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Remember back in December, the EU, Canada and Japan suddenly agreed not to side with Antigua in the longstanding dispute over the US’s online gambling ban violating free trade agreements? It was pretty clear that the US had cut some sort of deal with these countries (who had previously indicated they would side with Antigua). In order to understand what happened, a freelance writer named Ed Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the actual agreement between the countries. And, as The Agitator points out, the US Trade Representative has denied the request, claiming that the agreement is classified, as it’s a matter of national security. Yes. The US gov’t is actually claiming that an agreement over online gambling between two countries is a matter of national security. Perhaps this really shouldn’t be such a huge surprise. Remember, the law that was past to ban online gambling was hidden as part of a law to protect our ports. Clearly, the EU, Canada and Japan had to side with the US against Antigua to protect our ports.

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Georgetown Law Professor David Cole wrote, “Few lawyers have had more influence on President Bush’s legal policies in the ‘war on terror’ than John Yoo.”

This part of the exchange during the debate with Doug Cassel, reveals the logic of Yoo’s theories, adopted by the Administration as bedrock principles, in the real world.

Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty.

Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo.
Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

The audio of this exchange is available online at revcom.us

Yoo argues presidential powers on Constitutional grounds, but where in the Constitution does it say the President can order the torture of children ? As David Cole puts it, “Yoo reasoned that because the Constitution makes the President the ‘Commander-in-Chief,’ no law can restrict the actions he may take in pursuit of war. On this reasoning, the President would be entitled by the Constitution to resort to genocide if he wished.”

[But not in all:]

Some votes were apparently lost, however, when about 20 folks at a Chicago precinct were given styluses designed for touch-screen machines instead of ink pens. When voters complained the devices made no marks on their paper ballots, a ballot judge told them the markers were full of invisible ink.

“After 20 people experienced the same problem, somebody said ‘Wait, we’ve got 20 ballots where nobody’s voted for anything,’” said Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen. Officials were trying to contact the voters; Allen said the both the voters and the judge believed the invisible ink theory.

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Don’t stop coding when nothing is broken; that’s only step one.

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Google mashup: Last year’s homicides in Baltimore. Depressed yet? Try looking at it in Black and White.

via

Also try “black male” vs “black female”…

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The Canon 1200/5.6L USM has been built on a special-order basis since 1993, and the ‘official word’ is there are “more than twelve, less than twenty” of them in existence. With a price tag equivalent to a pair of his-and-her sports coupes, they were produced at the rate of about 2-per-year and a delivery time of about 18 months. National Geographic magazine, Sports Illustrated, Canon Professional Services, and a few well-heeled enthusiasts are counted among the fortunate few who own these unique optics.