“What policies might we construct if the issue were economic...”
— Losing Our Minds over...
— Losing Our Minds over...
Dec 1st
cagle.com
Dec 1st
“Perhaps it’s time to revert to a much older marital...”
— Taking Marriage Private
— Taking Marriage Private
Dec 1st
2007 Lists
Dec 1st
“Barring a remarkable explanation from the Giuliani campaign...”
— Dead Man Debating
— Dead Man Debating
Dec 1st
10 Reasons We’re Doomed
Dec 1st
“And a virgin Apple TV is designed to only get paid video...”
— Fuzzy picture for Apple TV
— Fuzzy picture for Apple TV
Dec 1st
Video Game Chartz
Dec 1st
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Mex vs BC (Born Citizen) Pt. 2 — “JOBS”
Dec 1st
“Imagine if Arthur C. Clarke had patented the idea of...”
— Apple, Burst Reach Settlement
— Apple, Burst Reach Settlement
Dec 1st
“Actually, Hyde’s great historical role was as one of...”
— Mr. Hyde
— Mr. Hyde
Dec 1st
The myth of low population density
Dec 1st
cagle.com
Dec 1st
What we're doing is reverse-engineering the...
Dec 1st
“A common fallacy of human beings is to imagine that what is...”
— Charley Reese
— Charley Reese
Dec 1st
“In short, Americans want real reform of the presidential...”
— John Dean
— John Dean
Nov 30th
blog.wired.com
Nov 30th
“Worse still, sending people Word documents is a discourtesy...”
— Reverend Father Martin...
— Reverend Father Martin...
Nov 30th
“As a computer user today, you may find yourself using a...”
— Richard Stallman
— Richard Stallman
Nov 30th
gnu.org
Nov 30th
"I can tell you my inclination would be to...
Nov 30th
“Naïve as I was, I found myself astonished at the level of...”
— Dr. Drug Rep
— Dr. Drug Rep
Nov 30th
Watch
Uncle Jay Explains the News
Nov 30th
10 Reasons Why Johnny Cash Owns Chuck Norris
Nov 30th
Egyptian Blogger Silenced by YouTube, Yahoo!
Nov 30th
realcostofprisons.org
Nov 30th
“The findings have important practical implications. They...”
— Doctored photos create false...
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Nov 30th
Well before it was publicly known he was...
Nov 30th
Within the next decade, people may slow their...
Nov 30th
CNN Election Center 2008 Debate Scorecard
Nov 29th
“Our society worships talent, and many people assume that...”
— The Secret to Raising Smart...
— The Secret to Raising Smart...
Nov 29th
“If he wants to cut back blogging for its own sake,...”
— 7 Suggestions for Scott Adams
— 7 Suggestions for Scott Adams
Nov 29th
How to Write Fascinating Content That Readers...
Nov 29th
xkcd.com
Nov 29th
Three Simple Tests to Detect a Stroke
Nov 29th
It's not just your imagination, the weather...
Nov 29th
An explosion and consequent fire shut down...
Nov 29th
Watch
TPMtv Highlight Reel: CNN/YouTube GOP Debate
Nov 29th
Dorothy Day's anarcho-Catholicism: The way of...
Nov 29th
“The approach of immigration authorities so far to the whole...”
— David Neiwert
— David Neiwert
Nov 29th
“They were joking and laughing about what weapons they wanted...”
— Family Suing County; Humane...
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Nov 29th
Journalism 101
Nov 29th
azcentral.com
Nov 29th
“Sorry, but I see liberty measured by what fraction of the...”
— David Brin
— David Brin
Nov 28th
“JavaScript, the worst invention ever”
Nov 28th
Fixing HTML
Nov 28th
“It has become a holiday tradition that the folks at Go Daddy...”
— E.J, Montini
— E.J, Montini
Nov 28th
Why gift cards are evil
Nov 28th
War Is A Racket
Nov 28th
“A survey conducted by the Office of the Surgeon General of...”
— The Algebra of Occupation
— The Algebra of Occupation
Nov 28th
cagle.com
Nov 28th
“There are very serious social problems to be addressed, but...”
— Herb Gintis
— Herb Gintis
Nov 28th
“By any reasonable standard, Social Security is at most a...”
— Paul Krugman
— Paul Krugman
Nov 28th
“If we hit that bull’s eye, the rest of the Dominoes...”
— Zapp Brannigan
— Zapp Brannigan
Nov 28th
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 28th
Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know...
Nov 28th
“Superpower America is a ship of fools in denial of their...”
— Paul Craig Roberts
— Paul Craig Roberts
Nov 28th
Timeline: The political prosecution of Don...
Nov 28th
Watch
Police State Dog Attacks College Football Player
Nov 28th
“The lies that surround us drive emotions and they drive...”
— Granny D
— Granny D
Nov 28th
Blogs: A History, A Future
Nov 28th
“Sadly, in its efforts to dominate the Middle East, the...”
— Oil Costs More Than You Think
— Oil Costs More Than You Think
Nov 28th
Bob Boze Bell
Nov 27th
“Most of Google’s success and all of its profits can be...”
— The Google Enigma
— The Google Enigma
Nov 27th
“George Bush should be tied so tightly around the Republican...”
— Hullabaloo
— Hullabaloo
Nov 27th
“Credibility? Bloggers have no credibility - we are just a...”
— Bloggers Aren’t For...
— Bloggers Aren’t For...
Nov 27th
quotation-marks.blogspot.com
Nov 27th
“Yet in November polls, Republicans prefer Giuliani by a...”
— Paul Craig Roberts
— Paul Craig Roberts
Nov 27th
“Facebook is no paragon of virtue. It bears the hallmarks of...”
— Cory Doctorow
— Cory Doctorow
Nov 27th
A Theory of Programming
Nov 27th
Skewered: Indian teen survives 4ft pole...
Nov 27th
“I call an Ostrich any “decent conservative” who...”
— David Brin
— David Brin
Nov 27th
Thinking Forth
Nov 26th
“In many areas of life, we get confused over the difference...”
— Andrew Tallman
— Andrew Tallman
Nov 26th
Alexa’s Make Believe Internet
Nov 26th
A Hack I'm rather proud of
Nov 26th
“Henry had spent the better part of two months just working...”
— The Universal Baseball...
— The Universal Baseball...
Nov 26th
cagle.com
Nov 26th
“The person who freely plays with loved ones (whether people...”
— Robert K. Johnston
— Robert K. Johnston
Nov 26th
No More “www”
Nov 26th
“They tell us over and over that 9/11 was like Pearl Harbor;...”
— Apocalypse of Coercion
— Apocalypse of Coercion
Nov 26th
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are...”
— Voltaire
— Voltaire
Nov 26th
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 26th
“If leading conservatives’ uncritical acceptance of...”
— Conservative Revisionists and...
— Conservative Revisionists and...
Nov 26th
“How will the US maintain hegemony over Iraqi oil? By...”
— It’s the Oil
— It’s the Oil
Nov 26th
“The Bush administration has been a catastrophe. Its...”
— Paul Craig Roberts
— Paul Craig Roberts
Nov 26th
cagle.com
Nov 26th
“The dollar is losing about a cent every three weeks against...”
— Jim Kunstler
— Jim Kunstler
Nov 26th
“The next president won’t be able to deliver another era of...”
— Paul Krugman
— Paul Krugman
Nov 25th
“I blame Eric Raymond and to a lesser extent Dave Winer for...”
— Dabblers and Blowhards
— Dabblers and Blowhards
Nov 25th
Six Ideas That Will Change the World
Nov 25th
“Two years ago, nobody knew what YouTube was. Now, it’s...”
— Thanks YouTube!
— Thanks YouTube!
Nov 25th
Watch
Close Call with Lightning
Nov 25th
“Ever since moving here to teach English two years ago, Renck...”
— South Korea leads the way
— South Korea leads the way
Nov 25th
The war of the posters
Nov 25th
“Have we invented all the communication modes we’re going to...”
— On Communication
— On Communication
Nov 25th
A US news service has found a way to replace...
Nov 25th
The top 10 IT disasters of all time
Nov 25th
Comment Stupidity Filter On Its Way
Nov 25th
seattlepi.nwsource.com
Nov 25th
“Republicans don’t want to fund FDR’s social...”
— Thom Hartmann
— Thom Hartmann
Nov 25th
“There is another, far more common type of beast. I call this...”
— David Brin
— David Brin
Nov 25th
World’s Best Snowmen and Snow Art
Nov 24th
“Let me say upfront that I think there are serious issues...”
— Julie Clawson
— Julie Clawson
Nov 24th
“The stats on porn are in some respects even more...”
— Greg Boyd
— Greg Boyd
Nov 24th
azcentral.com
Nov 24th
The Bush War on Government Transparency
Nov 24th
What are some of the reasons why "climate...
Nov 24th
“When Bush administration officials I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby,...”
— Joe and Valerie Wilson
— Joe and Valerie Wilson
Nov 24th
“Public opinion polling now shows that 64% of Americans...”
— Did McClellan Accuse Bush of...
— Did McClellan Accuse Bush of...
Nov 24th
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 24th
“Contrary to popular opinion, since the mid 1990s, we have...”
— Paul Weinstein Jr.
— Paul Weinstein Jr.
Nov 24th
What are the most intellectually stimulating...
Nov 24th
“In 1993, the Clinton White House and an army of corporate...”
— David Sirota
— David Sirota
Nov 24th
“A present-day Agent Orange may be seething in the soil of...”
— A Culture of Life
— A Culture of Life
Nov 24th
The Top 100 Private Contractors in Iraq and...
Nov 24th
cagle.com
Nov 24th
“But all the attention on his salesmanship skills obscures...”
— Matt Taibbi
— Matt Taibbi
Nov 24th
“Chunky, rubber-skinned and round-cornered, the Eco Player’s...”
— Eco Media Player Cranks up the...
— Eco Media Player Cranks up the...
Nov 24th
Vengeance Is a Force That Gives Us...
Courtesy of A Tiny Revolution… When you read the numbers below, keep two facts in mind: (1) only...
Nov 24th
“The Iron Law of Institutions is: the people who control...”
— Jonathan Schwarz
— Jonathan Schwarz
Nov 24th
A blog for everyone
Nov 23rd
Watch
Macy’s Thanksgiving Imperial Death March
Nov 23rd
“In July 2006, the world’s oil rigs pumped out crude at...”
— Peak Possibilities
— Peak Possibilities
Nov 23rd
cagle.com
Nov 23rd
Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory...
Nov 23rd
Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered...
Nov 23rd
All the U.S. tanks, planes and ships guzzle...
Nov 23rd
9 Absolutely Insane Weapons of War
Nov 23rd
The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral”...
Nov 23rd
mnftiu.cc
Nov 23rd
“Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used...”
— Houston police started testing...
— Houston police started testing...
Nov 22nd
A Chat with Aaron Swartz
GB: In what environment did you work before that?AS: Before Y Combinator, I was a student at Stanford. Then I worked at Reddit for a while – the four of us packed into a small 3-bedroom apartment in Somerville, MA (I slept in the cupboard). Then we got bought by Condé Nast (the publishers of Wired, Elle, The New Yorker, Details, GQ, etc.) and they moved us out to San Francisco to work at the Wired offices and then they fired me. On the plus side, I did get this nifty shirt.
GB: Oh my. If you had to take a guess though, why do you think they let you go? Incompatibility with an office environment?
AS: Yeah. I was unhappy working in an office and didn’t hide it. So I’d come in late and set up lots of off-site meetings and stuff. And my boss wasn’t really thrilled about that.
Also, I think he was upset about me disappearing for so long on vacation. One of the places I went to in Europe was the Chaos Computer Conference. And while I was there I hung out with my friend Quinn Norton, who was reporting on the event for Wired. She took my photo for one of her articles and it was featured on wired.com’s front page. “Heh,” I joked. “I bet the first time my boss finds out where I am is when he sees my photo on the front page of his own website.”
GB: Heh. That was in Berlin?
AS: Yes. But the best punch line was that Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, later wrote on his blog that he didn’t find out when it was on the front-page of his website – he found out when I posted that fact to my blog!
Nov 22nd
“Faking sincerity is easy in a nation where virtually...”
— Joe Bageant
— Joe Bageant
Nov 22nd
“Non-intervention and neutrality everywhere coupled with a...”
— Bruce Fein
— Bruce Fein
Nov 22nd
home.swbell.net
Nov 22nd
“Migration is so central to Western Union that forecasts of...”
— Western Union Empire Moves...
— Western Union Empire Moves...
Nov 22nd
UCLA’s elite orthodontics residency program...
Nov 22nd
How to Build Your Own Lifestream with Yahoo...
Nov 22nd
Which blogs should one read to be most up to...
Nov 22nd
What if Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?
Nov 22nd
“Remember as you give thanks for the bountiful Earth, that...”
— Kelpie Wilson
— Kelpie Wilson
Nov 22nd
“An honest president would threaten the corrupt, dishonest...”
— First Woman, First Black,...
— First Woman, First Black,...
Nov 22nd
Giant Global Graph
Nov 22nd
cagle.com
Nov 22nd
“‘Kill the cable, kill the cable,’ shouted the...”
— Oil leaders’ private...
— Oil leaders’ private...
Nov 22nd
“The late 1990s were the only time in the last 35 years that...”
— Doug Henwood
— Doug Henwood
Nov 22nd
One Week of Food for Different Societies
Nov 22nd
Butcher’s Method Takes Carving Off the Table
Nov 22nd
He said he used to be a Baptist preacher...
Nov 22nd
“The law of competition implies that many competitors,...”
— Wendell Berry
— Wendell Berry
Nov 22nd
cagle.com
Nov 22nd
Kindle-ing Would
Nov 22nd
“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to...”
— George Washington
— George Washington
Nov 22nd
“The programmer, though, wants to be involved deeply and...”
— Wide vs. Deep
— Wide vs. Deep
Nov 22nd
saatchi-gallery.co.uk
Nov 22nd
“We cannot expect that having large warehouses of data on...”
— Seth Finkelstein
— Seth Finkelstein
Nov 21st
Watch
Trampoline Typography (via panopticist)
Nov 21st
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 21st
“His anger is due to the fact that the embattled city is...”
— Fallujah under a different...
— Fallujah under a different...
Nov 21st
LifeQuest Church
Nov 21st
“When the presidential campaign of 1856 began the Republicans...”
— History of the United States
— History of the United States
Nov 21st
Just what the world needs — Comcast and Mark...
Nov 21st
Life in Hell
Nov 21st
Top 15 Leopard Hints
Nov 21st
“Not only can’t I imagine charging for my blog,...”
— Seth Godin
— Seth Godin
Nov 21st
Watch
Tasered for Arguing Over a Speeding Ticket
Nov 21st
If current trends continue, by 2052 the...
Nov 21st
“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five...”
— Scott McClellan, former White...
— Scott McClellan, former White...
Nov 21st
joyoftech.com
Nov 21st
“I tell a lot of my soldiers: A good way to prepare for...”
— Iraqis Joining Insurgency Less...
— Iraqis Joining Insurgency Less...
Nov 21st
“I pray to Allah that the American voters elect the Zionist...”
— Osama’s Man in America
— Osama’s Man in America
Nov 21st
“How many times have you been sitting on a train or at a café...”
— E-book the letter
— E-book the letter
Nov 21st
Decline in Newspaper Advertising
Nov 21st
The Bush administration is turning Iraq into...
Nov 21st
cagle.com
Nov 20th
“What can be more traditional than Thanksgiving, after all?...”
— Ron Jacobs
— Ron Jacobs
Nov 20th
“Kindle is what happens when a non-cool company attempts to...”
— Chris Heathcote
— Chris Heathcote
Nov 20th
“Although these services may look legitimate, the Chinese...”
— China’s New ‘Love...
— China’s New ‘Love...
Nov 20th
Enough With The Lists
Nov 20th
How many HTML elements can you name in 5 minutes?
Nov 20th
The Future of Internet Immune Systems
Nov 20th
“When we hear pro-globalization pundits, who, by the way, are...”
— John Bowe
— John Bowe
Nov 20th
“There’s a link between growing wealth inequality and the...”
— John Bowe
— John Bowe
Nov 20th
bartblog.bartcop.com
Nov 20th
“Kindle is what happens when a company designs a product to...”
— Leo
— Leo
Nov 20th
Researchers using robotic roaches were able...
Nov 20th
“In Columbia alone, there are over 50,000 reported cases of...”
— The Most Dangerous Drug in the...
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Nov 20th
“Barring physical catastrophe, I expect that the real books I...”
— John Gruber
— John Gruber
Nov 20th
The Right to Read
Nov 20th
The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts)
Nov 20th
Watch
Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See
Nov 20th
A Driving While Intoxicated arrest has led to...
Nov 20th
The US prison population has risen eight-fold...
Nov 20th
“Ron Paul speaks truth to power. Congressman Paul takes the...”
— Ron Paul, the 2002 Szasz Civil...
— Ron Paul, the 2002 Szasz Civil...
Nov 20th
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 20th
“War, then, is always a government program, sharing certain...”
— Sheldon Richman
— Sheldon Richman
Nov 20th
Source for "Tumblr v3 Endless Dashboard"
Nov 19th
“You can’t appreciate a web site in the same way you...”
— Do Canonical Web Designs...
— Do Canonical Web Designs...
Nov 19th
“My experience of 25 years in food banking has led me to...”
— When Handouts Keep Coming, the...
— When Handouts Keep Coming, the...
Nov 19th
15 Things I Just Learned About the Amazon...
Nov 19th
“If you’re like most consumers, you’ve bought...”
— Why Amazon’s Kindle Is...
— Why Amazon’s Kindle Is...
Nov 19th
Watch
HuckChuckFacts
Nov 19th
“I’d say what she has is far more explosive than the...”
— Daniel Ellsberg Says Sibel...
— Daniel Ellsberg Says Sibel...
Nov 19th
danzigercartoons.com
Nov 19th
“Also, I’m a little offended by the phrase “born...”
— The Wide Finder Project
— The Wide Finder Project
Nov 19th
Don't flame me, bro'
Nov 19th
“The fact is, both Democrats and Republicans know that...”
— David Sirota
— David Sirota
Nov 19th
Watch
TPMtv: I’m Rudy Giuliani and I Approve This Message
Nov 19th
A black conservative Christian pastor of an...
Nov 19th
“I guess what really gets me about these houses popping up in...”
— Jim Kunstler
— Jim Kunstler
Nov 19th
Openness and the Metaverse Singularity
Nov 19th
xkcd.com
Nov 19th
If there are any lingering doubts as to...
Nov 19th
“You may recall that you got rid of your loyal White House...”
— Tyler Cowen
— Tyler Cowen
Nov 19th
newsweek.com
Nov 18th
You won't find me on Amazon's new book reader
Nov 18th
Watch
Bush Administration Insider Says 9/11 Was An Inside Job
Nov 18th
“KBR’s Iraq logistics contract was awarded in December...”
— The People vs. the Profiteers:...
— The People vs. the Profiteers:...
Nov 18th
intelligentguess.com
Nov 18th
“Giuliani spent $60m on the command centre in the World Trade...”
— The Heroic Image of Giuliani...
— The Heroic Image of Giuliani...
Nov 18th
The Fall of the House of Bush: The...
AMY GOODMAN: I want to talk about one of the main stories in your book, and that is this point you made at the top of the show, that it wasn’t a failure of intelligence, the Iraq war; in fact, it was the success. Talk about it.CRAIG UNGER: Right, well, a lot -- I think everyone knows about the Valerie Plame Wilson affair and Joe Wilson. What people -- and it’s sometimes referred to as Nigergate. People sometimes forget the source was what is known as the Niger documents. Now, these were documents that grew out of a robbery that took place in the Niger embassy over the last weekend in the year of 2000 and January 1, 2001.
Now, remember, the timing is very important. George W. Bush has not taken office yet, but the neocons know they have a friend in the office -- coming into the White House. So they have had this strategy in development for many years, going back to as early as 1992, you see it begin to take shape. Now, finally, they have an opportunity to begin to try to implement it. And as early as 1998, they had begun going down to Austin. You see Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams going down to Austin, where George W. Bush is governor.
Bush Sr. has been trying to educate his son, in terms of foreign policy. He thinks the old-line realists will prevail. By that, I mean Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft and, one had thought, Condoleezza Rice, James Baker, for example. But, in fact, a radical group of neocons have been going down there, and they’ve sort of been indoctrinating George W. Bush. The first review of my book, Radar magazine calls it “the greatest brainwashing since the Manchurian Candidate.”
So when the Niger embassy break-in takes place, it’s in the Niger embassy in Rome. I actually went there for Vanity Fair. It’s a terribly unprepossessing building. If the Watergate burglary is sometimes described as a third-rate burglary, well, this is a fourth-rate one, and almost nothing of value is taken, just a few documents and some stationary. But these documents were used as the basis for forgeries of documents that said that Saddam Hussein was going to buy 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from the Republic of Niger. It’s a very poor African company -- country. Its only real export is uranium.
These documents then became circulated, though there are many, many, many unanswered questions about them. Everyone agrees on one thing, and that is that they were forgeries. They were phony. And I discovered, as I began to trace them, I discovered that they had been discredited on at least fourteen separate occasions by various government agencies, by the CIA, by the intelligence arm of the State Department, and so forth. Yet they still manage to be inserted in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, and therefore in that speech they became a causis belli, a cause for war.
Nov 18th
Six Degrees of Exploitation: Anti-Sweatshop...
Nov 18th
5 Reasons to Spring for an iPod - and 5...
Nov 18th
Watch
Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence
Nov 18th
Leopard Gripes
I keep hearing about how great Mac OS X Leopard is, but my experience has been quite contrary to...
Nov 18th
Mac vs Ubuntu
Nov 18th
Facebook's Privacy Default
Nov 18th
“Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and John McCain are all horrific...”
— Glenn Greenwald
— Glenn Greenwald
Nov 18th
The death of e-mail
Nov 18th
“As a general rule, I don’t watch shows about doctors,...”
— jwz
— jwz
Nov 18th
“In 1980, all software was proprietary. The phrases “free...”
— Rebuttal to Stallman’s Story...
— Rebuttal to Stallman’s Story...
Nov 17th
truewestmagazine.com
Nov 17th
“Israel’s goal is and always has been to take all of...”
— Charley Reese
— Charley Reese
Nov 17th
“Once the SDK reaches a more finished form, Google intends to...”
— When is a door not a door?
— When is a door not a door?
Nov 17th
Watch
SwiftKids: Barack Obama
Nov 17th
“Back in 1983, when Social Security really was running out of...”
— Mark Weisbrot
— Mark Weisbrot
Nov 17th
strangemaps.files.wordpress.com
Nov 17th
When Shawn Macleod of Austin, Texas,...
Nov 17th
Lou Dobbs challenges Bill Gates to debate...
Nov 17th
“The Internet’s victory over the services we now derisively...”
— Scott Rosenberg
— Scott Rosenberg
Nov 17th
A Cat’s Life
Nov 17th
“As it’s now celebrated, Thanksgiving is already...”
— Steve Lendman
— Steve Lendman
Nov 17th
“In response to Mr OReilly’s comments that “he is...”
— Mark Cuban
— Mark Cuban
Nov 17th
Effective Vim
Nov 17th
Debunking Thanksgiving myths
Nov 17th
The World According to Dubya
Nov 17th
“Coulton’s is the voice of every spooky elementary school kid...”
— Bring Your Questions for Web...
— Bring Your Questions for Web...
Nov 17th
“Also, I misspoke when I said I played shortstop for the...”
— I Too Misspoke
— I Too Misspoke
Nov 16th
“Nobody has ever, ever offered an explanation for what...”
— David Brin
— David Brin
Nov 16th
Election '08 Meets The Great Education Myth
Nov 16th
Watch
Chiron Beta Prime
Nov 16th
get your war on
Nov 16th
Is blogging per se a dying art?
Nov 16th
azcentral.com
Nov 16th
Avoid Cancer, Lose Weight, Look Great,...
Nov 16th
Narcotics Officer of the Year indicted on...
Nov 16th
“The classic market failure is the absolute inability to do...”
— Capitalism Give Its Impartial...
— Capitalism Give Its Impartial...
Nov 16th
The average household in Baghdad gets just...
Nov 16th
Another Tumblr V3 glitch — photo link doesn’t work,...
Nov 16th
Blueprint CSS Cheat Sheet
Nov 16th
Load OSX 10.5 Leopard on the eeePC
Nov 16th
Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of...
Nov 16th
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Nov 16th
Scrubbing the iPhone Scrubber
Nov 16th
Schizophrenia: The Curse That's Almost a...
Nov 15th
Coral reefs face extinction in a few decades
Nov 15th
Counter-taserism
Nov 15th
Travel Tips: 12 Clever Uses for Your Digital...
Nov 15th
“In the simplest terms possible, the monkey, a rhesus...”
— Scientists announced that they...
— Scientists announced that they...
Nov 15th
The Arctic Ocean could be free of ice in the...
Nov 15th
“Red America can’t have it both ways, despising...”
— David Brin
— David Brin
Nov 15th
“The goal of our coup was to overthrow Prime Minister...”
— Stephen Kinzer
— Stephen Kinzer
Nov 15th
glennwosley.com
Nov 15th
Americans: Sheep to the Constitutional...
reason: The Patriot Act seems to be a special bete noire of yours. What’s the problem with it?Napolitano: The Patriot Act’s two most principle constitutional errors are an assault on the Fourth Amendment, and on the First. It permits federal agents to write their own search warrants [under the name “national security letters”] with no judge having examined evidence and agreed that it’s likely that the person or thing the government wants to search will reveal evidence of a crime.
Remember that the British government permitted its soldiers to execute self-written search warrants. They called them “writs of assistance,” and they were one of the last straws that caused American colonist to rebel. It’s bitterly ironic that 230 years later a popularly elected government would authorize its own agents to do the same thing that when a monarchy did it, we fought a war of rebellion in reaction—which we won!
Not only that, but the Patriot Act makes it a felony for the recipient of a self-written search warrant to reveal it to anyone. The Patriot Act allows [agents] to serve self-written search warrants on financial institutions, and the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2004 in Orwellian language defines that to include in addition to banks, also delis, bodegas, restaurants, hotels, doctors' offices, lawyers’ offices, telecoms, HMOs, hospitals, casinos, jewelry dealers, automobile dealers, boat dealers, and that great financial institution to which we all would repose our fortunes, the post office.
So FBI agents can write their own search warrant with just the permission of their superior, no judge at all, nobody at the main Department of Justice, and serve it essentially on any entity they want, and if they serve this search warrant on your doctor, lawyer, grocer, or mailman, and that doctor, lawyer, grocer, or mailman tells you they received it, then that doctor, lawyer, grocer, or mailman, can be prosecuted for a felony, face five years in jail. What part of the First Amendment’s “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech” do they not understand?
This creates a Soviet-style conundrum for the recipient, who can’t even tell his or her lawyer or general counsel about getting the search warrant. You can’t hire outside counsel to challenge it, you can’t mention it to your spouse on the pillow, to your priest in confession—not even to a federal judge in a federal courtroom where all language except perjury should be permitted. This is a conundrum the likes of which government has never visited even under the Alien and Sedition Act. If they prosecuted you for criticizing [President John] Adams you could complain about it to your heart’s content without being charged with another crime.
reason: The Patriot Act was sold as a necessary protection from terror. How has that worked out?
Napolitano: How many people has the DOJ convicted in a jury trial for terrorism based on evidence obtained from the Patriot Act? Zero. They’ve gotten people to plead guilty, to fold, and convicted many on drug trafficking, white slavery, prostitution, gambling, and political corruption, but haven’t gotten a single [terror] case where they presented evidence in a public court before a judge and jury and the jury found a defendant guilty under evidence obtained under Patriot Act.
The reasons stated by [Attorney General John] Ashcroft and the House Republican leadership for there being no debate on the Patriot Act was that terrorists were under every bed, behind every toilet, and inside every refrigerator. Therefore the Patriot Act was so necessary to keep the country safe that there was no time for debate. The most sinful aspect of its passage was how members of the House were not permitted to read it. It was posted on the House Intranet for 15 min [before the vote] and it’s 315 pages long. I read it twice, and it took me 20 hours each time. And you need in front of you not just it, but lots of other statutes, the full U.S. criminal code, to process it. It does lots of amending of other statutes, so you need to reread [those] statues to figure out what government has done by amending that statute.
I was speaking in the Midwest—I don’t want to tell you where, somewhere in the great Heartland—two weeks ago and at the end of my speech, after I said many of these things I’m saying here and in my book, there was a congressman in the audience. He and I socialized a bit, and he said, “Judge, I’m a little ill at ease. I didn’t know until hearing you tonight that the Patriot Act permitted self-written search warrants and criminalized speech about receiving them, and I voted for it twice.”
And I said—knowing how he was going to answer—I asked, “Didn’t you read it? You voted on it.” No, he didn’t have time, he only read the summary. And he didn’t remember the summary talking about self-written search warrants and criminalized speech. He told me many of his colleagues were in the same situation. I said, “WRONG—all your colleagues are in the same situation! No one in the House except maybe leadership read the Patriot Act you voted on!” It’s abominable for the government to tamper with our basic liberties—but it’s inconceivable that they would do so without any debate.
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