Mischievous Ramblings II

SCOTUS on GPS trackers used by law enforcement

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

via www.msnbc.msn.com

What the Supreme Court Really Said About GPS Trackers

via WSJ Law Blog

 

IANAL, but I like the idea that SCOTUS seems to have decided that GPS trackers are not business as usual, that they are "a trespass", and they seem to require a warrant.

Good news.

Daily Kos: WA-01 Do you want a solid Progressive or a self financed millionaire New Dem?

What else has she done since 2008.  Well, after her loss Darcy went to DC and worked for 3 years as the Executive Director of ProgressiveCongress.org where she set about helping to build the progressive infrastructure we Kossacks like to complain we don't have.  She joined the boards of several progressive organizations like Netroots Nation Foundation, ActBlue, Progressive Ideas Network and NARAL.  

via www.dailykos.com

Let's be clear.  Either of these ladies would be better than a lot of other choices.  But there's no reason for us to settle.  Settling gets us Blue Dogs who fight for things we don't believe in.  We should be backing the best electable candidate who matches our values.

And that's Darcy.  No question.

Send a geek to Congress!

GNB: A New Emancipation Proclamation

A New Emancipation Proclamation

McCain Speaks Out of Both Sides of His Mouth

Photograph: John McCain 2008 Campaign Website
Photoillustration: Evan Robinson, Mischievous Ramblings II

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16605.html

Art and Politics Intersecting or, Ur-Quan akbar!

From gridskipper.com:

In a gallery of anti-American/anti-Israeli murals decorating the "U.S. Den of Espionage" in Tehran (i.e. the former American embassy), I noted the clawed hand crushing the Earth appeared similar to the cover art from a sci-fi novel by Scientologist overlord L. Ron Hubbard. But an astute reader points out that the weird, bifurcated fingernail/claws actually point to the cover art for classic 1990 video game Star Control as the mural's real inspiration. Ur-Quan akbar!

US Medical System Worst In 19 Industrialized Nations

Reuters reports on a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, authored by Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee, published in Health Affairs, a peer reviewed journal:

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

Greenwald on Drezner

From Glenn Greenwald, "The rigid pro-war ideology of the foreign policy community":

The most significant "off limits" topic is whether the U.S. has the right to run around using military force against other countries whenever we perceive that our vaguely defined "national interests" are served by doing so. In defending the Community, Drezner specifically identifies that belief as the common, defining principle to which all members subscribe. In a different way, Farley argued the same thing:

First things first, I don't think that Greenwald is quite right about the "foreign policy community," because I suspect that members of the community don't think about such questions in the way that Glenn frames them. As Drezner hints at, experts and scholars in this area don't really think in terms of the "right to intervene", or whether US policy is "inherently good". They sometimes think about the greater good, but they more often think about US interests.

This is true. There are no debates in the Community about whether the U.S. has the right to start wars even when our national security is not threatened. And to Drezner, anyone who rejects that notion -- anyone who, for instance, believes that the U.S. should not start wars unless necessary for our self-defense -- can be dismissed as a "pacifist."

But the notion that the U.S. should not attack another country unless that country has attacked or directly threatens our national security is not really extraordinary. Quite the contrary, that is how virtually every country in the world conducts itself, and it is a founding principle of our country. Starting wars against countries that have not attacked you, and especially against those who cannot attack you, is abnormal. Drezner refers to my "very strange definition of imperialism," but the belief that military force can be used whenever we decide that our vaguely defined "national interests" would be served by such a war is the hallmark of an imperial power.

Franklin Roosevelt, Democratic National Convention, 1936

From FDR's speech accepting the nomination in 1936:

...

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

The brave and clear platform adopted by this convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

...

We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.

Faith - in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.

Hope - renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.

Charity - in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves.

...

We are poor indeed if this nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.

In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity.

...

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Not Domestic Terrorism

Bridges collapse -- it's a fact of life.

But when they collapse due to systematic neglect, that's something worse than "shit happens."

It's not domestic terrorism, because there was no intent. But it's close.

Small government partisans must take some responsibility for this disaster, and all the others that happen because they have successfully neutered government's ability to spend money on infrastructure.

Drown it in the bathtub, indeed.  Except that the bathtub turns out to be the Mississippi river, and the victim turns out to be innocent commuters, not some evil gub'mint.

 

Hilarious but Apropos

From Whiskey Fire:

If your "underlying beliefs or theories" made you stick your dick in the blender, even "reluctantly," and you haven't thoroughly reassessed these concepts, I frankly don't want to hear your advice about what to do with the weed whacker.