Tell Harry Reid to block granting telecoms immunity from the spy scandal

It’s heartening to see how Democrats and the American public alike are rallying behind the idea that the major telecom companies should not be immune from prosecution for their role in abetting the NSA’s illegal spying. The common wisdom is that Americans care less about esoteric issues like privacy than those that hit them in [...]

Dodd threatens filibuster of FISA bill

“Why does Harry Reid hate America and freedom?”
That’s the question I was asking myself after S&R reader “Dee Loralei” pointed out in comments to my post yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Reid was planning to move ahead with a vote on the FISA update, even in the face of Dodd’s hold on the bill. [...]

E-voting screwup leads judge to void election results

As an amusing coda to my posts discussing the need for paper audit trails in electronic voting, and the industry’s opposition to same, here’s a look at what happens when you trust e-voting machines to handle a simple ballot initivative, and things go very wrong:
An Alameda County judge has voided election results for a failed [...]

AT&T: Say bad things about us and we’ll cancel your Internets

Slashdot broke the news on Saturday that AT&T’s updated terms of service for its high-speed Internet packages essentially forbid you from criticizing the company on pain of cancellation. The full terms of service are here, and here’s the offending passage highlighted, courtesy of Ars Technica:
AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion [...]

Telecoms want immunity from prosecution for illegal spying–and Bush and the Democrats may just get it for them

The Sept. 20 Newsweek had an illuminating look at the secret lobbying campaign being waged by the major telecom companies to retroactively block lawsuits against them for their participation in the NSA/Bush regime illegal wiretapping program:
The campaign—which involves some of Washington’s most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because [...]

Staking out the (astro)turf in battles over electronic voting

Earlier this month, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a self-proclaimed “nonpartisan think tank,” released a policy statement opposing the usage of paper audit trails for electronic voting machines. The report’s author, Daniel Castro, wastes no time staking out the ITIF’s position on the issue, calling supporters of paper balloting and audit trails a [...]

Six minutes to midnight in the surveillance society…

As our own Sunfell excellently explained recently, our society is rapidly becoming one where your data shadow can chase you wherever you go. Where privacy is an illusion, where every thought, word, deed, and action you take can be catalogued and used to call you a terrorist sympathizer, deny you employment, shatter your reputation, or [...]

9/11: Living without fear

This is going to be a slightly different 9/11 recollection. I’m not going to start by telling you where I was and what I was doing that day. Because 9/11 isn’t about me, really. Or you, or any one single person. It’s about something deeper, something that touches every person, everywhere.
It’s [...]

The unintended consequences of Bush’s war on porn

Last month I wrote about the Justice Department’s new mandate that porno companies need to keep dossiers on everyone who performs for them. One thing I hadn’t realized is that these rules could also be extended to adult social networking sites, with the same penalties and fines for noncompliance. As the National Gay and Lesbian [...]

Justice Department on net neutrality: “Trust us”

Yesterday the Justice Department filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission opposing the principle of “net neutrality” and urging the FCC not to sanction regulations to protect it. In a report and press statement that sound like they were written by executives from AT&T and Verizon, the DOJ regurgitates telecom talking points that falsely claim [...]

Nobody knows my name: James Baldwin, our newest Scrogue

I found this picture of African-American man of letters James Baldwin in a bio some years ago and it remains a favorite. He’s standing on a concrete islet in the middle of a busy street, his large, somber eyes hidden behind sunglasses, his dress casual, his posture seemingly relaxed; like Miles Davis, Baldwin could [...]

Endtime for Gonzo

The New York Times broke the story this morning: Alberto Gonzales is resigning.
The fact that this is happening bright and early on a Monday morning makes me think that it wasn’t done at Bush’s behest–if the White House had been in control of this, they’d have waited until the Friday of Labor Day weekend [...]

Porn stars must present their papers

Future movie auteurs in the vein of Seymore Butts, take note: In order to produce your next penetrating panoply of puerile pleasure, you need to provide a complete list of the actors involved–or else:
The Department of Justice wants to come up with an official list of every porn star in America - and slap [...]

Unfriendly cellphone contracts shine light on dangers of arbitration

This week’s Business Week has a look at how the wireless industry is being challenged over its notoriously unfriendly contracts, which demand consumers give up their rights to resolution by jury trial or class action in court in favor of arbitration:
One class action involving early-termination charges, a leading gripe among cell users, should get a [...]

ACLU: Reid and Pelosi “rolled over” on FISA; “The Constitution is too important for that”

This afternoon I participated in a conference call with members of the American Civil Liberties Union and several prominent bloggers, discussing the ACLU’s strategy for pushing the Democrats to take stronger action on the warrantless surveillance program they recently rolled over and helped legalize. The ACLU, as you might imagine, is fighting mad over [...]