The NY Times says: Two months after vowing to roll back broad new wiretapping powers won by the Bush administration, Congressional Democrats appear ready to make concessions that could extend some of the key powers granted to the National Security Agency. … A Democratic bill to be proposed Tuesday in the House would maintain for…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
National Guard Shorted Benefits?
WCSH, a NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine, reports that members of the Minnesota National Guard, who had been deployed in Iraq for 22 months, are being denied GI Bill education benefits. [1st Lt. Jon] Anderson’s orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for…
WW II Vets Decry Torture
Writing about a group of veterans who were responsible for interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt during WW II, Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post writes: Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners’ cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to…
The "F**k This" Test
Colorado State University’s Board of Student Communications met yesterday and decided that David McSwane, the editor-in-chief of the Rocky Mountain Collegian newspaper, will keep his job after publishing a four-word column that said only, “Taser this: F**k Bush.” Very classy, Davey. But not exactly NY Times material. More: Speaking for the board that oversees student…
Progressives Hold Up FISA Modifications?
Earlier today the Huffington Post reported that the Democratic leadership in the House postponed announcing a new set of proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers promised to fight legislation that omitted their “principles on wiretapping that preserve the ‘rule of law.’” Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, had planned to…
Hilarious Sign
Harsh!
China to be on Moon before U.S.?
CNN reports that Michael Griffin, NASA’s administrator, told an audience in Washington D.C. that: “I personally believe that China will be back on the moon before we are.” … “I think when that happens, Americans will not like it. But they will just have to not like it.” No, I expect that we wouldn’t like…
Would the World be Better Off…
…if the U.S. loses the war in Iraq? Fox News asked that question of 900 registered voters and came up with what I think is a comforting result (pdf). Of particular note is the Fox headline, which screams that almost 20% of Democrats answered “Yes” to the question. Sure, it’s bad that almost 1 in 5…
Zen
Learn to handle a writing-brush and you’ll never handle a begging-bowl.
Legal Immigration Dysfunction
The illegal immigration problem is out of control in the U.S. That’s not news. What may not be so obvious is that the legal immigration process is nearly as bad off. Delays – often they go on for years – are common for immigrants this country should be falling all over itself to bring in. …