With about 5 minutes left in the Winter Classic. Boston better get its act together.

From The Post:

The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration [Erroll Southers] gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
....

Southers first described the episode in his October affidavit, telling the Senate panel that two decades ago he asked a San Diego Police Department employee to access confidential criminal records about the boyfriend. Southers said he had been censured by superiors at the FBI. He described the incident as isolated and expressed regrets about it.

Ok, a slight step above Sarah Palin.

The committee approved his nomination Nov. 19. One day later, Southers wrote to Lieberman and Collins saying his first account was incorrect. After reviewing documents, he wrote, he recalled that he had twice conducted the database searches himself, downloaded confidential law enforcement records about his wife's boyfriend and passed information on to the police department employee, the letter said.

Oops.

It is a violation of the federal Privacy Act to access such information without proper cause. The law says that "any person who knowingly and willfully requests or obtains any record concerning an individual from an agency under false pretenses shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000."

Of course, the FBI agent is never charged with a crime; he is never fined or jailed; and his law enforcement career continues on the rise.

Nonetheless, Southers writes to the Senate committee:

I have at all times taken full responsibility for what I know to have been a grave error in judgment

Except is wasn't just "a grave error in judgment"; it was a crime. Kinda like the kid who gets caught with some cocaine and gets imprisoned for 10 years. Full responsibility my ass.

But crimes, like taxes, are for the little people. For our "superiors," just talking about it with a sad face is really more than enough.

Said [Senator] Collins [to Southers]: "You have taken responsibility for your actions. You've acknowledged your mistake in the personal conversation that we had in my office. It is important that the public have confidence that government officials will not misuse the authority that they have."

She added: "If you're confirmed, you're going to have the access to databases that have personal information on many, many individuals, such as through the secure flight program, and it's going to be important for the public to have confidence that you would not, in any way, misuse your access to the personal information in those databases. So, let me first ask you: Have you ever in the past misused your access to databases that the government maintains, other than this one incident that led to this censure?"

"No, Senator, I have not," Southers replied.

Collins continued: "Do you commit today that you will respect the privacy and civil liberties concerns that people have with regard to the personal information in those databases?"

"Yes, Senator, I do," Southers said.

Shorter Southers: "Trust me."

Civil liberties specialists said that the misuse of databases has been common among law enforcement authorities for many years, despite an array of local, state and federal prohibitions intended to protect personal information. Studies have found that police at every level examine records of celebrities, women they have met and political rivals. Some federal authorities have been jailed for selling records to criminals.

Shorter fiver: "Why should we trust him?"

The Rose Bowl is on.
And I'm gonna watch it.
Hasta la vista.

Among the disappearing breaks are the research tax credit and an annual alternative minimum tax "patch," which keeps 23 million additional middle-income Americans from being forced into calculating and paying the dreaded AMT. Forbes

12 and a half minutes of amazing fireworks. It's summer down under and they partied!
(sorry about the 30 sec ad - it's worth the wait, tho!)
Watch the whole of Sydney's New Year's fireworks display

A bZillion LEDs light up the Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel Tower glitters and dazzles for New Year's celebrations

And in Hong Kong:
New Year fireworks display lights up Hong Kong skyscrapers

When Glenn Greenwald recommends a non-political link, click.

It's worth it.

My favorite link of the year: Sand animation by Kseniya Simonova.

I'm happy I get to walk the same planet as such amazing talent.

Star of one of my favorite films-Cluny Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfSP-EJXI8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Jones

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/jon...

Ray McGovern asks "Are Presidents Afraid of the CIA?" .. and lays out the CIA's motivation for participating in the assassination of JFK, and how they went about covering it up.