"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger - NYTimes.com
Topic: War on Terrorism
12:53 pm EDT, Jun 22, 2008
Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. The third largest, Mosul, is in the midst of a major security operation. On Thursday, Iraqi forces swept unopposed through the southern city of Amara, which has been controlled by Shiite militias. There is a sense that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government has more political traction than any of its predecessors.
Radical policy shifts on Iraq seem less reasonable with each passing month. A number of previous threads on this subject are easy to search for. I think this is going to present a problem for Obama, as previous Dem positioning in Iraq is going to get squeezed against improving news from the ground. McCain will easily capitalize on this.
Martha Stewart Denied Visa to Travel to Britain - NYTimes.com
Topic: War on Terrorism
5:25 pm EDT, Jun 20, 2008
Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart has been denied entry to Britain because of her 2003 U.S. conviction for lying about a stock sale.
The stupid reciprocal information sharing about criminal records for the purpose of implementing visa denial policies bites Martha Stewart. She is not allowed to travel to the UK. Freedom is on the march.
Balkinization: What the Dems DID save in the FISA capitulation
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:24 pm EDT, Jun 20, 2008
Interesting point from the thread:
Nancy Pelosi did remove one joker from the deck, quite pointedly: the PAA's Orwellian definition of "electronic surveillance" to exclude the electronic surveillance it authorized. (No, this is not a typo.)
This created a hole so vast that it appeared that even the PAA's lame procedures were not mandatory for the new surveillance but only an option that could be bypassed.
Back in March, in rebuffing the attempted ram-through of the Senate bill, Pelosi denounced the subterfuge in the strongest terms, calling it "very important" to notice and to keep out of the next FISA amendment. She even put the point on parity with exclusivity. (It is her third and final point at 6:10:
.
The current bill is free of this piece of hucksterism. I was pleased to see the House get on top of the issue, call it out explicitly, and stay focused on its expungement.
Looking at the new bill, I come away with two lessons. It is never a waste of time to call out a travesty; and if it's not one thing, it's another.
President Bush Urges Quick Passage of Wiretapping Bill - washingtonpost.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:53 am EDT, Jun 20, 2008
In a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden, Bush also hailed House passage yesterday of a bipartisan bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into 2009 and would allow veterans of those wars to received increased education benefits. He had previously opposed the veterans' education provision and new domestic spending included in the war-funding package, threatening a presidential veto.
Telco immunity was horse traded for veteran's education benefits.
George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Topic: Politics and Law
9:16 am EDT, Jun 20, 2008
Perhaps the most repellent part of this bill (though that's obviously a close competition) is 802(c) of the telecom amnesty section. That says that the Attorney General can declare that the documents he submits to the court in order to get these lawsuits dismissed are secret, and once he declares that, then: (a) the plaintiffs and their lawyers won't ever see the documents and (b) the court is barred from referencing them in any way when it dismisses the lawsuit. All the court can do is issue an order saying that the lawsuits are dismissed, but it is barred from saying why they're being dismissed or what the basis is for the dismissal.
So basically, one day in the near future, we're all going to learn that one of our federal courts dismissed all of the lawsuits against the telecoms. But we're never going to be able to know why the lawsuits were dismissed or what documents were given by the Government to force the court to dismiss the lawsuits. Not only won't we, the public, know that, neither will the plaintiffs' lawyers. Nobody will know except the Judge and the Government because it will all be shrouded in compelled secrecy, and the Judge will be barred by this law from describing or even referencing the grounds for dismissal in any way. Freedom is on the march.
This is the best article I've found on the FISA capitulation. I don't understand how they did a 180 on this.
The Last HOPE - July 18-20, 2008 - Hotel Pennsylvania - New York City
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:03 am EDT, Jun 20, 2008
Warrantless Laptop Searches at U.S. Borders
Decius
U.S. customs agents have begun randomly searching the contents of laptops carried by individuals across U.S. border checkpoints. Personal laptops contain increasingly vast and intimate collections of information about their owners, and cannot be easily sanitized for government inspection prior to travel. The privacy implications of this policy are obviously tremendous. There is presently a debate in the U.S. court system about the constitutionality of these searches. This talk will cover the developments so far, explaining (and criticizing) the basic legal framework in which this debate is occurring as well as the reasoning employed by the courts that have heard this issue. Related topics will also be discussed, such as recent controversy over the Fifth Amendment right to refuse to reveal an encryption password to the police and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Attendees will be armed with a deeper understanding of these present threats to our fundamental rights.
I'm speaking at Hope next month in NYC. A number of other people connected with MemeStreams are also speaking. It should be a good time.
Not just searching current headlines, but now being able to search Google News archives going back years. Yum. :)
The link is sometimes a bit hard to spot. It's on the main Google News page as a link off to the right, or if you're in search display screen already, then click on "All dates" on the left, or "Advanced news search" at the top, to get to a link to the new feature on the search screen. Some of the entries it pulls up list prices that press organizations will charge for a reprint. However, I find that all it really takes to get free access is a library card number, and I can use my local library's website to get at Newsbank or Gale or EBSCOhost and can usually find most of the articles for free that way. Having a quick Google search telling me where to look though, makes searching much easier.
Searching books and periodicals and databases still has a way to go, even with this feature. As I'm doing research, I often find that I need to check multiple databases via library websites to find what I'm looking for, and there is not yet one central "Type your search term here" entry box that will search all the databases for me. But if anybody can do it, Google can. I'm already using Google Books and Google Scholar on a routine basis. Google Books is especially handy. I search for a book, click on "Find this book in a library", to access WorldCat, enter my zip code, and it not only tells me which are the closest libraries that have the book, it'll even tell me if the book is checked out or not. Nice stuff!
The police raid in Philly caused commentators at BoingBoing to reference this incident, which I hadn't heard about before:
The police tried to remove two wood-and-steel tactical bunkers constructed by MOVE on the roof by dropping a bomb made of C-4 and Tovex. The resulting explosion caused the house to catch fire, igniting a massive blaze which eventually consumed almost an entire city block. Eleven people, including John Africa, six other adults and four children, died in the resulting fire. Mayor Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission, the PSIC or MOVE commission, which issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable."
And people talk about Waco... Does bombing Philly count as the most overzealous police action in U.S. history or are there others I'm not aware?
The cops came, searched and left a mess for puzzled homeowner | Philadelphia Daily News | 06/17/2008
Topic: Civil Liberties
9:34 am EDT, Jun 18, 2008
Four young residents of a North Philadelphia house who circulated petitions questioning police-surveillance cameras were rousted from their home Friday and detained 12 hours without charges while police searched their house.
The raid on the property on Ridge Avenue near Parrish Street was led by 9th District Police Capt. Dennis Wilson, who was quoted in an online story by the City Paper as saying of the residents: "They're a hate group. We're trying to drum up charges against them, but unfortunately we'll probably have to let them go."
He said he asked Wilson if he had a warrant, and none was produced.
Vanore said police will conduct a forensic examination of the items taken from the property to see if any charges are warranted.
"The message was clear, Tim Russert was too fat for too long and this promoted his premature heart disease," said Dr. Peter McCullough, consultant cardiologist and chief of the division of nutrition and preventive medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan. "Patients are getting the message that weight loss is fundamental to reducing [overall] risk."
