Sen. Joe Lieberman thinks the New York Times (and presumably others) “committed at least an act of bad citizenship” in publishing the WikiLeaks cables. Whether they committed a crime, he thinks, “bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department.” I can’t think of a way that these people can support prosecuting WikiLeaks for espionage and […]
Anthony Hecht
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Posted inMedia
Assange Speaks Out
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange ably defends himself in an op-ed for The Australian: WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain’s The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables. In its landmark ruling in […]
Posted inTransportation
Hitchens on the TSA
Christopher Hitchens in Slate sums up well the folly of the TSA’s reactionary and pointless policies, and their inevitable conclusion (cavity searches). He also points out that if you read the writings of Al Qaeda, it’s clear that the way we’re handling our security and reacting to each of their (failed) attempts is exactly what […]
Posted inNews
Hide Your Kids From the TSA
Really, what is wrong with these people? An expert in the fight against child sexual abuse is raising the alarm about a technique the TSA is reportedly using to get children to co-operate with airport pat-downs: calling it a “game”. Ken Wooden, founder of Child Lures Prevention, says the TSA’s recommendation that children be told […]
Posted inPolitics
Comcast Threatening Net Neutrality?
Comcast appears to be testing the waters when it comes to un-leveling the playing field for certain kinds of content on its network. Considering that the cable giant is very close to completing its acquisition of NBC-Universal, they’ll soon have a hundred shit-tons of content of their own, and a giant financial interest in making […]
Posted inPolitics
Meet the Possible New Head of the Energy and Commerce Committee
It might be John Shimkus (R-IL). Keep in mind that the Energy and Commerce Committee plays a key role in determining our government’s climate policy. Rep. Shimkus believes that climate change isn’t a problem because God said he wouldn’t destroy the Earth. Shumkus believes the Bible “is the infallible word of God” and so we […]
Posted inTransportation
Man Enters Own Country With Dignity
This man (a U.S. citizen) managed to enter the United States without being x-rayed or having his balls touched by government employees. It only took him 2.5 hours. In order to enter the USA, I was never touched, I was never “Backscatted,” and I was never metal detected. In the end, it took 2.5 hours, […]
Posted inPolitics
Backscatter Backlash
The uproar over the TSA’s new porno scanners (and the agency’s general fecklessness) is spreading. Seems that the TSA is facing increasing push-back from passengers, pilots, and others over the new “submit to a privacy-invading full body x-ray scan of questionable usefulness or have your crotch inspected manually” policy. Nearly a week before the Thanksgiving […]
Posted inPolitics
The TSA vs Your Junk, Sanity
The ridiculous security theater that our government puts on at airports has recently taken on a new, more ball-grabbing, yet no more effective tack. Seems people were opting out of the TSA’s fancy new back-scattter x-ray machines too often—concluding they’d rather not have the feds taking pictures of their genitals and bombarding them with radiation. […]
Posted inTech
Apple Announces Mac App Store
As you’ve probably heard, Apple held a media event this morning in which they announced a new version of iLife, 2 new MacBook Air models (11″ and 13″) with solid state storage, and zzzzzzzz…. But OH! They also gave a preview of Mac OS X 10.7, code-named Lion, and most importantly, the Mac App Store. […]
Posted inPolitics
“I’m Not a Witch… I’m YOU. (Unless You’re a Witch.)”
In case you missed it, here’s Frank Rich on Christine O’Donnell and how she and her template Sarah Palin weave attacks against them into a “brilliant cloak of martyrdom.” They are very good at this. For a shockingly direct example, see O’Donnell’s latest ad: And there we have it. “Tired of people smarter than you […]
Posted inTech
Is This the HP Slate?
Is this HP’s new tablet, running Windows 7? And if so, are they nuts? The hardware looks fairly nice—complete with Windows and “Intel Inside” advertising stickers!—but as always, trying to run a desktop operating system on a touchscreen device is an instant failure. It’s clear that nothing is made to be tapped, it’s all a […]