Instahoglets 14th May 06

After I finish writing this I'm going to go make sure the kids spoil their Mom rotten for the rest of the day. She's the best.

Never mind your phone records - the Bush administration wants your DNA. Not to mention data on your your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. It is needed for a massive database of non-felons run by a private company called Choicepoint on contract to the government. That way there's a nice sidestep of the law - "for the government to collect this stuff is against the law unless you're suspected of a crime. (The law in question is the Constitution.) But ChoicePoint can collect if for "commercial" purchases -- and under the Bush Administration's suspect reading of the Patriot Act -- our domestic spying apparatchiks can then BUY the info from ChoicePoint." And surprise, surprise - the board of Choicepoint are all GOP primemovers and Choicepoint already have history in cooking the data - like the Katherine Harris backed removal of black voters from the Florida rolls on the basis of spurious felonies. (Hat Tip - Kat)

Does it make you feel any better about King George that his bodyguards seem to think they need to point assault rifles at peaceful protestors?

AP's News Analysis asks the question "Is Bush Overreaching" and millions answer "Does the word 'DUH' mean anything to you?!"

Here's the relevant transcript of CNN's Jack Cafferty as he nails it. A snippet:

I don't know about wisdom but you'll get a bit of outrage. We better hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Judiciary Committee, because he might be all that's standing between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country.

More last corners in Iraq - this time in the once peaceful city of Basra, now in turmoil because the police chief has been fired for links to terrorist groups. The province's governor has also demanded the resignation of the commander of the Iraqi army's Basra-based 10th Brigade. (Note, I think this is the same police chief who last year was lamenting the fact that over half his officers belonged to Shiite militia groups so the allegations of terror links may be true but are just as likely to be the Shiite governor clearing house of possible obstacles.)

And yet more - now the Iraqi Army's units of Kurds and Shiites are shooting at each other.

At least some of the 200,000 AK-47 assault rifles shipped to Iraq by arms dealers in a secret deal with the Pentagon have gone missing and may well be in insurgency hands. Not surprisingly, the Pentagon used crooked middlemen.

I haven't seen anyone cover this report at all, but given the uproar over the discovery of highly enriched uranium particles in Iran you would think someone who didn't want to see the world explode just might have mentioned it:

Head of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said on Sunday he believes existence of highly enriched uranium in an Iranian atomic site was of little significance at the current juncture...The source of contamination may have originated from machines that were imported to Iran, ElBaradei said, adding time is still needed to reach a conclusion in this respect.

He stressed Iran's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and added a balance between Iran's nuclear rights and concerns of the international community would not be created through verbal disputes, but rather dialogue would be the solution.

You would almost think the Western press wanted a really big war to report on!

Back in March, when speculation about Porter Goss and Dusty Foggo's possible involvement in what has become Hookergate was first mentioned, I wondered aloud whether he might have known corrupt military procurement official Steven Potoski. Now, with news that investigations of Foggo's possible involvement in corruption extend back to his time in Germany, the possibilities of a tie between Hookergate and the Potoski case are getting stronger.

Something else that isn't getting a lot of airtime in the USA - Russia's Vladimir Putin, responding to harsh words by Dick Cheney (in a classic case of the kettle calling the pot black) has called the U.S. a "hungry wolf that eats and listens to no one". Couple that with the news that Russian defense spending will grow by 27% next year and will concentrate on the nuclear missile force and the regular military's permanent combat duty forces. Dick got his wet dream - the Cold War has started again! The man should be gagged every time he is in public. Maybe Mistress Condi could handle it for the good of the nation...

Finally, a breaking report details a new NSA program ordered by Bush. It seems he has signed another secret executive order that requires the NSA to apprehend and detain young, fresh virgins so that he can feed on their still-beating hearts. According to sources granted anonymity due to the nature of the discussion, my pal Ken at "Anything They Say" blog may have had a satirical hand in this one.