[Quote:]

In February, there were several press reports about the Bush administration exercising message control on the subject of climate change. The New Republic cited numerous instances in which top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists at the National Hurricane Center sought to downplay links between more-intense hurricanes and global warming. NOAA scientist Thomas Knutson told the Wall Street Journal he’d been barred from speaking to CNBC because his research suggested just such a link.

At the time, Bush administration officials denied that they did any micromanaging of media requests for interviews. But a large batch of e-mails obtained by Salon through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the White House was, in fact, controlling access to scientists and vetting reporters.

Lies from the White House. Surely this…. naah, they’ll get away with it, again…

[Quote:]

Job Title: Chief Librarian
Organization: Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions
Location: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
Description: Are you interested in putting your library science education and experience to work in one of today’s most challenging, interesting and rewarding environments? Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is recruiting for a Chief Librarian to manage the Detainee Library, under the direction of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In managing the Detainee Library, the Chief Librarian is responsible for providing, maintaining and developing library services and operations using reading, recreational games and puzzles, music, or electronic media. The Chief Librarian is responsible for selecting and maintaining a range of reading and recreational materials to reflect the needs of the patrons in terms of languages and appropriate/approved topics.

“Son, we live in a world that has shelves, and those shelves have to be stocked by men with MLSs. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Torresco, and you curse the librarians. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Tuesdays with Morrie’s miss-filing, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me at those shelves, you need me at those shelves. We use words like Dewey, authority control, collection development. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent cataloging something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very information that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a copy of AARC2, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”

This is probably the best possible outcome, he won’t become a martyr this way…

[Quote:]

Saudi intelligence services have determined that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in August, the French regional daily L’Est Republicain reported on its website on Saturday.

The newspaper said it based its information on a document classified ‘defence secret’ originating in the French DGSE intelligence services. According to the story, the DGSE informed President Jacques Chirac of the Saudi report on Thursday.

[Quote:]

A U.S. House of Representatives Committee has approved a controversial bill that would broaden the U.S. government’s ability to conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. residents by making it easier for federal law enforcement officials to get court-issued warrants.

The Electronic Modernization Surveillance Act, opposed by several privacy groups, would also allow federal law enforcement officials to spy on U.S. residents for up to 90 days without a court order in the period after a terrorist attack. The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation Wednesday by a 20-16 vote, with all committee Democrats present voting against the bill.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, would reduce the amount of information required from federal agents applying for a wiretapping warrant from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The bill would clarify that the U.S. government can seek wiretaps on any type of electronic communication, not just telephone- or radio-spectrum-based communication.

If they define “terrorist attack” as anything that is prosecuted under the patriot act, they can take that plastic squirt gun incident earlier this week, expand on it a bit, and use that as a excuse to spy on everybody without telling. I wonder if the Republicans who voted for it would trust a President Hillary with this kind of power.

Do you feel safer yet?

“I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”

–Osama bin Laden, October 21, 2001 [cnn.com]

[Quote:]

Here in the relatively early stages of the computer era, these vastly more complex machines still lock up and shut down. Yet we’re so enraptured by computers’ power that we want them to do everything — even handle the sacred core of our democracy, voting.

But the machines aren’t yet reliable, at least not 100 percent. Maryland voters learned this firsthand in last week’s primary, and now the state has less than seven weeks to gin up a credible, smooth general election.

The obvious solution, as Gov. Bob Ehrlich said yesterday, is to put the machines in the closet (actually, returning them to the store is an even better idea; does anybody in Annapolis still have that receipt for $106 million?) and go back to paper ballots. The governor bemoaned flaws in the Diebold electronic poll books that Maryland used for the first time last week to check in voters: “Technology is a wonderful thing, but clearly, given their apparent inability to function appropriately — when in doubt, go paper, go lower technology.”

But going back to technology that works means giving up on cutting-edge modernity, admitting error and angering a giant corporation that has been pushing states across the country to go electronic. This will not be easy. Ehrlich said he may even call a special session of the legislature to rework the law requiring Maryland to use electronics rather than paper.

I asked the state’s elections administrator, Linda Lamone, whether Maryland wasn’t just a bit too quick to adopt electronic voting. Doesn’t the computer at your desk ever freeze up on you?

“No,” she replied.

Never?

“No.”

But surely people in your office have had that experience?

“No.”

(Maybe we’ve found the solution to Maryland’s voting problem: Everybody head on down to Linda Lamone’s office, where the machines work 100 percent of the time.)