Here and There

The Bush Squad wants to redefine birth control as abortion.

My take: They sat back and reflected, and realized that they hadn’t wreaked enough physical, moral, and sexual havoc on the nation and the world, and decided this would really get the ball rolling again, circa 20 A.D. style.

Bastards. At least Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the decency to waste no time denouncing the move.

Christopher Hitchens agreed to undergo a demonstration of waterboarding.

He quit after about 15 seconds of the demonstration. In a corresponding piece for Vanity Fair, Hitchens says that, without any equivocation or doubt, the technique is torture.

What struck me was how sterile the demonstration was. There’s full lighting, probably air-conditioning, Hitchens has the comfort of knowing he’ll survive and go home to his belongings and loved ones. Those and other conditions are antithetical to what actual prisoners go through. And even given such “handicaps,” Hitchens is certain of the horrendous nature of the technique.

Srsly, when do we prosecute the people who gave and carried out the orders to do this?

This story, by Wired.com’s Ryan Singel*, describes an analysis of contributions from U.S. telecommunications’ PACs to representatives, and how the money may correlate to those reps votes on the recent FISA renewal act now in the Senate.

Singel points out that 40 percent more money went to the 94 Democrats who now support the bill (as opposed to their opposition to the original bill, which went before the House three months ago). Also, in total, meaning when you include Republican reps who, naturally, support warrantless wiretapping and, perhaps more importantly, immunity for the telecoms from prosecution, the PAC money to those voting in favor of the new bill is nearly double that going to members of Congress who voted against it.

This is slightly complicated, but very, very sickening.

Honestly? Screw campaign finance reform. How about legislative finance reform? How about Larry Lessig, and others like him, who are pushing to keep special interest money out of politics altogether?

Members of Congress are charged with representing their constituents. Since when are AT&T, Verizon, and the like constituents of anyone?

* Singel is a colleague of mine.

SCOTUS takes six years to get it right. Go Justice Kennedy.

Do not give a misbehaving child what (s)he wants.

And with that implicit analogy, this blog now turns its full attention toward taking down John McCain. Reader submissions are accepted.

The aim will be to expose John McCain for what he is — an old-school politician, beholden to special interests with deep pockets who play by their own rules. The arguments about approach to government are tired, but must be hashed out. The real question is who these candidates are, what they represent, and how they will lead and represent the United States of America at home and to the world.

Given these tenets, the choice should be pretty clear, methinks.

Gay marriage ban overturned in California by the state Supreme Court.

A thoughtful post from Daniel at Red Sweater Software.

The Clinton smear team was (need I say?) falsely claiming that Barack Obama had been a senior lecturer, not a professor, as he claimed, at the University of Chicago Law School.

Today, the school confirmed that:

From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track.

I hate to be all issues-voter about it, but this is awesome, and dispels my theory of Leno’s one-trick-ponyism.

The San Francisco assemblyman is sponsoring a stranded passengers’ rights bill for California. Now, if only we could get Texas “on board” …

Per a Senate vote held earlier in the day that effectively allows large telecommunications companies to assist the government in spying on people. Clinton was absent, McCain voted in favor of allowing the companies to intrude on citizens’ privacy. Obama voted against such a measure.

The ruling is thought to be in Obama’s favor. When he spoke with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board today, he seemed to agree.

Too exciting, really.

… like, no burritos in California.

I refuse to believe this until I see it. Er, I guess you can’t see the non-use of an execution chamber.

But seriously, how is it possible that Texas has put a stay on executions? Reporting seems to indicate that the state, deemed the “leading death penalty state in the nation” for a reason, is waiting for guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well, even that is a revelation, in that Texas of all places is typically one of the first to flip the federal government the bird.

I’m totally following this story …

I admired Josh Wolf’s resistance to undue court pressure, and subsequent stay in jail, longer than any other journalist in U.S. history.

Today, it was announced that Wolf is handing over the video at the heart of the case. That’s too bad, but I honestly can’t question the decision. Of course, on the one hand, it shows press bullies that findings of contempt may just work to get journalists to talk or hand over material. But on the other hand, I’ve never been in jail, so I don’t know what kinds of hell Wolf has been through.