The operable quote, both yesterday and today, in regard to how widespread or in what way the NSA domestic phone number tracking program is being used is as follows:

"President Bush said Thursday the government is "not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans" with a reported program to create a massive database of U.S. phone calls."

http://www.cnn.com/...

In his radio address today, Bush said pretty much the exact same thing:

"The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. We are not trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda terrorists and its affiliates who want to harm the American people."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/...

He's on now.  And boy, is he ever stupid.

I mean, dumb as a fuckin' rock stupid.

Usually, I am the decider, media reports to the contrary. Here's your chance to make a decid-i-cation.  

It's clearly a touchy subject around here about how to answer Michelle Malkin's despicable action of posting students' personal information.

At least that's the headline on Fox's website.  Scroll down to "Politics Headlines" to see what I mean (http://www.foxnews.com/...).

The problem is, there's no actual video there, or at least my little abacus isn't processing it.

I did see the report, from Cameron Whathiznuts on the story a few minutes ago, and apologize if this has already been posted, but I didn't notice it if so.  

Can we just stop all the self-loathing and bitching for a second and remember some of the things America is great for?

For example, America leads the world in snark.  Is there a greater resevoir of snark-inducing material than right here in the good ol' USA?  I think not.  Just look at the best shows on the tube:  The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Office, Arrested Development, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, Sons and Daughters.  Snark-fests, each and every one.  And God bless them all.  (Come back soon, AD, we hardly knew ye...)

The greatest snark-o-ramas of them all are right here, in dKos' own invention: C&J.  Cheers to you, C&J, and all who make each C&J entry as snark-tacular as they are.

I've got some serious issues with Tweety, but I'll give credit where credit is due.

The woman who stood up and asked Bush at his press conference yesterday why the media doesn't cover the "good news" in Iraq and her husband (Gayle and Kent Taylor) were on Tweety's show tonight.

There was a very popular diary on this site a couple of days ago entitled, "Wherein I Confront My Own Homophobia", or something like that.

I didn't actually read that diary.   I already confronted and defeated (to the extent I'm capable, I guess) my own homophobia, some time back, along with my own racism, my own misogyny, my own desire to "go postal" at work, and my own toenail fungi.  I'm feeling semi-well-adjusted at this point.

Because someone's got to do it, and I don't see that anyone else has, yet.  We've already got Laura holdings hands with some uni-brow, and Cindy's already been arrested.

Since I was chastised earlier for posting photos in an open thread, I feel compelled now to post this as a diary.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with a dial-up connection and without a sense of humor.

Now here goes...

Sorry for the short diary, but I'm sitting here in abject delight, and couldn't wait to share.

And here I was, sitting here slurping up my MSM gruel about what a big victory the anti-torture people had won over big, bad, Dick Cheney.  Why, I practically sprayed my poor monitor with small, grey-flecked chunks of mystery meal when I read this:

(http://www.nytimes.com/...)

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 - House and Senate negotiators agreed Friday to a measure that would enable the government to keep prisoners at Guantánamo Bay indefinitely on the basis of evidence obtained by coercive interrogations.

The provision, which has been a subject of extensive bargaining with the Bush administration, could allow evidence that would not be permitted in civilian courts to be admissable in deciding whether to hold detainees at the American military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In recent days, the Congressional negotiators quietly eliminated an explicit ban on the use of such material in an earlier version of the legislation.

I hate the fact that we still haven't won anything, because it feels a lot like we have.  But we haven't.  I want to gloat, but I know I shouldn't.  Anyway, it certainly brightens my day to have that old warhorse Pat Buchanan show up in my movin'-picture box, and tell me how important it is to allow our military to spread propoganda.

So, here she is for an extended visit with Tweety.  Who is this woman, this, "White House Communications Director"?

At times like this, I really wish I had some kind of access to the best informational databases.  I don't, so I'm going to ask for help with one thing....

I'm impressed, thoroughly, with the insightful analysis and depth of understanding Kossacks bring to the table, not only on a regular basis, but to the Plame case in particular.  Today, we are being treated to a truly remarkable display of our combined brainpower.

But now that Fitzmas has come and gone, what we have now, today, is something akin to what my large-eared friends from across the Atlantic refer to as Boxing Day.  My first question, good for today and today only, is what to call this day.  "Foxing Day"?  Because of all their post-indictment spinning?  

To prove to you all how "not clever" I am, I can't even think of another jovial word-play to capture the post-Fitzmas spirit using a pub with Boxing Day.  I leave that to you, in your wisdom, to take these building blocks of comedy, and create a suitable memorial to yesterday's developments.

I apologize if this is not new to some of you.  I haven't seen it before and a couple of points really jumped out at me.

First, here's the article in the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/international/middleeast/13intel.html

From the article:

"Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies have been notably more gloomy than the White House and the Pentagon about prospects for stability in Iraq. In the summer of 2004, newspaper articles about those reports so angered some Republicans that they accused the agency of trying to undermine President Bush.

The role played by prewar intelligence on postwar Iraq has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive independent review."

Good Evening, I am not Chevy Chase, and neither are you (except for YOU, you lucky dog!).

Anyway, my main man Howard is on, right now.  

He's bound so say pithy, wise, and potentially controversial things.

OMG!!  He already said HIDE THE SALAMI and we're only 30 seconds into the interview.  If I was female, and of child-bearing age, I would have one and name him (or her) Howard.  

As I lay awake last night, cataloguing in my mind once again the index of atrocities being foisted upon us by BushCo and just the general  state of things, I was reminded for some reason of the situation when Slick Willie first slid into the Preznitcy.

Back then the Dems had control of both houses of Congress too.  Of course it didn't last long, just those 2 years from 92-94.  So Clinton blew his opportunity (no pun intended) to drastically alter the direction of the country with his rare oversight of single party rule in the way that BushCo has.  W got the Senate in 2002, as I recall, and look at what he has wrought in those 3 brief years.

Clinton is widely criticized for 2 big stumbles right out of the gate, those being "don't ask don't tell" and putting Hillary in charge of reforming the healthcare system.

I mentioned this in a comment yesterday but, truly, the concept needs fleshing out.  I'm counting on all of you to help me to create a real board game, with dice and plastic pieces and stuff (or not), called, The Blame Game.  We need to get this in the stores for Christmas.

Actually I don't care if someone else takes this ball and runs with it because I don't have the time, inclination or entrepeneurial spirit to make this really happen.  So, feel free to make this happen on your own, for your organization, or just for hours of zany hilarity with family and friends.