Unfortunately, I often only have a short time in the early morning each day to post stories on this blog. Given the pressures of classes, litigation, and traveling, I will often miss typos or automatically “corrected” words that are errors. I apologize for those errors, but we have no staff or copy editors on this blog. We welcome any suggested corrections. Thanks again for your help and your understanding.
Carrying on in Nal’s spirit. There is a typo on the date in the second sentence of the announcement as December 14. His last posting was on Dec. 15. The official date of death is December 18, according to his obit in the Austin Statesman.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?pid=168721165
Thanks OS. We have been getting information in waves and it has been changing, particularly on the likely date that David passed away. Indeed, it would not be right if a posting by me did not have some mistake!
“Obama’s Path From Critic to Overseer of Spying”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/us/obamas-path-from-critic-to-defender-of-spying.html?_r=1
“WASHINGTON — As a young lawmaker defining himself as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama visited a center for scholars in August 2007 to give a speech on terrorism. He described a surveillance state run amok and vowed to rein it in. “That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens,” he declared. “No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime.”
More than six years later, the onetime constitutional lawyer is now the commander in chief presiding over a surveillance state that some of his own advisers think has once again gotten out of control. On Friday, he will give another speech, this time at the Justice Department defending government spying even as he adjusts it to address a wave of public concern over civil liberties.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-usa-court-netneutrality-idUSBREA0D11420140114?feedType=RSS
U.S. appeals court strikes down FCC net neutrality rules
By Alina Selyukh and David Ingram
WASHINGTON Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:42pm EST
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/so-the-internets-about-to-lose-its-net-neutrality/
Once upon a time, companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others declared a war on the internet’s foundational principle: that its networks should be “neutral” and users don’t need anyone’s permission to invent, create, communicate, broadcast, or share online. The neutral and level playing field provided by permissionless innovation has empowered all of us with the freedom to express ourselves and innovate online without having to seek the permission of a remote telecom executive.
But today, that freedom won’t survive much longer if a federal court — the second most powerful court in the nation behind the Supreme Court, the DC Circuit — is set to strike down the nation’s net neutrality law, a rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010. Some will claim the new solution “splits the baby” in a way that somehow doesn’t kill net neutrality and so we should be grateful. But make no mistake: Despite eight years of public and political activism by multitudes fighting for freedom on the internet, a court decision may soon take it away.
Jill “lost” a couple of comments that may have been snagged by WP. Would anyone have the time to check. They were posted to the most recent NSA thread.
The cosmic “hand of God” photo released by NSA
should b
….released by NASA
What a difference the omission of one letter makes.
In The “University of Chicago Professor Accuses Colorado Law Professor Of Threatening Him With Embarrassing Disclosures in Leong Controversy” post there is a typo.
“a person posting user the name Dybbuk” should be “a person posting using the name Dybbuk
Civility Rule typo: “For that reason, you help is not just welcomed but absolutely necessary in maintaining the character and tenor of this blog.”
Should read, “For that reason, YOUR help is…”
In July:
“The offices of a Dallas law firm representing a high-profile State Department whistleblower were broken into last weekend.”
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/07/cameras_catch_mystery_break_in_at_whistleblowers_law_firm#sthash.ZlEE1uiw.dpbs
Reported yesterday:
“State Dept. whistleblower has email hacked, deleted”
http://nypost.com/2013/12/30/state-dept-whistleblower-has-email-hacked-deleted/
It has been taken care of, Personanongrata, but it may take a bit for the Recent Comments widget to update.
Oooops, A little help please in my early afternoon senility I mistakenly posted my email address in place of my name in the comments section of:
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/12/27/obama-task-force-member-snowden-is-a-criminal/#comment-731635
Any help removing my email addy and adding my nome de gurre (Personanongrata) in it’s place would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
In The Morning After post:-
“It the morning after” should be “It’s the morning after”
“Our dog Luna’s first rump” should be “Our dog Luna’s first romp“
“Wash A Car In Your Driveway? You Might Get A Ticket
Would-be car washer receives visit from Garden City, N.Y. cops”
By: Pete Bigelow, Dec 17, 2013
http://autos.aol.com/article/car-wash-public-driveway-private-new-york/
“Two men are about to wash their car in their driveway. Quick, somebody call the police.
That’s what happened last month in Garden City, N.Y. A neighbor called the police because two men were about to wash a recently purchased Volkswagen Golf in their driveway.
On the video above, you’ll see the officer who arrives at the house tells the men it is against a village ordinance to wash cars and furniture in public places. The men tell the officer the obvious: they are at a private residence, not in a public place.
The officer responds, “It’s still in public view.”
Officials in Garden City Police Department and Village of Garden City did not return phone calls Tuesday morning, and it’s unclear whether the men in the video ultimately receive a violation.
At the beginning of the video, the responding officer perhaps gets to the crux of the problem with the two men. When they ask if there’s a problem when the officer arrives, he responds, “the problem being, your neighbor doesn’t like you.””
From the comments in the above video.
There is always two sides to every story but this is still troublesome to read.
http://petabusewarnings.blogspot.com/p/hagar-eldad-audrey-in-az-or-ca-of-hope.html
In the penultimate full paragraph of
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/12/05/missouri-lawyer-accuses-police-of-threatening-to-kill-his-family-pets-and-kick-in-front-door-if-he-insisted-on-a-warrant/
I believe the phrase “even more egregious is that we have been a disturbing trend” would make much more sense if “been” was meant to read “seen”.
Keep up the great work! I love your observations.
Correction to Pearl Harbor story from 7 DEC 2013 — the airfield’s name is correctly spelled “Hickam,” not “Hickham.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Base_Pearl_Harbor-Hickam
Snowden document shows Canada set up spy posts for NSA
CSEC conducted espionage activities for U.S. in 20 countries, according to top-secret briefing note
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/snowden-document-shows-canada-set-up-spy-posts-for-nsa-1.2456886
Another item that might be of interest…:
http://www.matthewaid.com/post/69315994686/heard-through-the-grapevine
Heard Through the Grapevine
December 7, 2013
This from the “heard through the grapevine” department. The bete noire of the National Security Agency, Jim Bamford, is down in Rio de Janiero working with Glenn Greenwald on yet another expose about the agency. No idea what the two men are cooking up, but whatever it is I am sure it will not make the lads and lasses at Fort Meade happy.
15 hours ago
http://www.matthewaid.com/about
Professor and guest bloggers, this Alternet article is on an issue that might be of interest to the Turley Blog.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/landmark-case-goes-trial-over-massive-us-terrorism-no-fly-database?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark