“Is America really broke? Michael Moore (and others) tells us that there are oceans of cash being hoarded by the wealthy. But Iowahawk (iowahawk.typepad.com) did a little addition, and armed with these statistics Bill and the ‘Hawk blow a hole in the “hoarding” lie big enough to fit a documentary filmmaker through.”
–Jay Leno
Tell Congress to Rein in PATRIOT and Restore JUSTICE!
Congress voted at the end of February to extend the expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, but only for three months — giving liberty-loving citizens a new opportunity to continue to protest this dangerous law and demand reforms before the end of May. A message from you, opposing PATRIOT extension and demanding that Congress pass the important reforms contained in the JUSTICE Act, could make a critical difference. Help EFF defend civil liberties and stop Congress from rubber-stamping the PATRIOT Act!
There’s new hope in the PATRIOT debate. Thanks to bipartisan opposition from Democratic leaders and an insurgent movement of conservative Republicans, PATRIOT provisions that were scheduled to expire at the end of February were only temporarily renewed for three months. That means we have three more months to fight against permanent renewal and demand meaningful reform to the government’s broad surveillance powers under that law. With debate over PATRIOT dominating Twitter and the blogosphere, and with both Democrats and Republicans demanding meaningful oversight and reform, this is our best chance in years to convince Congress to investigate how PATRIOT is being used and establish new checks and balances to protect against abuse.
That’s why Congress needs to hear from you now, as it begins the three-month process of conducting hearings and considering proposals for PATRIOT renewal and reform. Congress needs to know now that you oppose PATRIOT extension and support meaningful reforms, like the powerful new PATRIOT oversight and accountability measures found in the JUSTICE Act bills that were introduced in the House (H.R. 4005) and Senate (S.1686) in 2009 during the last PATRIOT reauthorization debate.
The JUSTICE Act not only contained critically important new checks and balances to prevent abuse of the three expiring PATRIOT provisions, but also proposed many meaningful reforms to a wide range of other, permanent PATRIOT powers. The JUSTICE Act also began to address some of the serious civil liberties problems with the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which broadly enhanced the government’s authority to spy on your international phone calls and emails without warrants and may ultimately be more dangerous to civil liberties than anything in PATRIOT.
Congressional leaders have promised they won’t waste the next three months but instead will spend that time giving PATRIOT reform the attention it deserves. It’s our job to make sure they keep that promise, and to demand that Congress rein in PATRIOT and restore JUSTICE. So, please contact your Representative and Senators today!
It has been my contention for some time that those to the political left accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they, the left, actually are engaged in. In this example a couple of Democratic Party members in Michigan attempted to register candidates as Tea Party members in order to siphon votes away from an actual candidate.
From Detroit News:
Former Democratic Party Chairman Michael McGuinness and ex-operations director Jason Bauer, both of Waterford Township, were arraigned Wednesday before Oakland Circuit Judge James Alexander.
They face charges related to Independent Tea Party filings, false affidavits and forged documents that occurred between July 23 and July 26 last year.
From: Threat Level
A federal magistrate said Sony may subpoena the PayPal account of PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz, as the gamemaker ratchets up its civil lawsuit against the man who released the first full-fledged PS3 jailbreak in the console’s four-year history.
Tuesday’s order came two weeks after Magistrate Joseph Spero in San Francisco granted Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who had visited Hotz’s website from January of 2009 onward. Sony has also won subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google, as well as Twitter account data linked to Hotz, who goes by the handle GeoHot.
What happens when you have the perfect girlfriend (“Spent all weekend naked play’n Halo 3”) in every single way, except she doesn’t like Firefly?
Dump her.
Then write a song about it.
From: Cnet
Under federal law, wiretaps may only be conducted in investigations of serious crimes, a list that was expanded by the 2001 Patriot Act to include offenses such as material support of terrorism and use of weapons of mass destruction. The administration is proposing to add copyright and trademark infringement, arguing that move “would assist U.S. law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate those offenses.”
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20043421-281.html#ixzz1GjUNNWr9
Blogger Johnny Northside
Though blogger John (Johnny Northside) Hoff told the truth when he linked ex-community leader Jerry Moore to a high-profile mortgage fraud, the scathing blog post that got Moore fired justifies $60,000 in damages, a Hennepin County jury decided Friday.
The jury awarded Moore $35,000 for lost wages and $25,000 for emotional distress. The civil verdict culminated a nearly two-year legal scuffle between John Hoff, whose blog, The Adventures of Johnny Northside, has 300 to 500 readers daily, and Moore, former director of the Jordan Area Community Council.
Jane Kirtley, a U of M professor of media law and ethics, called the lawsuit an example of “trash torts,” in which someone unable to sue for libel, which by definition involves falsity, reaches for another legal claim.
“This is based on expression, and expression enjoys First Amendment protection,” Kirtley said. Just last week, she said, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected the Westboro Baptist Church’s antigay protests at military funerals.
“I find it really hard to believe that there was a degree of emotional distress caused by this reporting that outstrips that suffered by [a Marine’s] family,” Kirtley said.
A bill introduced by Florida state senator Jim Norman would make it a felony to take a photograph of a farm without the owner’s permission: “A person who photographs, video records or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree.” (NYT Lens blog)
Bill Gates has announced that his company, TerraPower LLC, is ready to build and test a small-scale nuclear reactor that theoretically could power a local community for decades without having to be refueled.
The TerraPower traveling-wave reactor is designed to be buried in the ground, where it would run for 100 years.
According to reports on the project, enriched uranium would shoot neutrons into the depleted uranium making up approximately 90 percent of the fuel in the reactor. That process would produce plutonium, designed to burn slowly in a controlled reaction that would continue over many years without the need of human intervention.
http://www.intellectualventures.com/OurInventions/TerraPower.aspx
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
-John Stuart Mill