Foes of... "virtual strip searches," had hoped that today's Senate hearing would lead to a privacy outcry on Capitol Hill.
Not quite. The hearing quickly cleaved along partisan lines, with Democratic senators applauding the Obama administration [for the xray machines] and Republicans offering only modest criticism.
"Mr. Pistole, you're doing a great job," Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate committee overseeing air travel, told TSA chief John Pistole... For emphasis, Rockefeller added a few minutes later: "I think you're doing a terrific job."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, admitted right away that "I have been a fan of the advanced imaging technology." American air travelers, she said, "have to understand that this is being done for their best interests and their safety."
***
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, suggested that the public outcry was a problem of education: if Americans learned more about the TSA's new procedures, they wouldn't object to the new searches.
I enjoyed the book -- audiobook actually, although the second book in the series is read by a different reader which was a totally annoying and ridiculous decision by the publisher -- you spend the first quarter just relearning the characters' voices.
You're assuming that without DARPA, we wouldn't have the internet at all. I'll give you that we wouldn't have it in its exact current form, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't have an equivalent system -- the protocols might be different and such, but the basic communications concept of sharing information via linked computer systems would almost certainly have evolved.
I'm no "Red State USA1 FUCK YEAH" type of person, but maybe we should start looking into a little bit of economic nationalism. This is anathema to the multi-nationals that own our government though, so we'll just keep importing workers and exporting work till we look like any other third world economy, with a very few controlling all the wealth, and the rest of us eating dirt.
That's the sort of narrow literal reading that makes civil liberties go away. Let's say the government wants to suppress certain stories. There is more than one way to achieve that goal, yet would assert that the only one that matters is when the government tells the press not to print X or Y. The government can achieve the same result by arresting reporters, hiding information, turning off the power to the printing plant -- there are probably dozens of creative ways of interfering with the right of the people to know what their government does. And all of them violate the first amendment.
Not offtopic -- whoever modded that offtopic needs to go to the dump and dig up a sense of humor, because even a trashed used up one would be better than what they've got.
I know I've godwinned myself, but I'd bet it's not the only one out there. A person with greater knowledge of hate literature than I have could likely find books that do advocate the killing of US citizens. Of course there are some writings that we can't read, such as Obama's secret memo authorizing the due process free execution of other American citizens. I mean, isn't that fact alone enough to show the lie that in the "America Good, Iran Evil" meme DC has been pushing down our throat since sometime in the middle of the Bush administration?
Al Awlaki was executed without trial, without evidence, on Obama's word alone that he was a bad guy. It appears that Al Awlaki made anti-US videos. In other words, he was executed for his speech.
You so don't get it it's ridiculous. You don't get to plead guilty. There is no arraignment. Not due process. And I'd be surprised any are guilty, considering we were paying people 5x the local annual per capita income for tips. What a deal, live high on the hog AND get rid of that annoying neighbor.
Well actually, Obama just executed an American citizen (Al Awlaki) by drone attack without any evidence, not even a show trial, and it appears that the reason was posting partisan videos in which he talked smack about America. So at least in Iran you get a show trial before your execution. The fact that people look at this story and think "Iran is Evil" without thinking the same of the Feds, should create huge cognitive dissonance. That it does not, suggests to me that the civil liberties our country was founded on don't have much time for this world, at least not in America.
More than Gitmo, you can cite Al Awlaki, an American citizen we executed over making partisan videos. The new standard in America is free speech, so long as the Feds don't object to it.
The Indictment is a classic one-side-of-the-story document; even the most mediocre lawyers can paint any picture they want when unchallenged. That's why the government is not supposed to dole out punishments based on accusatory instruments, but only after those accusations are proved in an adversarial proceeding.
What you have done is convict MegaUpload based on nothing more than an assertion by the government, likely at the prodding of *AAs. The story told in the indictment may or may not be true and it definitely presents only one side of the story. Its this sort of rush to judgment, that allows the government to exercise due process free detention and execution and barely anybody bats an eye. Glen says it better than me though:
Whatever else is true, those issues should be decided upon a full trial in a court of law, not by government decree. Especially when it comes to Draconian government punishments - destroying businesses, shutting down websites, imprisoning people for life, assassinating them - what distinguishes a tyrannical society from a free one is whether the government is first required to prove guilt in a fair, adversarial proceeding. This is a precept Americans were once taught about why their country was superior, was reflexively understood, and was enshrined as the core political principle: "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." It's simply not a principle that is believed in any longer, and therefore is not remotely observed.
Obama never threatened a veto of the Defense bill because he thought it was wrong to engage in due process free detention in violation of the 4th and 5th amendments -- he threatened a veto because he was worried that the bill would spawn a case that would cause the Supreme Court to have to review whether the president can usurp the power to be sole judge and arbiter of the people's freedom (in violation of the 4th and 5th amendments).
Funny, but this really more a drug war thing. Glenn Greenwald recently debated Bush's drug czar on the drug war, and buried him. Just ground him into the dirt.
Let me guess, you are either on Obama's re-election campaign, or were part of the Bush campaigns... or maybe both. Fucking neocon murdering liar. If I had one wish, it would be that karma is real.
Or maybe it is that evolutionary factors are rendered pretty much irrelevant after the hormone raging teens and early 20s -- by then most people who are going to reproduce have and problems that crop up later are not selected out on any sort of widescale pattern. The human body, because of the early procreation tendencies, hasn't adapted for older age, and so there are all kinds of conditions that crop up in middle age that we haven't evolved past by selecting against those.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate the "let me fix that for ya" phrase, but this really stands out:
A broad reading of the commerce clause perhaps?
Why do you single out Republicans?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20023108-281.html "Senate Democrats back TSA 'virtual strip searches"
There's a book about that: The Unicorporated Man
The website for the book is a bit hard to take in:
http://www.theunincorporatedman.com/
Wikipedia is a bit thin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unincorporated_Man
I enjoyed the book -- audiobook actually, although the second book in the series is read by a different reader which was a totally annoying and ridiculous decision by the publisher -- you spend the first quarter just relearning the characters' voices.
You're assuming that without DARPA, we wouldn't have the internet at all. I'll give you that we wouldn't have it in its exact current form, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't have an equivalent system -- the protocols might be different and such, but the basic communications concept of sharing information via linked computer systems would almost certainly have evolved.
It isn't just the tech industry under attack. Maybe someone can explain why Chinese contractors and workers are building bridges here?
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-bridges-roads-built-chinese-firms-14594513?tab=9482930?ion=1206853&playlist=14594944
I'm no "Red State USA1 FUCK YEAH" type of person, but maybe we should start looking into a little bit of economic nationalism. This is anathema to the multi-nationals that own our government though, so we'll just keep importing workers and exporting work till we look like any other third world economy, with a very few controlling all the wealth, and the rest of us eating dirt.
That's the sort of narrow literal reading that makes civil liberties go away. Let's say the government wants to suppress certain stories. There is more than one way to achieve that goal, yet would assert that the only one that matters is when the government tells the press not to print X or Y. The government can achieve the same result by arresting reporters, hiding information, turning off the power to the printing plant -- there are probably dozens of creative ways of interfering with the right of the people to know what their government does. And all of them violate the first amendment.
Thank the drug war and the war on terror for the militarization of the police.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164695/former-seattle-police-chief-ows-reveals-militarization-our-police-forces
Not offtopic -- whoever modded that offtopic needs to go to the dump and dig up a sense of humor, because even a trashed used up one would be better than what they've got.
Lots of works promote violence against people. Here's one you can order today:
http://www.amazon.com/Mein-Kampf-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0395925037
I know I've godwinned myself, but I'd bet it's not the only one out there. A person with greater knowledge of hate literature than I have could likely find books that do advocate the killing of US citizens. Of course there are some writings that we can't read, such as Obama's secret memo authorizing the due process free execution of other American citizens. I mean, isn't that fact alone enough to show the lie that in the "America Good, Iran Evil" meme DC has been pushing down our throat since sometime in the middle of the Bush administration?
Al Awlaki was executed without trial, without evidence, on Obama's word alone that he was a bad guy. It appears that Al Awlaki made anti-US videos. In other words, he was executed for his speech.
You so don't get it it's ridiculous. You don't get to plead guilty. There is no arraignment. Not due process. And I'd be surprised any are guilty, considering we were paying people 5x the local annual per capita income for tips. What a deal, live high on the hog AND get rid of that annoying neighbor.
Well actually, Obama just executed an American citizen (Al Awlaki) by drone attack without any evidence, not even a show trial, and it appears that the reason was posting partisan videos in which he talked smack about America. So at least in Iran you get a show trial before your execution. The fact that people look at this story and think "Iran is Evil" without thinking the same of the Feds, should create huge cognitive dissonance. That it does not, suggests to me that the civil liberties our country was founded on don't have much time for this world, at least not in America.
More than Gitmo, you can cite Al Awlaki, an American citizen we executed over making partisan videos. The new standard in America is free speech, so long as the Feds don't object to it.
You have made a couple assumptions in your post by relying solely on the indictment. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out in his article on the civil liberties issues at play here, http://www.salon.com/2012/01/21/two_lessons_from_the_megaupload_seizure/singleton/ :
What you have done is convict MegaUpload based on nothing more than an assertion by the government, likely at the prodding of *AAs. The story told in the indictment may or may not be true and it definitely presents only one side of the story. Its this sort of rush to judgment, that allows the government to exercise due process free detention and execution and barely anybody bats an eye. Glen says it better than me though:
The only problem with this is that all those ankle biters and their parents are going to blame Anonymous, not Disney.
Still, it is nice to see the man get some payback, even if counter-productive.
Creepy. No shit. All those screaming snot nosed ankle biters spreading germs .....
Obama never threatened a veto of the Defense bill because he thought it was wrong to engage in due process free detention in violation of the 4th and 5th amendments -- he threatened a veto because he was worried that the bill would spawn a case that would cause the Supreme Court to have to review whether the president can usurp the power to be sole judge and arbiter of the people's freedom (in violation of the 4th and 5th amendments).
Funny, but this really more a drug war thing. Glenn Greenwald recently debated Bush's drug czar on the drug war, and buried him. Just ground him into the dirt.
http://vimeo.com/32110912
Let me guess, you are either on Obama's re-election campaign, or were part of the Bush campaigns ... or maybe both. Fucking neocon murdering liar. If I had one wish, it would be that karma is real.
Obama, if he really is a conlaw scholsr, is extremely cynical, what with the due process free detention and execution policies.
lame -- more likely THAN fluoride.
Or maybe it is that evolutionary factors are rendered pretty much irrelevant after the hormone raging teens and early 20s -- by then most people who are going to reproduce have and problems that crop up later are not selected out on any sort of widescale pattern. The human body, because of the early procreation tendencies, hasn't adapted for older age, and so there are all kinds of conditions that crop up in middle age that we haven't evolved past by selecting against those.
Or maybe not -- but perhaps more likely fluoride.
If you read slashdot more, you'd know not to try their service at all unless you're doing your own encryption prior to uploading.
Government Warning: Exposing the government to scrutiny can result in rape charges.