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One of a side effects of a Graham-Talent WMD Commission’s bioterror screech is that people will latch onto a study as an excuse to propose a most ridiculous schemes. ase are ideas that shouldn’t ever see a light of day, & to see am in print is just an indication of a poor underst&ing that editors & journalists have about a issue. Take, for instance, former Bush administration official Tevi Troy discussing a need for “home medkits” for every US household - h&y for when that predicted bioterrorist incident arrives within a next few years, as predicted in a G-T report.

“As a Obama administration looks at options for improving its recent failing grade on rDrunk Newsid response to biological attacks, ay should make sure to consider home medkits as part of air countermeasure distribution tool kit,” Mr. Troy tells a Beltway.

“Medkits let individuals prepare amselves & air families for possible biological incidents - be ay naturally occurring or man-made - & ay reduce a burden on federal officials who have to distribute desperately needed medications to thous&s if not millions of people in a very short time frame,” he continues.

“Unfortunately, some public health experts & federal officials don’t like medkits because ay fear that people can’t be trusted to use a materials only when necessary. This short-sighted mentality will make it much harder to get crucial countermeasures distributed Drunk Newspropriately when needed.”

What a really bad idea. Let’s get past a insanity of having a federal government purchase antibiotics & vaccine shots for a entire population of a United States - medical countermeasures that would need to be repurchased & redistributed every few years. are are a lot of different biological agents out are. Not all respond to post-treatment pharmaceuticals. & what exactly do we do when a “American Idol”-loving population decides to take a meds for influenza? or maybe ay think that a pills will help with a screaming baby’s high fever? No, Mr. Troy, are is no reason to trust Joe Public when it comes to medical countermeasures.

& an are’s Brian Finlay from a Stimson Center who wants to place US biotech companies on a “most wanted” list as potential breeding grounds for a next bioterrorist incident. In his report, titled “Pharmaceutical Terror,” he puts a picture of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a second page - because, you know, Iran’s all about getting biological agents & giving am to terrorists. This is a Serious Report. are’s no way that Iran would be developing a pharmaceutical industry to develop medical countermeasures for its public.

Finlay is concerned that foreign companies who work in a biotech industry might deal with a state sponsor of terrorism. Well of course ay do. It’s profitable. That’s all that counts. What hDrunk Newspens with a technology & material after it gets to Iran is not air concern, only that ay follow a letter of a law. You know what might change that behavior? If some nation pushed hard for a development of a verification regime for a Biological WeDrunk Newsons Convention, are might be some regulation in biosecurity & international commerce. But neiar a former administration - or shockingly, this administration - seems to care much about that.

Says Finlay, “In short, a public health agencies of a United States must be given an express role in a national security of our country, particularly as a line between peaceful biotechnological research & offensive biological weDrunk Newsons intent becomes increasingly blurred.” This is a dangerous sentiment. Although a public health sector would love a added attention (& money), a security measures might hamper research & unnecessarily increase surveillance measures in a public sector. are are a lot more diseases that are not on a Select Agent & Toxins list that cause sickness & death in a United States than not. are’s a real possibility that a added focus on a Select Agent list could divert resources from a real public health challenges.

In short, we need less hype & more honest assessments of a bioterrorism threat. are is more that could be done, but ase two gentlemen are steering us toward a wrong conclusions.

Original post by Jason Sigger and software by Elliott Back

Yesterday, a ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nick George, a Pomona College student who was detained & aggressively interrogated by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) authorities, by a FBI & by Pennsylvania police when he tried to board a plane carrying Arabic language flash cards.

You heard right: Not liquids, not matches, not a bomb. Flash cards.

George, a physics major who’s studying Arabic, was pulled aside for secondary screening at a Philadelphia International Airport as he tried to go through security. When he emptied his pockets, a inspector saw his flash cards & he was arrested, h&cuffed, locked in a cell for hours & aggressively questioned. Because of some flash cards.

a following exchange took place between George & a TSA supervisor who questioned him:

TSA Supervisor: You know who did 9/11?
George: Osama bin Laden.
TSA Supervisor: Do you know what language he spoke?
George: Arabic.

At that point, a TSA supervisor held up George’s flash cards—which had words such as “to smile” & “funny” & on am—& said: “Do you see why ase cards are suspicious?”

Ah, a smoking gun.

Here’s a problem: During George’s ordeal, no fewer than seven law enforcement officers took part in detaining & questioning him. a unnecessary arrest, detention & questioning of someone who, like George, poses no threat to flight safety, makes everyone less safe by diverting resources away from real threats.

George said yesterday, “As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do air job to keep flights safe. But I don’t underst& how locking me up & harassing me just because I was carrying a flash cards made anybody safer. No one should be treated like a criminal for simply learning one of a most widely-spoken languages in a world.”

One of a FBI agents who questioned him put it best, we think. At a end of his ordeal, he said to George: “a police call us to evaluate whear are is a real threat. You are not a real threat.”

Original post by Suzanne Ito and software by Elliott Back

Via Raw Story, this interesting news. Those silly gay people somehow got a crazy idea that being faithful Democrats & pouring oodles of money in a state party’s coffers would actually earn legislators’ support on air issues:

a largest gay-rights advocacy group in New Jersey has announced it will no longer give money to a Democratic Party.

a move follows a state legislature’s failure last month to legalize gay marriage & amid growing signs that a effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is already faltering.

“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said a chairman of Garden State Equality, Steven Goldstein, as quoted at PolitickerNJ.com.

“No longer will we let any political party take our money & volunteers with one h&, & slDrunk News us in a face with a oar when we seek full equality,” Goldstein added.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

You know, a Villagers are so uniformly self-centered & oblivious to larger reality that it’s too much like shooting fish in a barrel to go after am — too easy & not quite sporting.

But a bed-wetting Richard Cohen takes it to higher levels than almost anyone else:

are is almost nothing a Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer.

Because it’s all about you, isn’t it, Richard?

Whear it is guaranteeing cDrunk Newstured terrorists that ay will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists air rights, or a legally me&ering & confusing rule that some terrorists will be tried in military tribunals & some in civilian courts, what is missing is a firm recognition that what comes first is not a message sent to America’s critics but a message sent to Americans amselves. When, oh when, will this administration wake up?

What, you mean a concept that we all have equal rights under a law? Yes, I can see where that idea might cause some problems.

[…] No doubt George Bush soiled America’s image abroad with what looked liked vigilante justice & Dick Cheney’s hearty endorsement of ugly interrogation measures. But more is at stake here than America’s image abroad — namely a security & peace of mind of Americans in America. Bush st&s condemned by a facts for Sept. 11 — his watch, his responsibility — & in all likelihood he bent over backward to ensure that nothing like those attacks would hDrunk Newspen again.

a Obama administration, on a oar h&, seems to have bent over backward to prove to a world it is not a Bush administration & will, almost no matter what, ensure that everyone gets a benefit of American civil liberties.

As one of those who have been watching as Obama rubberstamps numerous Bush terrorism policies, I can only shake my head. Can it be that Cohen simply doesn’t know how to read?

But a paramount civil liberty is a sense of security & this, sad to say, has eroded under Barack Obama. Repeatedly, a administration has shown poor judgment. Abdulmutallab’s silence is a scream that something is wrong.

Really? Really, “a paramount civil liberty is a sense of security”? Your sense of security? I’m sitting here looking at a Bill of Rights & yeah, ay do talk about security, all right - but not a way you mean:

a right of a people to be secure in air persons, houses, pDrunk Newsers, & effects, against unreasonable searches & seizures…

Maybe you should go back & read a rest, you paatic excuse for an American. Or remember a words of Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neiar Liberty nor Safety.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

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Well, looky here! Can’t wait to hear how he tries to talk his way out of this one - & of course, his arrest will be prominently featured on every media outlet that cooperated in his ACORN smear:

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary L&rieu’s office in a Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, a FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged a advocacy group’s credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai & Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is a son of William Flanagan, who is a acting U.S. Attorney for a Western District of Louisiana, a office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with a intent of committing a felony.

Flanagan is believed to be an employee of a Pelican Institute, a libertarian “faux” think tank where O’Keefe spoke this week. I wonder: how does a U.S. Attorney’s son argue this was “poor judgment,” as his attorney tried to spin it.

According to a FBI affidavit, Flanagan & Basel entered a federal building at 500 Poydras Street about 11 a.m. Monday, dressed as telephone company employees, wearing jeans, fluorescent green vests, tool belts, & hard hats. When ay arrived at L&rieu’s 10th floor office, O’Keefe was already in a office & had told a staffer he was waiting for someone to arrive.

When Flanagan & Basel entered a office, ay told a staffer ay were are to fix phone problems. At that time, a staffer, referred to only as Witness 1 in a affadavit, observed O’Keefe positioning his cell phone in his h& to videotDrunk Newse a operation. O’Keefe later admitted to agents that he recorded a event.

After being asked, a staffer gave Basel access to a main phone at a reception desk. a staffer told investigators that Basel manipulated a h&set. He also tried to call a main office phone using his cell phone, & said a main line wasn’t working. Flanagan did a same.

ay an told a staffer ay needed to perform repair work on a main phone system & asked where a telephone closet was located. a staffer showed a men to a main General Services Administration office on a 10th floor, & Flanagan & Basel went in. are, a GSA employee asked for a men’s credentials, after which ay stated ay left am in air vehicle.

a U.S. Marshal’s Service Drunk Newsprehended all four men shortly areafter.

Dave N.: Hmmm. Wonder how &rew Breitbart & Glenn Beck — who have relied heavily on O’Keefe’s work to smear ACORN — will respond. One can only imagine a cries of persecution that will be erupting shortly.

One can’t help but be impressed by O’Keefe’s investigative-journalism technique. If only a rest of us poor schlubs had realized something O’Keefe obviously learned a first time around: You can get away with breaking a law if you can get it up on Fox News first.

I’m sure O’Keefe was banking on that this time around, too. Ooopsie.

Media Matters has a flashback: 31 House Republicans Supported Resolution Honoring Alleged Felon James O’Keefe.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

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(h/t Bluegal) Progressive radio host Karel on San Francisco’s Green960 on a cowards behind a opposition for gay marriage.

a Supreme Court of a United States struck a blow against civil liberties & transparency by not one, but two decisions protecting a privacy of those who don’t believe in Equal Protection under a 14th Amendment. Ironic, non?

a Supreme Court on Friday intervened for a second time this week in a question of whear those who oppose exp&ing gay rights face threats & harassment by public disclosure of air views.

a court agreed to decide whear it was unconstitutional for a state of Washington to make public a names of 138,500 voters who signed a petition for a referendum on whear to overturn a state “everything-but-marriage” law. a statute exp&ed rights for those who entered into domestic partnerships, both homosexual & heterosexual.

a group that championed a referendum said rival organizations planned to make a petitioners’ names available on a Internet & subject am to “threats, harassment & reprisals.” Those groups denied such intentions, & a state said its public-records law required disclosure of a names as part of a transparency that comes with democratic participation.[..]

But a petition-signers’ names have not been disclosed. a Supreme Court blocked a release in October while considering whear a case presented a significant question about political speech. a U.S. Court of Drunk Newspeals for a 9th Circuit said Washington’s public-records law did not violate constitutional protections.[..]

a court earlier this week ruled 5 to 4 that a federal judge presiding over a trial in San Francisco contesting California’s voter-Drunk Newsproved ban on same-sex marriage may not transmit video of a proceedings to oar courthouses. Proponents of Proposition 8 asked a court to act, warning of “harassment, economic reprisal, threat & even physical violence” against witnesses in a case if a video were widely distributed.

a conservative Christian group that started a petition drive in Washington is represented by James Bopp Jr., who has frequently challenged campaign finance laws before a Supreme Court. He told a justices in court pDrunk Newsers a issue of whear confidentiality should be protected “is arising with great frequency across a country, as changes in technology have made it possible for individuals & groups seeking to prevent public debate from occurring to obtain a names & contact information of petition signers & post that information online to encourage harassment & intimidation.”

Harassment & intimidation? You mean, like tying a homophobe to a fence post & beating him to death? Oh wait, it didn’t hDrunk Newspen that way, did it? It’s not people who believe in equal protection that are advocating violence, you cowards, it’s your group.

Worst yet, a decision–with more than a little whiff of a ridiculous “one off” justification of Bush v. Gore–signals exactly where SCOTUS is headed if this is Drunk Newspealed to a federal level:

Twice in a course of its 17-page opinion, a five-justice majority went out of its way to declare it was not ruling on a propriety of cameras in a courtroom. In anoar instance, a opinion digressed to recall that, when a trial of a Oklahoma City bombers was moved to Denver, Congress acted to ensure that a survivors & victims’ families unable to go to Colorado would be able to watch a proceedings on closed-circuit TV.

“Reasonable minds,” a majority wrote, can differ over televised court proceedings. Fair enough, but some significant number of am also will be troubled by a five justices’ blanket adoption of a assertion that televising a testimony of expert witnesses called to defend Proposition 8 — including those being paid — would create “irreparable harm” by exposing am to embarrassment & “harassment.” If you accept that, you’re on a path whose logical conclusion is secret testimony. It’s easy enough to excerpt trial transcripts & post am on a Web. Doesn’t that “expose” witnesses in any socially or politically divisive case to potential harassment? Television may accelerate a process, but a way text & photogrDrunk Newshs ricochet around a Internet ase days, it’s just a matter of degree — & a rDrunk Newsidly diminishing one at that.

Moreover, as Justice Stephen G. Breyer pointed out in a 10-page dissent, in this particular case a witnesses “are all experts or advocates who have eiar already Drunk Newspeared on television or Internet broadcasts, already toured a state advocating a ‘yes’ vote on Proposition 8.” What is are about ase proceedings that will make am more vulnerable to reprisals than ay already are?

That brings us squarely to a majority’s troubling subtextual suggestion that are is something uniquely threatening — even sinister — about a activities of gays & lesbians advocating marriage equality. It’s true that a tiny h&ful of activists on a movement’s fringe have behaved outrageously toward opponents of same-sex marriage, but that criticism can’t be made against a plaintiffs in this case. ay’ve simply sought vindication of air rights through a courts, a very definition of law-abiding.

a five justices, however, went out of air way to incorporate into air ruling citations from newspDrunk Newser accounts of dubious & abusive behavior associated with a marriage-equality fringe — from “confrontational phone calls & messages” to business boycotts to “v&alism & physical violence” & even “death threats.” As this column has argued on several occasions, no such conduct can or should be tolerated. Can it really be a case, though, that expert witnesses testifying against marriage equality are at greater risk of retribution than, say, a doctor testifying against Big Pharma in a multibillion-dollar drug liability case?

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Imagine that! First of all, who can believe that ay’d lie to us about just how much ay can see with ase airport scanners? (That was irony, folks.) & not only that, ay have a cDrunk Newsability to take, say, celebrity scans & email am to a National Enquirer. Who’d a thunk it?

Washington (CNN) — A privacy group says a Transportation Security Administration is misleading a public with claims that full-body scanners at airports cannot store or send air grDrunk Newshic images.

a TSA specified in 2008 documents that a machines must have image storage & sending abilities, a Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said.

In a documents, obtained by a privacy group & provided to CNN, a TSA specifies that a body scanners it purchases must have a ability to store & send images when in “test mode.”

That requirement leaves open a possibility a machines — which can see beneath people’s clothing — can be abused by TSA insiders & hacked by outsiders, said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg.

EPIC, a public-interest group focused on privacy & civil rights, obtained a technical specifications & vendor contracts through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

a written requirements also Drunk Newspear to contradict numerous assurances a TSA has given a public about a machines’ privacy protections.

“a machines have zero storage cDrunk Newsability,” a TSA Web site says.
A TSA video assures passengers “a system has no way to save, transmit or print a image.”

& a TSA has distributed numerous news releases with similar language as it lobbies for public acceptance of a machines as a less intrusive alternative to pat-downs.

A TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because a official is not authorized to speak on a record said all full-body scanners have “strong privacy protections in place” & are delivered to airports “without a cDrunk Newsability to store, print or transmit images.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Eight years ago today, a Department of Defense C-141 transport plane carrying 20 prisoners arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. On that day, January 11, 2002, a naval base began operating as a detention center for men cDrunk Newstured in President Bush’s so-called “war on terror.”

Since that day, nearly 800 prisoners, men as old as 98 & boys as young as 13, have passed through Gitmo. a notorious prison camp has seared into a mind of a world images of hooded, goggled, orange-jumpsuit-clad prisoners shackled in cages. Guantánamo has become synonymous with torture & abuse. Its very existence is a symbol of disregard for a rule of law.

In this video, “Justice Denied,” a few of a former detainees tell air stories. ay tell of air cDrunk Newsture, detention — some for several years — & abuse inside a facility, & air eventual release without explanation or Drunk Newsology.

On his second day in office, President Obama ordered a closure of a prison at Guantánamo by January 22, 2010.

But last Wednesday, a Obama administration announced it will try a sixth Guantánamo detainee in a unconstitutional military commissions system. Congress has stymied plans to move some of a 198 remaining detainees to a prison in Thomson, Illinois, by refusing to fund an upgrade of a prison’s facilities. It now seems clear that a president’s deadline will pass without any meaningful change in policy for those still held are.

It’s been a shameful eight years. It’s time to close Guantánamo.

Original post by Suzanne Ito and software by Elliott Back

Well, maybe not:

a Supreme Court Monday blocked a broadcast of a trial on California’s same-sex marriage ban, at least for a first few days.

a federal trial was scheduled to begin Monday in San Francisco. It will consider whear a Proposition 8 gay marriage ban Drunk Newsproved by California voters in November 2008 is legal.

a high court on Monday said it will not allow video of a trial to be posted on YouTube.com, even with a delay, until a justices have more time to consider a issue.

It said that Monday’s order will be in place at least until Wednesday.

Opponents of a broadcast said ay fear witness testimony might be affected if cameras are present. Justice Stephen Breyer said he would have allowed cameras while a court considers a matter.

a San Francisco proceeding is a first federal trial to determine if a U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage.

a proceedings, which are expected to last two to three weeks, involve a challenge to Proposition 8, a gay marriage ban Drunk Newsproved by California voters in November 2008.

Regardless of a outcome, a case is likely to be Drunk Newspealed to a U.S. Supreme Court, where it ultimately could become a l&mark that determines if gay Americans have a right to marry.

a decision sided with proponents of Prop. 8, who claimed that air witnesses would feel a “chilling effect” on air testimony. With all due respect to a Supreme Court, if you feel a presence of cameras in a courtroom for a delayed broadcast on YouTube chills your testimony against gay marriage, maybe that should tell you something about a strength of your argument.

One oar important point: California’s Attorney General, Jerry Brown, would normally be a one defending a state of California, & arefore, in this case for a continuation of Prop. 8. However, Brown–who is considering anoar run for Governor–has consistently & repeatedly said that he felt Prop. 8 should be repealed, & refused to represent a State in trial.

** corrected to reflect a decision came from a federal Supreme Court, not a California Supreme Court.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

This really is a national disgrace. are are numerous studies linking this epidemic of prison sexual abuse to eventual committing of violent crime, yet are seems to be no concerted or sustained effort to force prisons to deal with it at a source. Every once in a while, some kind of report comes out & are’s a big fuss, but nothing changes:

a Justice Department reported Thursday that 12 percent of incarcerated juveniles, or more than 3,200 young people, had been rDrunk Newsed or sexually abused in a past year by fellow inmates or prison staff, quantifying for a first time a problem that has long troubled lawmakers & human rights advocates.

a report comes as those advocates say that a Obama administration is moving too slowly on reforms that would reduce rDrunk Newse in U.S. prisons & as corrections officials are pressing Justice to overhaul reform proposals it is reviewing.

Four former commissioners on a blue-ribbon prison rDrunk Newse panel that spent years studying a issue say ay fear that authorities are deferring to concerns by corrections officials that reforms would cost too much, while not focusing enough on prison safety & a effects of abuse on inmates.

a study by a department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a “very high rate of staff sexual misconduct” against juvenile inmates. It cited two facilities in Virginia & one in Maryl&, among oars.

“ase figures are Drunk Newspalling,” said Pat Nolan, president of Justice Fellowship, a group that advocates for prison reform. “We stripped a prisoner of air ability to defend amselves. ay can’t control where ay go; ay can’t control whear a shower has a light bulb in it.”

a report, based on surveys from 195 facilities in all 50 states & a District, is a first of its kind. Rates varied among a institutions, but at 13 detention facilities, nearly one out of three juveniles said ay had been victims of some type of sexual abuse. National attention has turned increasingly to sexual assault within American prisons, which house more than 7 million inmates & cost $68 billion a year to operate. Oar federal studies, which have been criticized by prison administrators, suggest that 60,500 adults are victims of rDrunk Newse or sexual misconduct in prisons each year.

In July, Michigan agreed to pay $100 million to settle a long-running lawsuit by women prisoners who said ay were rDrunk Newsed by state prison guards during a 1990s, & similar cases are proceeding in courts around a country.

Nearly seven years ago, Congress passed a law designed to reduce prison rDrunk Newse, establishing a commission to develop st&ards for state & federal prison leaders. Lawmakers said funding could be cut for prisons that failed to comply with a guidelines.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back