Checking in from dinner at Joe's. He made a very nice filet mignon, with broiled potatoes and a combination of mushrooms, a great fruit and mozzarella salad, and then homemade carrot cake for dessert. Was quite yummy. We just turned on the TV so Joe can watch Anderson on CNN - apparently, he's hosting their New Year's Eve coverage. (And Anderson is our unofficial blog mascot.)
Anyway, I've never been much of a New Years fan. Feels like kind of a fake holiday to me. So I much prefer the dinner with friends thing.
Ok, well hope you're all having a fun evening wherever you are. I'll check in later when I'm back home.
THE New York Times's explanation of its decision to report, after what it said was a one-year delay, that the National Security Agency is eavesdropping domestically without court-approved warrants was woefully inadequate. And I have had unusual difficulty getting a better explanation for readers, despite the paper's repeated pledges of greater transparency.
For the first time since I became public editor, the executive editor and the publisher have declined to respond to my requests for information about news-related decision-making. My queries concerned the timing of the exclusive Dec. 16 article about President Bush's secret decision in the months after 9/11 to authorize the warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in the United States.
I e-mailed a list of 28 questions to Bill Keller, the executive editor, on Dec. 19, three days after the article appeared. He promptly declined to respond to them. I then sent the same questions to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher, who also declined to respond. They held out no hope for a fuller explanation in the future.
The mentions his "lingering doubts" about whether and why the NYT appears to have had this story, but refused to publish it, just prior to the 2004 presidential election:
The most obvious and troublesome omission in the explanation was the failure to address whether The Times knew about the eavesdropping operation before the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election. That point was hard to ignore when the explanation in the article referred rather vaguely to having "delayed publication for a year." To me, this language means the article was fully confirmed and ready to publish a year ago - after perhaps weeks of reporting on the initial tip - and then was delayed.
Mr. Keller dealt directly with the timing of the initial tip in his later statements. The eavesdropping information "first became known to Times reporters" a year ago, he said. These two different descriptions of the article's status in the general vicinity of Election Day last year leave me puzzled.
For me, however, the most obvious question is still this: If no one at The Times was aware of the eavesdropping prior to the election, why wouldn't the paper have been eager to make that clear to readers in the original explanation and avoid that politically charged issue? The paper's silence leaves me with uncomfortable doubts.
John posted the huge story which the Washington Post broke today further linking DeLay and Abramoff. Now, DeLay's spokesperson, Kevin Madden, is defending the integrity of his boss:
A spokesman for embattled Rep. Tom DeLay on Saturday disputed any assertion that donations to a nonprofit group linked to the congressman influenced his legislative agenda.
Those donations, to a now-disbanded nonprofit group called U.S. Family Network, came from interests close to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a story in Saturday's Washington Post.
In an e-mail, DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said the donations were not a factor in the congressional activities of the Texas Republican and former House majority leader.
Yeah, right. Now, that would be the same Kevin Madden who misled the press earlier this week about the appeal of DeLay's case in Texas:
Media reports that U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay had convinced the state's highest court to hear his appeal were as widely circulated as they were, well, wrong.
Justices for the Texas Court Criminal Appeals agreed merely to consider hearing DeLay's money laundering case. They never said they would accept the case, said Edward Marty, the court's general counsel.
The erroneous media reports, which the San Antonio Express-News published in a wire story and displayed online, come from DeLay's spokesman, Kevin Madden, in an e-mail sent to reporters Tuesday evening, after courts had closed for the night.
“FYI-Breaking news out of Austin, TX,” the e-mail stated. “The state Court of Criminal Appeals has agreed to hear Mr. DeLay's habeas motion that was filed at the end of last week. The court has set a one-week deadline for briefs to be filed by the parties involved. The court could essentially decide to end Ronnie Earle's prosecution after hearing this motion and the facts presented.”
Madden said this afternoon that he made an error and never intended to “spin” the story.
“In an effort to be instantaneous, I wasn't precise.....My understanding (of the decision) was correct. The way I relayed it wasn't,” he said.
Kevin seems to have accuracy issues with his emails. So, now, when he says his boss isn't a crook, we should believe him, right? Can you imagine even having the job of trying to defend DeLay's integrity...and doing it with a straight face?
The MSM falls for the lies of the GOPers all the time. Just because they say it, doesn't make it true.
So, the Department of Justice is investigating to find out who leaked the illegal spying story, but the Bush White House will work to prevent and impede the Congressional investigation according to the New York Times. If they weren't breaking the law, they'd have nothing to hide:
Though Mr. Bush made no mention of the subject in his radio address, some of his advisers and national security officials say the White House has decided in the past two weeks to take a hard line with Congressional inquiries into Mr. Bush's secret authorization of wiretaps without warrants on suspects within the United States.
The White House's effort to deflect a Congressional investigation into a secret executive order he issued in 2002 authorizing domestic spying follows a strategy Mr. Bush tried - and ultimately retreated from - in the controversies over why he claimed Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa and what kind of warnings the White House received about Al Qaeda's ambitions before the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Bush's aides and intelligence officials say they plan to refuse to offer more details in public on why they believe the technology of the program made it necessary to bypass the secret court designed to authorize wiretapping efforts inside the United States. They are preparing to dispute vigorously and quite publicly the broader legal critique, offered by some Democrats, the American Civil Liberties Union and some Republicans, that the president acted beyond his authority as commander in chief.
"We're not going to shy away from this debate," Mr. Bush's counselor, Dan Bartlett, said on Friday from Washington.
In interviews over the past week, Mr. Bush's aides said they were convinced that Mr. Bush's decision to admit that he authorized the program - and then to say little about its details - will be enough to keep an increasingly fractious Republican majority in line.
Dan Bartlett is clearly lying. They are tyring to prevent any discussion at all about the President's criminal behavior. And, the GOP flunkies on the Hill, who fell over themeselves to impeach Bill Clinton, will try to let it pass.
Nice. and this is Ford's hometown paper. Very nice. Sends a great message to the rest fo the auto industry. And while the editorial rocks across the board, one line is particularly brilliant:
boycotts based on bigotry rarely succeed, partly because they prompt protests from those who believe in equality
I've said for a while now that the reason we win these battles is because each of these battles start as "culture wars" and end as "civil rights." And in the end, companies must side in favor of civil rights or they get destroyed by public opinion and the bottom line. AFA will always be on the side of the bigots, and nature abhors a bigot.
Ford Motor Co. protected its integrity, and bottom line, by telling the American Family Association where to get off this month.
Other companies facing boycotts over which groups they market their products to should learn to keep the bedroom and boardroom separate. It's bad business, and just wrong, to shun customers because of their sexual orientation, race, creed, gender or culture.
That's a lesson the American Family Association has yet to learn....
The group, which touts itself as being pro-family but spends much of its energy venting against homosexuals, has threatened another boycott. But boycotts based on bigotry rarely succeed, partly because they prompt protests from those who believe in equality.
Ford did the right, and smart, thing by not allowing consumers to believe it was bullied into shunning loyal customers to satisfy an organization's prejudices. It set the right example for corporations, customers and citizens.
Joe is making New Years Eve dinner for a bunch of us this evening, I suspect that's why he hasn't been updating the blog this morning. Naughty naughty :-)
Donald Trump is considering running for governor, a leading Republican said Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on Thursday suggested that a big-name candidate could be flirting with entering the 2006 contest. On Friday, he confirmed to News Channel 10 in Albany that he had been referring to Trump.
Bruno told the station he had spoken to the real estate developer and TV personality about a possible run.
I forgot that he had considered running for President already. NY Governor seems like a step down for him. And, is he conservative enough on the social issues? That'll be interesting to see.
The Department of Justice is beginning an investigation into the release of information about the Bush Administration's illegal domestic spying operation. Only in Bush world could DOJ investigate the alleged leak while ignoring the underlying crime. Every time they talk leak, we have to talk about the real crime committed by the President. Fortunately, that drumbeat has started:
Privacy advocates said today that the leak investigation should be set aside, at least for now, in favor of an investigation of the warrantless eavesdropping itself.
"President Bush broke the law and lied to the American people when he unilaterally authorized secret wiretaps of U.S. citizens," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "But rather than focus on this constitutional crisis, Attorney General Gonzales is cracking down on critics of his friend and boss. Our nation is strengthened, not weakened, by those whistle-blowers who are courageous enough to speak out on violations of the law."
Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said his group believes "the priority at this point for the Department of Justice should be the appointment of an independent prosecutor to determine whether federal wiretap laws were violated" by the National Security Agency program.
The Democrats can't drop the ball on this one. Bush committed a crime. And, he has to take the punishment. The President is not above the law which, you will recall, was the GOP mantra during the Clinton impeachment saga.
When all else fails, go back to the classics. The church always gets confused, thinking that this is their heyday and that they can simply get away with anything. Obviously the Archdiocese of Boston is feeling pretty good about itself these days since they are now taking full advantage of the statute of limitations, moral responsibilities be damned. Their response to the second wave of lawsuits is to get tough with those who dare ask for compensation. I used to think that the new Archbishop O'Malley was a step up in Boston compared to the disgraced (yet still well respected in the Vatican) Law but the more I see from O'Malley, he's just more of the same with his gay bashing and aggressiveness towards victims. The victims of church abuse have little to fight with other than the jury of public opinion so I hope they get some support.
On a positive note, the Archdiocese of Portland had been trying to shed their moral responsibilities by claiming bankruptcy despite property worth millions, received a major hit yesterday by the court. They lost their claim that property was owned by the individual parishes and not the archdiocese. This model has been used across the US in efforts to avoid church fire sales to compensate victims of church abuse.
The moral compass in the church needs some serious repair.
How do the Labour supporters continue supporting new Labour? Blair is more of a Tory than the Tory Party which explains why Bush loves him so much. It's funny to see that as Blair sits on the right the Conservatives are moving towards the left, or at least the middle. Oh the choices for voters these days.
A year after we were first granted the "right to know", new figures show nine out of 17 government departments have failed to provide adequate answers to half of the requests they received.
Further findings reveal that all but one government department has breached the FOI legislation by failing to answer requests within the 20-day time limit.
While Labour has been happy to release documents embarrassing the previous Tory administration over its handling of "Black Wednesday" - Britain's forced withdrawal from the ERM - ministers have been less willing to let the public use the Act to shed light on Labour's own political controversies.
For example, ministers are still refusing to release earlier drafts of the Attorney General's advice on the legality of the war with Iraq.
I really really really hope the Republicans keep Delay in his leadership post. He's now become the new Newt, the big liability whose name everybody knows.
From Ann's latest article, and it's not really clear why Yahoo gladly re-publishes this racist crap for Coulter:
Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell
Whitey has to pay;
Burning, shooting, oh what fun
On this made-up holiday!
Burning and shooting. But of course! That's what black people do, you know. They burn things and shoot people, especially on holidays. I hear it's in their genes.
Now I can see why NBC's Matt Lauer gave Ann a pass the other day when she came on the Today Show - nothing controversial about this woman.
Should get interesting when 350,000 Irani army members come swarming across the boarder into Iraq as a counterpunch.
This is why you don't start frivolous wars, so you're ready and able to fight the ones that matter. I don't necessarily have a problem taking out Iran's nuclear facilities, but for one itty bitty catch. Iran's army was half a world away, now it's literally on our border (i.e., Iraq).
Another of our weekly rants from my friend Cliff (no relation to Flicka)...
The Week That Was 12/30/05
Another week. More preposterousness to report.
This week has been a bit slow. Like a decision by a president to think "real hard" about an August 6th, 2001 warning of an imminent attack by terrorists kinda slow. Largely this is because our great national legislative bodies are in recess, which means Republicans have returned to their home districts to give reach-arounds to corporate chieftains while talking deregulation at their gold-plated circle jerks.
Yet, in a display more sickening than watching Denny Hastert remove his girdle while singing "I Want a Man With a Slow Hand," Hastert’s Heroes in the Republican House cut funding for Medicaid, Medicare and Student Loans while passing another $100 billion in tax cuts, including capital gains and dividend cuts. That’ll teach those damn overtaxed CEOs to stop exporting jobs to 14 year-old girls in Bangalore. (Jobs which they perform dutifully on nights off from Neil Bush.)
Look at how disgraced former TYCO CEO Dennis Kozlowski used his "tax relief" (Frank Luntz just had to go change his pants) for example. For when not pondering how to improve our existence on this planet or personally erecting orphanages, he was still always thinking about how his Bush booty could help the less fortunate. Except for that time he threw that chaste and refined $2 million birthday party for his wife on Sardinia, replete with an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David that sprinkled vodka out of its arctic penis right into your crystal glass! (I'm not making this up.) Now that’s corporate ingenuity!! And a good use of worker pensions to boot!
So cheer the swelling of corporate funds due to the four more tax cuts for the wealthy just passed by this Republican Congress, before they packed their bags and fluffers for their long corporate jet rides home. Although, in fairness, it could be worse. We could need that money for a war in Iraq (the "War In Error"), to balance an out-of-control budget and rebuild a city on the Gulf. At least we don’t have those petty problems. Yet, if your grandmother had to be tossed from her nursing home in Detroit because Medicare no longer covers the experience, or you encounter Hoovervilles for Tots being set up in aisle six of your local Wal-Mart, at least we now know it was for a good cause.
Speaking of good causes, what could be better than showing our bipartisan inclinations by supporting John McCain’s future ambitions to be President. I mean, c’mon, he’s a moderate, right? He’s gotta be -- the press loves the guy (note: some of us might have even been dumb enough to give him a small campaign contribution in 2000). But just maybe the mainstream media started to cover the Real McCain this week, with two newspapers pointing out what would be obvious if the press wasn’t normally enveloping him in more salivary excretion than a naked picture of Jeff Gannon at a Ken Mehlman cocktail party. McCain is actually Ralph Reed, with the obvious difference being that McCain’s reached puberty.
McCain is anti-choice, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay, pro-Medicaid cuts, anti-separation of church and state and pro-more troops in Iraq. Apparently, opposing the use of Barry Manilow and testicle electrodes as cruel and inhuman punishment while also thinking a 14 year-old wearing a Hamas arm band shouldn’t have access to a modified Uzi at a gun show qualifies one as a "moderate Republican" these days. I guess compared to the intellectually mummified miscreants running his party, he does almost seem sane.
Additionally, and how do we put this gently... McCain is a liar.
I guess we didn’t know that when he called himself a "straight talker" in 2000 he meant straight out of his rectum. McCain met with Jerry Falwell recently - you know, the guy McCain called an agent of extremism in 2000, who now seems more giddy about a McCain run for President than John Gibson after nailing himself to a cross to watch The Passion of the Christ. Wonder what promises were made there, Johnny? Dominionism?
Finally, in the most inane of the McCain Chronicles, he said this past week that students, yes students, should decide whether they should be taught intelligent design as part of their science curriculum. Well I have an idea. Let’s give those same students Apache Helicopters and Molotov cocktails and let them decide if they want to play a more intense version of Grand Theft Auto? How about we let ‘em decide if they want to cook up crystal meth in Home Ec.? The Pam Anderson/Tommy Lee honeymoon DVD for homeroom, anyone?
And last but not least, when speaking of inanity, we have Mr. Mission Accomplished, Bush the Bulge (now Peggy Noonan has to change), our humble president. To explain his propensity for listening into our phone conversations with those strange and exotic people called fur’ners (I know, some of them even use chopsticks - have they no God?), Bush now claims that his snooping is "designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings, and churches." Or in other words, Bush’s base. Yet, It still somehow doesn’t explain why he couldn’t get wiretaps approved by FISA Courts (courts created specifically for counterintelligence) 72 hours after commencing his peeping Tom (DeLay) act, like every other president, for those known blower-uppers of commuter trains. At least you stuck it to some of those bastards, Mr. President, by cutting their damn Medicaid funding.
Ok, they didn't really say that de jure, but they did say it de facto. Let me explain.
America's Taliban thinks that any effort to stop teachers from talking about creationism in science class is "educational censorship." Okay, great. Then I assume they don't mind every grade school and high school teacher in the country telling their students that many people, including all the top scientific organizations and a number of mainstream religions like Reform Judaism, think being gay is 100% a-okay.
Anything less would be educational censorship. Don't you agree?
I'm serious. If the intelligent design debate is going on in your school district, then put forward a proposal that all the health classes, social studies classes, science classes, and any other class that even vaguely touches on marriage, human relationships, sex ed, or sexual reproduction in humans or animals teaches that the preponderance of scientific research says that being gay is genetic, normal and healthy, but that some people disagree.
Here are a few choice quotes from the wackos to use against them:
It is simply "healthy education," he contends, to teach students about the controversy....
The Christian educators' advocate insists that government has no business banning viewpoints in the classroom. He says Judge Jones "needs to heed Dover's recommendation to be open minded" and to allow all the available science to speak for itself....
"If the educational community had held this position earlier in our culture, we might still be teaching students that the earth is flat or that the sun revolves around the Earth," Laursen asserts. "But as new theories developed, the logical place to debate these things and discuss these things and study these things was and is in the educational community."....
He considers the recent court decision banning the mention of intelligent design in the Dover schools to be a serious blow to academic freedom as well as a case where "[y]et another activist judge has forced personal prejudices on the educational community."
Nevertheless, Laursen promises, CEAI will continue to encourage its members to "teach all the science available in the 21st century, whether it supports evolution or not." He says the group will also go on urging teachers to bring supplemental science data and information beyond the mandated curricula into their classrooms.
Every single one of those quotes is in favor of teaching children about the controversy of gay rights, gay marriage, and gay relationships. And I am 150% in favor of teachers explaining that some religions and some quack scientists think being gay is wrong, and that the majority of science, all the top scientific professional organizations, and several mainstream religions say being gay is 100% natural, normal and health.
Someone emailed me today, suggesting that NSA might still be putting cookies on visitors' computers even AFTER they said they'd stopped (because it's illegal). So I looked into my cookie folder, saw a few from NSA (that could have been from the other day before they said they'd stop), so I deleted them. I then looked in the folder, the cookies were gone. I then revisited the NSA Web site, opened up my cookie folder, and voila, there they were again, set to expire in 2035.
I took a screen capture, which you can see below. Interestingly, I deleted those cookies and now am trying again and am NOT getting the cookies. Very fishy.
PS I've deleted some of the identifying info for the cookie because I really don't need to be telling the NSA which cookie is mine, not that they don't already know.
Frauds. Because leaking damaging information during wartime is such an anathema to the Bush Administration:
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.
The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Okay, with this Times Select thing, we haven't been able to link to some of the best commentary....I've pretty much given up on using them, especially since they are essentially unl
