Bernanke speaks out in favor of a stimulus package, and he is saying that it should help “beleagered consumers” and that it “should be explicitly temporary”.
While he does speak favorably of some temporary tax credits for business investment too, he is not repeating Alan “Bubbles” Greenspans incompetence, and endorsing massive permanent tax cuts.
He’s already put himself well ahead of Ayn Rand’s acolyte in the competence department.
There is a general principal in US law, that one can be compelled to turn over physical evidence, but not the contents of one’s mind, as that is protected by the 5th amendment.
So, you can be compelled to turn over a key to a lock, but not a combination. There is a fairly long legal precedent.
This case asks what it means if the lock is unbreakable, or nearly so.
Case in brief: A Canadian, on crossing the US border, was told to show the contents of his hard drive, which he did, and some of the contents were deemed by the border guard to be likely child porn, though it’s unclear of this was simply random files in the cache, or Manga, or real kiddie porn.
The machine was confiscated, and subsequently turned off.
When it was restarted, its demanded a password, since the contents had been encrypted with PGP, and were inaccessible, and Magistrate Judge Jerome J. Niedermeier has ruled that compelling him to turn over his password violates the 5th amendment.
The prosecutors are appealing saying the standard stuff about terrorism, etc.
I’m with Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who has said, “The consequence of this decision being upheld is that the government would have to find other methods to get this information, but that’s as it should be. That’s what the Fifth Amendment is intended to protect.”
He’s right. If you hooked up this guy’s drive to a supercomputer, and ran it for a few months, and maybe less if you brought in some experts from the NSA, at the cost of a few million dollars, you’d probably crack the password, because even the best people don’t choose truly random passwords.
Inconvenient, yes, but inconvenience is not a basis for emasculating the Bill of Rights.
I generally oppose any granting any power to the government to either judge one based on the contents of one’s mind (hate crime laws), or to force revalation of the contents of one’s minds.
The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, has for some time cultivated networks of militants, with the idea of being to control them.
Well, it appears now that these militants are saying, “So long and thanks for all the fish.”
As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.
The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan. American officials have begun to weigh more robust covert operations to go after Al Qaeda in the lawless border areas because they are so concerned that the Pakistani government is unable to do so.
This was absolutely forseeable. It was a marriage of convenience on both sides.
In a very real way, it mirrors the US relationship with Pakistan….And the House of Saud….And the sh^%tty little oil monarchies all across the Gulf….etc.
Mfume to Support Donna Edwards
in February 12 Primary.
You can contribute online here, or via my Act-Blue page (look on the right column), or via mail at Donna Edwards for Congress, P.O. Box 441153, Fort Washington, MD 20749-1153.
The incumbent, Al Wynn, is the a corporate Democratic, and the corrupt product of the corrupt PG County machine.
Republicans ponder deadlocked convention
I think that the last time this happened, a political operator paid a few hundred people to go into the gallery and chant an obscure governor’s name, and he got the nomination, and won the presidency, even though he was not a candidate when the convention started.
His name was “Harding”.
Two steps up from the current lot though.
Banking collapse in Q4 numbers, care of AMERICAblog
Merrill Lynch – $10 billion loss in Q4
Bank of NY – Q4 profit drops 68%
PNC Financial – Profits down 53%
JP Morgan – 24% decline in profits
Wells Fargo – down 38%
US Bancorp – 21% decline
Citigroup – $10 billion loss
This is not pretty
My record of prognostication is less than stellar, but Dr. Zaius is one prophetic Orangutan.
Check out his Predictions for the Upcoming Presidential Election
Perhaps the best punditry of the season.
TMP makes note of an interesting study byThe Project for Excellence in Journalism has released its latest campaign coverage index for January 6-11.
John Edwards is apparently a figure of the voters’ imagination, though it appears that NY Times Ombudsman Public Editor Clark Hoyt shares the public’s delusion.
I could make some sort of pithy statement about corporate media, but instead, I’ll just call the coverage wankeriffic.
The cartoons of Kirk Anderson.
From the undisputed world champion of heavyweight snark, Keith Olbermann.
When discussing reports that John McCain was considering Joe Lieberman as his running mate, Keith finished off the report with, “Yeah, like that helped Al Gore.”
ROTFLMAO.
From the beeb, we learn that, “The United States has been listed as a country where prisoners are at risk of torture in a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry.”
We are now officially on Canada’s list of countries that torture.
It looks like he’s at risk of losing the New York primary.
Losing New York, heh.
As Matthew Yglesias frequently says, the problem with Rudy is that the more he campaigns, the more people realize that he’s just plain creepy.
It’s also very, very savvy, it strokes the ego of her press corps. She
played flight attendant over the loud speaker, welcoming people aboard “Hil Force One”, and declaring, among other things, that, “FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations prohibit the use of any cell phones, BlackBerrys, or wireless devices that may be used to transmit a negative story about me”.
Read the article about the Bush Administration strategies.
The stimulus is needed now, but veto anything that does not extend Bush’s disastrous tax cuts, which would otherwise end in 2011.
The fact is that sticking with appallingly bad tax policies in order to create a relatively modest stimulus package is a bad idea both in terms of the well being of the republic, and in terms of politics, and the Democrats should be willing to walk away from the table if this is a condition.
Of course, they will drop the soap instead.
It appears that Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)is trying to hang Jose Rodriguez out to dry.
I guess you gotta have a scapegoat, and true to form, just as in the military prosecutions regarding Abu Ghraib, the goal is to find the lowest possible level person possible to assign blame.
The pertinent quote is from an anonymous Senate staffer
“If you look at the documents, you get very close to a direct order (not to destroy the tapes) without it being, ‘Jose, you’re not going to do this,'” the official said.
Sounds to me like everyone knew what was going on. Higher ups wanted plausible deniability, so they gave “strong advice” without giving an “order”, so they could have it both ways.
Hoekstra said Rodriguez must testify to the committee to determine on whose authority the tapes were destroyed, and he said the panel will consult with the Justice Department on whether granting Rodriguez immunity would undermine its own investigation.
“If there appears to be any criminal activity taking place, the last thing we would want to do is get in the way of a successful prosecution,” Hoekstra said.
Translation: let’s bury this until after the election.
Oliver Willis writes about the recently indicted former Republican congressman, and I just love the title.
The risks of default by MBIA and Ambac have gone through the roof, and Ambac is in danger of losing it’s AAA rating, which could hasten a collapse by making capital harder to raise.
As to the significance? Atrios nails it when he says:
Ambac and MBIA are the two Jenga pieces which will pull the whole sh#@pile down. They insure all of the sh#@pile, allowing everyone to pretend that all of the risky stuff they own isn’t risky at all. But that insurance is most likely a complete fantasy as it seems Ambac and MBIA don’t have the cash to pay out claims. I should’ve gotten into the bond insurance business. Lower their ratings, you destroy their businesses. More than that, you wipe out the insurance fantasy, forcing everyone who insured with them to admit they have all this risky stuff on the books. Recognizing, of course, that in this context “risky” is just a euphemism for “sh#@ty.”
This really comes as no surprise. Dame Stella Rimington’s description of the idea of high tech ID cards as “useless”.
Old article, but still germane. I came across it when someone referred me to an article in Bruce Schneier’s blog post on the subject.
MacBook Air doesn't have a user-replaceable battery – Engadget
MacBook Air battery replacements: $129, free install! – Engadget
$129 for a battery isn’t bad, but you have to send it in for a replacement.
In real life, people, at least the serious road warriors, have multiple batteries that they swap when one gets low.
Morons.