Here is an interesting and ironic cosmic coincidence re: June 17th

[Uncle Joe]

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

(snip)

On June 17, 1971, Nixon formally declared the U.S. War on Drugs.<113>

(snip)

The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of illegal and secret activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. The activities became known in the aftermath of five men being caught breaking into Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972.

I'm convinced both activities were primarily done not to benefit the nation but to disenfranchise and dis-empower Nixon's political opponents.

When asked by the press Nixon said "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."

Nixon most assuredly was a crook and his cynical, corrupt legacy has been legalized and expanded, whether it be the insanity of the "War on Drugs" or the warrantless wiretapping laws that Ellsberg spoke of on this thread by Hissyspit.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1263269

Ellsberg: All Nixon’s Crimes Against me now Legal

That includes burglarizing my former psychoanalyst’s office (for material to blackmail me into silence), warrantless wiretapping, using the CIA against an American citizen in the US, and authorizing a White House hit squad to “incapacitate me totally” (on the steps of the Capitol on May 3, 1971). All the above were to prevent me from exposing guilty secrets of his own administration that went beyond the Pentagon Papers. But under George W. Bush and Barack Obama,with the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendment Act, and (for the hit squad) President Obama’s executive orders. they have all become legal.

There is no further need for present or future presidents to commit obstructions of justice (like Nixon’s bribes to potential witnesses) to conceal such acts. Under the new laws, Nixon would have stayed in office, and the Vietnam War would have continued at least several more years.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Some of my friends had a Watergate bugging party

for a couple of years on June 17. I think it was on the 1st and 2nd anniversary of Watergate. They were college radio engineers, and they wired the party area to tape everyone's conversation.

[Uncle Joe]

2. That was getting

into the spirit of things.;-)

Did the party attendees ever find out or did they know up front?

[LiberalEsto]

3. We knew.

The playbacks were quite funny at times.