Remember a few months ago when the president assured the public that his warrantless NSA spying program covered simply international calls where one party was involved with terrorism? Remember thinking the president was lying?

USA Today confirms that the president, Alberto Gonzalez, Gen. Hayden, and representatives of the NSA have not been telling us the whole truth

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

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

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

And…

…domestic call records — those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders — were believed to be private.

Sources, however, say that is not the case. With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers’ names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA’s domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

Finally

The usefulness of the NSA’s domestic phone-call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear. Also unclear is whether the database has been used for other purposes.

Scary, scary stuff. Check back with us next week as we feature National Security expert Mark Brzezinski talking about the NSA and domestic spying.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

“Meet me outside in 20 minutes, Barack. I want to show you my other scar.”

Happy weekend, y’all.

…to the first person who can point out the odd juxtapostion in these two headlines over at the New York Times.

The Bush Administration: Hating anyone different since 2001.

The AP is reporting today that the administration, without public notification, rewrote Clinton-era rules to potentially make it more difficult for gays and lesbians to obtain security clearances.

The Bush administration said security clearances cannot be denied “solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual.” But it removed language saying sexual orientation “may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in determining a person’s eligibility for a security clearance.”

While the White House tries to minimize the bigotry inherent in the rule changes by claiming it is merely a clarification of current rules, civil rights groups seem unanimous in their disapproval of the new guidlines. Said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, “It is not surprising to me that this administration is continuing to roll the clock back on the most basic of protections granted by the last administration.”

While the old rules did allow sexual activity to be considered when doing background checks for security clearances, the criteria were limited to activities that consisted of a criminal offense, suggested an emotional disorder, could subject someone to coercion or showed a lack of judgment. Now the rules are written in such a way that private and consensual activities could “mitigate security concerns.” No word yet on whether these rules apply to everyone.

Hat Tip: AmericaBlog.

With the new make-up of the Supreme Court, there is all-out assault on reproductive rights and abortion rights in this nation. Now the Tennessee Senate has joined in the anti-choice battle:

The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn’t guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion.

The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.

Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile religious conservatives, including Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian who sits on the Centers for Disease Control’s Immunization Committee, are opposing the 100% effective Human papillomavirus vaccine because vaccinated teens might have sex. They would apparently prefer them to get cervical cancer, or perhaps even HIV.

“Religious conservatives are unapologetic; not only do they believe that mass use of an HPV vaccine or the availability of emergency contraception will encourage adolescents to engage in unacceptable sexual behavior; some have even stated that they would feel similarly about an H.I.V. vaccine, if one became available. ‘We would have to look at that closely,’ Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and a former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said. ‘With any vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition’ - a medical term for the absence of fear - ‘would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care.’

Ideology is so much better than science.

From RawStory comes the news that arch-conservative uber-pundit Stephen Colbert will be addressing a GOP conference on “Mastering Blogs.” Apparently, much like President Bush, Mr. Colbert prefers friendly crowds that won’t challenge him.

Hey Stephen - Why are you avoiding DoubleSpeak? He has yet to reply to any of our requests that we may or may not have sent to join us on the show.

Maybe he just can’t handle the truthiness, Slutsky style.

OK, we’re not just politics! I’d like you all to take a quick look at the article written by our sister, Carolyn B. Slutsky. She is a journalism student in NYC and had her first ever article published in the New York Times! Great job Carolyn, you are significantly smarter than either Peter or I will ever be.

By CAROLYN SLUTSKY
February 19, 2006

THEY were a staple of Communist Poland, punishingly drab restaurants in which the menu was scrawled on a handwritten board above the cash register, room-temperature yogurt drinks sat lined up on the counter, and waitresses in smocks served food on trays through a small window.

They are called milk bars, and despite their utter lack of charm, they are beloved by people who grew up in Communist Poland and remain popular there today. They are so beloved, in fact, that they also endure in the traditionally Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, even as the area is being fast transformed by an influx of non-Poles and artists and the prospect of development along the waterfront.

(more…)

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today…that means six more weeks of winter…time to be thankful for Bush’s environmental policy.

UPDATE: This guy is not too happy. Gonna be a long winter.

Matt Stoller, of the newly rebranded My Direct Democracy, attended a meeting of a bunch of bloggers and media types to discuss blogging, mainstream journalism, and the interaction of the two. Inevitably the discussion turned towards Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell and the recent dust-up over her false assertion that Jack Ambramoff “directed” money towards Democrats. Despite evidence to the contrary, Howell parroted the right wing talking point that this is a bipartisan scandal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Go read Matt’s piece as he addresses the problems with modern journalism, hope for citizen driven journalism and blogging, and how this all ties in to the broken Democratic party apparatus.

Stick with us as we try and fix it folks.