Daily Blend: 04/12/13

Audrie Pott (15)

Understatement of the Day: “It turns out that the Obama administration has not been honest about who the CIA has been targeting with drones in Pakistan.”
(via @ggreenwald)

I just don’t have the patience (or stomach) today to write about the horrific Kermit Gosnell case, other than to affirm how it’s the perfect argument for why abortion should be fully legalized and easily accessible to ensure women never need to resort to such barbarity out of desperation.

Ditto with Vox Day’s predictably pathetic rant about how pro-choicers are all worse than Nazis and so on.

Another teenaged girl ^[pictured] commits suicide to escape persecution resulting from the publicization of her student gang-rape. Now to watch the rape-culture-soaked media fret over those poor arrested rapists. (Again.)
(via Pharyngula)

Appeals court denies Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli’s petition to bring back anti-sodomy law.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Uruguay becomes latest country to legalize same-sex marriage.

And finally, Cracked presents some popular online myths, revised for accuracy.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, January 07, 2013

James Dobson

Most Transparent Administration In History^TM allowed to continue hiding every single detail about its drone war.

Dishonest like a Breitbart acolyte arguing against gun control.

Looks like the design & technology community also has its issues with subconscious bigotry … and knee-jerk twits who perpetuate it.
(via @pzmyers)

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson ^[pictured] laments: “Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.” Coincidentally, my causes are only getting better!

Research indicates crime rates may be directly influenced by … leaded gasoline? First I’ve heard of this; while certain hazards increase risks of congenital defects, can they really have such a clear effect on complex adult behaviors decades later?

And finally, this is even more tragic than what’s happened to the History Channel:

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Scott Van Duzer bear-hugging President Obama

Glenn Greenwald on Democrats’ Gitmo hypocrisy: “In the hierarchy of evil, consigning someone who has been convicted of nothing to a cage year after year after year, until they die, is high up on the list.”

Speaking of government evil, a new Human Rights Watch report reveals that Bush-era torture techniques were even more widespread than was thought, including in helping Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi (you know, who U.S. government all heroically helped topple only a few years later for all of its human rights abuses that the U.S. totally didn’t have any part in whatsoever).

Missouri lawmakers override Governor Nixon’s (D) veto of a bill that would allow employers to eliminate birth control coverage.

Florida Republican pizzeria owner who gave the Secret Service a collective heart attack by bear-hugging President Obama ^[pictured] is now being boycotted – an effort that’s falling hilariously flat.
(via Right Wing Watch & @KyellGold)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Glenn Greenwald • Democratic Party • Democrats • Guantánamo Bay • Gitmo • Barack Obama • Human Rights Watch • George Bush • Bush administration • enhanced interrogation techniques • Libya • Muammar Qaddafi • CIA • birth control • Missouri • Missouri General Assembly • Jan Nixon • Scott Van Duzer • Big Apple Pizza • Yelp • boycotts

Daily Blend: Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Don’t make me describe this. Please.

Mother Jones examines how the Democratic Party’s preoccupation with civil liberties and protections has mostly evaporated after four years in power.
(via @ggreenwald)

Ed Brayton explains how atheists can be harsh critics of Islam whilst still being decent towards Muslims.

Infographic: Walter White/Heisenberg’s body count. (Spoilers?)
(via @pzmyers)

And finally, destroying your faith in humanity, one unbelievably weird slash fiction pairing at a time. (No idea why #5 ^[pictured] isn’t #1.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Democrats • Democratic Party • Ed Brayton • Chris Stedman • Islam • Islamophobia • Muslims • atheists • Breaking Bad • Walter White • Cracked.com • fan fiction • slash fiction • Harry Potter • Harry Potter • Severus Snape • Teletubbies • X-Men • Charles Xavier • Professor X • Magneto • Hannibal Lecter • Tetris • Death Note • Jonas Brothers • Band of Brothers • Dragon Ball Z • Anne Frank

Obama campaign brags about prosecuting whistleblowers he once vowed to protect

From then-President-Elect Obama’s transition website promises in 2008:

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

And now, from the Obama campaign website:

President Obama has done more than any other administration to forcefully pursue and address leaks of classified national security information. Here are the facts:

• The Obama administration has prosecuted twice as many cases under the Espionage Act as all other administrations combined.

• Under the President, the Justice Department has prosecuted six cases regarding national security leaks.

• Before he took office, federal prosecutors had used the Espionage Act in only three cases.

So, doing more than all previous U.S. presidents in history to crack down on those who reveal governmental fraud, waste and abuse after having previously sworn to protect them is now to be seen as a proud accomplishment. My, what a difference four years in power makes, eh?

For further reading, PolitiFact examines in detail the Obama administration’s decidedly lackluster handling of whistleblowers.

(via @ggreenwald)

Tags: Barack Obama • Obama administration

Daily Blend: Saturday, August 11, 2012

New WikiLeaks ^[pictured] whopper: Leaked emails expose TrapWire, secret U.S.-wide surveillance system that monitors everyone, anytime, anyplace, for “persons of interest”.

Welcome to Meridian, Mississippi, where (predominately Black) schoolchildren are sent directly to prison for skipping class, improper clothes, and “disrespect”.
(via @ebertchicago)

Give up, NOM: You know you’re tanking hard when you resort to passing your own paid staffers for supporters.
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: TrapWire • WikiLeaks • surveillance • United States of America • USA • Meridian, MS • DoJ • U.S. Justice Department • Lauderdale County Youth Court • Meridian Police Department • Mississippi Division of Youth Services • Civil Rights Division • due process • National Organization for Marriage • NOM • Minnesota for Marriage

Stewart does Thomas Drake and Obama’s war on whistleblowers

Leave it to Jon Stewart to cover stories that other media outlets just don’t seem to think are worth sharing with the general public. Here’s last night’s The Daily Show segment on NSA “spy” Thomas Drake and the Obama administration’s brutal (and intensely hypocritical) crackdown on government whistleblowers:

Non-U.S. readers: Click here to learn how to enable Comedy Central videos (Firefox only)

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

JON STEWART: Did the Obama administration leak certain flattering information? I highly think yes. And also, this too: On the flip side, when it’s information the Obama administration no likey, they’ve been sons of bitches on government whistleblowers. In fact, our own Jason Jones has more.

JASON JONES (V.O.): We hear a lot of stories about government waste, but there are individuals out there fighting for the taxpayer, like former National Security Agency analyst Thomas Drake.

THOMAS DRAKE: When I was employed at the NSA, one of my responsibilities was to discover the very best that existed at NSA and put it into the fight. And one of those programs was Thinthread.

JONES (V.O.): Thinthread was an efficient, $4 million intelligence gathering program. The problem was, the NSA already had a program called Trailblazer that didn’t quite work, spied on Americans, and … was a tiny bit more expensive. [Note: TDS appears to have mixed up the ‘3’ and ‘4’ figures, here. —JM]

DRAKE: A three-million-dollar program made a four-billion-dollar program look pretty bad.

JONES (V.O.): And after he showed his superiors how much money they could save by implementing Thinthread, he received the government’s highest honor.

DRAKE: I was charged as a spy.

JONES: Sorry – you misspoke?

DRAKE: I was charged under the Espionage Act for blowing the whistle on massive fraud, waste, abuse, and illegalities committed by the U.S. Government.

JONES (V.O.): Whoa! This guy wasn’t some pencil-pushing, cost-benefit analyst! He was a super-spy at war with the Obama administration! We needed to meet more discretely.

[Jones and Drake meet up outside the Washington Memorial, clad in trenchcoats and sunglasses, and shake hands.]

JONES: I think this is a safe place we can talk.

DRAKE: I hope so.

[D.C. officer pulls up on Segway.]

OFFICER: Do you gentlemen have a permit?

JONES: Pardon me?

OFFICER: [points towards camera] You need a permit to film here.

JONES (V.O.): The government had had us tailed, so we met again, far from the watchful eye of Big Brother.

[Jones and Drake meet up outside the Lincoln Memorial.]

JONES: What in the world –?

OFFICER: [speeds up to them on his Segway] Guys, seriously. I told you, you can’t be here without a permit.

JONES: Where the hell are we supposed to shoot in this stupid city, then?

JONES (V.O.): All right, [fuck] it, we went back to the hotel.

[Back at the hotel. Drake sits next to JESSELYN RADACK (Attorney, Government Accountability Project).]

JONES (V.O.): And like any good spy, he brought his lawyer to help him explain why he wasn’t a spy.

DRAKE: Thinthread was a program developed with just a few million dollars. And yet, they shut down the program because it was too effective. It severely embarrassed them.

JONES: So, what did you do about it?

DRAKE: I brought Thinthread to my [?] official. He said, “You don’t wanna ask any more questions, Mr. Drake. Leave it alone.”

JONES (V.O.): Holy [shit]. That meeting would make an awesome [fucking] movie.

[Dramatization, action movie preview style.]

JONES (V.O.): TDS Studios presents …

DRAKE (V.O.): I went to the far ends of NSA to find the truth.

JONES (V.O.): Jason Jones as Thomas Drake.

DRAKE (V.O.): I [took on the bayonet?] for Thinthread.

JONES (V.O.): In … The Whistleblower.

[Jones/Drake breaks into NSA office, scaring the three officials inside, and pulls out two handguns.]

JONES: It’s my way or the die-way!

DRAKE (V.O.): [as Jones/Drake aims gun at NSA official] There were no guns.

JONES/DRAKE: [breaking character] What do you mean, no guns? This is the NSA!

DRAKE: No guns.

JONES: This doesn’t sound very spy-like.

DRAKE: Well, I had my two pieces of paper out.

JONES: So you went in there, two papers a-blazing?

[Take #2: Jones/Drake breaks into NSA office, scares officials inside. Brandishes two fistfuls of papers.]

JONES/DRAKE: I’m here to cut costs and kick ass. And looks like I’m all out of costs.

[Jones/Drake starts brawling with the three men, taking them out with fancy martial arts moves, including punching one on the mouth so hard a spurt of (obviously fake) blood splashes onto a window.]

DRAKE (V.O.): No fighting is actually allowed on NSA premises.

JONES/DRAKE: [breaking character] Oh, come on, that was badass! [glances at “blood” splash] Look at that!

DRAKE: No. Didn’t have to do that; I made an appointment to meet with them.

JONES: I got you.

[Take #3: NSA office door remains closed. CUT TO: Jones/Drake sitting in stuffy office cubicle, talking on the phone.]

JONES/DRAKE: I was just wondering if he was available on the 3^rd. He’s – doctor’s appointment. Okay. All right. Guess I’ll hold.

JONES: This is not a very good spy story.

DRAKE: It’s real life.

JONES: So, what came next? What did you do next?

DRAKE: Well, I was not gonna remain silent. I made a faithful decision: to contact a reporter at the Baltimore Sun.

JONES: So, how did you get the secrets out of the NSA? Microscopic dot on your shoe? [Drake points to himself] Hollow esophagus?

DRAKE: Using a very secure email system.

JONES: You used your email.

DRAKE: And I shared with her information revealing publicly for the first time, not only the existence of a program called Thinthread, but massive fraud, waste and abuse.

JONES (V.O.): This desk jockey also revealed that an internal test of Thinthread discovered information in NSA’s own database that might have actually stopped 9/11. And that is when the government sent in their ninja.

[Dramatization: Cloaked ninja comes up corridor, swinging nunchuks.]

DRAKE (V.O.): Actually, there are no ninjas employed by NSA.

[Ninja stops and looks up, disappointed.]

JONES: Who in their right mind would think this guy is a [fuck]ing spy? He’s terrible!

DRAKE: I was an American, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. It’s not criminal to have contact with a reporter.

JONES (V.O.): But according to the government, it is. So they arrested him.

DRAKE: Here I am, facing the prospect of a public trial in which, if I were found guilty, I would essentially spend the rest of my natural life in prison.

JONES (V.O.): But when the media starting publicizing Drake’s case and the NSA’s incompetence became public, it was clear that the ten felony counts were utter [bullshit]. But the government still managed to get him to plead to the most damning charge they could muster.

DRAKE: To exceeding authorized use of a computer.

RADACK: It’s the equivalent to playing too much Facebook on your work computer.

JONES: That’s not a great name for a movie title.

DRAKE: This is not a movie.

JONES: You bet your ass it’s not.

[Fake movie poster: ‘Exceeding Authorized Use of a Computer’; fake newspaper article: ‘Jones bombs at the B.O. / $47K on 5000 screens’]

JONES (V.O.): Drake ruined everything for my movie career. Oh, and also the NSA.

DRAKE: They’ve criminalized First Amendment activities. They’ve criminalized the exposure of criminal activity conducted at the highest levels of our own government.

JONES (V.O.): Or, to put that in legal terms:

RADACK: It’s [fucked] up.

JONES (V.O.): Now that is a much better title.

[Fake movie poster: ‘It’s F@#cked Up’]

In other news, Jason Jones has some sweet moves. (After all, he is Canadian.)

Tags: The Daily Show • Jon Stewart • Jason Jones • Thomas Drake • NSA • National Security Agency • spies • U.S. Espionage Act

WikiLeaks does Syria

This could prove interesting:

Today, Thursday 5 July 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria Files – more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies, dating from August 2006 to March 2012.

This extraordinary data set derives from 680 Syria-related entities or domain names, including those of the Ministries of Presidential Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Information, Transport and Culture.

[…]

At this time Syria is undergoing a violent internal conflict that has killed between 6,000 and 15,000 people in the last 18 months. The Syria Files shine a light on the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy, but they also reveal how the West and Western companies say one thing and do another.

The range of information extends from the intimate correspondence of the most senior Baath party figures to records of financial transfers sent from Syrian ministries to other nations.

The database comprises 2,434,899 emails from the 680 domains. There are 678,752 different email addresses that have sent emails and 1,082,447 different recipients. There are a number of different languages in the set, including around 400,000 emails in Arabic and 68,000 emails in Russian. The data is more than eight times the size of ’Cablegate’ in terms of number of documents, and more than 100 times the size in terms of data.

For some reason, I don’t expect this release will engender the same manufactured fears about putting people’s lives in danger that the U.S. Pentagon tried to monger during “Cablegate”.

(via @ioerror)

Tags: WikiLeaks • Syria • Syria Files

Daily Blend: Saturday, June 30, 2012

DEA Freedom of Information Act ^[pictured] request rejections have increased by 114% since President Obama took office. Transparency!
(via The Agitator)

Virginia Judge decides a police drug-sniffing dog’s track record of 74% false alerts is good enough for probable cause. First one to make a wisecrack about the dog’s name gets yelled at.
(via @radleybalko)

YouTube is reportedly developing tools to help deal with its “racist, cruel, idiotic, nonsensical, and barely literate” commenters. Maybe IMDb could be next.
(via @ebertchicago)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Barack Obama • Obama administration • Drug Enforcement Administration • DEA • FOIA • Freedom of Information Act • Bono the police dog • Herbert Green • dogs • police dogs • Glen Conrad • YouTube • Google • Internet comments

Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hamza Tzortzis

Senators: We want the NSA to reveal how many U.S. citizens it illegally spied on. NSA: That would violate their privacy.

How to tell if a controversial claim is scientifically true. Includes lots of Phil “Bad Astronomer” Plait, always a nice bonus.
(via Bad Astronomy)

Noted Islamic Creationist hack ^[pictured] plagiarizes from noted Christian Creationist hack to “critique” Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion.
(via Pharyngula)

xkcd’s being awesome again, exoplanets edition.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: National Security Agency • NSA • Ron Wyden • Mark Udall • FISA Amendments Act • Lifehacker • Phil Plait • Bad Astronomer • David McRaney • Alan Henry • scientific method • confirmation bias • Hamza Tzortzis • Islam • Creationism • William Lane Craig • Richard Dawkins • The God Delusion • xkcd • comics • exoplanets

Obama escalates War on Terror in Yemen (without knowing who he’s killing)

Pres. Barack Obama

I don’t think there’s ever been a Nobel laureate who so quickly and thoroughly undermined the significance of their award than Peace Prize-holder President Obama. As if launching multiple (and for more than one, extra-judicial) simultaneous wars, continuing (and even worsening) the Bush administration’s desecration of civil liberties and continually expanding the Security and Surveillance States weren’t enough, he’s now gone ahead and okayed the targeted assassination of anyone in Yemen who is secretly declared to be a terrorist – even if they don’t know who the targets even are:

The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said. . . .

[…]

So here’s yet another war that Obama is escalating, now ordering people’s death with greater degrees of recklessness, now without even bothering to know who is being targeted. Although Miller doesn’t bother to mention the likelihood of more deaths of innocent Yemenis, this is the same policy that has caused large numbers of civilian deaths in Pakistan (just read this heart-wrenching and amazing account of a 16-year-old Pakistani boy, Tariq Aziz, oh-so-coincidentally killed by an American drone, along with his 12-year-old cousin, just days after he attended a meeting to protest civilian deaths by drones).

One has to wonder how very threatening these alleged Terrorists^TM must be in order to justify being designated as such by a secret cabal (that never needs to reveal its evidence or reasoning to the outside world) and having the Most Transparent^TM and peace-loving Leader of the Free World^TM send drones after them to level the area and leave behind any number of dead civilians (including children), all in a not-at-all-futile effort to wage war on terrorism itself.

Meanwhile, Steven Rosenfeld at Salon details the President and his inner circle’s continuation of those same policies he so vehemently decried only four years ago ^{[links removed]}:

Doggycide in Chaffee, Missouri

Police in Chaffee, Missouri respond to a call about an apparent lost dog with mange. What happens next leads to investigations that result in the city pound being shut down and accusations that the police chief and the mayor himself ordered an officer to kill the pooch and then tried to cover it up:

A dispatch log shows that a dispatcher was later ordered to not tell the dog's owners about the fate of their pet.

But it appears that no criminal charges will be filed in connection with the dog's death.

[…]

The report says the police department received a call around 1 p.m. from a Chaffee resident who said a dog had been outside the resident's apartment for most of the day and appeared to have mange. Ludwig responded to 537 W. Yoakum St. and then called the station to have a dispatcher request the city's animal control officer, Jerry Laxton. Ludwig also thought the dog had mange.

The dispatcher could not reach Laxton, so Ludwig drove to Rhodes 101 store in Chaffee, where Laxton works part time. As they talked about the dog, Loucks entered the store and was told about the dog and that the officers weren't sure what to do with it. It was then, Ludwig wrote, that he suggested taking to the dog to a veterinarian, but Loucks said no and to take the dog out to the city compost site and shoot it.

Ludwig and Mark Lueder, a city employee who picked up the dog, met at the compost site around 3 p.m. Ludwig wrote that he went to the site because Lueder left a message at the police station that he did not have a gun. When Ludwig arrived, Lueder had already dug a hole.

"I then loaded a range round into my service weapon and then Mark placed the dog into the hole. At that time I took aim and shot the dog once in the head," Ludwig wrote.

According to the report, Lueder covered the hole, and the two men left.

Hit the article for more details. It almost comes across like an crossover between CSI and Pound Patrol, and not in a good way.

(via @radleybalko)

---

[full size (514×625)]

Doggycide Bingo Index

Confirmed hits:

Dead Lexi

No apology offered

Killing was premeditated

Total: 3/25
A highly irregular situation, where the dog’s death was actually ordered and subsequently covered up. But nonetheless, no bingo.

Tags: Lexi the rat terrier/shih tzu mix • Chaffee, MO • Steve Loucks • Robert Ludwig • Mark Lueder

Daily Blend: Thursday, December 08, 2011

U.S. Drug War

• Drug War ^[pictured] expanded: U.S. House votes to ban “synthetic drugs” and allow DEA to ban new substances before knowing their effects.
  (via @radleybalko)

• U.S. Gov’t: Documents released worldwide over the Web are still too secret to reveal.
  (via @ggreenwald)

• Sadly, too true: “Can't wait to see which GOP primary candidate will be first to condemn this, call for more rape of illegal immigrants.”

• Awesome: U.K. government launches first-ever transgender equality campaign.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Victory: Mississippi high school that prevented lesbian student from wearing tux for yearbook photo now abandons gender-specific attire.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Every time you think Jim “Gateway Pundit” Hoft can’t possibly get any stupider …

• Woman allegedly hits teen with car, throws him Christian pamphlet, then drives away.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: US House of Representatives • synthetic drugs • bath salts • Charlie Dent • Drug Enforcement Administration • DEA • US State Department • Wikileaks • Cablegate • Bobby Scott • DHS • Homeland Security • Prison Rape Elimination Act • PREA • illegal immigrants • prison rape • immigrant detention centers • Britain • United Kingdom • transgenderism • transphobia • Ceara Sturgis • Wesson Attendance Center • heteronormativity • Jim Hoft • Gateway Pundit • Afton Bladet • Barack Obama • Sad Keanu • memes • Aida Hillen • hit and run

Daily Blend: Thursday, November 03, 2011

Esther Garatie

• Justice Department removes proposed FoIA rule that would’ve allowed the government to lie about whether certain records even exist.

• Depressed and suicidal Marine veteran ^[pictured] who underwent an endless homophobic rant at a VA health clinic now shares her whole story. (You can still sign the petition to get that disgusting excuse for a nurse fired.)
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• Just a handy reminder: The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• And Bill Donohue’s grudge against the Kansas City Star continues. And then turns remarkably petty (even by his abysmal standards).

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Freedom of Information Act • FoIA • DoJ • Justice Department • Department of Justice • Esther Garatie • Lincy Pandithurai • Christianists • homophobia • USA • United States • Christianity • Treaty of Tripoli • US Constitution • US Declaration of Independence • Bill Donohue • Kansas City Star • Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests • SNAP

Daily Blend: Thursday, October 27, 2011

Pastor Terry Jones

• ACLU has a revealing infographic showing how the PATRIOT Act is being used on its 10^th anniversary.
  (via ThinkProgress)

• Useful interactive map of abortion laws by country. Here’s hoping the far-Right doesn’t turn the U.S. red.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Pastor Terry “Burn a Koran Day” Jones ^[pictured] now running for President. … Sorry, my jokebox just blew a fuse.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: ACLU • American Civil Liberties Union • PATRIOT Act • Terry Jones

New FoIA rule would allow government to lie about whether records exist

As if the Freedom of Information Act system wasn’t enough of a clusterfuck to deal with already, the Justice Department has proposed a new rule that would make it even more difficult to get any straight answers from the Most Open and Transparent Administration in History^TM:

A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don't exist—even when they do.

Under current FOIA practice, the government may withhold information and issue what's known as a Glomar denial that says it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.

The new proposal—part of a lengthy rule revision by the Department of Justice—would direct government agencies to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist."

Is it just me, or is it somewhat telling – and disturbing – that we now require civil liberties groups to actively fight the government from making it legal for officials to openly lie their assess off about matters that usually ought to be on the public record in the first place? That a government bullshits its people at all with impunity is about as controversial as mincemeat pie (not that the idealist in me doesn’t scream in dismay at such a sentence), but now, they’re actually trying to make it so they don’t even have to tell the truth about whether various records even exist. I never thought I could long for a return to plausible deniability.

At this point, the most honest thing the government could do is to just repeal the FoIA and be done with all the pretenses about transparency that they never have or will give the slightest damn about practicing.

(via @radleybalko)

Tags: FoIA • Freedom of Information Act • US Department of Justice • DoJ

Daily Blend: Friday, October 07, 2011

Pictured: Nigerian prince(ess)

I don’t have much to say about Steve Jobs’s passing, not being an Apple user, though I would note that the fact that millions learned of his passing on a device he invented attests to his momentous legacy.

• Federal judge refuses to punish CIA for destroying interrogation tapes because the CIA says it won’t do it again. Wait, why are you laughing?
  (via @ggreenwald)

• Man’s desperate last-ditch attempt to overturn 145-year prison sentence for sex crime that “victim” now says never happened.
  (via The Agitator)

• Topeka, Kansas considers decriminalizing domestic violence to save money.

• Sarah Palin finally drops the pretense and preemptively quits the U.S. presidency. Ed Brayton summarizes my sentiments perfectly. This leaves us with only 15 more clowns on the Republican roster.
  (via @BreakingNews)

• Speaking of which, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart reveals how Palin took fundraising into “Nigerian prince territory” with some help from Bristol.
  (via @todayspolitics)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Steve Jobs • Apple • CIA • Alvin Hellerstein • Charles Farrar • Sacha Farrar • Topeka, KS • domestic violence • domestic abuse • austerity measures • Sarah Palin • Ed Brayton • SarahPAC • Bristol Palin • scams • fraud • Jon Stewart • The Daily Show

Daily Blend: Monday, September 26, 2011

Dick Cheney

• WikiLeaks uncovers another case of an innocent bystander being wrongly captured and unjustly detained for months without due process (for being Brown).

• Human Rights Watch urges Canadian government to charge Dick Cheney ^[pictured] for war crimes when he visits on his book tour next week. I didn’t know I could be this hopeful about a pipe dream.

• ACLU informs town of Bay Minette, Alabama that forcing non-violent offenders to choose between jail or church is against the law.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Cracked.com on the miracle that is crowdsourcing. Awesome stuff.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: WikiLeaks • Khaled Ismail • Bagram • Dick Cheney • Human Rights Watch • Canada • war crimes • Bay Minette, AL • ACLU • Establishment Clause • Separation of church and state • church • crowdsourcing • Somali Pirates • piracy • pirates • MMOWGLI • Foldit • Phylo • DNA • genetics • gamers • CAPTCHA • reCAPTCHA • Morton Thiokol • Zooniverse

Daily Blend: Friday, August 26, 2011

Ali Soufan

• CIA trying to censor interrogator-turned-critic ^[pictured] from revealing information that’s already in the public domain.

• Shift happens: Phil Plait lays out the data behind all these earthquakes of late. (Shockingly, Jen McCreight is not to blame.)

• Wow: Christianist busybodies take over Iowa daycare center and royally fuck every employee over.

• Friend’s reaction: “Humans, this is why aliens are shunning us.” (#1 seriously makes me wanna rage.)

• Comment of the day (and part two). Premium example(s) of “name the fallacies”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: CIA • Ali Soufan • interrogation • earthquakes • Phil Plait • Happy Time Daycare • Point of Grace Children's Academy • Christians • Christianists • pets • plastic surgery • make-up • spas • tattoos • perfume • body piercings • Missrs50 • logical fallacies • God

Daily Blend: Thursday, July 14, 2011

Manning-Lamo chat logs

• Glenn Greenwald on Wired’s much-belated decision to finally release the full Bradley Manning/Adrian Lamo chat logs. [pictured] Unsurprisingly, Wired’s excuses still fail.

• UPDATE: Judge temporarily reinstates Illinois contracts with Catholic Charities.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Excellent critical analysis of US sex offender laws and the innocents whose lives they so often ruin.
  (via The Agitator)

• To anyone bitching about Netflix’s new prices: Read (and watch) this. (Or, if you really can’t afford to pay a couple more bucks every month for instant movies, just do what everyone else does.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Glenn Greenwald • WikiLeaks • Bradley Manning • Adrian Lamo • Wired.com • Kevin Poulsen • Evan Hansen • Illinois • Catholic Charities • John Schmidt • Frank Rodriguez • Nikki Rodriguez • Netflix