Listening to: Erotic Discourse - Paul Woolford Presents Bobby Peru

This is an excellent development:

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

Yay the courts!

UPDATE: Cafferty does his best “ripping them a new one” on this issue.

Listening to: Old School Rules - Dangerdoom Feat. Talib Kweli

While giving mountains of money away is wonderful… having some one like BillG speak out like this is really POWERFUL:

“Abstinence is often not an option for poor women and girls, who have no choice but to marry at an early age. Being faithful will not protect a woman whose partner is not faithful. And using condoms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself; it depends on a man.

“We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women. This is true whether the woman is a faithful married mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives or what she does, a woman should never need her partner’s permission to save her own life.”

Listening to: Especially In Michigan - Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Boston Globe has a wide ranging AP story on depleted uranium. Makes for a really interesting read. Not too sure what to make of the issue… other than those backing it sound a lot like those that have defended asbestos, agent orange and other such “sleeper nasties”.

Listening to: Banquet - Junior Sanchez Mix - Bloc Party

From Reuters:

The U.N. Human Rights Committee on Friday told Washington it should immediately shut all “secret detention” facilities and give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to anybody held in armed conflict.

In findings on U.S. observance of the U.N.’s main political rights’ convention, the committee said it had “credible and uncontested” information that the United States had detained people “secretly and in secret places for months and years.”

Listening to: 21st Century - Red Hot Chili Peppers

For the first time in a long time I am unable to express my growing sense of fear at the apparent de-lamination of reality that we’re seeing played out in the Middle East…. it’s actually making me ill. More sadness bought on the world by the cynical and naive plonkers who created the sub-human nightmare that exists in Iraq. Remember this is not a NEW problem, it’s ANOTHER problem - the focus may have moved, but the original problem has not been solved.

Listening to: BBC Radio 1

In the torrent of awful news yesterday there was this bright little stone:

All US military detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay, are to be treated in line with the minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions.

The White House announced the shift in policy almost two weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions applied to detainees.

President Bush had long fought the idea that US detainees were prisoners of war entitled to Geneva Convention rights.

That news made me very happy. Three cheers for checks and balances!

Listening to: B.O.B. - Outkast

This morning held a couple of wonderful gems:

• US Guantanamo tribunals ‘illegal’

  The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Bush administration does not have the authority to try terrorism suspects by military tribunal. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Tony Robbins on TEDTalks

  I’ve never paid too much attention to this guy (except in a moment of channel surfing), but this 20 mins is fascinating - especially when he spells things out to Al Gore (who is in the audience) and when he tells the story of 9/11. He definitely makes you think. (hat-tip: Steven Kempton)

Listening to: Lubbock Or Leave It - Dixie Chicks

The current noise about where and how iPods are made highlights one of the core characteristics of globalization and the tech industry. It leads to a bunch of questions… and a bunch of opportunities?

Listening to: Other Side - Dallas

It will be interesting to see how far these lawsuit get… but it is great news -
at some point in this sordid process some one has got to take the heat for invading
privacy like that. From Marketwatch:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp and Verizon Telecommunications
are facing lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for the decision to turn
over calling records to the government, the New York Times reported Saturday.

A
federal lawsuit was filed in Manhattan yesterday seeking as much as $50 billion in
civil damages against Verizon on behalf of its subscribers.

Under
telecommunications law, the phone companies are at risk for at least $1,000 per person
whose records they disclosed without a court order, according to Orin Kerr, a former
federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University

src: /.

Listening to: Boss On The Boat - Greg Day, Damian Stanley

From news.com:

WASHINGTON–President Bush’s no-longer-secret surveillance program
employing the National Security Agency came under a two-pronged attack this week on
both political and legal fronts.

First, a key Republican
senator said Thursday that he was contemplating pulling the plug on the NSA spying
program by cutting funding–unless, that is, the Bush administration comes clean on
how the program works and whether it complies with privacy rights guaranteed by the
U.S. Constitution.

“When you’re withholding funds,
here you’re talking about real authority,” Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters at a press conference at
the U.S. Capitol. Specter said he met with Bush on Wednesday but was unable to find
common ground.