] Shocked, awed, and appalled. Thats the only way
] that I can express how I felt when I read PFIR's
] Statement on Access to WHOIS Data.

I anyone is interested, I just publicly flamed Lauren Weinstien, Peter Neumann, and Dave Farber. Please direct hatemail to my memebox.

If anyone is interested...

] Herein is the sordid tale (posted last night to Dave
] Farber's "IP" list) of what recently happened to me --
] and my narrow escape -- when Viacom/MTV Networks came
] calling, asking for my help to educate the world's youth
] about important topics (in this case, the scourge of
] spam). Be warned. It could happen to you!"

This is entertaining. So, this morning I read Weinstein's post about getting duped by this comedy central show. Then I do some digging and find some comments from a few people who actually went on the show and got made fun of. (One ignorant right winger in particular felt the show was a left wing conspiracy. Sorry, dear, the asshatness seems to be multi-partisan. Weinstein is nearly as liberal as sane people get.) In any event, now this has made Slashdot. Not everyone reads Slashdot. Ali-G has proven that you can be a well known asshat and people still won't know who you are. Of course, the difference here is that Ali-G is actually funny and I think his victims see the humor in it in the end. This show seems to be pissing its victims off. And so the internet has outed the show. I wonder how long it will last before they can't get experts to mock anymore.

Slashdot | Lauren Weinstein: If MTV Calls, Hang Up

] In the classic 1951 film, The Man in the White Suit, Alec
] Guinness played a scientist who invents a fabric that
] never gets dirty or wears out. A chemist's pipe dream
] perhaps, but the prospect of self-cleaning clothes might
] be getting closer.

[ Sign me up for some of that! -k]

Clothes launder own fabric: Catalytic cotton chows down on dirt.

] By an 8-0 vote, the justices overturned a controversial
] decision by a U.S. appeals court in California that
] reciting the phrase amounted to a violation of
] church-state separation.
]
] The ruling by the justices was based on the technicality
] that Newdow could not bring the case before the court
] because he did not have legal control over his daughter,
] on whose behalf he was arguing.

Bullet dodged...

Supreme Court Decides Pledge Case on Technicality

] Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to
] politics and technology.

I don't agree with that assertion at all, but Politech has seen quite a redesign...

Politech completely redesigned as a weblog

] It is commonly said that we are a nation of laws, not
] men. And we are. But beyond the laws, we are also a
] nation of men and women with a common ethic. Some things
] are not American. Torture, for damned sure, is one of
] them.

Whether or not anyone is listening, and probably several years late, a pubic political debate about torture has, in fact, ensued.

A Plunge From the Moral Heights (washingtonpost.com)

] Its justification for existence was weak 70 years ago,
] but advances in technology since then have eliminated
] whatever arguments remained. Central planning didn't work
] for the Soviet Union, and it's not working for us. The
] FCC is now an agency that does more harm than good.

Declan's perennial libertarian ranting, but I have to admit that the FCC has made many decisions recently that I don't like.

They should have told the FBI to ask congress about tapping VOIP, and they should have ignored Janet Jackson...

I'm not even so concerned about protecting the "public's" access to the airwaves, as the internet is a far more effective communications system and community organizers who aren't moving to it aren't moving forward at all.

However, I remain unconvinced that such a radical change is going to come out well on all accounts.

Why the FCC should die

k wrote:
] [ Interesting commentary on what i've taken to calling the
] "Torture is OK!" report... -k]

There has been a lot of discussion of this report; the quotation underlined by this and other commentators being the focal point of a great deal of hand wringing. The thing is that this is a lawyer providing recommendations. He has essentially been asked "how can we do this and keep it legal" and he is throwing out everything that he can think of. The lawyer is obviously wrong on this point. I don't really fault him. I've been wrong professionally before. Everyone has. If only all of our work could be subjected to the kind of peer review he is getting here.

The question at hand is whether or not the President followed through on this recommendation. If the answer is yes, then we have a fairly significant bone to pick with the Whitehouse. If the answer is no, then there really isn't a story hear, other then the one initially suggested, which is that the administration actually did ask a lawyer to brainstorm on ways that they could torture people legally.

There is substance to that latter issue. We know that we've been employing torture, not just at Abu Gharib, but all over the place. I'm reminded of that spook who testified in Congress that "Its very important that the American people understand this. After 9/11 the gloves came off."

The gloves came off. This is what they mean. Trial baloons where sent up about this in 2001 and not widely accepted, but they went forward here anyway. There has been a lot of discussion about the right/wrong/value/legality of this versus other methods that we typically employ.

Thats the discussion I think we really ought to be having. Should we torture people? Is it effective? Does it save lives? Its not a simple question.

RE: Talking Points Memo

[ I like TMW. Hadn't seen this one.

"I'm *more* not as bad as Saddam than you are!" Perfect. -k]

This Modern World: Defining Deviancy Down

] Diebold Inc., criticized last year for selling voting
] machines while its chairman raised money for Republican
] political candidates, has banned its senior executives
] from making such donations.

It appears someone has gotten the message.

Diebold Stops Top Executives From Making Political Donations - from TBO.com