philly

NSA Hearings Breakdown

Noah Feldman breaks down the NSA Wiretap Senate hearings down pretty well in this NYT Magazine article from yesterday.

The main reason that the issue before the committee looks so confusing is, paradoxically, that the facts are basically settled. The Bush administration has acknowledged ordering the N.S.A. to listen to conversations between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad without getting warrants first. (It would be fascinating to know whose conversations were overheard and how many wiretaps proved useful, but the answers to such inquiries may be classified, and a public accounting is unlikely.) This leaves the legal status of the listening-in as the most likely topic of conversation, and maybe the only one.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 requires warrants for eavesdropping on conversations involving anyone in the United States — so on the face of things, it looks as if the domestic spying program violated the law. Yet the administration argues that another law, the Sept. 18, 2001, Authorization for Use of Military Force, superseded FISA: by giving the president the power to make war against Al Qaeda and its supporters, the argument goes, the law implicitly authorized the customary activities of war, including a wide variety of intelligence gathering. When challenged on this point, the administration's next line of defense is the Constitution: the president's responsibility as commander in chief and his executive power over foreign affairs are said to entail the authority to listen to conversations across borders that are relevant to national security. In a final constitutional twist, critics of the administration argue that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the people the right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures, perhaps including warrantless wiretaps.

It's about a page long or so, a quick read. Read the whole thing here.

And on a happy note, W wants more money to fight this war on terrrrrr'rrr. And by "more money" I mean a $2.77 TRILLION budget. Cut Medicaid. Mmmmmmmm. Fucker. On a related note, Exxon Mobile Corp is trading at $62.29 [up 1.47%] and Halliburton is trading at $78.18 [up 1.01%].

Coalition for Voting Integrity

eRobin over at Factesque is working her ass off in the 'burbs of Philly rounding up support for the Fitzpatrick Amendent [as in Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)] with a nonpartisan group she belongs to called the Coalition for Voter Integrity. The work she/they is/are doing has to do with the Help America Vote Act [HAVA].

During the meetings with Fitzpatrick and his staff one thing became abundantly clear to me: if this bill is going to pass in time to make a difference, it will only be because enough citizens from around the country call their Congressional reps in the Senate and the House to say that they want it to be law. We need you to pick up the phone again today and call your Senators and your Reps and tell them that Fitzpatrick's bill to extend the HAVA deadline past the primary must pass immediately. I don't have a number for it yet, but when I do, I'll post it. It's possible that the aide won't know what you're talking about. That's okay. This is all happening very fast. If you mention HAVA and Fitzpatrick, they'll get the message.

Also important: The Coalition for Voting Integrity needs funds to keep doing the phenomenal work that is has been doing over the last eight months. In addition to the Fitzpatrick bill and some other legislation that is still under consideration, we have also sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania over inconsistent certification standards. This is a groundbreaking lawsuit that will have national implications - none other than defender of the vote, Ion Sancho, supports it. But we need funds to keep it going. Please make a donation to CVI here. (Funny story: I've been telling the other women in CVI how powerful the netroots are. We had a real-life fundraiser that didn't do too well and I was placed in the role of Mary Netroots Sunshine telling them all how my guys would come through for us. So it's my butt on the line here too. My butt and our democracy! Save whichever means more to you.)

Lend eRobin a hand, spread the word.

Pennsylvania Gay Marriage Condemnment

I got passed some info about some pending legislation. An amendment to the PA Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. This amendment must pass two consecutive legislative sessions before going to the ballot in a state wide referendum. If it were to pass and go on the ballot, I think it would be a bigger deal with more national attention. This asinine piece of legislation can still be shot down in the PA Congress.

We can all contact our House Reps via zip code punched into this site. It'll give you your state rep and his/her contact info. Call them and tell them 1) you are a registered voter in their district and 2) you want them to oppose the marriage amendment. If your Rep. is Babbette Josephs, [mine is] then call her and tell her to make sure no Democrats on the Government Affairs Committee vote for this bill.

There's a coalition of groups organizing meetings between people and their reps. Groups including the ACLU and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The official name of this group is the Value All Families Coalition. If anyone wants some more info on the group, their mission or for help contacting your rep, contact Charles Fischer here.

Say no to this condemnment.

PA Senate on Alito

Chuck Pennacchio is running for Senate in this here state of mine. He is a pro-choice; pro universal healthcare; pro gun safety laws [that's not anti gun]; anti-war; pro withdrawal, with a timetable, from Iraq; pro embryonic stem cell research; the issues list goes on... He stood against the nomination of now Chief Justice John Roberts. He stands against the nomination of Samuel Alito. Bob Casey, sadly, does not. Here's an AP story and another story from the Inky. And Gov. Ed Rendell also came out in favor of the nomination [what the fuck?], but he's shilling for Casey and has no grandiose plans to run for higher office [it seems after this decision]. His wife also happens to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit with nominee Alito. From the Inky:

If he had opposed Alito, Casey could have invigorated the liberal base - a shaky constituency because of his antiabortion position - at a time when fund-raising is a top priority of the campaign.

But Casey backed Alito after watching the hearings on C-Span at night, considering newspaper editorials, and talking with his closest political advisers. He gave "serious consideration" to Alito's character, legal experience, credentials, judicial temperament and philosophy, his statement said.

Riiiight, because in all of those hours of hearings Alito really proved himself to be a stand up guy. I watched/listented to about six hours of those hearings before I couldn't take it anymore. This guy is a fuckwad [that's purposely left as a dangling modifier].

From the AP:

For weeks, Republicans have called Casey "Silent Bob" and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito's confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, sided with Casey's father, the late Gov. Bob Casey, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case challenged a state law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

"Silent Bob" ha, that's a pretty good one, I gotta admit. If the shoe fits.

.

Casey's camp has said how they're so different from Sen. $antorum and he'll out maneuver him on the issues. Great! If only they differed enough to have some wiggle room to maneuver. They're both pro Iraq, anti gun safety laws, anti living wage, anti universal healthcare for all, anti choice, anti embryonic stem cell research, and now they're both pro Alito. Bob, where do you differ? Just that (D) behind your name? If that's the only difference, that's not good enough for me. That just means you're a DINO.

Three men in a room [Schumer-Reid-Rendell] made a decision several months ago to anoint candidate Casey as the choice for Democrats in Pennsylvania. They chose wrong. Now, they are not only alienating the Liberal side of the Democratic party here in PA, but all Democrats across the United States. The Alito nomination is facing the threat of filibuster in the Senate. As of now, it looks like every single Democrat [minus Ben Nelson (D-ND)] even Joe "Alf's Dad" Lieberman (D-CT) is going to vote against him! A few Republicans are looking to vote against the nomination plus Mr. Independent. If Casey were in the U.S. Senate right now, he'd vote to approve Alito. If Senator Pennacchio were in the Senate right now, he'd be all over the place working to knock down this wacko nominee.

The blogs are blowing up after this news. Here's a sampling for some further reading on the subject:

• once, twice via Booman
• Rowhouse Logic
• Rubber Hose
• Suburban Guerrilla
• Young Philly Politics
• once, twice, thrice via Atrios
• Paradox1x
• Coeruleus
• Pennacchio Blog
• iFlipFlop
• 2 Political Junkies
• A Smoke Filled Room
• dKos
• AMERICAblog
• Attytood

And I'm sure there are more, but this is a good sample from the blogs around the way and this list will be updated as much as I can keep up.

But hey, don't just take my word for it, come out and see what the real Democratic candidates have to say. Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals will be taking part in the Neighborhood Networks and African American Hertage Coalition candidate forum on Saturday the 28th. It's being held at the First Baptist Church at 17/Sansom Sts from Noon to 3p. The event is free and open to the public.

Smoking on SEPTA

Annoying. What's the deal with people just lighting up on the underground platforms of SEPTA? I don't really mind the smoke, I'd rather it not be there, but I'm not allergic or pregnant or anything. But one of these days, I'm gonna be in a pissed off mood and I'll have my camera with me and I'll just stick it in their face and snap off a shot with my REALLY bright flash. We'll see how that plays out. It is illegal to be smoking down there.

I've never seen anyone approach any of the doucebag smokers down there though. Can't recall seeing them light up with a cop around either.

Fuck the Poor

It's nearing the time of the new year when employees receive last year's W2s and whatnot. And I just read this article on how hundreds of thousands [MSM speak for upwards of a million] of poor people [mostly families] with an average income of $13K had their 2004 returns marked as fraudulent and their returns will subsequently be frozen for years to come.

The taxpayers, whose average income was $13,000, were not told that they were suspected of fraud, the advocate said in her annual report to Congress. The advocate, Nina Olson, said her staff sampled suspected returns and found that, at most, one in five was questionable.

A computer program selected the returns as part of the questionable refund program run by the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service. In some cases, the criminal division ordered that taxpayers be given no hint that they were suspected of fraud, the report said.

One in five!? Heck of a job, programmers. Give them a Presidential Medal of Freedom or whatever they're called.

And to add insult to injury?

Ms. Olson said that 66 percent of those taxpayers who pressed for their refunds were found to be due all the money they sought or even more than they asked for.

How about all people earning over $1M gross be subjected to an audit? Freeze their assets while the audit proceeds from their anus through their colon into their respitory tract.

Stop fucking the poor!

Biden on Alito on Choice

I think it was weird that Sen Joe Biden (D-DE) just said:

I don't care about your stance on abortion

Very weird.

Sycophantic Sam Brownback

Sycophantic Sen Sam Brownback (R-KS) just uttered some pretty crazy words in the Judge Alito Senate confirmation hearings. In regards to Sen Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) mention of Alito's holding of Vanguard stock which Judiciary Chairman Sen Arlen Specter (R-PA) brought up again since Alito didn't get a chance to respond.

Brownback said [paraphrased] that Alito didn't need to uphold the statement he made on the Senate floor when he was originally confirmed for his seat on the Third Circuit. The statement in question was one that he said that he'd recuse himself from any case where he had some kind of potential stake at hand. A simple thing to do that you shouldn't have to promise to do. But, he made the promise anyways. And he subsequently went back on that promise. Brownback justified Alito's reneging on that agreement by saying that Alito shouldn't have to remember everything that he's said and that if every politician were to be held to their promises, there wouldn't be any Senators.

Thanks Sam, for that incredible civics lesson.

And for the record, I promise not to kill anyone.

NSA Hands out Cookies

Weren't we always told not to take things from strangers? What if strangers slipped candies into our pockets and we later ate them? Well, The National Security Agency sorta did just that the AP reports. Apparently, the NSA website has been sticking cookies which don't expire until 2035 [three years before Google's cookie expires!] on the harddrives of visitors of their website.

In a 2003 memorandum, the Office of Management and Budget at the White House prohibited federal agencies from using persistent cookies - those that are not automatically deleted right away - unless there is a "compelling need."

A senior official must sign off on any such use, and an agency that uses them must disclose and detail their use in its privacy policy.

Peter Swire, a Clinton administration official who had drafted an earlier version of the cookie guidelines, said that clear notice was a must, and that "vague assertions of national security, such as exist in the N.S.A. policy, are not sufficient."

Daniel Brandt, a privacy activist who discovered the N.S.A. cookies, said mistakes happen, "but in any case, it's illegal."

Now, I await the war on Daniel Brandt, aka the Cookie Monster.

Flour or Coke?

A horrifying story in today's Inky about a female Bryn Mawr student falsely accused of transporting upwards of a kilo of cocaine/speed/opium while headed home to California after finals. She spent three weeks in a Philadelphia jail cell. This happened two years ago, but a civil-rights lawsuit was filed recently on the eve of the expiration of the statute of limitations.

"I haven't let myself be angry about what happened, because it would tear me apart," Lee said. "I'm not sure I can bear to face it... . I'm amazed at how naive I was."

That naivete, she said, began when screeners at Philadelphia International Airport inspecting her checked luggage found three condoms filled with white powder. Lee laughed and told city police they were filled with flour. It was just part of a phallic gag at a women's college, she told them, a stress-reliever, something to squeeze while studying for exams.

The police didn't find it funny. They told her a field test showed that the powder contained opium and cocaine.

A lab test later proved the substance was flour - and no one now disputes that Lee is innocent, including the prosecutor.

Now that's some fucked up shit.

I think everyone's seen a cop/FBI/CIA/... show where they do that taste test of powder. I think I recall a cop coming to speak to us in either high school or middle school telling us that they did/could do such a thing and it wasn't some fake Hollywood stuff [I may be warping reality with TV here though]. But either way, I've read that cocaine is supposed to taste pretty nasty and is supposed to have a numbing effect. So, a taste test should reveal a nasty tasting and then numbing substance. Flour tastes like, well, flour. Yes, coke is often cut with flour, baking soda, talcum powder, sugar... but none of those things cause a numbing effect. So what the fuck happened during two field tests at the Philadlephia airport?

I can't imagine spending three weeks in a cell. I don't know if I'd just lose hope even if I was 100% positive I was innocent, shit just happens and I read about it every day, I just did again right here!

Lee's lawyers say that there are two possibilities as to why the two field tests resulted in a positive for drugs:

Either the field test was faulty or someone fixed the results.

And to futher the matter, a prison guard, who recognized Lee from her volunteer work at Overbrook HS, thinks that the two positive tests were racially motivated. Whoa.