In a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden, Bush also hailed House passage yesterday of a bipartisan bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into 2009 and would allow veterans of those wars to received increased education benefits. He had previously opposed the veterans' education provision and new domestic spending included in the war-funding package, threatening a presidential veto.

Telco immunity was horse traded for veteran's education benefits.

President Bush Urges Quick Passage of Wiretapping Bill - washingtonpost.com

Perhaps the most repellent part of this bill (though that's obviously a close competition) is 802(c) of the telecom amnesty section. That says that the Attorney General can declare that the documents he submits to the court in order to get these lawsuits dismissed are secret, and once he declares that, then: (a) the plaintiffs and their lawyers won't ever see the documents and (b) the court is barred from referencing them in any way when it dismisses the lawsuit. All the court can do is issue an order saying that the lawsuits are dismissed, but it is barred from saying why they're being dismissed or what the basis is for the dismissal.

So basically, one day in the near future, we're all going to learn that one of our federal courts dismissed all of the lawsuits against the telecoms. But we're never going to be able to know why the lawsuits were dismissed or what documents were given by the Government to force the court to dismiss the lawsuits. Not only won't we, the public, know that, neither will the plaintiffs' lawyers. Nobody will know except the Judge and the Government because it will all be shrouded in compelled secrecy, and the Judge will be barred by this law from describing or even referencing the grounds for dismissal in any way. Freedom is on the march.

This is the best article I've found on the FISA capitulation. I don't understand how they did a 180 on this.

George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Warrantless Laptop Searches at U.S. Borders

Decius

U.S. customs agents have begun randomly searching the contents of laptops carried by individuals across U.S. border checkpoints. Personal laptops contain increasingly vast and intimate collections of information about their owners, and cannot be easily sanitized for government inspection prior to travel. The privacy implications of this policy are obviously tremendous. There is presently a debate in the U.S. court system about the constitutionality of these searches. This talk will cover the developments so far, explaining (and criticizing) the basic legal framework in which this debate is occurring as well as the reasoning employed by the courts that have heard this issue. Related topics will also be discussed, such as recent controversy over the Fifth Amendment right to refuse to reveal an encryption password to the police and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Attendees will be armed with a deeper understanding of these present threats to our fundamental rights.

I'm speaking at Hope next month in NYC. A number of other people connected with MemeStreams are also speaking. It should be a good time.

The Last HOPE - July 18-20, 2008 - Hotel Pennsylvania - New York City

Elonka details a very useful feature here:

Not just searching current headlines, but now being able to search Google News archives going back years. Yum. :)

The link is sometimes a bit hard to spot. It's on the main Google News page as a link off to the right, or if you're in search display screen already, then click on "All dates" on the left, or "Advanced news search" at the top, to get to a link to the new feature on the search screen. Some of the entries it pulls up list prices that press organizations will charge for a reprint. However, I find that all it really takes to get free access is a library card number, and I can use my local library's website to get at Newsbank or Gale or EBSCOhost and can usually find most of the articles for free that way. Having a quick Google search telling me where to look though, makes searching much easier.

Searching books and periodicals and databases still has a way to go, even with this feature. As I'm doing research, I often find that I need to check multiple databases via library websites to find what I'm looking for, and there is not yet one central "Type your search term here" entry box that will search all the databases for me. But if anybody can do it, Google can. I'm already using Google Books and Google Scholar on a routine basis. Google Books is especially handy. I search for a book, click on "Find this book in a library", to access WorldCat, enter my zip code, and it not only tells me which are the closest libraries that have the book, it'll even tell me if the book is checked out or not. Nice stuff!

Elonka :)

Google News Archive Search

The police raid in Philly caused commentators at BoingBoing to reference this incident, which I hadn't heard about before:

The police tried to remove two wood-and-steel tactical bunkers constructed by MOVE on the roof by dropping a bomb made of C-4 and Tovex. The resulting explosion caused the house to catch fire, igniting a massive blaze which eventually consumed almost an entire city block. Eleven people, including John Africa, six other adults and four children, died in the resulting fire. Mayor Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission, the PSIC or MOVE commission, which issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable."

And people talk about Waco... Does bombing Philly count as the most overzealous police action in U.S. history or are there others I'm not aware?

MOVE - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Four young residents of a North Philadelphia house who circulated petitions questioning police-surveillance cameras were rousted from their home Friday and detained 12 hours without charges while police searched their house.

The raid on the property on Ridge Avenue near Parrish Street was led by 9th District Police Capt. Dennis Wilson, who was quoted in an online story by the City Paper as saying of the residents: "They're a hate group. We're trying to drum up charges against them, but unfortunately we'll probably have to let them go."

He said he asked Wilson if he had a warrant, and none was produced.

Vanore said police will conduct a forensic examination of the items taken from the property to see if any charges are warranted.

Wow.

The cops came, searched and left a mess for puzzled homeowner | Philadelphia Daily News | 06/17/2008

"The message was clear, Tim Russert was too fat for too long and this promoted his premature heart disease," said Dr. Peter McCullough, consultant cardiologist and chief of the division of nutrition and preventive medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan. "Patients are getting the message that weight loss is fundamental to reducing [overall] risk."

ABC News: The Russert Effect: Docs Report Surge

In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or “electric telescopes,” as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole thing a “réseau,” which might be translated as “network” — or arguably, “web.”

I'd never heard of this guy. Anyone got a link to the original source writings? Anyone read them before? Noteworthy?

The Mundaneum Museum Honors the First Concept of the World Wide Web - NYTimes.com

So here's our new policy on A.P. stories: they don't exist. We don't see them, we don't quote them, we don't link to them.

Hard to say if this is bold or timid under the circumstance. It sure talks bold. I'd be more impressed with WaPo if they had the guts the take AP to the mat on their IP claims, but at least they are sending a clear message that they aren't going to join them.

Here's Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They're Banned - washingtonpost.com

I suggest it’s better described as yet another attempt by a big media company to replace the established legal and social order with with a system of private law (the very definition of the word “privilege”) in which a few private organizations get to dictate to the rest of society what the rules will be.

Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.

People are basically fucking pissed about the AP's announcement.

Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations (and reserves the right to terminate your license) - Boing Boing