What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Where have I heard this little ditty before?
“invokes new powers”
….As in the sub-title to an AP article I found on abc.com about the ongoing battle between the ACLU and the White House over whether or not to release pictures of detainees being subjected to abuse by their American captors.
Obviously endangering the troops is bad. Invoking new powers to do so strikes me as pretty bad too though. Then again, what do I know? I’m only a voter.
A recent post on cbs.com entitled “Justice Dept. Asked For News Site’s Visitor Lists” by Declan McCullagh caught my eye today.
The main gist:
the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.
The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site “not to disclose the existence of this request” unless authorized by the Justice Department… (and) “include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information,” including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers’ Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.
Um, Yikes!
They were demanding this information on everyone who reads the site and they have yet to indicate what kind of wrong-doing they were investigating.
Anyone else picturing grainy footage of McCarthyism?
Apparently the Justice Department decided it was pretty scary to. They dropped issue but only after Indymedia retained a lawyer. Makes me wonder if this is the first time they have tried this or simply the first time they got caught.
RIP Free Press.
Not much more I can say beyond the title. The important part is Arne Duncan loves schools that teach to the So What If A Child Is Left Behind tests. Yes, he did close failing schools but the kids from those school inevitably ended up in schools that were just as bad. At the same time he opened 60 charter school to syphon even more money and resources away from the Chicago Public Schools. To paraphrase Greg Palast, “Heck of a job Arne!”
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