Interspecies telepathy

The next big thing: interspecies telepathy.

I saw a segment of this on cable (Discovery Health channel). Its too unbelievable to be true, yet the people involved seem credible.

Milestones

Well, Saddam is dead and apparently this is an important milestone, marking the passing to where, exactly? I wonder if we will hear any questions if the Iraqis are better off with Saddam out of the picture. Rather a strange question when thousands of Iraqis are leaving daily, and over a million or so have already left. Apparently though, according to Holy Joe, the war is still winnable, as long as it has a clearly defined mission. I am sympathetic to the argument that we are morally obligated to help, but when you have no moral authority and you aren't trusted, how much can you help in this situation? The only way to stick around is to find a radically different approach, something that involves a lot more engagement than Bush would ever countenance. Anyway, as long as Bush is in charge, and dithers around, any call to sustain the war empowers him to screw the pooch just a wee bit more.

End o year poll

U.S. President Ranks as Top Villain and Top Hero of 2006

a video here

Political Science

A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science

In recent years, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document this abuse, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created the A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.

Ford on Bush

Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

US accepts threat to polar bears

Says its because of global warming, but won't back mandatory controls of CO2. Halfway there. I'm confused though, can someone tell me why this is coming up now?

No Coal in those Stockings

Mileage from Megawatts: Enough Electric Capacity to “Fill Up” Plug-In Vehicles

If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A new study for the Department of Energy finds that “off-peak” electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country’s 220 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electrics.

...

“With cars charging overnight, the utilities would get a new market for their product. PHEVs would increase residential consumption of electricity by about 30 - 40 percent. The increased generation could lead to replacing aging coal-fired plants sooner with newer, more environmentally friendly versions,” said Kintner-Meyer.

“The potential for lowering greenhouse gases further is quite substantial because it is far less expensive to capture emissions at the smokestack than the tailpipe. Vehicles are one of the most intractable problems facing policymakers seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Pratt.

Latin America's New Reality

Ecuador's New Government Talks Default on Debt

Before Argentina's default, a powerful creditors' cartel headed by the IMF had a credible threat of punishing a defaulting country by depriving it of credit from most sources, thereby increasing the cost of a default. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, Ecuador can likely borrow whatever it needs from Venezuela, which has $36 billion in reserves, and has lent billions of dollars to Argentina, and also provided loans and aid to Bolivia and other countries.

All this is part of the new reality in Latin America, and means that the left/populist governments throughout the region can, if they are so inclined, pursue a much greater variety of economic and development policy options - and deliver on their promises without much fear of retribution from international financial markets or institutions, including the United States government.

Pretty funny stuff

According to Network World's Paul McNamara, the communications director for U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), Todd Shriber, hired two 'hackers' to break into the computer of his alma mater, Texas Christian University, and change his college grades.

It gets better... Check out the email correspondence here.

Redacted

Redacted Version of Original Op-Ed on Iran

Complete with black bars.

Things to come

Democrats Hiring Up for Investigations

Evidence continues to mount that the new Democratic majority plans to investigate the war, energy policy, and other Bush policies, as key committees have begun hiring lawyer-investigators whose job will be to probe the administration. In the House, for example, the Appropriations Committee under Rep. John Murtha's direction is hiring investigators who will be charged with looking into the administration's war policies and spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, Rep. Henry Waxman, the incoming chairman of the House Government Reform Committee who's been dogging the vice president's energy task force, is also hiring lawyers. A Democratic leadership official said that the planned hearings and investigations into the war and other issues the lawyer-investigators are being hired to look into will be "very focused." In the Senate, officials said similar hirings were underway in a speeded up effort to have people in place for the start of the new Congress, especially the planned early January hearings into the war and military spending that are set to begin January 8.

The political economy of deficit spending

Bringing down the deficit enables big spending republicans.

Now that the Democrats have regained some power, they have to decide what to do. One of the biggest questions is whether the party should return to Rubinomics — the doctrine, associated with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, that placed a very high priority on reducing the budget deficit.

The answer, I believe, is no. Mr. Rubin was one of the ablest Treasury secretaries in American history. But it’s now clear that while Rubinomics made sense in terms of pure economics, it failed to take account of the ugly realities of contemporary American politics.

And the lesson of the last six years is that the Democrats shouldn’t spend political capital trying to bring the deficit down. They should refrain from actions that make the deficit worse. But given a choice between cutting the deficit and spending more on good things like health care reform, they should choose the spending.

Why is this? Becuase we can't trust our elected officials.

The answer, I now think, is to spend the money — while taking great care to ensure that it is spent well, not squandered — and let the deficit be. By spending money well, Democrats can both improve Americans’ lives and, more broadly, offer a demonstration of the benefits of good government. Deficit reduction, on the other hand, might just end up playing into the hands of the next irresponsible president.

The old conservatives & financial responsibility link is pretty well broken after G.W.

London braces for attack

this holiday season

You gotta be kidding me

Former national security adviser Samuel Berger hid classified papers under trailer

French troops had bin Laden in sights

But US gave no order to kill, says documentary

And this was only 3 years ago.

Probably a bunch a bull. If it is true it is because they didn't want the French to get him.

Mid-term elections returning some balance

Iran edition

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of Iran faced electoral embarrassment today after the apparent failure of his supporters to win control of key local councils and block the political comeback of his most powerful opponent.

Early results from last Friday's election suggested that his Sweet Scent of Service coalition had won just three out of 15 seats on the symbolically important Tehran city council, foiling Mr Ahmadinejad's plan to oust the mayor and replace him with an ally.

The outcome appeared to be mirrored elsewhere, with councils throughout Iran returning a majority of reformists and moderate fundamentalists opposed to Mr Ahmadinejad.

"Improving product flow"

New publishing rules restrict scientists

he Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy.

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Top officials at the Interior Department's scientific arm say the rules only standardize what scientists must do to ensure the quality of their work and give a heads-up to the agency's public relations staff.

"This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or politicizing our science in any way," Barbara Wainman, the agency's director of communications, said Wednesday. "I don't have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to improve our product flow."
...
The changes amount to an overhaul of commonly accepted procedures for all scientists, not just those in government, based on anonymous peer reviews. In that process, scientists critique each other's findings to determine whether they deserve to be published.

From now on, USGS supervisors will demand to see the comments of outside peer reviewers' as well any exchanges between the scientists who are seeking to publish their findings and the reviewers.

Gunna sue the Don

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war

UK edition

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".

I can't believe those cheeky Birts deceived us! Oh wait!

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.

"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

All good things

in moderation

Moderate drinking may lengthen your life, while too much may shorten it, researchers from Italy report. Their conclusion is based on pooled data from 34 large studies involving more than 1 million people and 94,000 deaths.

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Of course, if you feel guilty, then that just reverses all the good effects.

Expect silliness

GOP media lemming alert

What we will hear in the next two years:

• The narratives about progressives tend to be negative -- Al Gore was a liar and a wimp, Howard Dean was crazy, John Kerry was a flip-flopping wimp, etc.).
• The narratives about conservatives tend to be positive (John McCain is a straight-talking maverick, Rudy Giuliani is "America's Mayor," etc.)
• The narratives about progressives (our focus today) are often based in large part on the media's endless repetition of snarky comments, stories, and anecdotes about purported personal qualities.
• Progressives and journalists often blame the victims of these narratives, chalking them up to inept candidates and campaign staff. No matter how many different progressives get unfairly defined by the media as soft and dishonest and ineffectual, too many people refuse to hold journalists accountable.

Good fun!

.002

"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world." - Helen Keller

Worlds most dangerous toys

Fission Buddy is my favorite

Nuckin' Futs

A jibJab year (2006) in review

Why doesn't Bush get credit for the strong economy?

Paul Krugman on the Great Wealth Transfer

Why doesn't Bush get credit for the strong economy?" That question has been asked over and over again in recent months by political pundits. After all, they point out, the gross domestic product is up; unemployment, at least according to official figures, is low by historical standards; and stocks have recovered much of the ground they lost in the early years of the decade, with the Dow surpassing 12,000 for the first time. Yet the public remains deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. In a recent poll, only a minority of Americans rated the economy as "excellent" or "good," while most consider it no better than "fair" or "poor."

Are people just ungrateful? Is the administration failing to get its message out? Are the news media, as conservatives darkly suggest, deliberately failing to report the good news?

None of the above. The reason most Americans think the economy is fair to poor is simple: For most Americans, it really is fair to poor. Wages have failed to keep up with rising prices. Even in 2005, a year in which the economy grew quite fast, the income of most non-elderly families lagged behind inflation. The number of Americans in poverty has risen even in the face of an official economic recovery, as has the number of Americans without health insurance. Most Americans are little, if any, better off than they were last year and definitely worse off than they were in 2000.

Apparently, soy makes you gay

A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals

If you're a grownup, you're already developed, and you're able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren't so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day. A baby's endocrine system just can't cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal.

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because "I can't remember a time when I wasn't homosexual." No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can't remember a time when excess estrogen wasn't influencing them.

Not only that it may have caused the rapid increase in leukemia in children and obesity today.

In all seriousness, there do seem to be some health risks from soy products. See here and here. It also apparently doesn't bring all the health benefits that were touted. I guess, like most things, good in moderation.

We will sell no wine

For at least a few seconds...

The true character of a good wine can take years, even decades, to emerge. Hiroshi Tanaka, a Japanese inventor, says he can trim the wait time — to just a few seconds.

As liquor ages, Tanaka explains, the water molecules slowly rearrange themselves more closely around the alcohol molecules, giving the alcohol its distinctive mature taste. Tanaka puts that process into overdrive. He pours the wine into a 70-pound container outfitted with an electrolysis chamber. A few-second electrical zap gives the wine a slight charge, which breaks up the water molecules and allows them to blend more completely with the alcohol. Voilà: Instantly-aged pinot noir, “smoother and more mellow than before,” Tanaka’s American partner, Edward Alexander, claims.

Wild.

Polls

Iraq Going Badly And Getting Worse, Majority In CBS News Survey Doubt U.S. Can Win; 62% Call War 'A Mistake'

BUSH'S JOB HANDLING IRAQ

Now
Approve
21%
Disapprove
75%

11/14/2006
Approve
29%
Disapprove
67%

Global warming feedback loops

Global warming kills phytoplankton that take up CO2

Global warming will stifle life-giving microscopic plants that live in the surface layer of the oceans, cutting marine food production and accelerating climate change, according to a study published on Wednesday.

Phytoplankton are not only the foundation of the marine food chain, but every day they take more than 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, scientists from Oregon State University, NASA and four other institutions said.

McBush

Losing their brand name

The setting was a leadership summit Monday in Tallahassee, where the elder Bush had come to lecture and to pay homage to Jeb, who is leaving office with a 53 percent approval rating, putting him ninth among the 50 governors in popularity. The former president was reflecting on how well Jeb handled defeat in 1994 when he lost his composure. “He didn’t whine about it,” he said, putting a handkerchief to his face in an effort to stifle his sobbing.

That election turned out to be pivotal because it disrupted the plan Papa Bush had for his sons, which may be why he was crying, and why the country cries with him. The family’s grand design had the No. 2 son, Jeb, by far the brighter and more responsible, ascend to the presidency while George, the partying frat-boy type, settled for second best in Texas. The plan went awry when Jeb, contrary to conventional wisdom, lost in Florida, and George unexpectedly defeated Ann Richards in Texas. With the favored heir on the sidelines, the family calculus shifted. They’d go for the presidency with the son that won and not the one they wished had won.

The son who was wrongly launched has made such a mess of things that he has ruined the family franchise. Without getting too Oedipal, it’s fair to say that so many mistakes George W. Bush made are the result of his need to distinguish himself from his father and show that he’s smarter and tougher. His need to outdo his father and at the same time vindicate his father’s failure to get re-elected makes for a complicated stew of emotions. The irony is that the senior Bush, dismissed by Junior’s crowd as a country-club patrician, looks like a giant among presidents compared to his son. Junior told author Bob Woodward, for his book “Plan of Attack,” that he didn’t consult his father in planning the invasion of Iraq but consulted a higher authority, pointing, presumably, to the heavens.
...
This president has lost all capacity to lead. Eleven American servicemen died in Iraq on the day Bush was presented the report, which calls the situation there “grave and deteriorating.” Events on the ground threaten to overtake even this grim assessment. And we’re left to analyze Bush’s tender ego and whether he can reverse course on the folly that is killing and maiming countless Iraqis along with U.S. troops. Historians are already debating whether Bush is the worst president ever, or just among the four or five worst. He has little choice but to accept the fundamental direction of the Iraq Study Group. He’s up to his neck in quicksand, and they’ve thrown him a rope. It’s trendy to make fun of the over-the-hill types in Washington, but they’ve done a noble thing in reminding us that war is not just about spin and a way to win elections. It’s about coming together to find a way out, however unpalatable.

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Obama messes up someones game and then apologizes for it.

Weird stuff. Listen to the audio.

Background here.

Truthiness

is Named Word of the Year

After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is ... "truthiness."

The word - if one can call it that - best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

Baby Bush

The baby in chief

Bush said he talked about "the need for a new way forward in Iraq" in his morning session with leaders from both parties and chambers of Congress, "and we talked about the need to work together on this important subject."

But some Democrats came away unconvinced that major changes were coming.

"I just didn't feel there today, the president in his words or his demeanor, that he is going to do anything right away to change things drastically," Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid, D-Nev., said following the Oval Office meeting. "He is tepid in what he talks about doing. Someone has to get the message to this man that there have to be significant changes."

Instead, Bush began his talk by comparing himself to President Harry S Truman, who launched the Truman Doctrine to fight communism, got bogged down in the Korean War and left office unpopular.

Bush said that "in years to come they realized he was right and then his doctrine became the standard for America," recalled Senate Majority Whip-elect Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "He's trying to position himself in history and to justify those who continue to stand by him, saying sometimes if you're right you're unpopular, and be prepared for criticism."

Durbin said he challenged Bush's analogy, reminding him that Truman had the NATO alliance behind him and negotiated with his enemies at the United Nations. Durbin said that's what the Iraq Study Group is recommending that Bush do now - work more with allies and negotiate with adversaries on Iraq.

Bush, Durbin said, "reacted very strongly. He got very animated in his response" and emphasized that he is "the commander in chief."

Btw, can anyone tell me how it works that we extradite people to Syria to be tortured but we won't talk to them?

Not gonna doit

Bush Reaction to Report Worries Father's Aides

"We have a classic case of circling the wagons," says a former adviser to Bush the elder. "If President Bush changes his policy in Iraq in a fundamental way, it undermines the whole premise of his presidency. I just don't believe he will ever do that."

White House advisers say Bush won't react in detail to the ISG report for several weeks, while he assesses it and awaits various internal government reports on the situation from his own advisers. Bush tells aides he doesn't want to "outsource" his role as commander in chief. Some Bush allies say this is a way to buy some time as the president tries to decide how to deal with rising pressure to alter his strategy in Iraq and hopes the critical media focus on the Iraq war will soften.

Ex-leaders son indicted in Miami for torture

Who could it be?

Oh, its the Ex-Liberian dictator's son. Who knew that torture was still illegal?

Crikey!

A tornado in London?

On freedoms

Legislators may reconsider suspending habeas corpus for detainees

Yum

What's wrong with our food?

The Great Spinach Scare of '06 is, thankfully, now behind us, but the bad news about our food keeps coming. Just this week, we've heard from Consumer Reports about a new study -- which, to be fair, the USDA disputes -- that says 83 percent of grocery store chickens are contaminated with either salmonella or campylobacter bacteria, or both. Then there are the 65 people apparently sickened by E. coli bacteria on green onions served in Taco Bells in New York, New Jersey and now, possibly, Pennsylvania. There may also be bacteria in the Razzamatazz at Jamba Juice, the smoothie chain, which has reported that some of the strawberries it used in the Southwest and California in the past week may have been contaminated by potentially lethal Listeria. And let’s not forget the unfestive and Listeria-inspired recall of ham and turkey by the HoneyBaked Ham company right before Thanksgiving.

But don't worry!

It's still better to eat than not to eat, because the certainty of death if you don't eat is 100 percent, where the certainty of death by eating is very tiny still, I'm sure, less than 1 percent. So any elementary grasp of statistics would tell you that you should continue to eat.

More on the Iraq Study Group

No middle ground

Feingold: don't believe the hype

Thank you sir may I have another!

Iraq Study Group executive summary (pdf) (some excerpts here)

There job is to unite! Not come up with a sensible plan. Anyway, it is really just more of the same.

Some thoughts:

More on primeval urges

Women need men

At the risk of sounding extraordinarily sexist, I'm convinced that women, even in the happiest of relationships, are programmed to worry their men are going to abandon them.

And they're terrified - in a way that most men find it frankly impossible to imagine. What's more, if their forebodings come true, women are more inclined to forgive an affair than a man if the shoe is on the other foot. That's not because they're nicer, more easygoing individuals. It's simply because their primeval urge to hang onto a male provider is so strong.

Important info

Why Men Cheat

Another mystery of the universe solved.

For your edification

Take the quiz

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 100%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?

Au revoir!

The mustache says adios

Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

His carta de resignation.

Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution

Lawmakers decried spontaneous genetic mutations

Britain to push for global climate deal by 2008

The UK is to use the warnings of irreversible climate change and the biggest economic slump since the 1930s, outlined in yesterday's Stern review, to press for a new global deal to curb carbon emissions.

The Liberal Party in Canada has just elected their new leader, a former environmental minister and who running on a platform of three pillars; economic prosperity, social justice, and environmental sustainability. I have never seen a federal level election with such talk about the environment. There is hope...

Proving what we already knew

Eating slowly really does make people eat less

A new study provides the first-ever scientific proof that if you eat slowly, you will eat less -- and you will enjoy the meal more.

Women consumed about 70 fewer calories when they were told to take their time eating a meal of pasta and sauce, compared to when they were instructed to eat it as quickly as possible. They also rated the meal as more pleasant when they ate slowly.

"They got more pleasure for (fewer) calories, and more satiety for (fewer) calories," Dr. Kathleen Melanson of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston told Reuters Health."

So if you eat slowly from a small plate you will undoubtably live 33.2% longer, and thus pollute 33.2% more!

Btw, we need to get rich people to give poor people rides

He's The Worst Ever

He's so the worst, that I don't even need to say who he is

Psyche!

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

However, snap! It was a joke to enlighten the people...

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Watching the watchers

Assults on the NSA - a rundown on the oversight of the NSA's domestic spying program. Looks like they will be busy.

Senate Judiciary Committee: Incoming chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has repeatedly voiced concern over the program, and fought GOP attempts to legalize it. Likely to hold insightful hearings on the matter; may investigate.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: To date, Incoming chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) greatest act of outrage over the program came in the form of a secret letter, one copy of which he mailed to Dick Cheney and another which he locked away in a safe. (You can read the letter here.) He has since publicly expressed frustration at being unable to learn details of the program's effectiveness, and has called for "full access" to information about the program.

House Judiciary Committee: Incoming chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has made harsh statements about the program. Expect to see hearings and/or full-fledged investigations in the new year.

Northern Dist. of Calif. (Hepting v. AT&T): The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed the suit against AT&T, but government lawyers have intervened in the case, attempting to get it dismissed by claiming the "state secrets" privilege -- national security would be compromised if the case moved forward. The judge rejected the motion; the government is appealing. Hearing won't happen before April 2007. (Note: Many of the class-action suits filed against telcos, including an ACLU case filed in Illinois, were transferred to the judge in this case, and are expected to eventually consolidate.)

Eastern Dist. of Mich. (ACLU v. NSA): - The advocacy group sued to stop the NSA program. This case prompted the historic ruling that the program is unconstitutional. The government has appealed that decision, and the judge has allowed the program to continue until the appeal is heard and decided. Oral arguments in appeal expected in January or February 2007.

Southern Dist. of Manhattan (CCR v. Bush): Advocacy group sues administration to stop NSA program. The judge has heard arguments heard on all preliminary motions, however the government is asking the case be consolidated with others. Judge appears to be holding up the suit until that issue is settled.

District of Oregon (Al-Haramain v. Bush): U.S. branch of Islamic charity suspects NSA improperly tapped its conversations via secret program. Government attempted to use state secrets privilege to get case dismissed. Judge rejected.

All over the place: Dozens of class-action suits have been filed against telcos all over the country. Over 30 have been transferred from their original courts to the Northern District of California. In over a dozen other cases, however, the plaintiffs are said to have opposed the transfer.

Justice Department - Office of Professional Responsibility: Earlier this year attempted to probe how top Justice officials, including attorney general Alberto Gonzales, reviewed, approved and monitored the NSA program. Stonewalled by President Bush, who refused to grant necessary security clearances to OPR investigators. OPR closed the investigation.

Justice Department - Inspector General: On Monday, announced an investigation into Justice officials' handling and application of intelligence gathered by the program. Appears targeted at possible wrongdoing by U.S. attorneys and lower-level officials, not senior executives and appointed officials. White House granted clearances to investigators. Ongoing.

NSA - Inspector General: Confirmed in January 2006 that the office had opened an audit into the program. In August, the IG handling the probe was promoted to Negroponte's staff, where he will oversee all counterespionage efforts in the intelligence community. There has been no word on the probe since it was announced in January.

White House - Privacy/Civil Liberties Oversight Board: This panel, chosen by the president and lacking investigative powers, nonetheless reviewed the NSA program and pronounced it all right with them.

Finally, public utility boards in about 20 states have taken action against the program. The boards -- state-level entities which oversee phone companies and other utilities -- have filed administrative complaints against the companies in some cases, and lawsuits in others. Even if the federal government isn't named in these matters, Justice lawyers have intervened in many to get them dismissed.

Nothing like evidenced based policy

Under 30, single? No sex for you!

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it's a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.

"They've stepped over the line of common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. "To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It's an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health."

Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method to prevent pregnancy or disease. They give no instruction on birth control or safe sex.