May 2006

There were 37 posts published in May 2006 (this is page 4 of 7).

Stopgap Measure

The latest episode from our we-don’t-pay-attention-to-polls White House:

Bush, in a speech to the nation Monday, will propose using the troops as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up its resources to more effectively secure the 2,000-mile line between the U.S. and Mexico, said two White House officials speaking on a condition of anonymity before the president is scheduled to speak at 8 p.m. EDT.

Yes, almost five years after 9/11, Bush has suddenly determined that we need to shore up the border. Never mind that, as this post points out, Bush refused to fully fund an increase in border patrol agents scheduled for this year. We now have a “crisis” and our leader, in a prime-time TV event, is summoning the troops!
UPDATE: David Frum:

When the Bush administration fitfully attempts to enforce the immigration laws, it looks for measures that meet four criteria:
They must be 1) spectacular; 2) expensive; 3) unsustainable; and 4) ineffective.
The proposal to deploy the National Guard to the border meets all four!
This plan won’t work, and it is not seriously meant to work. It’s supposed to look dramatic and buy the president some respite from negative polls – and then it is supposed to fail, strengthening the administration’s case for its truly preferred approach: amnesty + guestworkers.

Ouch. If this is an effort to shore up the 29%, it doesn’t appear to be working thus far.

More Competition For Fox News Channel

Heh.
Actually, I was surprised to hear that the average age of an O’Reilly Factor viewer is 70? Keith Olbermann was boasting that the average viewer of his show is only 60.
Guess I’m tuning in with the old folks.

29%

Another Bush milestone.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This trend has declined every month since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction.

That’s got to have GOP, Inc. nervous.

Phone Records

Word is out that the NSA is keeping track of phone calls. Presumably, it’s easier to do this here than over there. And who’s to know? We might all be al Qaeda.

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.

The article suggests that the carrier Qwest was not linked in like some of the other telecommunications companies. But at this point, do we have any reason to believe that the government isn’t tracking all phone calls?
Oh, and I’d throw all the other digital forms of communication into the mix too: text messages, e-mails, whatever. I think it’s safe to assume Big Brother can monitor all common forms of communication. The revelations thus far have only been part of the iceberg.

Going For It

Kevin Drum notes a an analysis of outcomes when football teams face a fourth down.
The conclusion: coaches should go for it more often.