This, by itself, redeems SNL for the last five years of shit. Or however how long it has been since Will Ferrell left. Seems like five years.
Archives for 2005
Fun With Echelon
The most informed commentary about Bush’s FISA-free wiretapping is going on at DefenseTech.
This gave me an idea:
this call chain [which began with direct al Qaeda connections] could very well have grown out of control, the source admits. Suddenly, people ten and twelve degrees of separation away from Osama may have been targeted.
Maybe it’s now possible to play ‘six degrees of Osama bin Laden?’ How many steps of phone tag away from America’s single greatest enemy is, say, Kevin Bacon? Rudy Giuliani? Grandma? File a FOIA and find out.
Some killjoy NSA veteran had this to say:
“It’s drilled into you from minute one that you should not ever, ever, ever, under any fucking circumstances turn this massive apparatus on an American citizen,” one source says. “You do a lot of weird shit. But at least you don’t fuck with your own people.”
IOW, the people who know what’s going on think that this revelation is unprecedented and overall a very bad thing.
Also, Newsweek’s Alter has a revealing story behind the story and Carpetbagger runs down recent sightings of the ‘I’ word. Discuss what it all means or flame each other silly.
***Update***
Was Congress briefed? It depends on what your definition of ‘briefed’ is. And your definition of ‘Congress.’ Four or five Senators were given sketchy outlines and forbidden to communicate anything to colleagues, the press or even their staff, and when they expressed concerns they were ignored. See here and here.
The Latest Spying Story
Call me a contrarian, but the latest story on government spying doesn’t have the same punch as Bush’s FISA imbroglio, although the timing is practically Groucho Marx. Here’s the skinny:
Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.
The Patriot Act, of course, loosened rules about who could be watched and how. So people have a right to be concerned when we find out that the government seems to paint ‘terrorism’ with a rather broad brush:
[T]he documents, coming after the Bush administration’s confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a “Vegan Community Project.” Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group’s “semi-communistic ideology.” A third indicates the bureau’s interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
To be honest, FBI surveillance of domestic groups is nothing new. As much as I’d prefer that they spend some energy on the armed crazies, which might have headed off genuine terror attacks such as Tim McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, we in the environmental community knew that we lived under federal scrutiny. When Patriot removed the red tape it seemed like a no-brainer that the FBI would go on doing what they’ve always been doing, only more intrusively. That’s why some people braved the hysterical demagoguery of the ’02 midterms to suggest that Patriot might be a bad idea. There’s nothing wrong with fighting terrorism, but there’s nothing in the Act that says that you and your dog aren’t terrorists.
This is where timing comes in – you can’t write a better coda for Russ Feingold’s successful effort to shut down reauthorization of the Patriot Act than this story. If we’re going to revisit the sweeping federal powers enumerated in Patriot, let’s take a serious look at what has actually been done in its name and ask whether that’s what we want our government to be doing.
Intelligent Design Loses In Dover
Maybe they should have designed their inane crusade more intelligently.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — “Intelligent design” cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
The Dover Area School Board violated the Constitution when it ordered that its biology curriculum must include “intelligent design,” the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled Tuesday.
The school board policy, adopted in October 2004, was believed to have been the first of its kind in the nation.
“The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy,” Jones wrote. “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.”
Attitudes Towards America
Dan Drezner gets results. More here.
Aside from being the right thing to do, it seems charity has other benefits.
Thanks
A nice compliment. Much appreciated.
Kwanzukahmas Shopping
BoingBoing has a link to one of my favorite gift suppliers, Archie McPhee.
In addition to the spinning unicorn- and ninja-themed decision folders, you can get cool magic eight balls (the ‘devil ball’ has a few dozen answers encouraging you to do whatever it is you were planning to do), the Jane Austen action figure (plus Jesus, assorted scientists and about a dozen classical composers), a Sigmund Freud bobblehead, meat-flavored air fresheners, nihilist chewing gum (‘Nihilists don’t believe in flavor.’) and lawn flamingoes.
I should also give a shout-out to the cthulu plush slippers that a commenter pointed out a while back.
Use this thread to share gift ideas great and terrible. Bad gift and regifting stories are also welcome.
***Update***
The War on Christmas based on faulty intelligence? Expect subpoenas.