An undeclared War Without End gives Bush and countless unelected functionaries the right to ignore or violate just about any curb on their power. Is this a great nation or what. mjh

Calls to doctors, lawyers subject to NSA listening The Associated Press

The National Security Agency would not have been barred from capturing communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients during its controversial warrantless surveillance program, the Justice Department told Congress Friday.

Such communications normally receive special legal protections.

“Although the program does not specifically target the communications of attorneys or physicians, calls involving such persons would not be categorically excluded from interception,” the department said in responses to questions from lawmakers. …

The House Democrats asked if any other president has authorized wiretaps without court warrants since the passage of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs intelligence collection inside the United States.

Choosing its words carefully, the department said, “if the question is limited to ‘electronic surveillance’ … we are unaware of such authorizations.”

The department also made clear that the program — as confirmed by Bush — has never been suspended since it began in October 2001. [mjh: Remember this spying *still* going on in spite of Constitutional controversy.]

Call it ‘Dumb and Dumberer’ By Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate

Our problem now is that we’re not fighting the people who attacked us — they’re still running around on the Afghan-Pakistan border while we battle Iraqis who don’t like us occupying their country.

As of Sept. 11, 2001, there were a few hundred people identified with al Qaeda’s ideology. Even then, it was unclear that the U.S. military was the right tool for the job. Now, Rumsfeld is apparently prepared to put the full might of our forces into this fight indefinitely, backed by the full panoply of ever-more expensive weapons and the whole hoorah. I don’t think the people who got us into Iraq should be allowed to do this because, based on the evidence of Iraq, I don’t think they have the sense God gave a duck.

On top of everything else, Rumsfeld is now circulating a grand strategy for the long war written by Newt Gingrich. Am I the only person covering politics who ever noticed that Gingrich is actually a nincompoop? When Newt bestrode the political world like a colossus (Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1995), many people took him seriously — but he was a fool then, too. The Republicans were so thrilled to have someone on their side who had ideas, they never seemed to notice Newt’s were drivel. …

Republicans are so amnesiac, they didn’t even snicker when Newt turned up recently posing as a respected party elder to give them advice on ethics. Ethics. Next, family values.

I would completely ignore the issue of Ben Domenech (see below), but there are a few things in his story I have to comment on.

Some Readers See Red Over Post.com’s New Blogger By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

[Ben ] Domenech [, 24-years-old], who was home-schooled by his mother in South Carolina and Virginia, says he began writing for the conservative publication Human Events when he was 15 and continued until he left to attend the College of William & Mary. He was an intern and researcher for the Bush White House, served as a speechwriter for Tommy Thompson, then the health and human services secretary, and then spent two years working for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). [mjh: Cornyn’s the nice man who thinks some violence against judges may be deserved; not all bad, he has supported FOIA.] …

Domenech is a board member and one of three founders of RedState.com, which bills itself as a “Republican community Weblog.” Under his regular pseudonym, Augustine, he questioned President Bush’s decision to attend King’s funeral because she is a “communist.”

“I regret using the term because I think it’s been way overblown,” Domenech said. …

Ben Domenech [said] that the reaction to his new “Red America” blog is “a little meaner” than he expected.

First, what’s the point of giving a blog to someone who has a blog. If this guy features prominently in a widely read blog, link to him, sure, but the Post, and others, should give new opportunities to people who don’t already blog.

Second, his pseudonym is “Augustine”? Is that Latin for pompous ass? (Apologies to Bob Kerrey for ripping off his brilliant witticism: “[Rick] Santorum? Is that Latin for asshole?”) Still, come on — Augustine? Is some other “Deep Thinker” already using Augustus?

Third, Right-wingers throw around “Communist,” and more recently, “Socialist” like normal people use “jerk” or “weirdo.” At one level, it means nothing more. But, it does connect him to other jerks like that weirdo Ann Coulter, Joe McCarthy’s disciple. Notice Benny’s cowardly semi-retraction; he meant what he said, he just didn’t want to get beat up over it.

Finally, boo-hoo; Liberals are so mean! We learned it from the likes of Lush Limbaugh and really can’t begin to match the mean-spiritedness of the Radical Right, no matter how we try. The Radical Right has risen to power under a Janus-like mask: to their own, they show a pious face, to their enemies, a vile one. The worst bullies are the ones who accuse their victims of their own crimes. mjh

[Updated before I can even post this:]

Post.com Blogger Quits Amid Furor By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

A 24-year-old conservative blogger hired by The Washington Post Co.’s Web site resigned yesterday, three days after his debut, amid a flurry of allegations of plagiarism.

Ben Domenech, an editor with Regnery Publishing, relinquished the part-time position hours after a liberal Web site posted evidence that he had plagiarized part of a movie review he wrote for National Review Online. Previous allegations of plagiarism in Domenech’s writing for the College of William & Mary student newspaper surfaced Wednesday, but the 2001 review was the first instance found since he attended the college. …

[I]t was not until they gathered evidence showing he had repeatedly used material without attribution that some conservative bloggers joined in calls for his firing. …

Domenech said yesterday he resigned because “if the firestorm gets past a certain level, there’s nothing you can ever say that will be taken seriously. . . . It’s reached the point where there’s nothing I can really do to defend myself.” [mjh: Brave and principled to the very end.]

“When I was 17, I was certainly sloppy,” said Domenech, who did not graduate from college. “If I had paid more attention, none of these problems would have happened.” [mjh: When I was 17, people were expelled from college for this.]

People, people! Just because one former White House worker plagiarized something and another tried to rip-off a local business doesn’t mean there’s any Culture of Corruption! mjh

Cal Thomas Spending obscenities

That Republicans are outspending the most reckless 1980s Democrat (and 1960s Great Society Democrats and 1940s FDR Democrats) is the sorriest spectacle of all.

The Senate vote increased the debt ceiling for the fourth time in five years. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since President Bush took office. That any Republican majority could preside over such fiscally irresponsible spending ought to be grounds for revoking their party membership.

This is mostly about politics, not terrorism. …

Coolidge left the presidency with a surplus. So did Bill Clinton. That a Republican Congress and administration are engaging in such promiscuous spending is obscene. If voting in Democrats —who in the past engaged in deficit spending — punishes Republicans, little will change. What to do?

Maybe it’s time for a strong third party, or failing that, another revolution.

Grants Flow To Bush Allies On Social Issues By Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post Staff Writer

Under the auspices of its religion-based initiatives and other federal programs, the administration has funneled at least $157 million in grants to organizations run by political and ideological allies, according to federal grant documents and interviews. …

Among other new beneficiaries of federal funding during the Bush years are groups run by Christian conservatives, including those in the African American and Hispanic communities. Many of the leaders have been active Republicans and influential supporters of Bush’s presidential campaigns. …

“If what you are asking is, has George Bush as president of the United States established priorities in spending for his administration? The answer is yes,” said Wade F. Horn, who as assistant secretary for children and families at HHS oversees much of the spending going to conservative groups. “That is a prerogative that presidents have.” …

“These are just slush funds for conservative interest groups,” countered Bill Smith, vice president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, one of the most outspoken critics of abstinence-only sex-education programs. “These organizations would not be in existence if not for the federal dollars coming through.” …

Most, but not all, of the money going to conservative groups has come from two programs that did not exist before Bush took office in 2001. …

Hundreds of struggling antiabortion and pregnancy crisis centers have received federal grants that often doubled or tripled their annual budgets, allowing them to branch out and hire staff, especially for abstinence education. …

The shift under Bush in part grows out of the administration’s Faith and Community Based Initiative. …

In a Dec. 12, 2002, executive order, Bush addressed one of the major concerns of religious groups considering applying for public money. Bush declared that religious groups receiving federal grants would not be required to comply with certain civil rights statutes, and could discriminate by hiring employees of specific religious faiths.

Skepticism about the distribution of money under the religion-based initiatives abounds in both parties. …

Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.) was more outspoken. “I believe ultimately this will be seen as one of the largest patronage programs in American history,” he said. …

In addition to liberals, there are conservative critics of taxpayer funding of groups on the right.

FindLaw: U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment

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.

USNews.com: The White House says spying on terrorism suspects without court approval is OK. What about physical searches? By Chitra Ragavan

In December, the New York Times disclosed the NSA’s warrantless electronic surveillance program, resulting in an angry reaction from President Bush. It has not previously been disclosed, however, that administration lawyers had cited the same legal authority to justify warrantless physical searches. But in a little-noticed white paper submitted by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Congress on January 19 justifying the legality of the NSA eavesdropping, Justice Department lawyers made a tacit case that President Bush also has the inherent authority to order such physical searches. …

During Senate testimony about the NSA surveillance program, however, Gonzales was at pains to avoid answering questions about any warrantless physical surveillance activity that may have been authorized by the Justice Department. …

In 1975 and 1976, an investigative committee led by then Sen. Frank Church documented how the FBI engaged in broad surveillance of private citizens and members of antiwar and civil rights groups, as well as Martin Luther King Jr. The committee’s hearings and the executive-branch abuses that were documented in the Watergate investigation led to numerous reforms, including passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978.

On Iraq, Plenty of Scores to Settle Even If the Dust Hasn’t By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer

As Bush continues to flounder in the polls, more on the right are breaking ranks. Bruce Bartlett, who was dropped by a free-market think tank over his new book “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” recently called the administration “unconscionable,” “vindictive” and “inept.”

Peggy Noonan writes that she would not have voted for Bush had she known he was going to turn into a big-spending Lyndon Johnson. Jonah Goldberg writes that “most conservatives never really understood what compassionate conservatism was, beyond a convenient marketing slogan,” and the “reality” is “that there was nothing behind the curtain.”