Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Mother of All Investigations: Bush NSA Leak to New York Times: Can You Say 'Ellsberg Revisited'?

Straight from the New York Times:

Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Leak of Domestic Spying

It should come as no surprise that the Bush Justice Department is investigating the leaks to the New York Times about the illegal and criminal spying on American citizens by their own government.

It should also come as no surprise that Bush Administration officials claim that the beleaguered President has the power to conduct warrantless surveillance under the Constitution's war powers provision.

It does come as a surprise that this NSA-requested investigation by the Justice Department is going forward in light of the fact that this could reveal the true nature of the criminal activities of the Bush Gangsters. This may take on all of the characteristics of the Nixon adminsitration's handling of Daniel Ellsberg's leak of the Pentagon Papers.  It certainly smells like it.

Foot Note: Brilliant, affable, and witty, former sports commentator, Keith Olbermann may end up saving this nation.  Some of the work he is doing at MSNBC, like the John Dean Interview December 29, 2005, rocks:

OLBERMANN:  Put all this together for me.  Are the president's actions authorizing the NSA to spy internally in this country, are they illegal, and do they, in fact, right now constitute an impeachable offense?

DEAN:  Well, I don't think there's any question he's violated the law.  He's admitted to violating the law.  What he is saying, I have a good defense, and that is national security.  I have this power to do this, or this very vague resolution that the Congress granted for my using force in dealing with Afghanistan and terrorists.  I can read into that that it also includes collecting signal intelligence.

It's a stretch.  So what does this all mean?  Is it an impeachable offense?  Keith, that is a purely political question, and only the House of Representatives can decide it in the first instance.  And I don't think they're going to decide it against the president at this point.

"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." Bush At His Best

"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

It has made more year-end lists than any other quote.  It got more late night laughs than any other Letterman/Leno quip.

It is not funny.

It is what is wrong with America, and it demonstrates the problem with both Democrats and Republicans in their quest for power.  They cannot manage:

• They give us political hacks to run important agencies.
• They pay back contributors with our lives.
• They appoint men who can't spell Nordstrom's to spend billions of our hard earned dollars.
• They appoint the best hacker in the clubhouse even if he never so much as managed a crew of caddies.
• They appoint the worst hacker in the clubhouse because he will give his chief executive a political blow job when called upon.
• They are on mission to prove that 'government does not work' by terrorizing dedicated public servants and wasting money.

It also demonstrates what is wrong with us as citizens for not demanding leaders capable of managing.

Barbie A "Myth" -Who Forgot to Tell Ann Coulter?

Now word comes that the whole Barbie thing is a myth from the folks at Live Science.  According to British researchers, we do not have to worry about young girls emulating Barbie: Just before Christmas, however, a team of British researchers announced that many young girls mutilate and torture their Barbie dolls. According to University of Bath researcher Agnes Nairn, “the girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity….The types of mutilation are varied and creative, and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking, and even microwaving.” The reason, Nairn said, was that girls saw Barbie as childish, an inanimate object instead of a treasured toy...

...Yet recent evidence, including the University of Bath study, suggests that the “Barbie ideal” may be a myth. Just because a girl plays with a Barbie doll does not mean she idolizes it or views it as a physical role model. Critics cite statistics such as that if Barbie were real, she couldn’t walk upright, or bear children...

...The claim that Barbie can cause eating disorders also rests on shaky assumptions. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are serious diseases that cannot be “caught” from playing with dolls.

I guess Ann Coulter never got the memo.

War on Christmas Gift Cards and Certificates

I figure if you start a war, it should be a winnable war, a moral war, and above all a meaningful and useful war.

I declare war on Christmas gift certificates.

Christmas gift certificates were once beneficial, harmless, and did not incite violence or anger.  Here is what some retailers impose when a gift certificate is purchased:

• Some charge a fee.  A $100 certificate costs $2.50
• Some deduct  monthly charges ranging from a flat fee like $2.50 or a percentage of the value of the card. Each month, whether you use it or not, a $100 certificate can lose $2.50 or more.
• Most will not give you cash back.  That means when you make a purchase, you will have to reach into your wallet, unless you are bright enough to make a purchase exactly for the amount of the certificate - fat chance of that happening.
• Many will not 'read' your card.  That means after the first purchas,e you have to actually make a purchase to find out the remaining value on the certificate - again, keep the wallet nearby, so you can close the deal.

Some other tidbits:

Gift Cards Are A Great Christmas Gift, But Some Come With Restrictions

After two years of non-use the Bass Pro Shop gift card expires.

Gift Cards Give Retailers Headache (like hell):

The problem is that more than half of those people don't fully redeem merchandise. In the Deloitte study, just 48 percent of respondents had redeemed all of the cards they received last year.

Consumers Find Gift Cards Worth Less

Jenine discovered in the fine print what you'll find on a number of cards, that after six months of non-use, there is what's called a dormancy fee for not using the card that's taken off the card every month.

Gift cards are a racket, and a crutch for those who can't be bothered to shop for something specific for someone and feel that sending money is too crass. Unless it is for a bookstore, send me cash.

Tom Reynolds, Carolina Panther Cheerleaders, and Your Comments

Please send your comments to Waxingamerica. Up until this week, the Carolina Panther cheerleader posts received the greatest number of hits.  Now, Tom Reynolds and his associates' rants about the Roman Catholic Church have leaped into first place.  Interesting combination.

Let me know what you think, topics for comment, and whatever is on your mind.  Not to worry, we will continue to monitor both Borat and his peer journalist Ann Coulter.

Killing Democracy to Save It

Undermining Our Country to Save It

That is the headline from the Molly Ivins  piece in the Fort Worth Star Telegram today:

...As many have patiently pointed out, the entire program was unnecessary because the FISA ((Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court is both prompt and accommodating. There is virtually no possible scenario that would make it difficult or impossible to get a FISA warrant -- it has granted 19,000 warrants and rejected only a handful...

Which implies the obvious.  The FISA court acts swiftly, so there is no need to perform the warrantless searches rationalized by the Bush Administration, unless there is something else going on. And that something is else is criminal in nature, and it is being performed by the NSA (and other agencies?) operating the wiretaps and doing the eavesdropping. When the civil servants performing this domestic espionage under orders come forward, we will begin to find out more.

Greatest Gadgets: Tollroad I-Pass

Wednesday we drove to Chicago using the Illinois Tollway.  We zipped through the toll booths with our trusty I-Pass.  For the uninitiated, that is a nifty little device that allows you to go through the toll booth without stopping to pay using old fashioned bills and coins.

The new coin of the realm is this great gadget.  The State of Illinois takes out a few dimes from your account every time you pass a toll plaza.

Now that is a great gadget.  We went through the plazas waving at all the people in the long lines waiting to use outdated and time consuming cash.

Bush: Worse Than Watergate. Part III

One of the classic signs of an administration that is prepared to violate the law is the attitude that they wield authority which does not require either congressional or judicial review.

If anyone speaks for President Bush, it is his single-minded Vice-President, Dick Cheney, the architect of the Bush White House criminal pursuits. Cheney's most recent expounding on the subject of warrantless intrusions is revealing:

Said Cheney: "I believe in a strong, robust executive authority, and I think that the world we live in demands it. And to some extent, that we have an obligation as the administration to pass on the offices we hold to our successors in as good of shape as we found them."

Cheney spoke from his private cabin while on a trip aimed at boosting support for the U.S. war on terror.

Both Republicans and Democrats have discussed a possible congressional investigation into the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, the vice-president also told reporters that, in his view, presidential authority has been eroded since the 1970s through laws such as the War Powers Act and anti-impoundment laws.

"Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam both during the '70s served, I think, to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area," Cheney said.

But he also said the administration has been able to restore some of "the legitimate authority of the presidency."  (emphasis added)

Two observations:

• When Cheney says, "presidential authority has been eroded since the 1970s " he fails to recognize that that was criminal activity, not legitimate presidential authority that was limited.
• When he says that the Bush administration "has been able to restore some of  'the legitimate authority of the presidency,' "  the Bush-Cheney team attempted this without any Congressional authorization.  With the exception of some of the more questionable provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the wiretappings, break-ins, and eavesdropping was done without legislative authorization.

Last week I posted a portion of the report of the SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES  Bush, NSA: Nixon-Ford Repression Revisited.   It is worthwhile to again reproduce a portion of the summary:

(a) Given the highly intrusive nature of these techniques, the legal standards and procedures regulating their use have been insufficient. There have been no statutory controls on the use of informants; there have been gaps and exceptions in the law of electronic surveillance; and the legal prohibitions against warrantless mail opening and surreptitious entries have been ignored.

(b) In addition to providing the means by which the Government can collect too much information about too many people, certain techniques have their own peculiar dangers:

(i) Informants have provoked and participated in violence and other illegal activities in order to maintain their cover, and they have obtained membership lists and other private documents.

(ii) Scientific and technological advances have rendered traditional controls on electronic surveillance obsolete and have made it more difficult to limit intrusions. Because of the nature of wiretaps, microphones and other sophisticated electronic techniques, it has not always been possible to restrict the monitoring of communications to the persons being investigated.

(c) The imprecision and manipulation of labels such as "national security," "domestic security," "subversive activities," and "foreign intelligence" have led to unjustified use of these techniques.

Leap Second On Horizon: Time To Do Something

Leap Second

Next year will be arriving late – thanks to a slowing down of the Earth’s rotation.

To compensate for the effect, a “leap second” is to be added to the end of December 31.

This will be a chance to do some of those nagging little things you put off this past year.  You can finish the book lying by the side of the bed, change the oil in the car , or maybe even write thank you notes to the in-laws.

I think the guys who give us the extra time are same ones who threw the 1945ers out of the Baby Boom.

Baby Boomers Revisited (Two Days Later)

Baby Boomers May Balk at Direct Deposit

A new survey suggests that baby boomers are more reluctant to embrace direct deposit than their parents, an attitude that could force the government to continue paying millions to mail checks...

...The study, underwritten by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve banks, found that 59 percent of baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — take advantage of direct deposit of paychecks and government checks, compared with 72 percent of those 65 and older...

The study found that the main reasons people avoid direct deposit are: they like to go to a financial institution to deposit their checks; they don't trust direct deposit; or they like receiving a paper check.

I don't like receiving a paper check; I trust direct deposits; and I hate going to the bank - I love direct deposit.  Now I understand why I was thrown out of the Baby Boomers Club.

Waxingamerica, Christmas Day, 2005: Baby Boomer 1945-Who Did That?