Last week, we found out that the NSA was illegally spying on phonecalls from American citizens. This week, we find out that the NSA has been using illegal tracking cookies on their website!
The National Security Agency’s Internet site has been placing files on visitors’ computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.
These files, known as “cookies,” disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake.
Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.
My god! Will someone please explain to the NSA that their are rules and laws that they must adhere to? Theoretically, no one is above the law. Even the NSA.
Well, maybe that’s jumping the gun a bit. But a precedent has been set for Intelligent Design to be kept out of science courses in public schools.
“Intelligent design” cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said.
As I’ve said before, there is no doubt that ID is religion or philosophy, not science. The Pennsylvania court is the first to declare this officially, but they won’t be the last. Expect this decision to quickly ripple across the nation.
I knew that I had to blog the Google Video showing a right-wing religious wacko going psycho on Trading Spouses. The only question was whether I posted the link on my political blog, or my livejournal. In the end, I decided to post it on both.
The scary thing is, I know a couple of people like this from the psycho church I used to go to. Unfortunately, this type of insanity isn’t unique to this freakshow of a woman. I feel horrible for her husband and children. He should’ve intervened, cuz the kids are obviously terrified.
Once again, the Rude Pundit says it all:
And the most disheartening thing of all was how little was mentioned, in the cruel march to the death chamber, of how the ex-wife of one of Williams’ alleged victims, Albert Owens (whose family is entirely fucked-up in conflict over the execution), called for support of Williams’ efforts to redeem himself for his gang-building past: “I, Linda Owens want to build upon Mr. Williams’ peace initiative. I invite Mr. Williams to join me in sending a message to all communities that we should all unite in peace. This position of peace would honor my husband’s memory and Mr. Williams work.”
A call for peace to honor the dead? What fuckin’ country does Linda Owens think she’s living in? Not in George Bush’s America, where more must die in Iraq to make sure the dead are honored. And certainly not in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California.
Well, it didn’t take Bill Frist long to start threatening to use the nuclear option again:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday he is prepared to strip Democrats of their to ability to filibuster if they try to stall Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
“The answer is yes,” Frist said when asked if he would act to change Senate procedures to restrict a Democratic filibuster. “Supreme Court justice nominees deserve an up-or-down vote, and it would be absolutely wrong to deny him that.”
In recent weeks, Senate Democrats have questioned whether Alito, a federal appeals court judge, has the proper judicial temperament and ideology to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Several Democrats have said that Alito’s views on issues such as voting rights and abortion could provoke a filibuster unless he allays their concerns about his commitment to civil rights. Alito’s confirmation hearings begin Jan. 9 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I can’t believe that Frist isn’t being a little more cautious now that it appears Americans are turning against the Republican party. Does Frist really want to deny the filibuster to a possible Republican minority in 2006 or 2008? I’d imagine that there are at least a few senior Senators who would like to play things a little more cautiously, on the off-chance that the Democratic party picks up a majority in the Senate.
Finally, some good news for people forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina:
A federal judge ruled Monday that a program that is putting tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees up in hotels must be extended until Feb. 7 — a month beyond the cutoff date set by FEMA.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said victims must be given more time in hotels because FEMA cannot guarantee that all applications for other aid, such as rent assistance or trailers, will be processed by the agency’s Jan. 7 deadline.
Awesome satirical piece on DailyKos: “Dispatch From the War on Christmas”:
This whole war has been a nightmare. I was at Circuit City yesterday, looking for a cheap DVD player. Out front they had a “Happy Holidays” banner that must have been in letters three feet high. I stepped under it, may Jesus forgive me, because I knew I had to get in there, but inside was no better. Some damn wreaths, here and there, and lots of lights, but no tree. I swear to God, no Christmas tree at all — I looked everywhere. It was like being in Iraq or something.
I stumbled around with the rest of the shoppers. Everyone was in a daze, bumping into each other. I don’t think any of us knew what to do, except just keep shopping, but I could tell everyone was thinking what I was. But I wasn’t ready to see the DVD player prices, and I lost it.
“FIFTEEN FUCKING PERCENT OFF?”, I shouted. (Sorry for the language. This war has screwed us all up) — “FIFTEEN FUCKING PERCENT? WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR HERE, AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS A FUCKING FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF?”
The last time, Bill Clinton was taking Bush to task about the Iraq war. This time around, Clinton’s publicly attacking Bush’s stance on the Kyoto accord:
Former President Clinton told a global audience of diplomats, environmentalists and others Friday that the Bush administration is “flat wrong” in claiming that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to fight global warming would damage the U.S. economy.
With a “serious disciplined effort” to develop energy-saving technology, he said, “we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets in a way that would strengthen and not weaken our economies.”
[snip]
“There’s no longer any serious doubt that climate change is real, accelerating and caused by human activities,” said Clinton, whose address was interrupted repeatedly by enthusiastic applause. “We are uncertain about how deep and the time of arrival of the consequences, but we are quite clear they will not be good.”
I know that I’ve said “No More Bushes, No More Clintons.” But if there were any way to get Big Bubba back in the White House, I’d vote/endorse it in a second.
Now that a couple of days have passed, a lot of people are wondering wither the air marshalls were justified in shooting Rigoberto Alpizar. Eyewitess accounts seem to directly contradict the official reasons given for the shooting:
One passenger said he “absolutely never heard the word ‘bomb’ at all” during the uproar as the Orlando-bound flight prepared to leave Miami on Wednesday.
Federal officials say Rigoberto Alpizar made the threat in the jetway, after running up the plane’s aisle from his seat at the back of the jetliner. They opened fire because the 44-year-old Home Depot employee ignored their orders to stop, reached into his backpack and said he had a bomb, according to authorities.
It is hard to say exactly what I would do in that situation without actually having been in that situation, of course. But I’ve gotta believe that there was another resolution besides shooting the guy in the back. Surely one of the marshalls should’ve been able to tackle they guy.
For some reason, I seem to write a lot of entries about Kansas. Can’t imagine why that is, but it might have something to do with the fact that many Kansas residents are apparently out of their friggin’ gourds. Take, for example, Jennifer Watt, a school principal who suspended a student for speaking Spanish at school.
A school superintendent in Kansas has apologized to a high school student suspended for speaking Spanish at school.
Zach Rubio, 16, was sent home from the Endeavor Alternative School last month for speaking in Spanish in the cafeteria and elsewhere at school.
Principal Jennifer Watts sent him home and suspended him through the following day.
District officials told the boy’s father the action was a direct result of his speaking Spanish. Rubio’s father is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years.
Yes, you did read the right, the only “crime” that Rubio committed was speaking his native tongue. Apparently, in Kansas, that’s worthy of suspension from school.
