Did you see the ACLU press release today about how the American terrorist watch list now has more than one million people on it? “America’s new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and… Read more →
Category: Political
Democracy Quote Of The Day
Hal Duncan speaking about the Stone of Scone: Personally, I think it should be ground up into dust and every single Scot given a piece of it as a sort of democratic fuck-you to mediaeval feudalism. The French had the right idea when it comes to inbred, porphyria-ridden, overblown celebrities. If you want tradition then bring back ritual regicide, I… Read more →
Still More CAN-DMCA
In my continuing effort to remake this blog into the “all Canadian copyright, all the time” blogNo, not really–it’s just that between pushing our release to GM (FINALLY), being a single parent while Trish is doing research in Ontario, and Mario Kart, it just feels that way., here are some links to the latest info: Since the legislation was introduced,… Read more →
For the record
I received this response to my “Canadian DMCA” letter from my local MP today: Dear Mr. McLaren: Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns about the new copyright legislation introduced by the Conservative government yesterday in the House of Commons. I certainly share many of your concerns and assure you they will be raised during discussions in… Read more →
It’s here
A quick update on the Canadian DMCA. You can read the text of the bill now. Reuters has an early write-up that you can read. Geist also has one, but good luck getting to his site right now. I’ll include one of his five “high level points”: The digital lock provisions are worse than the DMCA. Yes – worse. The… Read more →
Tomorrow is “Conservatives sell us to US companies” day
I know you’re tired of it, but I’m going to mention the Canadian DMCA again, since it’s been announced various places that Prentice will be tabling it tomorrow. There’s some coverage at the National Post, which while using neutral language manages to present the legislation as something harmful to consumers: The new Copyright Act has been updated to reflect the… Read more →
I am shocked! Shocked I tell you.
And in is-anyone-surprised-by-this news, the Senate intel committee’s Phase II report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq is just out. You can read the details and the reports themselves over at TPM. I’ll just list some of the choice points from Sen. Rockafeller’s press release, and if any of them surprise you, raise your hand and give yourself a firm smack… Read more →
And she’s still not conceding
Well, it’s about damn time. Now, let’s see if she will actually concede tomorrow, or if the DNC has to send someone over with a stake, a bag of garlic, and a shovel to put this thing in the ground. Now we’re going to see an interesting race though: if Obama doesn’t completely obliterate McCain, that’s going to tell us… Read more →
Canadians: Once More Unto the DMCA breach
By this point you know the drill. You might be interested in following up with one of the linked organizations, though. ——————————————— ORC News | June 3, 2008 | Issue 1.3 ——————————————— Write to your MP about the new copyright bill: http://www.onlinerights.ca/get_active/copyright_for_canadians/ Dear Online Rights Canada Supporter, We understand that the government will imminently introduce legislation to amend the Copyright… Read more →
Hemmingway said some true things too
We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. —Hunter S. Thompson Read more →
One Damned Thing Over And Over
(This entire post pinched from Andrew Wheeler’s always entertaining blog. I don’t normally do that, but it’s too good, and a link won’t do.) A great power sets its sights on a smaller, strange, and faraway land — an easy target, or so it would seem. Led first by a father and then, a decade later, by his son, this… Read more →
A late thought for May Day
During the heyday of what was billed as the Reagan Revolution, sometimes as the New American Dawn, or the “unfettered free market,” I could discover no common cause among the several degrees of of rightist separation (conservative, neoconservative, libertarian, reactionary, and evangelical) other than the moral lesson invariably found in their one and only cautionary tale: money ennobles rich people,… Read more →
Same As It Ever Was
I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought… Read more →
Arizona: We don’t get irony here
Measure backs ‘American values’ in state schools Arizona schools whose courses “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization” could lose state funding under the terms of legislation approved Wednesday by a House panel. SB1108 also would bar teaching practices that “overtly encourage dissent” from those values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance. Schools would have to surrender… Read more →
Today’s Must Read
TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Today’s Must Read More than five years after its composition, we finally see a copy of John Yoo’s March 14, 2003 memo to William Haynes, then the Defense Department’s general counsel. It was, as The New York Times and Washington Post report, a green light for military interrogators to use just about any technique… Read more →
