Think Progress

Under the Radar

INTELLIGENCE -- BUSH AND HATCH ACKNOWLEDGE EXISTENCE OF NSA PHONE RECORD DATABASE: Previously, members of the Bush administration and others have refused to comment on whether or not the USA Today was accurate in reporting that the "National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans." On Sunday, National Security Adviser Hayden said, "I can't, sitting here, confirm or deny the claims made in that story." But yesterday, both President Bush and Senate Intelligence Committee member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) confirmed the program's existence, seemingly by mistake. Bush was asked yesterday, "[W]hy shouldn’t ordinary people feel that their privacy is invaded by the NSA compiling a list of their telephone calls?" "The program he’s asking about," Bush replied, "is one that has been fully briefed to members of the United States Congress in both political parties." (Press Secretary Tony Snow later denied Bush made this mistake.) Also, in response to a question "about recent reports of the government compiling lists of Americans' phone calls," Hatch said that two FISA judges had been "informed" about the program, thereby acknowledging that the program exists. (A Hatch aide later said the comments "should in no way be considered confirmation of any efforts to collect phone records.")

EDUCATION -- COLLEGE GRADS FACE BURDENSOME STUDENT DEBT: While the USA Today reports some good news that college graduates are entering the best hiring market in the past few years, the Christian Science Monitor notes that those same students will be burdened by massive student debt. "Student-loan debt encumbers almost two-thirds of the Class of 2006, according to federal statistics. With tuition costs continuing to rise far faster than inflation and interest rates on federal student loans about to increase, the debt load for future graduates is set to become so heavy that it's likely to turn more students away from low-paying occupations like teaching." As the Center for American Progress recently reported, the growing student debt is hurting American families. The debt of the typical American family earning about $45,000 a year rose 33.1 percent from 2001 to 2004, primarily due to the increasing costs of education, housing, and health care. But as "60 Minutes" documented recently, the debt crunch for students has provided great business for federal loan providers. Federal student loans are now a $62 billion industry, according to the College Board. "With rates rising and tuition outpacing inflation, there is no end in sight to the student debt escalator."

ETHICS -- SOUTH CAROLINA STATE SENATOR SINKING TAXPAYER MONEY INTO A CIVIL WAR-ERA SUBMARINE: South Carolina State Senate president pro tem Glenn McConnell (R) has a passion for the Civil War -- and is making state taxpayers pay for it. McConnell's pet project has been restoring the Confederate Hunley submarine, sunk in 1864. The project is expected to cost $100 million -- "one of South Carolina's biggest financial undertakings in modern times" -- and taxpayers are likely to pick up 85 percent of the bill. While McConnell -- a libertarian who has criticized excessive government spending throughout his career -- initially promised that much of the funding would come from individual donations, donors have been unwilling to pay. Instead, McConnell has tucked away millions of dollars for his project in government agency budgets, unseen by much of the public. (For example, the "Department of Public Safety each year provides $100,000 for a highly trained, armed guard for the Hunley lab, which is open to visitors on weekends. DPS also monitors the Hunley 24 hours a day via closed-circuit television.") McConnell also plans to spend $42 million on a Hunley museum in Charleston. It "will be among the most costly in South Carolina, above the $16 million Columbia Art Museum but below the $70 million Charleston aquarium." Officials have done no market studies to gauge how many visitors the museum would draw, and Hunley exhibits in other parts of the state have failed to attract visitors; many of the sites have closed. Nevertheless, McConnell insists "that 1 million people would visit a Hunley museum in its first year." The state's largest tourist attraction -- the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia -- gets just over 850,000 a year.

Think Fast

The White House reversed its position yesterday and “agreed to brief all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees” on its warrantless domestic spying program, “just as the architect of the program is facing a contentious confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.” The administration is backing away from its claim that the “decision to restrict these briefings to a select group of members of Congress is in keeping with longstanding tradition when dealing with matters of extreme sensitivity�€?and it’s perfectly legal.”

The National Climatic Data Center found that last April “was the hottest [April] ever in the United States, according to records going back to 1895.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) accused Bush’s choice for deputy CIA director, Stephen Kappes, of “gross insubordination.” Hoekstra claimed former Director Porter Goss had “real concerns” about Kappes, whom he once fired, because he asked him to “do certain things or to stop from doing certain types of things, and the guy refused.”

“Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus were arrested at the Embassy of Sudan on Tuesday while protesting conditions in the nation’s Darfur region.” “Enough is enough,” said Rep. John Lewis, (D-GA). “We must do all we can to stop the violence.” Click here to see video of the protest.

Despite the anti-lobbyist rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill, lawmakers continue to ask lobbyists for money. “The Speaker [Dennis Hastert (R-IL)]â€?said we need to minimize our contact with lobbyists, implying something is not right,” said one lobbyist. But just this week, he received a fundraiser invitation from Hastert where the “suggested minimum contribution” was $2,500. “How dare he ask us for money.”

33: Bush approval rating according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, another record low. 66 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq, a record high. 69 percent believe the nation is on the wrong track.

President Bush plans to sign a bill today extending $70 billion in tax cuts. “It is the latest — and perhaps finest — example of the perpetual motion machine that passes for tax policy in Congress and the Bush administration: making the tax code ever more complex and easier for those with squadrons of tax lawyers to exploit.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said yesterday that he would get the Senate to waive the penalty for the elderly adults and Americans with disabilities who missed the May 15 deadline to sign up for the Medicare prescription drug benefit. (President Bush has come out against this measure.)

A day after BellSouth denied it helped the NSA compile a phone records database, Verizon Communications Inc. claimed it also did not give the government records of millions of phone calls. Meanwhile, BellSouth and AT&T were added to a class-action lawsuit against Verizon that alleges the companies illegally participated in an NSA domestic surveillance program.

And finally: Flashcards designed to help applicants for U.S. citizenship learn basic civics fails to mention a fundamental First Amendment freedom — the freedom of the press. Alfonso Aguilar, director of the office of citizenship at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, said, “The person who developed the test was not necessarily a civics or constitutional scholar.”