It turns out that Colorado lawmakers have devised a system in which their car license plates don’t show up in the database when speed cameras catch them. Because of that, they never get speeding (or parking) tickets and are free to be repeat offenders. [Read more…]
The name Jesselyn Radack keeps popping up in whistleblower stories. This is because she is a lawyer with the Government Accountability Project and has been assisting whistleblowers defend themselves against government retaliation. [Read more…]
The appalling saga of serial sexual abuser San Diego mayor Bob Filner gets steadily worse. Once the allegations came out and the first victim went public, there has been a steady stream of women coming forward describing similar events. The Daily Show chronicles his disgusting behavior. [Read more…]
I have written before about how one should never answer the questions of any law enforcement officers who come to question you unless you have a lawyer present.
Reader SC (Salty Current), OM provided an excellent document produced by the Center for Constitutional Rights that explains what you should do if someone ever wants to question you. [Read more…]
The close 217-205 vote defeat in the House of Representatives on the amendment by freshman congressman Justin Amash and veteran John Conyers (both from Michigan) to curb the surveillance powers of the NSA clearly has shaken up the establishment. David Kravets finds that there was a significant pattern in how people voted: “It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.” [Read more…]
Felix Salmon tells us what happened, comparing two cases, one in which Goldman Sachs sided with the defendant, the other in which they were part of the prosecution, and the big differences in the outcomes. Can you guess which case resulted in the harsher punishment? He concludes: [Read more…]
Noam Chomsky gave recently in Geneva on the USA, Iran, Israel and the Arab world. Following the speech he was asked a question about what he thought of Edward Snowden’s actions. This segment starts at around the 1:21:00 mark.
In the wake of the many revelations of massive government surveillance by Edward Snowden, the government has gone into full damage control by saying that they only look at the phone and email and internet records of those they suspect of engaging in terrorist activities or people who are suspected of being in contact with potential terrorists. [Read more…]
Now that Edward Snowden has temporary asylum in Russia, he has the freedom to travel anywhere in that country and work. Apparently, he may already have a job offer.
Late Thursday, the founder of Russia’s Facebook-like social network site VKontakte, made what sounded like a job offer.
“We will be happy if he decides to supplement the team of star programmers at VKontakte,” Durov wrote on his page.
As of midnight last night, same-sex couples in Minnesota and Rhode Island could get married and gay Minnesotans have been marrying up a storm. You can see pictures of happy couples here.
Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison celebrated the event in song. [Read more…]