other potential terrorist targets. Within weeks of the attacks, officials there boasted that they had set up the nation's first local department of homeland security. Dozens of other communities followed, and, like them, DeKalb County put in for--and got--a series of generous federal counterterrorism grants. The county received nearly $12 million from Washington, using it to set up, among other things, a police intelligence unit.