Decius writes:

This is infuriating.

Feingold, who today flat out called the program illegal and who last March... went on to attack Gonzales for a speech he made in November, where he said that critics of the government's warrantless wiretapping program believed in a definition of freedom that was "superficial" and a "grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people."

Feingold took issue with that and asked who in the country actually believed that terrorists should not be wiretapped.

Gonzales said he knew that it wasn't Democrats and his real targets were blogs, where you can find people who don't see that the government is trying to protect them.

Unfortunately, this is the closest thing I can find to coverage of this hearing. Transcripts do not seem to be available. If anyone has the exact quote from Gonzales, please post it. I DO have the exact quote and context for his statement in November.

Some people will argue nothing could justify the government being able to intercept conversations like the ones the Program targets. Instead of seeing the government protecting the country, they see it as on the verge of stifling freedom.

But this view is shortsighted. Its definition of freedom – one utterly divorced from civic responsibility – is superficial and is itself a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people.

As Justice Robert Jackson remarked in the case Terminiello v. City of Chicago, “The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”

The central quote was decontextualized and passed around in the media. Of course, you can find crazy people on the Internets, but the people out there who "will argue nothing could justify the government being able to intercept conversations like the ones the Program tagets," and I have never, ever seen anyone make that argument, but they are clearly too far and inbetween to constitute "a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people."

Gonzales is almost Chomskesque in his careful use of language which simultaneously means many things and nothing. If you support the idea that the executive need not get court approval for domestic surveillance, what you hear... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Alberto Gonzales on Bloggers

That translates into about 14 million people who were using the 'read-write Web' to contribute to political discussion and activity," the study's authors Lee Rainie and John Horrigan write.

Pew's findings again suggest that the much-feared "Daily Me" balkanization and creation of self-reinforcing echo-chambers doesn't appear to really be a problem. Folks online are probably exposed to as much, or more, information that challenges their point of view as anyone else.

This is a good run down of the results from the Pew study.

Pew: 14 Million Online Political Activists in U.S. Today | Personal Democracy Forum

Nanochick wrote:
I think its about time that the Memestreams Community and the people who work hard coding Memestreams in their free time get the recognition they deserve. Therefore, I have nominated memestreams for a "Weblog Award", and I hope others in the community will do the same.

Thanks Nano! I don't think anyone has nominated us for a Bloggie before. Frankly, if everyone who regularly reads this site nominates us, we stand a reasonable chance to get past the first round. That would certainly be fun. Apparently you can nominate a blog to multiple categories. I think "Best Community Blog" and "Best Kept Secret" are probably the best two for us, but I won't discourage other nominations. :) Just do it quick. Voting closes on January 10th.

Seventh Annual Weblog Awards

The power center of the axis of evil has a blog. You can post comments. :)

This site isn't supported in Safari. How long do you think until someone manages to deface it?

يادداشت هاي شخصي احمدي نژاد

"It's all about the 'memes,' " says Stan Jonas, head of interest rate strategy at Fimat USA in New York... "Those guys say it and about a week or two later, the guys on Wall Street pick it up."

The Big Picture: WSJ: Economists Join Blogging Frontier

Kevin Hale of Particletree wrote an interesting essay about the importance of RSS and speculates that the success of social bookmarking sites like MemeStreams have got Google worried about the reputation agent becoming the new search.

Slashdot | The Importance of RSS

] The Media Bloggers Association announces the appointment
] of Ronald D. Coleman, of the Coleman Law Firm, PC as
] general counsel. Coleman will be build a team of attorney
] around the country to provide MBA members with first-line
] counsel on matters relating to the use of intellectual
] property, defamation and other issues arising from their
] weblogging.

This is cool. Media Bloggers has organized a legal defense organization for Bloggers who get cease and desist notices. They are also working on insurance and education efforts.

Media Bloggers Association Lauches MBA Legal Defense Project * A news item at mediabloggers.org

Blog Nashville is this weekend. Only 19 slots left if you want to attend. Don't register unless you're serious, as there really are only 19 slots left. However, Dan Gillmor, Dave Winer, and Mark Glaser will be there, among others.

Rattle and Decius will be in attendance representing Industrial Memetics and MemeStreams.

BlogNashville

] Because nothing says "legitimate" like blog.

Best Slashdot Comment Ever.

AskJeeves Steps Into RSS with Bloglines Acquisiton

] "I think that bloggers have put the issue of
] professionalism under attack," said Thomas McPhail,
] professor of media studies at the University of
] Missouri-St. Louis, who argues that journalists should be
] professionally credentialed. "They have no pretense to
] objectivity. They don't cover both sides."

"These damn people with their own presses!"

The New York Times - The Internet: Web Diarists Are Now Official Members of Convention Press Corps