ThinkFast: March 8, 2006
New Jersey Assemblyman Peter Biondi (R) wants to ban anonymous online speech. Biondi has introduced a bill “that would require Internet forum operators to register their users’ real names and addresses or face liability for defamatory posts.” One problem: NJ’s Supreme Court has ruled banning anonymous online speech unconstitutional.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) “threatened to write legislation to limit funding for the [warrantless surveillance] program if he can’t get more information about it.†“If we cannot find some political solution to the disagreement with the executive branch, our ultimate power is the power of the purse,†Specter said.
$5.9 billion: The amount spent per month in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal notes, “War costs are rising despite Pentagon estimates of lower personnel costs.”
The Congressional Progressive Caucus will introduce a plan today, dubbed the Common Sense Budget Act, to divert $60 billion in defense spending to humanitarian assistance, social programs, energy conservation, homeland security and deficit reduction.
More than 9,000 truckers are given cards to handle cargo at the ports of New York and New Jersey, giving them access to all areas of the ports. But a new Homeland Security report found that more than half of the truckers had criminal records and nearly 500 had bogus driver’s licenses.
House to force vote on Dubai ports deal. “Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company’s acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.”
Renewal of the Patriot Act passed the House yesterday “making permanent most of the major provisions of the original 2001 law.” The compromise bill doesn’t go as far it should in protecting private records.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank observed from a gathering at the conservative Cato Institute yesterday that there exists “deep disillusionment among conservatives over Bush’s big-spending answer to Medicare and Hurricane Katrina, his vast claims of executive power, and his handling of postwar Iraq.â€
Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow testified yesterday that he concocted a massive fraud in face-to-face meetings with the company’s chief executive, who both sanctioned the deals and asked him to “get me as much juice as you can.”
And finally: Pope Benedict XVI “is very pleased with the iPod. The Holy Father likes to unwind listening to it and is of the opinion that this sort of technology is the future.â€
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section. (And feel free to do it anonymously.)
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What I would pay to see the Pontiff’s IPod playlist…I bet he’s got some Rage Against The Machine and Nelly on it…
March 8th, 2006 at 9:07 amHey Peter Biondi … no need here… My name is Gerald Gibson Jr. You are your thought police should get off your asses and go find a book about Ben Franklins writings to educate yourselfs on America. Until then you have no right telling anybody on the Internet they must do anything.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:16 amThese are not Politicians
they are Corporate Subversives
Mediators of Robber Barons
Acting as Public Officials
America for Sale
March 8th, 2006 at 9:16 amSee any Politician
or Party member
for Details
These people are INSANE.
R2K
March 8th, 2006 at 9:21 amBut why would a Republ9ican worry about the law? He’s just following GW’s Lead…
March 8th, 2006 at 9:24 amGot A special Interest? Simply Buy a Senator or Ex congressman Lobbyist and Waa Laaa!! Democracy defeated by the Mighty Dollar and the Lowly Self-Serving Politicians and lobbyists.
Its mostly Lawyers. Go figger.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:24 amHAHHAHA
Start writing names in Binary.
IOIOIOIIIIOIOIOIOIOIOOOIIIIOIOIOOIIOIOIIIIOI
Biondi yer a Idiot. You cant even catch a Hacker much less an Anonymous user
March 8th, 2006 at 9:28 amThe Republicans are unhinged. They dislike speech that makes them look bad, i.e. the awful truth. You gotta roll with the punches. It is also a luke-warm version of hate speech. Don’t tell them that. They ain’t heard nothin’ yet. You’re not gonna win them all. The Republicans are gonna lose this one. Come November, the pre-arranged auction (the so-called ‘election’) is in for a big surprise.
I had it with them. Ron Paul should announce his resignation from the “Republican” Party. Complete nitwits, clueless and witless both. Be gone with them.
Whatever the US gov. has become, it ain’t what I wanna see.
Ban microscopes and telescopes too.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:33 amAnd on the 8th day, God grabbed his iPod shuffle and chilled out.
March 8th, 2006 at 9:37 amSpectger is just bloviating again. He has done nothing in this senate term that would indicate he is anything more than the consumate politician in the mode of the pukes.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, an oxymoron if there ever was one, is supposed to consist of 8 pukes and 8 dems, but you see, a bipartisan committee in the puke led senate under the shrub calls for 8 pukes and 6 dems.
What in the world are the pukes going to do when the shoe is on the other foot?
March 8th, 2006 at 9:45 amThe Federal Government failed to protect New Orleans from the design storm that the Corps of Engineers developed as the standard for that protection. If the levees had been built according to Federal Government standards, some parts of the city would likely have been protected from Katrina. And, they still haven’t learned - the levees are being repaired and rebuilt to the lower, outdated standards.
Corps ignored crucial levee data
March 8th, 2006 at 9:56 amNew Orleans Times-Picayune
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
http://www.nola.com/ news/ t-p/ frontpage/ index.ssf?/ base/ news-5/ 1141802754126640.xml
[…]
The heights of floodwalls and levees now being rebuilt by the corps are based on research for a likely worst-case storm done in 1959. When new weather service research in the 1970s increased the size and intensity of that storm and its projected surges, the corps stuck to its original design specifications when work began in the 1980s, including for structures that failed during Hurricane Katrina.
[…]
Had the changes been incorporated in corps planning starting in 1972, they almost certainly would have resulted in higher or stronger structures in some areas, hurricane researchers said. Though the project was authorized in 1965, financing problems and court battles delayed much of the construction until 1982, and the designs for many structures that failed during Katrina were not completed until the late 1980s and early ’90s.
[…]
Hassan Mashriqui, a storm surge modeler at LSU, said the increased intensity outlined in the 1979 report would have raised the predicted storm surge along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet from 22 feet to 30 feet. During Katrina much of St. Bernard Parish suffered catastrophic flooding when long sections of the 17.5-foot-high MR-GO levee were topped and collapsed by storm surges that the corps has measured at 18.5 feet.
The Industrial Canal, meanwhile, was topped and collapsed by a peak storm surge that the corps measured at 15.9 feet. That breach destroyed much of the Lower 9th Ward and contributed to flooding in parts of St. Bernard Parish.
[…]
Other GAO reports indicate the corps actually was lowering its levee heights even as the new science was raising the heights of expected storm surges.
In a 1976 report on the project, the GAO said the corps expected levees to range between 16 feet and 18.5 feet. But by the time the 1982 report was issued, those averages had been dropped to between 13.5 feet and 16.5 feet — even though by then, based on weather service reports, the possible storm surge for the standard project hurricane had been increased to more than 18 feet.
[…]
“In the beginning, ‘I’ created the heavens and the earth…”
March 8th, 2006 at 9:59 am“Oh sit down George, only 34% of the people will believe that..”
how could have left this out?
http://tinyurl.com/r3k7f
“G.O.P. Senators Say Accord Is Set on Wiretapping”
from the NYTimes
Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration’s domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:03 amRead this……….and weep. This is unacceptable
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ news/ releases/ 2006/ 03/ print/ 20060307-5.html
March 8th, 2006 at 10:04 amRead this……….and weep. This is unacceptable
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ news/ releases/ 2006/ 03/ print/ 20060307-5.html
March 8th, 2006 at 10:04 amArlen has a good idea, but it won’t work. Remember Regan managed to fund illegal operations for the Contras? Criminals will always find a way to do what they want, because they are sociopaths and have no sense of right and wrong.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:10 am# 14 needs its own thread.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:12 am#14 I thought we had a separation of church and state. How can they get away with this?
March 8th, 2006 at 10:20 am#14
Wow. Faith based disaster management. I guess it worked in New Orleans, didn’t it?
Goper’s Lament
March 8th, 2006 at 10:22 amI was helping my daughter study for her history exam last night. It covered the 1920’s and 1930’s. If you read up on Harding and compare it with this adnisistration - it is remarkable haow alike they are. Now who is living in a world prior to 9/11?
As a side note - she had in her notes that Harding was the worst president ever. She said that of course was prior to #43!
March 8th, 2006 at 10:26 amGoper’s Lament
275 Downloads since Jan 27!
100,000 Downloads by Sept 11!
What would you do if a song could change a million votes?
Pass it on, of course.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:31 amMy faith commands me to cram it down your throat,it’s ok to punish you otherwise. My faith is the correct one because my god said so. I have no proof,because it is a faith. If something good happens, it’s because of my faith. If something bad happens, it’s because of the devil,or your faith. All this is in my bible. Do you have anything to say before we put you in jail?…NEXT.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:41 amThey have proven us right again — Rethugs who blather on about making things right, will, in the end, vote with Bush and give him what he wants.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:46 amThey cannot and must not be trusted, no matter what they say.
The Pope with an IPod? A little humor in these interesting times.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:49 amWounder what Jesus would listen to?
Hey, I use my real name:) Seriously, that’s something the Chinese are interested in and we shouldn’t be. If there’s a threat, it’s not so hard to track down the individual through their ip(s). It’s more of an intimidation for expressing views. That’s especially true for say one prochoice individual in a rapist rights town in South Dakota…
On that video that Atrios? posted on the abortion protestors - it is slightly amusing that they have never considered what should happen to the mother in terms of the crime if it was made illegal.I mean, it’s at least an accomplice to ‘murder’ or ‘murder’ itself. No, blame the doctor, the evil doctor.
The IPod? Not that surprising really. Benedict is really, really into music (he’s a very good pianist) and now that he can’t listen to it in his office that he inhabited for the whole day or his apartment since he’s got all those annoying public viewings he can bring it with him.
He gives free publicity to all sorts of firms…Italian fashion houses included. Anyway, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the pope enjoys music - even if you’re not into gregorian chants, beethoven, etc.
March 8th, 2006 at 10:59 am“… and his handling of postwar Iraq.â€
I must have slept well last night if the Iraq war is over and I didn’t hear. Are our troops coming home tomorrow?
Shame on you TP for not telling us this great news!
However, I think we can all agree there is a “deep disillusionment among conservatives” and other free-thinking individuals as well. Just impeach the bastard.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:05 amDarn, if only those h-h-hundreds of b-b-billions of taxpayer dollars had only been spent for something that was actually really important.
PS: Oh yeah, and all the thousands of dead Americans too. I guess.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:06 amMr.Biondi,…youse is mess’in with my people…DON’T. Al Capone III.
March 8th, 2006 at 1:15 pmLet me guess. Assemblyman Biondi wants anonymous on line speech banned, but I’d bet he has no similar feelings about outlawing
March 8th, 2006 at 2:19 pmbriberycampaign contributions.McLovin
Bravo! Finally a great blog.
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If the client is a corporation, the lawyer is known as “house counsel” and usually advises the company concerning legal issues related to its business activities.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm