How many will it take before we can agree? There is no way one can defend tasering at this point. I mean, I can barely keep up with all the national news, and so I’m sure for every taser-death story like this one I read, I’m not reading 10 others. Other nations don’t give tasers to their police officers and still manage to keep crime down. There are better ways to enforce the law.

A teenager died after police used a Taser on him inside a grocery store in northeast Charlotte.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police homicide detectives said they will investigate why police used the Taser on 17-year-old Darryl Turner Thursday afternoon.  Read more 

H/t the Good Dr. Barmpot. People who contract work with passports:

The next time you have to renew your U.S. passport ? assuming it’s not already in process or due in the next month or two ? it most likely will be mailed to you from right here in Tucson.

Stanley Inc., a provider of systems integration and professional services to the United States government, announced Dec. 10 it will open a passport production facility in what was the Gateway Ice Center, 7333 E. Rosewood St., near East Speedway and Kolb Road on the eastside. Stanley will use about 52,000 square-feet of the 80,000 square-foot facility but has an option to expand, if necessary, Eric Wolking, a senior vice president, said in a telephone interview.

A passport ready to be mailed from Stanley’s production facility in Arkansas.
The Tucson facility will be Stanley’s second production facility, after one it opened in March in Hot Springs, Ark. Stanley, based in Arlington, Va., produces passports under a $164 million, 10-year-contract with the Department of State.

The company plans to “ramp up fairly quickly” once it opens mid-April, said Paul Belanger, another senior vice president at Stanley. He who said he anticipates the company will begin hiring soon after the new year. He said the plant will open with one shift but move up to two shifts by the end of summer.

Between 150 and 200 employees will be hired from the local workforce, about 85 percent of whom will be processing clerk associates whose salaries will range from $10 to $13.50 per hour, plus “a generous benefits package that is not insignificant,” Belanger said. The remainder of the workforce will be made up of varying salaried management positions that will be paid from $30,000 to $70,000 per year.

Wolking said the State Department is expecting even more demand for passports as a result of new travel requirements and, as older passports are due for renewal. In the last year, the State Department issued 18 million passports and the new Tucson facility will significantly increase that ability.  Read more 

I’ll just let Diane say it:

Last week I posted on FBI Director Robert Mueller’s attempt to defuse the impact of a pending Inspector General’s report on the agency’s improper use of “national security letters” to obtain records. He pointed out in testimony to Congress that the report covers a period before the FBI instituted reforms to stop the improprieties. Well, the report is now out, and I can see why Mr. Mueller made the effort. From an AP report published in today’s NY Times:

Top-level FBI counterterrorism executives issued improper blanket demands in 2006 for records of 3,860 telephone lines to justify the fact that agents already had obtained the data using an illegal procedure that is now prohibited, the Justice Department inspector general reported Thursday.

Glenn A. Fine also reported that in one case FBI anti-terrorism agents circumvented a federal court which twice had refused a warrant for personal records because the judges believed the agents were investigating conduct protected by the First Amendment. Fine said the agents got the records using national security letters, which do not require a judge’s approval, without altering or re-examining the basis of their suspicions — the target’s association with others under investigation. [Emphasis added]  Read more 

As if the PGA needed more bad publicity, Tripp Isenhour provides living proof that sports stars and stupidity go hand-in-hand. I hope they put this sucker in jail.

(Updated with a post that totally proves my point) She of 18-hour support wonders, along with the Mighty Glenn:

At last, Glenn Greenwald has gotten down to the nitty-gritty and discussed what no one is saying about the original FISA legislation that was introduced in 1977 - that it was an outrageous ceding to government of the power to violate our Constitutional right to privacy (yes, privacy) as clearly spelled out in the 4th Amendment.
…
Indeed; the most liberal position in the public discourse is this: that it’s okay to take our time on constructing a new, more invasive FISA law, because the original law will cover us adequately in the meantime. But virtually no one is arguing that no updating at all of the original law has ever been necessary (except me and a few security geeks), and no one at all is pointing out that FISA itself is and always was a bridge too far. When the authorities violate the 4th Amendment, they should be put in jail, not given greater latitude to spy on us under a legal fiction of national security.

Am I the only one who thinks that we really don’t live in a nation of laws anymore? That this whole discussion is mostly one for wonks who love detail? Because it seems to me that between the AG refusing to do his job, and the “Constitutional scholar” and “experienced lawyer-stateswoman” both wimping out on major Senate debates about the Constitution, talk like this misses the point. I’m not harshing on A or GG, christ no. But I’m asking for a better way to frame the question. Right now the Constitution is a beautiful dream, but it’s clearly not “in force.” The law of the land is: who is closer to the security-military-contractor-prison complex, me or thee? If I am, I win. If you are, you win. This rule applies in confrontation, business, “the economy,” and across most elements of the social environment. And if you have enough of a connection to the MIC, you can get away with anything, anything at all…  Read more 

From Congressional Daily (subscription only, no link, sorry)

To break an impasse over legislation overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, House Democratic leaders are considering the option of taking up a Senate-passed FISA bill in stages, congressional sources said today. Under the plan, the House would vote separately on the first title of the bill, which authorizes surveillance activities, and then on the bill’s second title, which grants retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided the Bush administration’s warrantless electronic surveillance activities. The two would be recombined, assuming passage of both titles. In this way, Democratic leaders believe they can give an out to lawmakers opposed to the retroactive immunity provision. Republican leadership sources said their caucus would back such a plan because not only would it give Democratic leaders the out they need, it would provide a political win for the GOP. It remains to be seen if such a move will placate liberal Democrats who adamantly oppose giving in to the Bush administration on the immunity issue.  Read more 

This is good to hear, I wish them luck. As SI notes, it’s stupid because it just encourages people to make mirror sites. Stupid suits, still too dense to understand how the intertubes operate as they War on Freedom. Lots of livelinks in the original.

Note to Bank: Don’t Wage War With the Internets

If you follow the political blogs, you probably know about the Wikileaks case. In a nutshell, last week a district court judge ruled in favor of Swiss Bank Julius Baer and ordered the Wikileaks domain name shut down because a former bank employee allegedly used the site to post proof that the bank is involved in a money laundering scheme. Wired’s Threat Level gives an excellent, thorough run-down of the story.

Last night the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit.  Read more 

Just because they’re my favorite people today, let’s review how much the Saudi government sucks. At least she didn’t turn him into a newt.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.  Read more 

In a sane world, this would be explosive news that would lead to world governments coming together in a massive judicial and law enforcement effort. Can I call their BFFs “traitors” now, please? Wild-eyed conspiracy foilsheet The Guardian

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.  Read more 

Southern Beale beats me to it:

Just to remind everyone about what’s at stake in November, we have these pearls of wisdom from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

“Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the constitution?” he asked.

“It would be absurd to say you couldn’t do that. And once you acknowledge that, we’re into a different game.”

Oh wow! I saw that episode of “24,” too! Yeah, that was so cool how Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles by smacking that …. oh, wait. That was a TV show.

Never mind.  Read more 

Via Digby:

Delahunt: You said if an opinion was rendered, that would insulate him from any consequences.

[Mike Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States, before the House Judiciary Committee today]: We could not investigate or prosecute somebody for acting in reliance on a justice department opinion.

…

Delahunt: If that opinion was inaccurate and in fact violated a section of US Criminal Code, that reliance is in effect an immunity from any criminal culpability.

MM: Immunity connoted culpability. [Well, is anyone culpable? -scar]

…

Delahunt: I find that a new legal doctrine. The law is the law.  Read more 

I’ve got to run, so forgive the C&P post direct out of my email box. From CQ:

Legislation to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remained stalled in the Senate Tuesday, held hostage by a partisan clash over procedures for consideration of an unrelated economic stimulus package.

A frustrated Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., complained that Republicans were blocking his efforts to schedule votes on proposed amendments to the bill (S 2248). He questioned Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s commitment to the legislation, saying Republicans have declined to allow FISA to move forward.

“The Orwellian Bush administration has now slopped over into the Senate, and now the Republican leader is now becoming Orwellian himself,” Reid said.  Read more 

God Save the Queen! I’m sure we won’t be far behind. The original link is 404 now, but there were about a million blog posts on it, including no less than Wired’s Bruce Sterling. I found it via Helen and Harry. Heh, grrl, I’m “hungry, angry and horny” too.

Ministers are planning to implant “machine-readable” microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.  Read more 

Obviously, I agree with the idea: you don’t smoke in front of nor around young children. Period. That’s pretty obvious to me, most parents, and smokers of all kinds everywhere. Yet I have some fond memories of sitting with Grandpa after dinner at the ranch, sometimes inside and sometimes out on the porch, watching the sun go down over the lake, the sweet smell of his pipe a perfect compliment to fading odors of the fried fish and greens Grandma used to cook for him. I suppose it’s a small sacrifice to make, to know that my nieces and nephews will be healthy nonsmokers with no romantic or foolish notions about why smoking is “cool.”

Still, I call bullshit. There are a hundred better ways to ’protect the children.’ Starting with universal health care and programs for poor parents to help them quit smoking. You and I both know how this law will be used: when they can’t find another legal reason to pull over some black or brown person, bingo! Time to Protect the Children! We can add “Smoking while Black” to “Driving while Black” and the rest of that long list of Laws for Thee but not for Me. Yes, I’m sure some poor White folks will get tagged by this too, but trust me- you won’t see a lot of rich smokers worring about this.

I’ll point out that cars themselves produce quite a large amount of poisons that one breaths while around them or in them. Are we rushing off to regulate their emissions, punishing automakers for failing to employ the cleanest technology and make the air safer for even those kids who walk and take buses? No, of course not. But we can pass laws that punish the poor regressively, and give even more opportunity to racist cops to crack heads, all to “protect the children.”

All your social networking belong to us:

DAVOS, Switzerland - AT&T Inc. is still evaluating whether to examine traffic on its Internet lines to stop illegal sharing of copyright material, its chief executive said Wednesday.

CEO Randall Stephenson told a conference at the World Economic Forum that the company is looking at monitoring peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, one of the largest drivers of online traffic but also a common way to illegally exchange copyright files.  Read more 

A lilting cold wind now whispers in my ears
the sum and the total of the wasting years.
The pain that blossoms upon my cheeks,
flowers of scarlet and petals of despair,
brought, brung, and bribed by the blistering air.

I am, I am, I am the land of ice,
made frigid by temptations.

Along with my country one late night I slept,
Slipping through tender fingers the gifts,
that turbulent past had thrust upon us.
A greatness elusive and eluded,
how often alluded to and allegoried of.

Along with others, many others,
too many others,
so many others,
I had combined to trade a night’s sleep for a decade’s pain.
It now falls upon me, a sleet, a soaking, a thundering rain.

These, this wishes of having once and again,
gone back to those other times,  Read more 

Can you guess what this map relates to? I bet you can. I’ve put the link below, but scan the map and think about it for a minute. I’ll give you a hint: black is bad, and not in the way that Black is (Super)Bad.  Read more 

Slain as she left an election rally, with at least 16 more dead, in Pakistan.
Bhutto was the first woman elected to head a Muslim nation.

Ohio murderer released on own recognizance after domestic abuse failed to meet “marriage” test then broke into the home of his former girlfriend and killed her.
Sharia law lives, walks, and kills women in the USA just like it does in Islamist countries. You can thank Mullah Dobson and his armies of “conservative,” and “Christian” followers.

Hey-just thought I’d post this site http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/
I got from my cereal box.Its an interesting read.Hope it fits in your cup of tea….

The world’s safest and most useful tool is working impressively again, in Utah. (All you taser fans in the crack den *cough cough* get out your lotion, because this stuff is hot.)

Tasered in front of wife and baby? Check.
Tasered for a speeding ticket? Check.
No threat and no warning? Check.
Sarcastic approval from other cops on the scene? Check.

Digby says it all:

Police in the country are now allowed to torture speeders by the side of the highway in order to get them to comply. The only difference between this officer slugging the speeder in the stomach and putting 50,0000 volts of electricity in him is that the latter doesn’t leave any marks. The intent, the pain and the goose-stepping authoritarian message are exactly the same.

Word to the wise. Do not ever question the police, no matter whether they are violating your rights, ignoring the constitution or breaking the law. It is perfectly legal for them to torture you on the spot if you do.

I’m feeling so free I can hardly breathe.  Read more 

A wonderful observation popped up in a WaPo editorial today, and since lately they’ve been so few and far between, it seems worth notating.  Read more 

His name is Colby Vokey.

Just shut up already. You, DFH. And all your uncivil friends. Nancy doesn’t want you in her flowerbed (and gosh, I actually understand that one!) so please just go home, wash up, be quiet, and stop making a mess. The Adults are in charge, and all that yelling isn’t helping anything. There are telcos to protect and a war to fund.

“Look,” she said, the chicken breast on her plate untouched. “I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things — Buddhas? I don’t know what they were — couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk.”

Unsmilingly, she continued: “If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have ’Impeach Bush’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment.”  Read more 

Sorry for the redundancy. What a surprise. I certainly hope the backers lose all their money. Guardian:

One of the key religious themes of Philip Pullman’s award-winning series of children&