Just a Thought

If Obama ran a very successful advertising campaign, can he be sued for false advertising when he fails to deliver on his campaign promises?

Just a thought.

Sprint served 8 million customer GPS coordinate requests to law enforcement in one year

Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers' (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers.

If you build it, they will come... and infringe on your privacy.

Obama escalates war in Afghanistan giving strikingly similar reasons as Bush's escalation in Iraq

It is almost as if Obama and his advisors are guilty of plagiarism, or at the very least unoriginality. They're contributing nothing to the intellectual reasons for advocating war. See Glenn Greenwald's take on the subject.

Obama says Tibet is part of China

Now I have never been a huge Free Tibet advocate, but many progressive Obama supporters are, and this comes as the latest in a long string of middle fingers from Obama to his liberal base. Turley notes that Obama, in a break from past presidents, has affirmed Tibet as being part of China. Never let anyone tell you that Obama hasn't worked for change... for the worse.

Obama supports limiting of free speech to bar criticism of religion

Alright, the continuation of Bush-era surveillance and rendition policies was rather expected, but this is straight out of left field. Obama has joined with other UN members pushing a resolution to restrict free speech in the case of blasphemy. Obama is looking more like a hard-core right-wing fundamentalist by the day.

Obama releases white house logs, kind of

Obama will release logs of white house visitors from here on out. He will not release logs from anytime before now (which, of course, were the logs that everyone wanted to see who was influencing his policies in his first days in office). He also has provisions for not releasing the logs in the case in which it will harm national security, etc. Let's hope he doesn't abuse those provisions, but frankly I'm not too hopeful.

Obama tries, fails to keep recipients of stimulus money secret

Yet another strange interpretation of "transparency."

Tom Ridge raised terror level for political purposes

Here's a shocker. Former Homeland Security Head Tom Ridge has said he was pressured to raise the terror alert during certain times when unfavorable news was coming out about the Bush administration. Olbermann has a good video correlating the bad news for Bush and the terror alert notices.

Two questions: 1) why is it that this kind of news often comes out when the leaker has a book to sell? 2) why is it that the terror level lowering never makes the news?

Blackwater collaborated with CIA in assassination operation

Jeremy Scahill provies some coverage in the Nation. Blackwater has a much closer relationship with certain parts of the government than many, including myself, would find appropriate. Also see Bill Moyer's interview with Scahill on his book about Blackwater.

Iraqi security forces collaborate in systematic torture, execution and kidnapping of Iraqi gays

Sad, but true.

Flickr and Obama's strange relationship

Flickr has been doing a lot of political censorship lately, the most recent taking down a mocking picture of Obama depicting him as the Joker. This is in addition to other pro-Obama censorship, including deleting the photos of a user that left critical comments on the official White House photo page. Now, this wouldn't have anything to do with Flickr signing an agreement with the Obama White House to carry their propaganda, would it?

Update: More on copyright, Flickr and the White House

Afghanistan censors its election coverage -- sort of

The Afghan government said that it expected media outlets to avoid “broadcasting any incidence of violence” between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on election day “to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people.” The Afghan government wouldn't have done this, of course, if there had been no election violence. Way to bring unbridled democracy to a country -- marred elections AND quasi-censorship of the press.

Obama continues rendition and torture

Obama has selected a strange candidate for his first rendition-and-torture target. Not a "terrorist," not an enemy combatant but... some mid-level employee that allegedly committed contract fraud? Just because it's unusual doesn't make this treatment any more acceptable. Especially appalling is how Obama renounced these tactics in his election campaign. Wait... this sounds familiar...

China's "HOWTO abuse people" document revealed

The tactics of the “urban management officers” are now in print, as a Chinese newspaper has published a government document about how to rough up dissenters. Something tells me a few editors are going to get a little visit from the government soon, but let's hope not.

China shuts down leading Chinese civil rights organization

No one mistakes the Chinese government as a friend of human rights, so it is unfortunate, though not entirely surprising, that it has shut down the Open Constitution Initiative.

Ireland Criminalizes Blasphemy

It almost sounds too stupid to be true, but we're talking about politicians here. But it is true -- by repealing the 1961 Defamation Act, Ireland has criminalized blasphemy. Prepare to be raided if you are publishing any "blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter."

Did Bush administration cover up a massacre?

It seems quite likely. How much longer can we pretend that we're the 'good guys' in Afghanistan?

Bush officials repeatedly discouraged efforts by the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups to investigate the massacre and said that it would undermine our war effort.

The report appears to show how readily Bush officials not only committed war crimes in the commission of torture but embraced war criminals as allies.

Bush administration implemented additional surveillance programs

It has come to light that George W. Bush authorized surveillance that went beyond what the NSA has been known to be doing for a few years now. Furthermore, there is an even more secret program that the CIA refuses to tell us (or apparently, even congress) about. Not surprisingly, it was Dick Cheney himself who ordered this program's concealment from our representatives. Darth Vader strikes again.

Obama administration doesn't actually want to release you if you are deemed innocent by a court of law

Obama's administration has asserted his right to "presidential post-acquittal detention power." What might that mean, you ask? That only means that Obama gets to dictate whether a person deemed innocent in a court of law is released or not. That is, Obama can detain people indefinitely contrary to the orders of a court. Just when you think it can't get any worse...

Obama administration doesn't actually support gay rights

The Obama DOJ has been defending the awful DOMA piece of legislation, a law that blocks same-sex couples from a variety of equalities such as filing joint taxes and securing Social Security spousal benefits. Personally, I'm getting really tired of the "we can't overturn this law, because it would be too much work to overturn all the other injustice going on in the world" defense.

Obama blocks release of White House visitor logs

Contrary to his promises to make his administration an administration of transparency, Obama has blocked the release of the White House visitor logs. Apparently he doesn't think it is the public's business what lobbyists are visiting him to insidiously sway policy in their favor. Perhaps Obama needs a reminder that he is accountable to the people of America, not the other way around.

Blimps to monitor sports crowds using military technology

Apparently Raytheon is adapting military-style technology to use in blimps at sporting events to monitor the crowd. Not sure what they're trying to prevent here, other than passing up an opportunity to profit off the unending corruption of fearmongering politicians.

Yahoo censors Obama critic

Apparently Yahoo feels compelled to retaliate against those who dare to criticize politicians on its services by deleting all of their data. Rather unfortunate. I'm certainly not creating a flickr account anytime soon.

UK children taught to spot terrorists

"If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security." via Schneier

Graham-Lieberman secrecy law (with Obama support)

Transparency is so inconvenient for today's powerful politicians who profess to be 'protecting America' that they will go to almost any end to circumvent it. Case in point: the new bill by Lieberman (with, notably, the support of Barack "Hope" Obama) that allows the white house to suppress any torture photographs taken after September 11th.

Homeland Security to Start Collecting Fingerprints at Airports

Under the guise of combating illegal immigration, the government is planning to implement yet another privacy-infringing policy and expand the surveillance state by scanning the fingerprints of non-US citizens as they exit the country. The pilot program begins in Atlanta soon.

Looks like Obama didn't end torture after all...

So says Jeremy Scahil. Apparently, a group called the Immediate Reaction Force still roams the halls of Guantanamo Bay, brutally torturing and punishing prisoners for the most trivial of reasons. Nice.

While we're on the subject, here's a nice, succinct list of the 13 people who made torture possible. Thanks, guys!

In Wisconsin, you can be GPS tracked without a warrant

A court has ruled that police do not have to require a warrant before fixing a GPS tracking device to one's car. Yet another thing the police can do to you that you have no recourse against (but only in Wisconsin). Thankfully, contrary (and therefore sensible) decisions are being made in other states.

Via Schneier

No More Obama Posts... For Now

Keeping track of all of Obama's ridiculous policies, campaign policy betrayals and Bush-like decisions is just getting too much to handle.

Just in the past week:
- Obama plans to bring back military commissions system
- Obama plans infinite detention for prisoners on US soil without trial
- Obama does a 180, refuses to release more torture photots
- Obama makes absurd claims about healthcare that even healthcare executives refute

For the time being, I will defer to the following blogs about this subject:
http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
http://jonathanturley.org/

US Flight Policies Make No Sense

In an effort to seemingly terrorize the populace by evoking memories of 9/11 (that have been kept so persistently in the forefront of our collective consciousness by those in power) the White House approved a low flyover of a 747 over Manhattan. The official explanation is that it was a 'photo-op.'

In other flight-related news, a flight to the US was diverted because it contained someone on the no-fly list, an author that had been critical of US foreign policy in Latin America. Way to treat guests nicely.

Pentagon's 'Privilege Review Team' Off Its Rocker

This post by Glenn Greenwald has to be read to be believed. A defense attorney for Binyam Mohamed, a man tortured by the US, has written a letter to president Obama about the torture that his client has received at the hands of the US. In response, the Prentagon's 'Privilege Review Team' has initiated a summons against him to explain himself in court. All this for complying with policies that the Pentagon itself set up. Amazing.

Obama administration expands secrecy claims beyond Bush levels

When we signed up for 'change,' we thought it would be a change back to pre-Bush policies, not exacerbating Bush's insane agenda! Unfortunately, we were wrong. The Obama Department of Justice is now making new and novel arguments to expand the secrecy and immunity of the government. They even coined a new, Orwellian phrase: "sovereign immunity." Keep up the good work, guys!

Update: Turley on video from Countdown

Obama administration doesn't actually think bailout fund accountability is a good idea

Obama and co. are engineering bailouts to the banks such that they can circumvent the limits that Congress puts on executive pay viz. these actions. From Dissenting Justice:

Perhaps Obama believes that "if" doling out trillions to the banks gets the economy (artificially) working again that people will forget that he is doing something that goes against his promises concerning transparency, accountability, and, ahem, change.

Obama administration tries to block release of torture memos

In another bout of political CYA, current senior national security aide John Brennan, who played a prominent role in the past administration's intelligence efforts, is trying to block publication of torture memos that will likely implicate many in the current and former administrations. As Turley notes, the only person that can break this blockade is Obama, who will now have to personally order the documents to be released.

Time to show what you're made of, Barack. The right thing to do is release these memos, even if (and especially if) it will trigger a war crimes investigation that brings nearly the whole government under scrutiny.

Update: More on Greenwald

UK has list of potential terrorist schoolchildren, as reported by teachers

The first commenter on this article on boingboing says it best: WTF?

Obama doesn't actually think listening to citizens' suggestions is a good idea

So much for new thinking and new ideas. From Politico:

In this moment of national economic crisis, the top four questions under the heading of “Financial security” concerned marijuana; on the budget, people voted up questions about marijuana to positions 1-4; marijuana was in the first and third positions under “jobs”; people boosted a plug for legalizing marijuana to No. 2 under “health care reform.” And questions about decriminalizing pot occupied spots 1 and 2 under “green jobs and energy.”

After taking questions lower on the list, Obama addressed the pot issue head-on, noting the huge number of questions about marijuana legalization and remarking with a chuckle, “I don't know what that says about the online audience."

"The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he said, as the audience in the room applauded and joined him in a laugh.

I guess we're not going to see any drug / prison policy changes until 2016 (or later).

Obama administration doesn't actually want to take away AIG bonuses

Only now, after the anger over the AIG bonuses has reached a boil, has Obama indicated that the bailout money allocated to AIG executives' bonuses should be retracted. Funny, since it was his administration that, as Glenn Greenwald expertly points out, moved to include those bonus-saving provisions in the bailout legislation in the first place! To add insult to injury, the administration, with the help of others, is trying to pin blame on Sen. Chris Dodd, who initially OPPOSED those same provisions in the law. Score another 'say one thing and do another' point for Obama.

Obama administration doesn't actually think using state secrets privilege to hide torture practices is a bad idea

Pop quiz: if a president's justice department were to invoke the state secrets privilege from letting evidence be admitted into a case about torturing of potential terrorist suspects that the US government detained (and shipped off to other countries to be tortured, etc. etc.), which president would you associate that with?

a) Bush
b) Obama
c) All of the above

The correct answer is C
Looks like all that talk of transparency was all for naught. Will the American people ever really find out what horrors the government has been perpetrating for the past decade? Not while Obama is in office, it seems.

Obama administration doesn't actually believe infinite detention of enemy combatants is a bad idea

In a great post with a great title, Change = Same, Darren Lenard Hutchinson expertly shows that the change in detention policies viz. terrorism between the Bush and Obama administrations is a distinction without a difference. Sad, really, to see that a president that positioned himself as the anti-Bush to reveal himself as the second coming of Bush.

Obama administration doesn't actually think the omnipresent, everlasting war on terror is a bad idea

In fact, they quite support it. For the sad truth, one only needs to read Turley's post Top Obama Aides Embrace Bush's War on Terror Rhetoric and Enemy Combatant Policy. Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General nominee, believes that we are both 1) at war and 2) the whole world is part of our 'battlefield.' Disgusting (and, as we might note, quite antithetical to any kind of 'change').

Obama administration doesn't actually like restraints on presidential power

From Turley:

Literally days after proclaiming that change had come to “signing statements” with a new policy, President Obama has issued a very Bush-like signing statement with his signing of the appropriations bill. The signing statement reserves the right to treat literally dozens of provisions as presumptively unconstitutional.
...
That particular provision is troubling to me as a constitutional matter. The Framers expressly gave Congress the power of the purse as a check and balance on executive authority. The use of appropriations to restrict “foreign entanglements” and “adventures” was well-accepted. This has a true Bush-like quality as a signing statement.

Looks like not much has changed from the past administration to this one...

Obama administration doesn't actually like transparency

In a 180 from his professed love of transparency (as embodied in his executive order), Obama is now claiming 'national security' reasons for rejecting a FOIA request to release details about a new secret, international copyright treaty. Looks like this administration's love of secrecy is not so different from the past's. And reading the list of people who are allowed to view this treaty reads like a who's who of Big Media and their lobbyists.

Any and All Disruptive In-Flight Behavior Now "Terrorism"

America is now reaping what the Patriot Act hath sown: much behavior that flight attendants consider disruptive, whether it be a loud argument, throwing food, or spanking a child, is now considered 'terrorism' under the law. This is what happens when you let power-hungry neocons paint the law with overly broad strokes: some guy gets thrown in with all the other Al-Qaeda suspects because he had one too many martinis on a plane.

LA Times
Bruce Schneier

FBI Looking for Terrorists contributes to pervasive Financial Fraud

Turns out that all of these Ponzi schemes and otherwise financial fraud might not be as prevalent if the FBI allocated as many resources as in the past to stopping these crimes. Unfortunately, the Bush administration's emphasis on terrorism put more FBI officers chasing bad guys that may or may not exist and less on things that are now putting people on the streets. Another endearing chapter in the Bush administration legacy.

File a FIOA request, get some of DHS's profile of you

A Newsweek reporter filed a FOIA request to obtain what the government, DHS specifically, was tracking about him (as any citizen is entitled to do). Here is the report and discussion on Slashdot. Nothing really surprising, but it is worth noting.

US Using Viagra in Afghanistan to win over Warlords

The CIA and US military are using Viagra as a bribe to win over Afghani warlords. This is sick for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that taxpayer money is being used to perpetuate traditional Afghani cultures of polygamy, forced marriage and child rape. Awesome. Also see another Turley post on the subject of the plight of Afghani women.