Restore the Fourth

This Fourth of July, I stand by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and against mass, warrantless spying on the American people by the NSA.

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.

I join with Restore the Fourth, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and StopWatching.us in support of their open letter to Congress, calling on them to to immediately and publicly:

1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;
2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;
3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Verdict In: Football More Important than Child Abuse

By now you know the story: In 2002 a graduate student at Penn State witnessed an assistant coach sodomizing a young boy in the showers. He tried to report it to university authorities and was given the run-around. Now, nine years later, that assistant coach is finally facing charges of molesting several boys over a 15 year period. Also charged are a couple of the university officials who led the cover-up.

Two officials who were aware of the accusations and did nothing, but are not currently under arrest, include legendary football coach Joe Paterno and Penn State president Graham Spanier. Well, make that former coach Paterno and former president Spanier; the Board of Trustees canned them each last night for their failure to protect children from the sexual predator they knew was on their staff.

That should be the end of the story. Justice served. Far later than it should have been, but the right thing to do.

But no. In America we pretend to care about child abuse. But apparently we care about winning football games even more.

Shortly after the news of Peterno's firing was announced, riots broke out on the Penn State campus protesting the actions of the trustees. Preserving the legend of beloved "JoePa," it seems, is more important than any little boys who make have been robbed of their innocence and youth.

Paterno now says (in his prepared statement), "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." Is that the hindsight that by protecting his former heir apparent many more children were abused, or the hindsight that it would end his career in disgrace? I fear it's only the second that motivated that minor bit of remorse.

The coaches and officials at Penn State are not alone in their quiet dismissal of societal condemnation of abusing and raping children. Another major story this last week was the release of a video showing a Texas judge brutally whipping his teenage daughter.

One would think that the judge would have no supporters, but up steps a former English Headmaster to reminisce about the good old days of beating children for a living. While he faults the judge for having acted out of anger, instead of calmly and dispassionately beating his child, this headmaster has no regrets and offers no apologies, "I was merely doing my job in upholding the discipline of the school."

Sure, protecting children is important. But not when it interferes with maintaining order or winning football games. We are Penn State. Go Team!

Pentagon to Test Compassionate Torture on Stuffed Animals

The BetterBadNews panel hear a twisted pitch for compassionate torture, skewering congressional Republicans, lifeless Democrats and the mainstream press for failing in their obligation to act as a check against abuses of government power.

The panel was also stunned by an astonishingly effective speech delivered by Al Gore laying out a case for impeachment. Gore called on Republicans and Democrats to pull themselves away from their TV screens and take notice of the incremental dissolution of representative government.

Video produced by betterbadnews.com, "Half true, more or less, 100% of the time"

Chavez, the Decider

In a stunning move, the Venezuelan Congress has moved to grant President Hugo Chavez nearly unlimited power to rule by decree. According to congressional Vice-President Roberto Hernandez:

"We in the National Assembly will not waver in granting President Chavez an enabling law so he can quickly and urgently set up the framework for resolving the grave problems we have."

First of all, how can any elected leader lay claim to that kind of power. And secondly, how could a democratically elected body such as a Congress willingly give up its power to such a controlling ruler?

I mean, really. That's not what modern nations do. That's not how civilized people behave. That's not what you'd ever see happen here in the...

Oh... Never mind.

In other news, all your innermost thoughts must now be approved a presidential appointee.

"Here's your Patriot Act!"

Just in case you thought everything was peachy now that the "good guys" won the election last week...

You may have seen clips of this on your local news yesterday, but it doesn't even get at the impact of the full seven minute video:



Briefly: A UCLA student who "just happened to look Middle-Eastern" was asked for his ID while studying in the Powell Library. He did not have it with him, and so was asked to leave. He took his time packing up his stuff, but was on his way out when the campus police returned and grabbed him by the arm. He said he was leaving and asked to be un-handed.

Then they tazed him. Repeatedly. Once he was on the floor, completely incapacitated, the police demanded that he stand up. When he was unable to stand (yes, repeated tazings can make it impossible to stand for about 15 minutes), they tazed him several more times.

Bystanders who asked for the cop's badge numbers were told to shut up or they'd be tazed.

Read about the incident in UCLA's student paper, the Daily Bruin.

Why I love technology: A cellphone camera and a YouTube account brought this abuse of power direct to the public. Without it, the incident would have been a back-page local story about a few college students "claiming" that the police were rude.

As long as we've got our tech-toys, the fascists can't win.