From the AP: Attorneys for television talk show host David Letterman want a judge to quash a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who contends the celebrity used code words to show that he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host. A state judge granted a temporary restraining order to Colleen Nestler, who alleged in a request filed last Thursday that Letterman has forced her
December 2005
December 21, 2005
Talking Smack
John Cole works himself into quite a state today over an LA Times story he believes suggests that the President may have “lied”—a pronouncement upon which John’s commentariat pounces like snappy terriers on a bloody lamb shank. John’s outrage, he tells us, stems from his provisional acceptance of the facts cited in this LA Times story, facts that, if true, would make statements Bush made about the NSA “spy” program
December 21, 2005
“The Schrödinger’s cat goes to the john post” (from the protein wisdom conceptual series)
Schrödinger: “Jesus, cat—would you please hurry it up? I’ve been holding it in for over an hour now. What could you possibly be doing in there…?”
December 21, 2005
FISAing Words
Clinton associate attorney general John Schmidt, writing in the Chicago Tribune (h/t Charles Martin): Sept. 11, 2001, authorization to the National Security Agency to carry out electronic surveillance into private phone calls and e-mails is consistent with court decisions and with the positions of the Justice Department under prior presidents. The president authorized the NSA program in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. An identifiable group, Al Qaeda,
December 21, 2005
“Waiting for the rapture in Iran”
From the CSM‘s Scott Peterson: For those who believe, the devotion is real. Tears stream down the cheeks of 2,000 men ripe for the return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam they expect will soon emerge to bring justice and peace to a corrupt world. Eyes stare upward and arms open wide to receive God’s promised salvation. The storyteller’s lyrical song speaks of tragedy on the path to salvation, prompting
December 20, 2005
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) expresses his rage at the Bush adminstration’s pretensions to monarchical power to a sales associate at his local Footlocker store
Feingold: “I mean, you seem like a nice ordinary Joe. Would you want that cowboy doofus and his NSA goons unilaterally deciding to listen in on your phone conversations? Because the fact is, the president cannot make up authority and legislative power when it isn’t there. He’s President. He’s not King George Bush.”* Footlocker sales clerk: “Of course he isn’t. A King might presume to tell us when it’s okay
December 20, 2005
Outrage delayed? (UPDATED to include FISA Court Review link; UPDATED AGAIN to include response from James Robbins)
Via Newsbusters, a David Burnham NYT story from November 7, 1982: “COURT SAYS U.S. SPY AGENCY CAN TAP OVERSEAS MESSAGES” A Federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe the Americans are foreign agents, and then provide summaries of these messages to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Because the
December 20, 2005
Scenes from the WAR ON JESUS: “Anti-Wal-Mart agitprop”
From the Washington Times: Inside a South Florida Wal-Mart last Thursday, union-sponsored protesters handed out empty, gift-wrapped boxes to children and made them cry, according to multiple witnesses—and it appears that the arrests of two of the protesters may have been part of a grand strategy designed by Big Labor-backed WakeUpWalMart.com. Yet despite internal WakeUpWalMart.com communication—obtained exclusively by this columnist—indicating that the union-funded front instructed its protesters to test police
December 20, 2005
“Germany frees killer of U.S. diver”
From CNN: A Hezbollah militant sentenced to life in Germany for murdering a U.S. Navy diver during the 1985 hijacking of a U.S. jetliner has been freed, officials said. The German government denied on Tuesday the release was related to the freeing of a German hostage in Iraq. Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released Thursday and allowed to return to his native Lebanon on the next day, after qualifying for parole
December 20, 2005
NSA kerfuffle: redux (UPDATED and UPDATED AGAIN 10:25 PM MT)
Drawing on remarks from both the President and the Attorney General yesterday—and on the responses I was reading around the blogosphere—I began to suspect that the divisions we’re seeing in the debate over executive authority to authorize domestic surveillance is a function not merely of politics, but also of the paradigm through which one choses to view the authorization itself. Those who are committed to the civil / criminal paradigm—while