Bush Secretly Signs Law Allowing Unlimited Spying on Americans Without Warrants: In a blockbuster revelation, the NYT yesterday broke the story
of the year: That early in 2002 Bush introduced a secret law allowing
the NSA foreign spying agency to spy on ordinary Americans without
limit, without warrant, without notification, and without the need to
demonstrate cause. He effectively created a Police State in America
without telling anyone. The law, which is clearly unconstitutional,
essentially proclaims:
- That the American people have no rights or freedoms, in the eyes of the Bush neocon regime, and
- That the US Government considers itself in all respects above the law.
In
any other democracy this kind of action, introduced subversively
without notification to the people, would be grounds for immediate
impeachment of the president and criminal charges against the
perpetrators. But the reactions to this astonishing revelation have
been unbelievably meek -- the mainstream media have provided little
editorial commentary, lobbing softball questions to the government and
merely reporting verbatim what government leaders of both parties have
said. Bush's Minister of Torture Alberto Gonzales shrugged it off,
saying it was all necessary in the "war on terror".
What is equally remarkable was the fact that the NYT sat on this story for a year
at the government's request, essentially allowing Bush to be reelected.
They chose to release it just in time for the revelations to block
Senate renewal of the abominable Patriot Act -- an act for incursion on
civil liberties that, at least, the public was told about. But the
Republican leaders see no problem getting the Patriot Act renewed
indefinitely, viewing the revelation as a mere setback.
What
will it take for moderate Americans to get up in arms about this
reckless and arrogant government? Where the hell was the rest of the
media? When your government sees itself as above the law, and is
allowed to break the law and ignore both the law and the constitution
of the land with impunity, how big a step is it from there to simply
suspend the constitution, abolish Congress, and install a one-party
ultra right-wing Christian state "until the government is convinced the
war on terror has been won"?
Pentagon Keeps Blacklists of Americans Indefinitely, Breaking the Law: In a related story broken by NBC news, it has been discovered
that the Pentagon has been routinely breaking the law requiring removal
of names from its blacklists after 90 days if there is no evidence the
person posed a security risk to the country. This revelation is less
surprising than the one above, since it is widely accepted that
security authorities can always find ways to keep 'backups' of
blacklists of innocent people, but it is further evidence of the
general sense of the administration that it is above the law.
Black Ink Monday: Ironically, last Monday was Black Ink Monday,
mourning the decision by Tribune newspapers to get rid of a number of
their editorial cartoonists to shore up corporate profits at the
expense of informing their readers.
The rest of these links, just for balance, are good news:
Reading Glasses that Read: An interesting innovation suggestion
by M.O. Thirunarayanan -- glasses that 'read out loud' what you're
looking at, instead of just helping you do so yourself. Thanks to
Innovation Weekly for the link.
Earth-Friendly Living: A new e-mag, GreenLight, provides a host of information on living in a more socially and environmentally responsible way.
Easing the Energy Crisis with Ships and Trains: A logistics expert says
using ships and trains to ship most cargo in Nortyh America, instead of
huge wasteful truck fleets, would cost a fortune but would go further
to reduce non-renewable energy consumption than any other proposal.
Do It Yourself Everything: ReadyMade, a magazine and now a book, provides
hints on how to make and do almost anything yourself, often using used
or recycled materials. Anyone actually read this and know if the ideas
work?
Broadcast From Your Cell Phone: A new technology from ComVU Mobile allows
you to use your cell phone to broadcast full-motion video on the fly.
Very simple and interesting stuff. Thanks to Bruce Winter for
the link.
Too Cute for Words: Although currently suffering from technical difficulties, Cute Overload has a daily dose of cute imagery. The picture above is a sample. Thanks to Brad Mills for the link.
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