Clik here to view.
Cheney’s basic fundamental principle
The basic fundamental disingenuousness of politicians should come as no surprise to anyone in the United States old enough to tie his shoes. President Bush the Younger’s administration flatly refuses...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Politics are like trains
Politics are a lot like trains. The Democrat and Republican trains are pulled by sleek and powerful engines fueled by political action committee (PAC) money. In the dark of night about 20 years ago...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FBI incompetence garners broader monitoring
Hey, here’s an idea: Our domestic spooks are incompetent when it comes to getting their electronic surveillance gizmo working, so let’s give them even broader authority to monitor us. In late May, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The tide is turning
[Disclaimer: I’m a member of the Green Party of Minnesota. My coverage is probably biased. Live with it or move along….] Someone — I think it was former Saint Paul, Minnesota mayor George Latimer —...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Here we go again: VICTORY Act
US Attorney General John Ashcroft is at it again. The Patriot Act II, denounced as a “leaked draft” that was never intended to be taken seriously, has emerged in the form of the Vital Interdiction of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Ashcroft’s magical misery tour
Do you feel safer from terrorism since the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act? US Attorney General John Ashcroft says you better, and that any backsliding will open the door to further terrorist attacks....
View ArticleClik here to view.
US surveillance shifts from criminals to terrorists
Last year, for the first time, the US government issued more secret surveillance warrants than it approved wiretaps in criminal cases. This, according to a Dan Eggen and Susan Schmidt article in this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wiretapgate plot broadens (and deepens)
As Bruce Schneier and others surmised, President Bush’s unwarranted wiretapping effort is much broader and deeper than the administration has acknowledged. According to Eric Lichtblau’s and James...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Journalists as criminals under espionage laws
Leaks are a time-tested fact of political life. Governments leak information in order to control a story, and the Bush administration is no different in that regard. When a leak backfires out of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merely a COG in Main Core
When the New York Times first disclosed President Bush’s warrantless wiretap program, Bush addressed the nation, assuring the populace that the program was reviewed every 45 days as part of a threat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner agree to censor net
In an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner have agreed to block access to child pornography on certain websites and Usenet. Until now internet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Taking a sledgehammer to an ant
Yesterday Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner agreed to censor the internet at the behest of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The story that didn’t get told is just how the corporations were going...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joe Biden: Wrong on both the net and tech
If you had any doubt that Barack Obama is a politician like any other, his selection of Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) should allay that doubt. Biden’s voting record on copyright, for example, is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The political class and exemption from the rule of law
If the George W. Bush presidency is going to be remembered for anything it’s going to be the subversion of the executive branch’s adherence to the rule of law. It was systematic and pervasive. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Double-plus for Obama on first full day
One of the first things President Obama did upon taking office was to release a memorandum (.pdf; 44Kb) ordering US federal agencies to reverse course and once again default to transparency: “All...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WikiLeaks changes everything: Starting with journalism and statecraft
The US Air Force has blocked access on its computers to websites that have published the secret cables obtained and distributed by WikiLeaks. That would include websites of news organizations....
View ArticleClik here to view.
US spooks out of control
In December 2005, after sitting on the story for more than a year, the New York Times exposed George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program (which continues under Barack Obama) but kind of dropped...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don’t let Eduardo Saverin set foot in the US
Eduardo Saverin co-founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard. Born in Brazil, his wealthy family emigrated to Miami when it was discovered the 13-year-old was on a list of kidnap targets....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Common Cause goes after ALEC in Minnesota
On 15 May, Common Cause of Minnesota filed complaints with the Minnesota Attorney General and the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board alleging the American Legislative Exchange...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unnamed telephone company challenges FBI national security letter
In early 2011, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation did something it had done hundreds of thousands of times before: It sent a national security letter (NSL) to an unnamed telephone company,...
View Article