07/31/2008
07/30/2008
07/23/2008
07/22/2008
To A Good Place, A Familiar Place
Ed and Nathalie will be returning to McGill and Montreal. He has taken a position as a Professional Associate with McGill’s School of Information Studies, something he has considered his dream job.
That is fantastic, Ed! Congratulations.
07/09/2008
More FISA
Here’s Glenn Greenwald on today’s events:
Rather, the insultingly false claims about this bill — it brings the FISA court back into eavesdropping! it actually improves civil liberties! Obama will now go after the telecoms criminally! Government spying and lawbreaking isn’t really that important anyway! — are being disseminated by the Democratic Congressional leadership and, most of all, by those desperate to glorify Barack Obama and justify anything and everything he does. Many of these are the same people who spent the last five years screaming that Bush was shredding the Constitution, that spying on Americans was profoundly dangerous, that the political establishment did nothing about Bush’s lawbreaking.
It’s been quite disturbing to watch them turn on a dime — completely reverse everything they claimed to believe — the minute Obama issued his statement saying that he would support this bill. They actually have the audacity to say that this bill — a bill which Bush, Cheney and the entire GOP eagerly support, while virtually every civil libertarian vehemently opposes — will increase the civil liberties that Americans enjoy, as though Dick Cheney, Mike McConnell and “Kit” Bond decided that it was urgently important to pass a new bill to restrict presidential spying and enhance our civil liberties. How completely do you have to relinquish your critical faculties at Barack Obama’s altar in order to get yourself to think that way?
Nuts
I really don’t know what to say here. My Representative (Shelly Berkley, D-NV) voted for it, while and both one of my Senators Harry Reid (D), voted against it and the other, John “Haircut McWedgeshot” Ensign (R), all voted for it. I personally sent over a dozen emails, six letters (typed and everything) and made over two dozen telephone calls to their offices.
Nuts.
Senate passes telecom immunity, eavesdropping regs [AP]
The Senate approved and sent to the White House a bill overhauling controversial rules on secret government eavesdropping Wednesday, bowing to President Bush’s demand to protect telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.
The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and bitter debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president’s warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The House passed the same bill last month, and President Bush is expected to sign it soon. He scheduled a 4 p.m. EDT White House statement to praise the passage.
The long fight on Capitol Hill centered on one main question: whether to shield from civil lawsuits any telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The White House had threatened to veto the bill unless it immunized companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. from wiretapping lawsuits. About 40 such lawsuits have been filed, and all are pending before a single U.S. District court.
Numerous lawmakers had spoken out strongly against the no-warrants eavesdropping on Americans, but the Senate voted its approval after rejecting amendments that would have watered down, delayed or stripped away the immunity provision.
The lawsuits center on allegations that the White House circumvented U.S. law by going around the FISA court, which was created 30 years ago to prevent the government from abusing its surveillance powers for political purposes, as was done in the Vietnam War and Watergate eras. The court is meant to approve all wiretaps placed inside the U.S. for intelligence-gathering purposes. The law has been interpreted to include international e-mail records stored on servers inside the U.S.
“This president broke the law,” declared Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.
The Bush administration brought the wiretapping back under the FISA court’s authority only after The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret program. A handful of members of Congress knew about the program from top secret briefings. Most members are still forbidden to know the details of the classified effort, and some objected that they were being asked to grant immunity to the telecoms without first knowing what they did.
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter compared the Senate vote to buying a “pig in a poke.” <…>
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is party to some of the lawsuits that will now be dismissed, said the bill was “a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy.” [more]
[this post has been edited]
07/08/2008
Maize May Have Been Domesticated In Mexico As Early As 10,000 Years Ago
Things just keep getting pushed back…
Maize (Corn) May Have Been Domesticated In Mexico As Early As 10,000 Years Ago [Science Daily]
The ancestors of maize originally grew wild in Mexico and were radically different from the plant that is now one of the most important crops in the world. While the evidence is clear that maize was first domesticated in Mexico, the time and location of the earliest domestication and dispersal events are still in dispute.
Now, in addition to more traditional macrobotanical and archeological remains, scientists are using new genetic and microbotanical techniques to distinguish domesticated maize from its wild relatives as well as to identify ancient sites of maize agriculture. These new analyses suggest that maize may have been domesticated in Mexico as early as 10,000 years ago.
Dr. John Jones and his colleagues, Mary Pohl, and Kevin Pope, have evaluated multiple lines of evidence, including paleobotanical remains such as pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains, as well as genetic analyses, to reconstruct the early history of maize agriculture. Dr. Jones, of the Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, will be presenting this work at a symposium on Maize Biology at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Mérida, Mexico (June 28, 2008). [more]
07/07/2008
FISA — Fifth Time’s a Charm
One of the few things I care vehemently about in this stupor and fatigue-inducing election cycle is the reauthorizing FISA and the issue of retroactive immunity from prosecution for telecos that illegally cooperated with warrentless spying on the American citizenry.
This came in from DfA today, it is slightly edited:
Tuesday may be our last chance to stop senators from voting to pass the so-called FISA “compromise” bill.
There is still one person who can stop this bill: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Call Senator Reid right now and demand he pull the FISA “compromise” bill which will lead to retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies who spied on Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Washington DC: 202-224-3542If the DC number is busy – Try reaching his district offices:
Reno Office: 775-686-5750
Vegas Office: 702-388-5020
Nevada residents can call toll free: 1-866-736-7343May I suggest saying something like:
“I’m calling to ask Senator Reid to use his power as Senate Majority Leader to pull the FISA “compromise” bill from the floor which will ultimately grant retroactive immunity to telecommunication companies who spied on Americans.”This is it. We have stopped President Bush from getting his way and letting AT&T and Verizon of the hook four times.
It is up to us to stop it again.
I’ve been real kind and not entered anyone’s names in those myriad “now let your friends know” boxes.
07/05/2008
Today Was My 35th High School Reunion
Today was my 35th High School reunion — which I did not attend. My home town had a population of only 2,000 and there were 70-some in my graduating class (1973 for those wondering), so I knew/know everyone. I hope you all had fun. Maybe on our 40th.
07/04/2008
Happy Independence Day! [US]
Using my amazing math skills this makes this 4th of July the 232rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
We have no big plans to go anywhere, like most everyone else paying >$4.gallon for gas, we can’t afford to drive much past the city limits. (Yes, I know we Americans are spoiled and whiny.)
So…, go blow something up! Urm, perhaps I should say, ‘Go shoot off some fireworks.’ Yeah, that’s probably better. We have Indian Reservation fireworks easily assessable, so there is the very real possibility of personal injury or property damage.
[later:] Kevin has some thoughts on the day. I particularly like
On the other, we stand poised to make history this November in a way that would make the founding generation gasp in awe at how far we’ve come.
So, let’s enjoy the 4th, and take a moment not only to remember how precarious the American experiment once was, but also to ponder what we hope to make of it in our own time. For, regardless of how terrible the past eight years — or forty years, for that matter — have been, “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
On a completely different topic, his comments on the passing of Jesse Helms are not to be missed.