Network Archives

Texting while judging: Judge texted assistance to prosecutors during trial(s)

"Not only is the judge who texted advice to prosecutors still on the bench, the assistant prosecutor accused of passing on her texts has herself been elected state district judge! Further evidence that the mechanisms for holding prosecutors and judges accountable for misconduct in Texas simply aren't effective or functional. A report by a court observer from the DA's office found that this was 'not the first time' the judge had provided such ex parte assistance and the lead prosecutor said her second chair was 'in her ear all the time regarding information she believes to be given her by Judge Coker via text during trial,' not just in this case but in others." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTexting while judging: Judge texted assistance to prosecutors during trial(s)

Students DESTROY NSA Recruiters Over Illegal Spying and Lies

"When NSA recruiters went to the University of Wisconsin earlier this week to pitch language students on working for the agency, they got more than they bargained for. The informed students turned the question-and-answer session into a hearing. On trial were the NSA's lies, their legality, and how they define 'adversary'. The students recorded audio of the exchange on an iPhone proving that the language-analyst NSA recruiters were left tongue-tied." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStudents DESTROY NSA Recruiters Over Illegal Spying and Lies

Can You Pass The Terrorism Quiz? (Updated June 2013)

"It should be banal to read in the mainstream media that the US not only engages in terrorism but often aggravates it; that if the current crop of terrorists in, say, the Middle East were killed, new terrorists would simply arise if the underlying political and economic conditions remained unchanged; and, that if a particular country is perceived as actively supporting dysfunctional political and economic conditions in a part of the world, it will become the target of anger and, possibly, violence. Yet, instead of such obvious conclusions about terrorism, we are daily exposed to much bias and distortion. To counter such inadequate journalism, I have prepared the following quiz." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCan You Pass The Terrorism Quiz? (Updated June 2013)

Wall Street Journal says Egypt needs a Pinochet

"Presumably, the WSJ thinks the Egyptians now have 17 years in which to think themselves lucky when any who dissent are tortured with electricity, raped, thrown from planes or – if they’re really lucky – just shot. That’s what happened in Chile after 1973, causing the deaths of between 1,000 and 3,000 people. Around 30,000 were tortured. Presumably, the WSJ hopes a general in the mold of Pinochet (or generals, as they didn’t break the mold when they made him) will preside over all this with the assistance of Britain and America. Perhaps he (or they) will return the favour by helping one of them win a small war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWall Street Journal says Egypt needs a Pinochet

Mexican police chief killed with rifle lost in ATF ‘Fast and Furious’ program

"A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico. Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMexican police chief killed with rifle lost in ATF ‘Fast and Furious’ program

Cops Booed, Pelted With Objects After Arresting Ice-Cream Bicycle Chef

"During last Friday night's ride, Miami Police officers were booed and pelted with objects after arresting local chef Aleric 'AJ' Constantin for selling ice cream out of the back of his bicycle. 'I basically spent a day and a half in jail for selling ice cream,' Constantin says. Around 10 p.m., one of the officers approached Constantin just as he was selling some ice cream to a fellow cyclist. The cop asked the chef if he had a license to sell his dessert. Constantin handed over his driver's license and said that all of his paperwork was in order. Moreover, he had permission from the Filling Station to be there. But that wasn't good enough for the officer." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCops Booed, Pelted With Objects After Arresting Ice-Cream Bicycle Chef

The Whistleblower’s Guide to the Orwellian Galaxy: How to Leak to the Press

"It is, as one commenter noted, 'a dangerous time to be right when the government is wrong.' We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of spies and drug dealers à la The Wire. Even the head of the CIA can’t email his mistress without being identified by the FBI. And privately collected data isn’t immune, either; highly sensitive metadata is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine. So how can one safely leak information to the press, let alone coordinate a Deep Throat-style meetup? Here’s a guide." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Whistleblower’s Guide to the Orwellian Galaxy: How to Leak to the Press

Is the lawlessness of Obama’s drone policy coming home?

"Global powers have an antisocial habit of bringing their work back home. The British government imported some of the methods it used against its colonial subjects to suppress domestic protests and strikes. Once an administrative class becomes accustomed to treating foreigners as if they have no rights, and once the domestic population broadly accepts their justifications, it is almost inevitable that the habit migrates from one arena into another. If hundreds of people living abroad can be executed by American agents on no more than suspicion, should we be surprised if residents of the United States began to be treated the same way?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs the lawlessness of Obama’s drone policy coming home?

Thank you for your service, Mr. Snowden

"Tellingly, the tools of Big Media and big government are not apprising you of these facts. Like a tortoise in its shell, they’ve retreated from the watersheds that are the AP, the IRS and the NSA scandals, informing you only of what New York and Northeast elites think is important: 'Most of you still like Obama.' Come every Memorial Day – more aptly called 'Dying For Nothing Day' – we direct a commonplace saying at members of a military that has not defended authentic American liberties for decades. It is, however, to a young man such as this that we should say 'Thank you for your service, Mr. Snowden.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThank you for your service, Mr. Snowden

US Obsession With the Importance of the Mideast and Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

"Recent developments in Egypt–with a sizeable minority of the population justifiably concerned about their rights at the hands of the majority of fundamentalist Islamists—show that arriving at liberal democracy from democracy may be a difficult and destabilizing prospect. The lesson from this messy process is not that the United States should intervene and remain until liberal democracies take hold in developing nations, but that the process is so chaotic that the United States should stay out of these nations, especially in the Middle East. This recommendation will be hard for the government of a swaggering superpower to stomach." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Obsession With the Importance of the Mideast and Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict