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An Opened Mind XVII
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April 16, 2009 archive
Apr 16 2009
Muse in the Morning
Apr 16 2009
Justice Department ‘halts?’ illegal NSA domestic spying
The New York Times is reporting the NSA has been systematically spying on Americans without a warrant.
The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year…
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.
According to the NSA, the “overcollection” has been happening because the agency is unable “at times to distinguish between communications inside the United States and those overseas”. “One official said that led the agency to inadvertently ‘target’ groups of Americans and collect their domestic communications without proper court authority.”
Apr 16 2009
The Netstate Project
I wrote the Netstate essay in 1997 and never published it. Although I was a keen observer of the rise of the blogs and had ample opportunity to set up my own soapbox, I shrank from publishing a profoundly radical view of technology-mediated political evolution. In part, I was put off by the ferocity of blogosphere debate. I viewed with repugnance the personality-based blogging that dragged down every attempt to create fruitful discourse into a demolition derby of colliding egos and business interests. In short, I was afraid. The circumstances of the world are very different today. The optimistic enthusiasms of the Internet bubble have given way to a paralyzing dread of economic and ecological calamities, and reason itself is under steady assault, as coherent thought is displaced by a babble of fragmentary perspectives and sophistries. I now fear that if no radical and coherent vision of a better way forward is made available, confusion and cynicism will prevail.
It is a strange irony of Internet communication that that successive new modes of human interaction appear to be regressing in their ability to handle complexity. The typical early Web era essay had 10x more content than the typical blog article, and the typical blog article has 10x more content than the typical reader response post, and the typical blog post has 10x more content than the typical cellphone text message or twitter tweet. Perhaps the next big thing after twitter will be tweaks: witty exchanges of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). My response to this entropic spiral of increasingly trivial and incoherent communication will be to expand the Netstate essay into a book which I will write and edit here, on Docudharma, as a series of blog essays. I can think of no better way to conform to Docudharma’s motto of “Blogging the Future.”
Apr 16 2009
Torture:Justice :: Both Feet on the Ground, Weekly Action Series #3
UPDATE: This Diary has now morphed into a LIVEBLOG to watch the day unfold and hear the official News from the WH this afternoon re the release of the DoJ Memos… at the orange (link below in comments).
lots of News coming in this morning with several diaries at the orange now:
from Vyan: Spain Calls Off Torture Probe
from ctexrep: Spain a No Go
from J. Radack: OLC Memos: FOIA Test Fails
….
Eyes on the stars.
As an American, I have always believed in the concept that we, as a nation, are rooted in the ideals and values of our Constitution, that we have inalienable rights and all that jazz. Now, at this fragile and tenuous time in our history, we have to remain grounded in them. We elect leaders who we expect to abide by their oaths of office and lead the way. We have to hold them to account when they waiver or fail.
We want to get it right … with or without you …
Editorial note: Quite by accident, my first diary of this series had an undercurrent theme of Water. The second, Wind/Air. So, this third one has, for its theme, Earth … in the sense of being grounded, rooted. Next week should be fun. Heh.
I’ve created this place, this series, to be something of a landing zone for us, any of us in the progressive community who feel the grief, who wish to contribute in some way to this growing call for justice, and/or who want to stay tuned in to any ACTION activities that emerge around this cause. I will publish every week, on Thursday’s. I invite you to share your thoughts.
Some important ACTION Alerts below the fold…
Apr 16 2009
Questions about Michigan Veterans Benefits
I have a disabled friend that was Special Forces in Vietnam, and he has a few questions about his benefits.
1. He had heard that Michigan was one of five states who receive lower benefits than the rest of the country and that Obama was planning on evening it out, but he doesn’t know how or when, and would like some details.
2. When he called the VA trying to find out about the above question, they told him he would get $250.00 extra June 1st, but they couldn’t tell him what it was for, or if it had anything to do with what he called about, so he’s wondering what the $250 is about.
Any help would be appreciated, and Thank You Vets, for all of your service.
Apr 16 2009
Pony Party
This week, I hope there will be a little for everyone, including some Caption This! pics for OTB (& anyone else who wants to play). But first, a laugh:
see more Funny Graphs
Pony Party is an Open Thread. Please do not rec the party.
Apr 16 2009
Hooray! The Surge is Working…Again
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
-H. L. Mencken
The previously discredited CNBC ace shill Jim ‘Mad Money’ Cramer has now become the point man for the regenerated Wall Street hydra, launching into a sleazy Rovian war with a real life economist who actually got it right in predicting the collapse Nouriel Roubini. Roubini, a man who was from the outset mocked, scorned and derisively labeled ‘Dr. Doom’ by the same type of four-flushing assholes who brought us Deep Capture has been declared public enemy number one and must be taken out with extreme prejudice for the big con to succeed. The oafish court jester of looter capitalism is now back with a vengeance as he according to this piece by Frank Rich of the damned liberal New York Times states in his recent piece Awake and Sing!:
“I am pronouncing the depression over!” declared CNBC’s irrepressible Jim Cramer on April 2. The next day the unemployment rate, already at the highest level in 25 years, jumped yet again, but Cramer wasn’t thinking about the 663,000 jobs that disappeared in March. He was thinking about the market. Mad money. Fast money. Big money. The Dow, after all, has rallied in the weeks since Timothy Geithner announced his bank bailout 2.0. Par-tay! On Wednesday, Cramer rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, in celebration of the 1,000th broadcast of his nightly stock-tip jamboree.
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