Looking for more confirmation that the White House has run out of foreign policy ideas?  Well, look no further: MSNBC is reporting that the new buzzword in Washington foreign policy circles is "containment", but what that means in the real world is anybody's guess.  Whereas it made sense as policy in the post-war bi-polar world of mutually-assured destruction that was the Cold War, in its current usage "containment" seems more an attempt to invoke the purpose, and fear, of the Cold War period for a considerably less dangerous, yet more complicated international environment.  For instance, does drawing all U.S. troops in Iraq into a number of large superbases really "contain" ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq or merely remind one of the ill-fated U.S. Marines sent to Beirut with no mission other than establishing a U.S. presence in the midst of chaos?  Surely, those bases keep Iran in check?  Only if you believe that Iranian tanks are sitting ready on the edge of some Middle Eastern "Fulda Gap" waiting for the word to cross two or three countries to get to Israel...but that would fly in the face of the known fact that Iran's military is considerably weaker than either the U.S. or Israeli armies.  Nope, the Iranians make waves by supporting terrorist groups like Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad.  Missle defense shield over Europe?  Sounds great but twenty years of failed tests and no workable system in the foreseeable future really isn't gonna cut it.  Where were we going with this again?

We had a bit of server trouble, but we have returned.

Its painful to look at the transcript to Homeland Security chief Chertoff's press conference today because its pretty obvious nobody in the White House talked to DHS about the details of the President's new border control strategy or how it should be implemented before he went on TV last night.

 Our double secret correspondent just saw Scooter Libby leave his lawyers at Patton Boggs only a few minutes ago.  Does this mean an indictment for Rove?  Cheney going down?  Only time will tell.

Okay, so we do a crappy job of providing pre and neo-natal care to all Americans and we have the highest infant mortality rate among industrialized nations, but what to do?  While some might suggest reforming the health care system, moving towards universal coverage, or putting more money into programs targeting poor and at-risk pregnant women, the federal government has instead decided to set guidelines saying women need to think about and take care of themselves as if they were always on the verge of being pregnant.....oh, and doctors should always treat all women as if they might get pregnant.  Of course this applies whether the women plan to get pregnant or not, because obviously the problem with high infant mortality rates is all these unplanned pregnancies and not the fact that over 17 million women in this country have no health insurance or put off seeing doctors because they can't afford to.  Christ, these truly are strange times we live in.

This is making the rounds, but enforcing the border with Mexico has been such a priority for this administration, that they proposed adding an additional 10,000 border agents in last year's budget and then decided not to because of "budget constraints".  Extending capital gains and dividend tax cuts to the tune of $70 billion...ah, no problem!

This headline should probably read: Bush to base: "I hear you!" 

This is called motive.

Bush breaks the magical 30% barrier.

President Bush and others assure me that they are not trolling through my personal life.  No listening in or taping my phone conversations, they're just keeping track of when, where, who and how often I'm calling anyone, and gosh darn-it it doesn't appear that person has to be in a foreign country after all. 

Man, does that make me feel better!  How about you?

Oh yeah, I forgot to put in one of the best lines from that USA Today article about how the NSA's unwillingness to offer firmer legal justification for participating in the surveillance program left the Qwest lawyers so uneasy.  It goes something like this:

 The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

Yep, the NSA was afraid that neither the FISA courts or the Justice Department would say what they were doing was okay so they refused to go that route.  Really makes you feel confident about the whole venture doesn't it? 

I'm trying to figure out if the lesson to this sad tale is to keep massive government surveillance programs as secret as possible for as long as possible and then slowly watch embarrassing details slip out and hope nobody cares, or just be open about them from the get go?  Maybe its just that old adage that just because you have the capacity to do something doesn't always mean that you should... it'll be interesting to see what other surprises await?

Jon Aravosis goes after CNN national security correspondent David Ensor for saying no laws have been broken because its likely that both the government and the telecommunications companies legally vetted everything before proceeding with creating the world's largest database of US domestic telephone calls affecting tens of millions of American citizens. 

While I'm sure Ensor thinks he's acting the responsible dispassionate veteran reporter in poo-pooing growing outrage over the extent of the NSA program, if he looked a little closer at the USA Today article he'd see that one company, Qwest, did have major legal concerns and they even went so far as asking the NSA to have the Attorney General's office offer a legal finding authorizing the turning over of their phone records.  When NSA refused to do that or provide your typical FISA court order, Qwest refused to cooperate. 

Me thinks a much more interesting story would look at how much effort the other companies went to to explore the legal ramifications of their cooperation in this program before they said yes to the NSA?

Are you among the tens of millions of Americans whose calls are being tracked by the NSA? Are you using AT&T, Verizon or BellSouth? The president today said, “Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates.” Tens of millions of us are in Al Qaeda???

 

I quote from my favorite book:

 

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (Amendment IV of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution).

 

Check it out, it's good readin'!:

 

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html

 

--E.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, (R-Redlands), Chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, sucked into the Cunningham bribery probe.  This one could get way big, if the DoD's own criminal investigator is to be believed.  According to him,  

      "This is much bigger and wider than just Randy 'Duke' Cunningham.  All that has just not come out yet, but it won't be much longer and then you will know just how widespread this is."

Its always the scandal you never expected that takes you down.

Today's USA Today reported that the NSA is recording the existence of almost every telephone call in America.  I can tell you that the lawyers are gonna have a field day with this one.  Every divorce lawyer in America is salivating at the opportunity to take a good look at all of those calls cheating spouses have made over the years.  Expect subpoenas to fly soon for data related to particular numbers.

Plunging poll numbers and a well-deserved reputation for ineptitude and suddenly every little thing the Bush people do wrong makes news; like sanitation workers finding official White House papers giving every detail of the President's recent trip to Florida in the regular old trash.