Jay Rosen notes that:
On Dec. 20, James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times reported that
On The Road Again
We’re driving to St. Louis, and then flying back to Florida. Have a happy new year, all, if I don’t check in sooner.
Just In Case There Was Any Doubt
Boy monkeys like toy cars, and girl monkeys like dolls.
So much for the blank slate.
And though I have no time to crack wise on this subject, I give you the Freepers:
Nancy Hopkins is hunched over the toilet as we speak. Could someone out there please be a dear, and hold her hair for her?
It’s Bush’s Fault
Jim Oberg points out in email that AP has a misleading statement in this story about the European Galileo positioning system:
The $4 billion Galileo project will eventually use about 30 satellites and is expected to more than double GPS coverage, providing satellite navigation for everyone from motorists to sailors to mapmakers. Because Galileo is under civilian control, the ESA also says it can guarantee operation at almost all times, unlike the American system.
Last year, President Bush ordered plans for temporarily disabling GPS satellites during national crises to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology.
The juxtaposition of these two statements implies that it’s the Bush administration’s actions that have caused Europe to embark on this boondoggle. This is nutty, of course, because the program has been in planning for years, and could hardly be a response to something that the administration did a year ago–it’s almost a non-sequitur. In fact, as Jim points out, it was actually caused by the Clinton administration’s actions in not just planning to, but actually shutting down the system during the Balkans wars. But they can’t bring themselves to mention that, of course.
Jim notes:
Maybe it’s just me, but such omissions and slants in general
AP stories have gotten more and more noticeable.
It’s not just you, Jim.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Oh, and speaking of double standards, Michael Scheuer has admitted that Al Qaeda renditions began under the Clinton administration. But of course, it only made us into a police state when a Republican president is in office, and we’re at war.
I’d take a lot of these critics and fair-weather civil libertarians more seriously if I’d heard from them in the nineties, when Janet Reno was attacking churches with tanks, and snatching kids at gunpoint, the administration was collecting FBI files and leaking data against its political enemies, trumping up charges against innocent people so they could replace them with cronies, destroying evidence of wrongdoing in emails, threatening and libeling inconvenient women, etc.
You know, when we weren’t at war? Well, other than at war against the evil right wingers…
It’s Bush’s Fault
Jim Oberg points out in email that AP has a misleading statement in this story about the European Galileo positioning system:
The $4 billion Galileo project will eventually use about 30 satellites and is expected to more than double GPS coverage, providing satellite navigation for everyone from motorists to sailors to mapmakers. Because Galileo is under civilian control, the ESA also says it can guarantee operation at almost all times, unlike the American system.
Last year, President Bush ordered plans for temporarily disabling GPS satellites during national crises to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology.
The juxtaposition of these two statements implies that it’s the Bush administration’s actions that have caused Europe to embark on this boondoggle. This is nutty, of course, because the program has been in planning for years, and could hardly be a response to something that the administration did a year ago–it’s almost a non-sequitur. In fact, as Jim points out, it was actually caused by the Clinton administration’s actions in not just planning to, but actually shutting down the system during the Balkans wars. But they can’t bring themselves to mention that, of course.
Jim notes:
Maybe it’s just me, but such omissions and slants in general
AP stories have gotten more and more noticeable.
It’s not just you, Jim.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Oh, and speaking of double standards, Michael Scheuer has admitted that Al Qaeda renditions began under the Clinton administration. But of course, it only made us into a police state when a Republican president is in office, and we’re at war.
I’d take a lot of these critics and fair-weather civil libertarians more seriously if I’d heard from them in the nineties, when Janet Reno was attacking churches with tanks, and snatching kids at gunpoint, the administration was collecting FBI files and leaking data against its political enemies, trumping up charges against innocent people so they could replace them with cronies, destroying evidence of wrongdoing in emails, threatening and libeling inconvenient women, etc.
You know, when we weren’t at war? Well, other than at war against the evil right wingers…
It’s Bush’s Fault
Jim Oberg points out in email that AP has a misleading statement in this story about the European Galileo positioning system:
The $4 billion Galileo project will eventually use about 30 satellites and is expected to more than double GPS coverage, providing satellite navigation for everyone from motorists to sailors to mapmakers. Because Galileo is under civilian control, the ESA also says it can guarantee operation at almost all times, unlike the American system.
Last year, President Bush ordered plans for temporarily disabling GPS satellites during national crises to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology.
The juxtaposition of these two statements implies that it’s the Bush administration’s actions that have caused Europe to embark on this boondoggle. This is nutty, of course, because the program has been in planning for years, and could hardly be a response to something that the administration did a year ago–it’s almost a non-sequitur. In fact, as Jim points out, it was actually caused by the Clinton administration’s actions in not just planning to, but actually shutting down the system during the Balkans wars. But they can’t bring themselves to mention that, of course.
Jim notes:
Maybe it’s just me, but such omissions and slants in general
AP stories have gotten more and more noticeable.
It’s not just you, Jim.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Oh, and speaking of double standards, Michael Scheuer has admitted that Al Qaeda renditions began under the Clinton administration. But of course, it only made us into a police state when a Republican president is in office, and we’re at war.
I’d take a lot of these critics and fair-weather civil libertarians more seriously if I’d heard from them in the nineties, when Janet Reno was attacking churches with tanks, and snatching kids at gunpoint, the administration was collecting FBI files and leaking data against its political enemies, trumping up charges against innocent people so they could replace them with cronies, destroying evidence of wrongdoing in emails, threatening and libeling inconvenient women, etc.
You know, when we weren’t at war? Well, other than at war against the evil right wingers…
The Case For Surveillance
Charles Fried makes it:
The president claims that congressional authorization for military action against Al Qaeda, together with his inherent constitutional powers, make such action lawful. There is some plausibility to that claim but until tested in the courts it is impossible to give a definitive opinion about it…
…it is likely that at the first, broadest stages of the scan no human being is involved — only computers. Finally, it is also possible that the disclosure of any details about the search and scan strategies and the algorithms used to sift through them would immediately allow countermeasures by our enemies to evade or defeat them.
If such impersonal surveillance on the orders of the president for genuine national security purposes without court or other explicit authorization does violate some constitutional norm, then we are faced with a genuine dilemma and not an occasion for finger-pointing and political posturing.
If the situation is as I hypothesize and leads to important information that saves lives and property, would any reasonable citizen want it stopped? But if it violates the Constitution can we accept the proposition that such violations must be tolerated?
RTWT
That Didn’t Take Long
The ACLU is defending the “whistleblowers.” What a shock.
Where were they when administration officials were blowing the whistle on Joe Wilson’s lies, and being investigated for it?
That Didn’t Take Long
The ACLU is defending the “whistleblowers.” What a shock.
Where were they when administration officials were blowing the whistle on Joe Wilson’s lies, and being investigated for it?
That Didn’t Take Long
The ACLU is defending the “whistleblowers.” What a shock.
Where were they when administration officials were blowing the whistle on Joe Wilson’s lies, and being investigated for it?