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Following Hillary over a cliff

Zogby’s recent poll asking “Whom would you NEVER vote for president?” was kind of mischievous, wasn’t it? But if I were a member of the Democratic National Committee, not to mention a congressional Democrat, I’d be sweating bullets over it.
A neat 50% claim they would never, even under pain of waterboarding (kidding), cast their presidential [...]

Quotabull

Our purpose is, and has always been, to ensure a civil and safe environment where the many types of campus activities and open discourse can occur.
— University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump. According to an Oct. 25 Associated Press story: “University of Florida police were justified in using a Taser against a student who [...]

Is that a bottle in your vagina, Rep. Pete Stark?

…because, good Sir, you are the star of your own dirty shame today.

I guess if you’re going to hang yourself, your own spine is as good a noose as any. Slithering up to the podium like a worm, apologizing for:

Saturday Video Roundup: Mahmoud Benatar vs. They Might Be Seagulls

Ready to have a little fun? Good, because this week’s SVR is more fun than a barrel of monkees. Doing music videos. Let’s kick it off with an ode to lip gloss. Because, you know, it be poppin’.

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. [...]

Democrats’ spines turn to jelly on warrantless spying once again–but there’s still hope

It was largely expected, but no less disappointing to wake up this morning and find out that Senate Democrats on the Intelligence Commitee agreed to carry water for the Bush administration by granting retroactive immunity to the telecom companies involved in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping scandal:
The draft Senate bill has the support of the [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 4

The past three parts of this series discussed national interest electric transmission corridors, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) authority to issue federal construction permits over the objections of state and local regulators, and the use of easements, rights of way, and eminent domain by the utilities to get access to the land needed for [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 3

The last two parts of this series have discussed how and why the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) may declare a “geographic area” as a national interest electric transmission corridor and how that designation enables the FERC to overrule local regulators and issue construction permits under a very broad set [...]

Verizon to the government: “Our customer information…let us show you it.”

In response to an inquiry launched by House Democrats as to the role the major telecoms played in abetting the NSA surveillance program, Verizon came out yesterday and admitted that it had turned over customer data to federal authorities 720 times between 2005 and 2007–or once a day, every day, for the last two years:
The [...]

USAToday’s match game: All you need to pick a candidate

I feel sorry for those folks who cannot decide which presidential candidate to vote for when the time comes to pull that lever, poke that chad or touch that screen. Thanks to the infinite wisdom of USAToday — which has done my thinking for me — I now know which candidate righteously deserves my vote.
USAToday’s [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 2

Yesterday I discussed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and how it permits the Department of Energy to declare large swaths of the country as national interest electric transmission corridors (NIETCs) with little or no justification. Today I’ll discuss how the process of granting transmission line construction permits works in the aforementioned NIETCs.

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 1

In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (referred to as the EPAct from here on), the first attempt in recent history by the federal government to address the generation, transmission, refining, etc. of all types of energy on a national scale. At 551 pages, the EPAct is packed full of good [...]

I’m a carboholic, and so are you

What, precisely, is a carboholic? When I first read the title of today’s guest column in the Washington Post (“We’re Carboholics. Make Us Stop.), I initially thought I was about to read a column on the poor dietary habits of U.S. citizens. But no, the author was actually David Crane, the CEO [...]

The NSA was spying on Americans before 9/11, and telecoms were in on it

That’s the accusation levied by disgraced former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who claims that he was approached by officials from the Bush administration to bring his company into an NSA surveillance program in February 2001–as in, several months before the 9/11 attacks, and contradicting claims made by the White House that 9/11 was the reason [...]