Joe Biden is not a "moderate" when it comes to crime issues. His hard-line authoritarian record speaks for itself, runs out of breath, and then speaks for itself some more....

I can only assume this profound mischaracterization of Biden's record was arrived at through the tired assumption that democrats are "soft" on crime, republicans are "tough," and therefore "moderates" are democrats who support harsh laws. Joe Biden is exactly the reason such stereotypes should be avoided by responsible journalists.

Perhaps they felt he'd appeal to Clinton supporters.

Biden is a 'Moderate' on Crime Issues? | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

Biden was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and introduced the Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Act in the 90s, requiring carriers of encrypted communications to turn the keys over to law enforcement, according to McCullagh.

Biden's bill spurred Philip Zimmerman to invent the PGP algorithm and publish it for free, McCullagh notes.

The Comprehensive Counter-Terrroism act was defeated, but Biden followed up with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement (ACT), which became law in 1994, says McCullagh.

In his favor, he did speak out against the Communications Decency Act.

Biden supported Manditory Goverment Key Escrow and CALEA

The bill was sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden

You can read MemeStreams discussions about this bill here and here. When a politician writes up a paranoid, funhouse mirror description of a widespread youth counterculture and attaches to it to a bill intended to target and shut down that culture, well, those youth ought to remind him of that when he desires their vote for political office.

RAVE Act was Biden's idea

In honor of Jack and Doris Cross

Alzheimer's Diagnosis

Get a Web Ribbon

Posting these to MemeStreams alters the structure of the html code, so I created another ribbon and posted it here.

Its silly that this campaign doesn't also directly entice you to donate more money, but you can do that here.

Alzheimer's Web Ribbon

His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.

Photographer Documents Secret Satellites -- All 189 of Them

General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer.

Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: “Conditions permitting, yeah.”

FT.com / World - US says troops could quit Baghdad soon

This struggle to embrace modernity without abandoning faith falls on one of the fault lines in the modern world. It is arguably the critical fault line, the tectonic rift that is advancing the bloody borders of Islam and the increasingly sectarian boundaries of American politics. As humankind abandons the secular totalitarianisms of the last century and grapples with breakneck technological and scientific discoveries, the appeal of absolutist faith is powerful in both developing and developed countries...

You cannot confront the complex challenges of domestic or foreign policy today unless you understand this gulf and its seriousness. You cannot lead the United States without having a foot in both the religious and secular camps.

I've been reading Andrew Sullivan's blog over the past few days because he has served as a hub for information and opinion critical of Palin. There have been a number of insightful things posted there but I've generally refrained from posting them here as I've made my views about her pretty clear.

I'm still not sure what I think about Obama. Sullivan supports him, and offered up this explanation, which, I think is worth reading in spite of its length. I think at times it reaches too far, particularly the alarm about Iraq, which is a problem that seems to have been constantly fading away since the strategic shift last year. But my alarm about Islamic extremeism certainly hasn't faded, and there are some interesting insights here that are more complicated than a list of issue stances.

Have you read The Philosopher of Islamic Terror?

Andrew Sullivan on Why Obama Matters

The Daily Show has a segment with video clips of Dick Morris, Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, and others complaining about the media's unfair treatment of Sarah Palin, along with earlier video clips of these folks dishing out the same garbage about others...

The most important clip set is the first one, wherein Rove talks about qualifications and experience.

Daily Show on Republican hypocrisy - Boing Boing

Helicopter-borne American Special Operations forces attacked Qaeda militants in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan early Wednesday in the first publicly acknowledged case of United States forces conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil, American officials said.

This is a significant policy shift.

American Forces Attack Militants on Pakistani Soil - NYTimes.com

This speaks for itself.

YouTube - Drill Baby, Drill!