May
Here’s a petition that every New Yorker needs to sign. New York Assembly member Vito Lopez was forced to resign after a state report made public his revoting, predatory sexual behavior towards his staff. Except now he’s running for New York City Council.
What New York’s leaders are saying:
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn:
Vito Lopez running for City Council is one of the most offensive things I have ever seen happen in New York City politics. I am disgusted by his behavior, and I am going to work incredibly hard to make sure he never steps foot in City Hall.And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:
Vito Lopez should not spend another day in officeAnd the New York Times Editorial Board:
After doing years of damage to young women who worked for him, Mr. Lopez should not be managing any office, and certainly not at taxpayers’ expense.
May
Hammockin’ in Corinth, NY
May
Eric Garris, founder of Antiwar.com, which is suing the FBI after a memo revealed that the agency was spying on the website’s staff to determine if they posed a national security threat.
The ACLU is filing a request with the FBI surrounding the same controversy after its repeated FOIA submissions have returned empty.
(via hipsterlibertarian)May
Notice
I will be departing for Australia shortly and my Tumblr activity will be fairly limited for the next couple weeks. But I shall return with a vengeance in June.
America, please try not to start a war or anything while I’m gone. Thx.
May
May
Why I'm Voting for Her | The Nation
Next time around…I’m voting for a woman. Not because I believe that the female Democratic candidate (and I think we all have a good idea who that will be) is guaranteed to be the most feminist, but because I’m just too fed up to do anything else. I’ve made a full transition from youthful idealism to jaded orneriness, and my vote will be just as angry as I am.
It would undoubtedly be a cause for celebration to elect the first female President, just as it was thrilling to vote for the first African American President. But if a voter is feeling disenchanted with Obama (and how can they not be?), it’s hard to imagine Clinton improving matters in any significant way. Historically, she’s been more inclined to discard civil liberties and wage unnecessary wars. The likelihood of Clinton implementing sweeping reform, restoring the rule of law, rolling back the war on terror, etc., is virtually nil. By all means, let’s get a woman in the White House, but let’s not do it at the expense of the entire country (or, indeed, at the expense of the inevitable foreign victims of Clinton’s hawkish inclinations).
May
When a staffer told Mr. Lopez that she was a victim of a sexual assault in college and that his behavior was particularly upsetting to her, Mr. Lopez brought her head towards him, kissed her forehead and asked if she “felt guilty” about the attack. Lopez then asked her to massage his hand. As she massaged his hand, she began to cry and Mr. Lopez told her, “I like that you’re holding my hand.” She cried harder and Mr. Lopez eventually told her to stop massaging his hand. After the hand massage ended, Mr. Lopez said the staffer would have to “cuddle” with him in his Albany apartment. When the staffer resisted, Mr. Lopez threatened to terminate her, telling her that this would be her last trip to Albany.
At a Long Island restaurant, Mr. Lopez told the same staffer who had massaged his hand to do it again. This time, Mr. Lopez placed his hands on the staffer’s legs which she kept tightly crossed. Mr. Lopez pried her legs open and forced his hand between her legs and high up her inner thigh–in the words of the staffer: “all the way up.”
May
May
The Wisdom of a Founding Father
- Alexander Hamilton’s son dies in a duel that takes place in Weehawken, New Jersey in 1802.
- Alexander Hamilton responds by helping to pass a law that makes dueling illegal in New York.
- Alexander Hamilton dies in a duel that takes place in Weekhawken, New Jersey in 1804.
Genius.
May
The party scenes in Gatsby were exhilarating. I went into the theater anticipating that I’d hate the movie but I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
I also thought the contemporary soundtrack was a good choice as it’s difficult to convey how fun and crazy jazz music was to an audience filled with teenagers who listen to Skrillex.
Very strange to see an Indian actor portraying a Jewish gangster but I suppose they wanted to avoid Fitzgerald’s anti-Semitism.
May
Glenn Greenwald debates Bill Maher on U.S. Intervention in Muslim Countries
Finally someone has obliterated Bill Maher’s smug sense of superiority. Bravo.
May
4259 days after Sept. 11, One World Trade Center now stands at full height of 1776 feet.
May
May
DOJ: Yeah, we don’t need warrants to read your personal email
Sometimes I wonder if our federal officials have ever even heard of the Constitution. According to documents recently obtained by the ACLU, prosecutors at the Justice Department have argued that they do not need a warrant to search through any personal email or social media, public or private.
From CNET:
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don’t need a search warrant to review Americans’ e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.
Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they’re not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail. The IRS, on the other hand, publicly said last month that it would abandon a controversial policy that claimed it could get warrantless access to e-mail correspondence.
The U.S. attorney for Manhattan circulated internal instructions, for instance, saying a subpoena — a piece of paper signed by a prosecutor, not a judge — is sufficient to obtain nearly “all records from an ISP.” And the U.S. attorney in Houston recently obtained the “contents of stored communications” from an unnamed Internet service provider without securing a warrant signed by a judge first.
“We really can’t have this patchwork system anymore, where agencies get to decide on an ad hoc basis how privacy-protective they’re going to be,” says Nathan Wessler, an ACLU staff attorney specializing in privacy topics who obtained the documents through open government laws. “Courts and Congress need to step in.”
Like the rest of the bill of rights, the 4th amendment is as clear as a bell. Let’s review it:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
In other words, the government cannot simply rummage through or obtain your personal property (digital or tangible) in any way without a warrant. It’s really quite simple. Doesn’t it seem like Eric Holder would know this?
May
Re: my last post.
