Media Consolidation and the Rev. Pat Robertson

Photoshop illustration #125 from UnfairlyBalanced.com (2/26/06)

I last wrote about Pat Robertson when he suggested a hit on Hugo Chavez. (See "Pat Robertson and Venezuela" from August 25, 2005). Look at the above quotes (and these with citations from church organist and computer guru Liz Stanley (current website). Is this the guy you'd want publishing your local paper?

He'd like to, if you live in Norfolk, Virginia and the surrounding area, according to business writer Philip Waltzer's (bio, email) Virginian-Pilot story of January 11, "Pat Robertson says his attorneys are looking into bid for The Virginian-Pilot." That paper is the flagship publication of Batten-family-owned, Landmark Communications, which bought the Roanoke Times from the Fishburns in 1969. In an e-mail forwarded by his personal assistant, G.G. Conklin, Robertson wrote Waltzer,

I am considering a potential bid for the Pilot and have asked my attorneys to look into it. ...It would be particularly helpful to provide internships for Regent University journalism students.

Since Robertson started his now-international Christian Broadcasting Network in Portsmouth to serve the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News market, I thought, at first, that the acquisition had something to do with the controversial FCC ruling December 18, which according to the Washington Post's Frank Ahrens,

partially lifted a 32-year-old ban that prevents a newspaper owner from also owning a radio or television station in the same city.

But Robertson sold that station in 1988.

Landmark is not saying why it may sell its original paper the Pilot. January 2, Waltzer and his editor Bill Choycke broke the story in the Pilot that the corporation is considering selling off its assets. "" is no longer available online, but you can get it via E-library. or you read stories by the same writers which were tailored for Annapolis and Roanoke papers. Charles Apple's blog features a summary of the papers coverage of its own possible fate in his blog. Apple was the graphic designer for the Pilot for four years until the paper reorganized and demoted him to graphic artist.

Still up at the Pilot's site, is Waltzer's sequel but in case it also disappears, you can find "Landmark Communications chairman says selling company was his idea" republished story at TMC.net. Here is a list of Walzer's stories on the topic, as Apple doesn't always provide the article title with his links and who knows how many more will disappear:

• Weather Channel's profitability is behind sale, says Landmark executive
• Landmark sells video downloading service
• Baltimore Sun weighs bid for some Landmark properties
• Landmark Chairman Batten Jr.: 'It was my decision'
• Industry experts doubtful on merger of the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot

See also Diane Tennant's

• This newspaper might be sold. So? What could that mean to you?

There was a time, less than a year ago when the company was adding papers. On April 25 , 2007, the company announced that it had acquired full control of Annapolis publisher Philip Merrill's newpapers, in a swap for its interest in Merrill's Washingtonian Magazine. Landmark had having bought 49.9% of his holdings in 1975.

According to Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Williamson, 72-year-old Merrill, despondent about his health, set sail alone on his 41-foot boat, tied a mushroom anchor to his leg and shot himself in the head June 10, 2006, precipitating a 9-day search which included "half-dozen boats, helicopters and members of several law enforcement agencies."

Walzer reported his widow Eleanor Merrill's statement at the time of the swap:

Although this decision has been a difficult one for me, I am confident that Landmark will preserve the traditions that have made our newspapers such an integral part of their communities.

That was then and this is now.

Norton to publish new Dufresne novel Requiem, Mass

According to the blurb at Amazon, John's novel, Requiem, Mass. due out from Norton on July 18:

takes us to Requiem, Mass., heart of the Commonwealth, where Johnny's mom, Frances, is driving in the breakdown lane once again. She thinks Johnny and his little sister Audrey have been replaced by aliens; she's sure of it, and she's pretty certain that she herself is already dead, or she wouldn't need to cover the stink of her rotting flesh with Jean Naté Après Bain. Dad, truck driver and pathological liar, is down South somewhere living his secret life. And Audrey, when she's not walking her cat Deluxe in a baby stroller, spends her time locked in a closet telling herself stories. Johnny, meanwhile, is hell-bent on saving the family from itself.

For some reason Amazon says you'll like this book if you liked Ratatouille. I'll have to ask him if he knows why. Something is kerflewy with the page at Norton--when you
search on the title, the link takes you to three books on militant Islam. Evidently it has something to do with the ISBN. I've let John know by email and will post a link, once it's working properly.

As regular readers know, I'm a fan of John's. I upgraded the Wikipedia stub on him to an article in August 2005 and his books made it to my top ten list in my post "Books That Meet the Gold Standard" from December 7, 2007.

Ten days after that entry, John had to start a new blog after his site crashed. Somehow he lost the archives to his old blog which he started in 2004. When I checked the Archive.org for him, there were entries posts for him that year covering the periods:

• July 17 - August 3, 2004
• September 1 - 16, 2004
• October 1 -11, 2004
• December 1 -29, 2004

The last crawl that captured anything was for the period July 1 - August 31, 2006. After that, the links for webcrawls bring up this message:

Not in Archive. The page you requested has not been archived. If the page is still available on the Internet, we will begin archiving it during our next crawl. Try another request or click here to search for all pages on johndufresne.com/Blog+Content.htm See the FAQs for more info and help, or contact us.

Obviously, something is wacky and a promise to crawl again is too little. too late. Similarly, with Yahoo about to bail on my blog at 360, I'm not much comforted by the Internet Archive covering me only at great intervals in 2006, with none of the links to prior entries having been recorded. Sigh. Joe Dunphy tried to download my entries to his Dad's computer, but he can't seem to email me a copy. I did discover tonight that I can backdate any entry that I transfer manually, but haven't yet figured how to get them to archive by anything other than year.

I did find a link there to a television interview I hadn't known about on cable access:

One of John's readers and now mine since April of 2007, Joe from Cheese, TX sent along a link you might enjoy, to the Salem, Virginia (since 1936) meatpacker Valleydale's archive of

TV commercials created in the late 50s featured animated pigs working or marching in a parade, playing band instruments and singing the "Hooray for Valleydale" jingle.

As I told him in my thank you note,

Valleydale's ham comes to me by way of Cheese. Now all we need is Rye. (Maybe wry will count.)

Speaking of the 50's he answered with a description of growing up on what he's called in the past the "dark side of the [Mill Mountian] star":

ya gotta remember i went to a 2 room school...
an iron stained Howdy Doody glass (water from a pump in the schoolyard) and we stayed warm
by taking turns carrying coal in to a stove in the middle of the room.
(sign of bigness was to be perceived to be big enough to carry the bucket WITH COAL.)

David Mamet Comedy "November" Opens January 17

Caricature of playwright David Mamet © Zach Trenholm (website, drawing demonstration) from "David Mamet's New Political Play: The playwright discusses his campaign comedy opening on Broadway and his writing process," by Robert J. Hughs, Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2008 from which comes my Quote o' the Day...

WSJ: Do you find a difference between working on Broadway versus in Hollywood?

Mamet: The main difference is that in New York they treat the writer like a human being, and in Hollywood they treat him like a discarded, diseased whore. Other than that, it's very similar.

Rehearsals began at the end of November for Mamet's new comedy of the same name starring Nathan Lane as a president whose popularity rating is, as Mamet put it, according to BarbaraHoffman of the New York Post,

lower than Gandhi's cholesterol.

Boris Katchka in his New York Magazine interview on the play of January 10,2008 describes Lane's character, Charles H.P. Smith, as

a cash-poor incumbent on the verge of losing reelection...in a venal class all his own, deploring the job as “too much stress, too little opportunity for theft,” and lighting on the annual Thanksgiving-turkey pardon as a potential fund-raising scheme.

Knowing Mamet's mastery of dialogue, this may have more substance than the actual primary coverage.

See also:

• Interview aired on August 24, 2007 by Charlie Rose
  
• Salon Profile of September 11, 2001 by Paul A. Toth
• Salon Interview from October 24, 1997 by Richard Covington.
• December 4, 1984 Interview by Matthew Roudane
• 1984 Interview by Hank Nuwer

*

Going to the National Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue in the District of Columbia with my parents, I remember the Hirschfeld covers for Playbill (archive from NYT). Five years ago on January 20, Hirschfeld died in his sleep at the age of 99. I think San Franciso illustratorTrenholm, whose work is featured above, may be his heir. Take a look at his depictions of Stallone, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Vonnegut (my post on Vonnegut is here.)

Congressional Report Criticizes TSA

You may remember I wrote on the TSA 11/14/07, "Is the Transportation Security Administration Providing Transportaton Security? " and on 12/27, "TSA Has More Memos."

At 4:04 p.m. today, Thomas Claburn reported in the January 11 Information Week, "Congressional Report Slams TSA For Security Breach: At least 247 travelers submitted their personal information through the unsecured 'file your application online' link, a House Oversight committee said."


This afternoon I worked on the FCC post from yesterday and participated in the Newstrust host conference call, so more later, as the library is closing.

Comcast, The FCC and Net Neutrality

Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should control the content they view and the applications they use. Broadband providers don't like this notion much, as they would like to optimize their profit by deciding what what content gets to whom first and fastest.

So far they have suceeded with Congress. The House passed its telecommunications bill, H.R. 5252 , 321 tto 101 on June 8, without adequate net neutrality protections after a motion to recommit garnered 165 votes including Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and two Republicans (Jones of TN and of Wilson of NM). On June 28, the Senate Commerce Committee passed its own telecom bill, S. 2686, after an amendment to add net neutrality safeguards failed 11-11, in Committee.

But at least one broadband company, Comcast, was not content to wait for legislation. Robb Topolski (pictured above, blog, email) who edits the D-Links forum on Broadband Reports posted on that site May 12, 2007 that Comcast secretly was using a program called Sandvine to hamper the peer-to-peer file sharing applications on its broadband service. The AP's Peter Svensons confirmed that Comcast was degrading BitTorrent performance in an investigation published on on October 19. Farhad Manjoo, the technology writer for Salon explained in layman's terms what this meant.

Three groups that advocate net neutrality-- Free Press, Public Knowledge and The Media Access Project--filed a formal complaint with the FCC November 1, 2007. They also filed a Petition for Declaratory Ruling asking the FCC to rule service providers, in general, violated the Commission’s policy statement they degraded a targeted application, and that intentionally degrading service without informing Internet users constitutes a deceptive trade practice.

Then, last night at the Consumer Electronics Show in Nevada, FCC Chairman, Kenneth Martin finally promised the commission would investigate, as reported by Svensson.

Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked.

Writing on the Public Knowledge blog, Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project expressed his doubts:

We all need to recognize that a lot remains unclear, we need to get more details, and who knows how it will actually play out on release.

More later. The library is closing.

Latest Nomination Dispute Stalls FEC

According to CQ Politics's report of yesterday,

A Senate standoff over nominations to the Federal Election Commission has left the agency unable to implement, much less enforce, the bundling provision in a new lobbying law....Even the approval of additional presidential matching funds -- beyond the $20 million it recently certified for release to qualifying candidates -- will be put on hold [which] could affect the..campaigns of ...Edwards,...Kucinich,McCain and ...Hunter.

According to CQ, von Spakovsky's

nomination standoff marks the first time in 31 years that the FEC has been stalled in executing its responsibility to oversee the campaign finance regulations that guide both congressional and presidential elections. The last time was a two-month period during the 1976 presidential campaign, when the agency put some work on hold until the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley vs. Valeo that the president was responsible for nominating all six commissioners, while the Senate had confirmation authority. Prior to that decision, the White House, the Senate and the House each nominated two commissioners.

After a recess appointment on January 4, 2006, President Bush renominated Hans von Spakovsky,a former assistant attorney general for civil rights whom voting rights groups have criticized for his support of photo identification at the polls. Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin placed holds on his confirmation and Mitch McConnell responded by refusing to allow confirmation votes on three other nominees.

Before going to Washington, von Spakovsky was a lawyer in private practice and a Republican appointee to the Fulton County Registration and Election Board, which runs elections in Atlanta. He belonged to the Federalist Societyand had also joined the board of advisers of a lesser-known group called the Voting Integrity Project, which Jeffrey Toobin wrote about in the September 20, 2004, New Yorker article, "Poll Position: Is the Justice Department poised to stop voter fraud-or to keep voters from voting?" For updated information, see also "Hans Von Spakovsky: Right choice for FEC Commissioner?" by Adam Lambert, published by ePluribus Media on June 11, 2007 and "FEC Nominee Hans von Spakovsky: A Repeat Offender," posted June 12, 2007 by J. Gerald Hebert at the Capaign Legal Center's blog. On January 4, that organization called on President Bush to withdraw the nomination.

While some conservatives have complained about fraud in elections, a Judge has ruled that the controversial id program amounts to a new poll tax and McClatchy has a whole series of articles about how von Spakovsky's anti-fraud efforts may have served to suppress legitimate voting. . A Brown University study released January 8 found that

requiring voters to present identification at the polls leads to lower levels of political participa-tion. The research also suggests that voter I.D. policies discourage legal immigrants from be-coming citizens. The authors conclude that voter I.D. requirements have a significant political impact, particularly on the Hispanic vote.

For additional information on voter obstables, see the Center for American Progress's report of today.

Of course von Spakovsky's nomination is not the only case of gridlock invoked by Mr. McConnel when the the majority Democrats in Congress want to use their majority. Mr. Bush's determination to submit nominees that are objectionable, rather than than non-confrontational, and his refusal to withdraw them, has resulted in impasses that he has resolved by using his power of recess appointment. Will the {resident wait for another recess and reappoint von Spakovsky?

More to come. The library is closing.

*

Two cool sites:

BigThink.com
Newser

Is the Bush Administration Stalling on the Polar Bear Question?

Cover Art from The Center for Biological Diversity's October 17, 2007 report.

The Center for Biological diversity, "Nature's Legal Eagles," has a dynamic counter on its website marking how long since the Bush administration's Department of Interior listed a species under Endangered Species Act. When I started this entry at 4:22 this afternoon, the time elapsed stood at 609 days, 6 hours and 22 minutes.

Probably, staff at the center had hoped to restart the clock by tomorrow, the legal deadline based on a December 27, 2006 announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of its proposal to list the bears as “threatened.” The proposal resulted from a lawsuit filed under the Endangered Species Act by the Center, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Fund on December 15, 2005 charging that the administration had taken no action on theFebruary 16, 2005 scientific petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species.

But yesterday Fish and Wildlife announced they would miss the deadline, citing time needed to process responses to the U.S. Geological Survey report on the polar bears initiated by the possible listing and released September 7.

Future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of 2/3 of the world's polar bear population within 50 years...In addition to forecasts, declines in habitat have been recorded throughout the Polar Basin over the past 20 years of observations.

Some are questioning what the delay has to do with oil drilling permits which might be reigned in by a listing. See "Groups cite oil leases in U.S. delay on rating polar bear's status," by Jane Kay in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

...Climate scientists predict that floating polar ice will disappear by midcentury, leaving the bear without food and habitat. Two-thirds of the population could disappear by 2050....In announcing the delay...[in meeting the legal deadline regarding endangered species status], Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall said... new U.S. Geological Survey studies on the size of the polar bear population and sea ice trends required an extended public comment period. The agency already has considered 670,000 comments on the listing... Environmental groups [and some members of Congress] fear that the polar bear decision has been purposefully delayed to allow a first-time oil lease sale to go forward Feb. 6 in Alaska's pristine Chukchi Sea, which provides one-tenth of the habitat for the world's polar bears.

This piece, although citing the Bush administration official, does not really provide his rebuttal of the criticism offered. None-the-less, it provides information on how to make your opinion known about the delay and exposes an example of possible tampering with science in order to improve the situation of business interests. See "Memos Tell Officials How to Discuss Climate," by Adnrew C. Revkin in the March 8, 2006 New York Times.

Is HUD Evicting Poor Tenants Under False Pretext?

Suppose the Federal Government was riding roughshod over low income NYC tenants, would the mainstream media report on the matter? January 3, Eastern District Judge Frederic Block wrote,

It is difficult to fathom why...[HUD's position is that]it can take poor peoples' homes without telling them why and without affording them a meaningful opportunity to be heard.

Judge Block was setting a January 28 hearing in Linares v. Jackson, filed in February 2006, to determine the rights of tenants whom the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) has evicted for the sole reason that it plans to rehabilitate their homes.

And yet, with the exception of a piece in the New York Sun on January 4 entitled "HUD Suffers Setback in Plan To Sell N.Y. Properties" by Joseph Goldstein, there was no coverage. Nothing, according to Google, in either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Only Daniel Wise, writing today for the real estate site, GlobeSt.com and for the New York Law Journal, who revealed that the hearing will determine

"a meaningful opportunity" to show that HUD's "substantial rehabilitation determination" is not "arbitrarily being employed as a pretext to evict a tenant from a perfectly decent home in order to sell it to a private developer."

Block also wrote,

It is beyond cavil without telling them why and without affording them a meaningful opportunity to be heard.

HUD takes the position that you cannot not even challenge the deparatment's finding that your apartments is in disrepair in a court eviction proceeding. HUD is allowed streamlined procedures, it argues, in order to encourage "the upgrading and sale of HUD's foreclosure stock" to prospective buyers who receive federal or city funding to finance the repair work.

In granting the hearing, Judge Block maintains that the HUD rule appears to ignore the US Supreme Court's 1985 ruling in Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill (470 U.S. 532), that due process bars the taking of property, including poor people's homes. He also cited

Block cites Second Circuit precedents as supporting his ruling, the most directly relevant being the 1974 ruling in Caramico v. HUD (509 F.2d 694). Caramico voided a federal rule that required owners who had received federally insured mortgages to clear their buildings--without giving their tenants a chance to object--as a condition of collecting the insurance when they defaulted. The court, said Block,recognized that

[i]t is normally preferable to have the mortgagee vacate a property so that it may be programmed for repair and exposed to the sales market in the shortest practical time [but...] plaintiffs may be able to show that the housing they occupy is fit for continued habitation and that the repairs required in order to make it salable do not require the property to be vacated...Significantly, the [circuit] took note of the consequences of the loss of an abode 'in deteriorated, low-income neighborhoods where replacement quarters are not readily available at rents the occupants can afford.

Currently, under Rules for Eviction, tenants living in government-owned properties have some rights if they fail to pay rent or are accused of a crime. They must be served with notice of the reasons and then

The landlord shall not evict any tenant except by judicial action pursuant to State or local law and in accordance with the requirements of this subpart.

But, if HUD plans to renovate the property or sell it to a private party who intends to apply for public money to do so, under its Rule 247.10, the department claims that it can start eviction proceedings with no statement of reasons or opportunity to challenge the action.

This subpart shall not apply in any case in which HUD terminates the occupancy of a tenant as a direct result of a determination by HUD to substantially rehabilitate or demolish the project or to dispose of the project to a purchaser who purchases for the purpose of substantial rehabilitation or demolition.

Four tenants, three of whom have been evicted are being represented by South Brooklyn Legal Services.

Human Events Takes Out Google Attack Ad Here? (Oh dear, Obama Too Radical? Not)

Now that I'm at Blogger, I'm always curious to know who's advertising on The Writing Corner. I'm supposed to be able to screen whom I'll accept, but I haven't had the time to figure out how. Actually, I haven't had the time to really complete an entry, what with the Tech library on short hours for break and the tasks other than writing new entries involved in moving my blog from Yahoo.

So I was a bit chagrined to see a link to the junkola above appearing on my blog today via Google AdSense. And no, I'm not providing a link to Human Events, except via a description by Sourcewatch, if there were one, which unfortunately there is not for "the news source President Reagan called his 'favorite newspaper'"

There is, however a link at Sourcewatch to Human Event's parent company, Eagle Publishing, which bought out the original founder of the magazine, Regnery Publishing, started in 1947 by Henry Regnery, Sr.

It's kind of sad that the publisher of the Great Books series, William F. Buckley, Jr. and Barry Goldwater now calls four of the

great conservative thinkers of our era -- Robert Novak, Michelle Malkin...Oliver North [and], Pat Buchanan,

and publishes a screed like the following:

From his radical stance on abortion to his prominence in the corruption scandals that has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media, Barack Obama is not fit to be Senator -- not to mention the next President of the United States.

Obama has declared his presidential intentions, but it is up to well-informed and energetic conservatives like you to spare our nation from the scourge of a far-left President Barack H. Obama.

Get your FREE PDF copy of HUMAN EVENTS' new special report - Barack Obama: EXPOSED! - when you sign up for our free email newsletters. It's the only way you'll get all the ammunition you need to end Obama's White House dreams once and for all.

If this is the best that "well-informed and energetic conservatives" (like me?) can come up with, well,...but evidently it's not. Glenn Greenwald writing in Salon on January 5, tells of efforts by the more"subtle" dog whistlers: "Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds warn of "social unraveling" if Obama loses."

By the way, Greenwald refreshes our memory about Paul Gigot's account of the 2000 Florida recount. Although Greenwald links to a Village Voice piece mentioning Gigot, here's his original Wall Street Journal piece from November 24, 2000, "Miami Heat: A burgher rebellion in Dade County."

Street-smart New York Rep. John Sweeney, a visiting GOP monitor, told an aide to "Shut it down," and semi-spontaneous combustion took over.

The Republicans marched on the counting room en masse, chanting "Three Blind Mice" and "Fraud, Fraud, Fraud." True, it wasn't exactly Chicago 1968, but these are Republicans. Their normal idea of political protest is filling out the complaint card at a Marriott.

They also let it be known that 1,000 local Cuban-American Republicans were on the way--not a happy prospect for Anglo judges who must run for re-election. Inside the room, GOP lawyers also pointed out that the law--recall that quaint concept--required that any recount include all ballots.

The canvassers then stunned everybody and caved in. They cancelled any recount and certified the original Nov. 7 election vote, claiming that the Sunday deadline didn't allow enough time to recount everywhere. Republicans rejoiced and hugged like they'd just won the lottery.

$100 Computers

Photo by Ahmad Dan-Hamidu of deployment of the XO computer this spring in Nigeria from CNET News.

Of course, they'e not $100. That is the goal: computers cheap, simple and durable enough to put them in the hands of the poorest children in the undeveloped nations and thus bridge the digital divide. So far, lacking economies of scale, the XO computer, pictured above, comes in at $188, plus shipping.

Nicholas Negroponte, of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced the prototype at the at the Second World Summit on the Information Society and after testing, started off production of the machines November 7 with a Buy One-Get One Offer that ran through December 31.

Google signed on, as did chip maker AMD, but Microsoft and Intel balked. Then on July 13 of 2007, Intel joined the effort. For a while.

But on January 3, Intel announced it was pulling out of the deal. The sticking point: Intel had continued to push its Classmate competitor as a superior product, written about today in the New York Times and elsewhere.

More to come.

It's Obama for Democrats after the Iowa Caucus

The Democratic Party's Iowa Caucus results ( Google Map--adapted above): were as follows (in delegate equivalents):

Senator Barack Obama : 37.58%
Senator John Edwards : 29.75%
Senator Hillary Clinton : 29.47%
Governor Bill Richardson : 2.11%
Senator Joe Biden : 0.93%
Senator Chris Dodd : 0.02%
Uncommitted : 0.14%

Both Biden and Dodd have dropped out of the race. Biden's statement was, some would say, uncharacteristically short:

I am not going away. I’m returning to the Senate as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will continue to ensure that we protect the nation’s security and show our country that Democrats know how to keep America safe, keep our commitment to our troops and restore our country’s respect in the world.

Dodd's speech was longer and eloquently repeated the themes of his candidacy. After talking about how his campaign had been rewawrding despite the outcome and his inspiration by President Kennedy to serve and make a difference, he continued:

While we came up short in the race for caucus votes tonight, our campaign has more than kept pace in the race of ideas.

By raising ideas no other Presidential candidate has ever proposed, let there be no doubt that this campaign has set the standard.

When we began this race, every Democrat was for ending the war in Iraq - a war that has made us not more secure, but less so.

But it was only when we stood up and said this President wouldn't get another penny to fight that war that other candidates committed to doing what was necessary to actually end it.

When we began this race, every Democrat—every American—agreed that in America, we should never need a national crisis to bring the country together with national purpose.

But only when we proposed a universal national service plan to create the first generation in history that served our country did the national service debate begin in earnest - to create that renewed sense of community we all want.

And after 7 years of insecurity and watching this President have to go into hiding when he traveled abroad, we were all for stopping this President's assault on the Constitution.

But it was only when I stood up and you stood with me—it was only when tens of thousands of Americans stood together and said we would do whatever it took to stop this President from shredding the rule of law—that we actually did stop him.

And that fight goes on.

Gravel's website announced he was still in the race, despites rumors to the contrary. Nothing on Kucinich's site, other than that he was throwing his support to Obama for the second round, if he were not viable. Richardson was making the most of his tiny results, as " fourth place" finish.

more soon. The library is closing.

U.S. Election Integrity: An Update on Voting Machines

in·teg·ri·ty: n.

1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
2. The state of being unimpaired; soundness.
3. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

[Middle English integrite, from Old French, from Latin integrit s, soundness, from integer, whole, complete; see tag- in Indo-European roots.]
--The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000

*

How can we have sound elections, given the problems with electronic voting machines? Just yesterday, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's current Secretary of State (replacing Ken Blackwell) the issued her first directive of the years, mandating that:

Due to the concerns raised by the EVEREST report [see here], and to avoid any loss of confidence by voters that their ballot has been accurately east or recorded, I hereby direct all counties using direct recording eleetronic voting maehines (DRE) to provide an optical scan ballot to any voter who requests it as an alternative method to casting a ballot on a DRE voting machine. This is similar to the procedures already in place for counties using a DRE for persons appearing at their office to cast an absent voter ballot.

And today, according to Kim Zetter, writing in Wired's "Voting Groups Urge Presidential Candidates to Demand Paper Ballots for Upcoming Primaries,"

Five voting integrity groups have sent a letter to presidential candidates urging them to call on states to use paper ballots for the 2008 primary elections.

The groups, among them Iowans for Voting Integrity...cited a recent report out of Ohio that examined voting machines made by Diebold/Premier, Election Systems & Software and Hart InterCivic and found serious security vulnerabilities -- among them a vulnerability in ES&S iVotronic touch-screen...

more to come--the library closeth

Are U.S. Elections Good for Democracy?

David Swanson, one of the Founders of After Downing Street, published a thought-provoking piece December 31, "Death by Election:"

There must be a Star Trek episode (if there's not, there should be) in which all the best minds in the...political opposition on some planet are diverted into an obsession with a virtual reality game, leaving ...[the status quo] free to drive the planet into inevitable war and destruction....Elections are a fundamental pillar of democracy when not put to such use...My thesis is that, if we do not change our thinking, elections are going to be the death of U.S. democracy.

... Focusing on the choices presented to us in a two-year electoral campaign leads to insufficient pressure on Congress (with disastrous results in 2007), not to mention independent billionaire campaigns.

...[We must] start behaving like the citizens of a democracy.

Although Swanson is writing for his audience on the left, the point he is raising applies to anyone, regardless of their place on the political spectrum, if interested in true democracy. Swanson contends that we need to do more than just vote. In addition to assuring that votes are counted and that there is an informed electorate, we need to be involved between elections applying pressure to advocate for what we believe in by applying the tools set out in the Constitution: freedoms to speak, to assemble, to publish news, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. To this he adds impeachment, as he contends that we cannot tolerate lawlessness in our elected officials.

Swanson goes on to talk about the amount of time taken in the progressive media in following the horse race, while crimes continue unabated. Today's New York Times op-ed. "Stonewalled by the C.I.A." authored by 9-11 Commission Chairs Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, raises the specter of such lawlessness.

[T]he recent revelations that the C.I.A. destroyed videotaped interrogations of Qaeda operatives leads us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information about the 9/11 plot. Those who knew about those videotapes -- and did not tell us about them -- obstructed our investigation.

More later the library is closing....

So long Yahoo, Hello Blogger

Adapted from a graphic by John of All Faith.


Isn't ironic that for its own blog Yahoo has used the Wordpress platform, rather than 360? December 13 that blog alerted me to the company's new plug-in from Alex King at Crowd Favorite to make blogging easier on Wordpress.


If you were one of my blog's readers over at Yahoo 360, I had adopted that platform in August of 2005, since I was familiar with the email program. I remained for the sake of keeping all my entries in one place, even when I realized that it lacked compatibility with things like site meters.

I never heard from the company directly that they were discontinuing 360, stumbling upon entries from October 16, 2007, on its product blog and its company blog saying it was "transitioning" from 360 and to stay tuned.

Well, I did until the witching hour of this new year, having heard nothing since an update on October 24. I held off a move far longer than many who immediately left for Multiply or whatever. Since I was never a participant in the social networking aspect of the platform, I have decided to move here. Blogger lacks an import feature and Yahoo has yet to provide an export feature, so I've provided a link to the old blog, which I'll revise, if needed, once my old entries find a permanent home.

So, enough already, and on to my first real entry.

Books that meet the gold standard

Books remaindered, books destroyed.

When I was a Girl Scout, we used to sing a round, "Make new friends but keep the old/ One is silver the other's gold." My sentiment about books, as well as people. But, except for continuing best sellers, commercial publishers are into selling this year's books, in part in response to inventory depreciation rules established in Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 439 U.S. 522 (1979). And the mainsteam media buys into this model, only reviewing recent titles.

Literary presses, in contrast, maintain a backlist, keep their authors' works in print. And alternative media can, in books, as well as other matters, inform their readers about other than the latest frenzy. Below, I've listed some of my favorites from years past, old friends I revisit again and again. All are still available from their presses.

You can buy directly: the wellbeing of these publishers affects their authors. As Jonathan Greene of Gnomon Press explained to Meredith Sue Wilson for her September 10, 2007 Books for Readers Newsletter,

mall Press Distribution and Consortium that distribute books for many small presses return even less to small presses that Amazon: they normally sell books to stores or chains at 40% - 55% then take half of the gross receipts of any payment and put the amount due the publisher in escrow for three months. And Consortium charges the publisher a re-stocking fee for any books stores or distributors return [sometimes in unsellable condition.]

And support your local independent bookseller: Chapters Book Shop in Galax and The Easy Chair in Blacksburg special order any books that are not in stock. Anne Holbach at The Easy Chair says,

We definitely place special orders for customers. Usually, turnaround time is 2-3 days, and there is no charge for shipping. We also offer free membership in our frequent buyer’s club. Customers earn a $10 coupon for every $100 they spend, including special order items.

And you can order from that great family-run bookstore for three generations, Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon , which inceasingly relies on its national internet trade to stay in business. While Powell's doesn't offer the deep discounts of the chain stores which view books as just another commodity, Mike Powell explained to Scott Timberg for his December 3 Los Angeles Times story, "Powells turns the page," that his customers are charged

market price because we pay market wages, market benefits, market rents.

(The store is unionized.)

So here's my list:

1. Kettle Bottom: Diane Gilliam Fisher's (now just plain Diane Gilliam) 2004 series of poems imagines first person accounts of coal camp lives and deaths during the mines wars of 1920-1921. http://www.perugiapress.com/books2004_kettle.html
2. One Good Hand: Dana Wildsmith 2005 poetry collection chronicles a year in the Georgia mountains and has the single best poem I've read addressed to the beloved late poet Jim Wayne Miller, who for years taught summers at Hindman Settlement School. http://www.irisbooks.com/Wildsmith/One_Good_Hand.html
3. Coal, A Poetry Anthology: Disclosure--I was in this 2006 collection, but that's not why I'm suggesting it. Look at life in coal country as told by poets ranging from Don West, Jim Wayne Miller and James Still to Grace Cavalieri, Jay Parini, Dick Hague and Bob Henry Baber. http://www.blairmtp.com/CoalAnthology.htm
4. Shell Shaker LeAnne Howe's 2001 novel both hilarious and heartbreaking, juxtaposes the murders of two Choctows, one contemporary and one from the Trail of Tears era. http://www.auntlute.com/shellshaker.htm.
5. Sabbath Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: Blacksburg author Edward Falco's graceful 2005 short story collection combines compelling plots with engrossing characters. http://www.unbridledbooks.com/sabbathnight.html
6. Insect Dreams, The Half Life of Gregor Samsa: Intellectually ambition and funny, Mark Estrin's 2005 novel imagines Kafka's Gregor Samsa rescued only to be sold to a freak show, which he leaves to wend his way through the first half of 20th century U.S. history, ending up as a risk management consultant for the Manhattan Project. http://www.unbridledbooks.com/insectdreams.html
7. Rehearsing With the Gods: Ronald T. Simon's black and white photographs and Marc Estrin's text, published in 2004, give you the insiders' look at Bread and Puppet Theater. http://www.chelseagreen.com/2004/items/rehearsingwithgods/AssociatedArticles
8. If You Return Home with Food: Shawsville writer Mary Crockett Hill's award-winning 1998 poetry vivid and quirky collection speaks to hope and dread. http://www.emporia.edu/bluestem/hill.htm
9. Divine Right's Trip: Gurney Norman's novel with Ed McClannahan, spins the tale of a hippie traveling home from California to rescue his Kentucky homestead from the effects of stripmining. If you're old enough, you'll remember the novel as a seris of installments on the pages of the Last Whole Earth Catalog. Kinfolks, Norman's linked short stories, evoke loyalty to family and the close ties of community in the coming of age of Wilgus Collier and end in a stalemated correspondence between a sister who wants to return to Kentucky and her brother who wants to join her in Arizona because the mountains are now what they had been. Both were reissued by Gnomon Press, 329 W Broadway in Frankfort, 502-223-1858.
10. The Lie that Tells the Truth: John Dufresne's 2003 guide to writing fiction ranks as the most generous spirted and useful book on the writing craft since poet Bill Stafford's Writing the Australian Crawl and You Must Revise Your Life. Also, check out any fiction by Dufresne. You won't be disappointed. http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring04/032581.htm

UPDATE: A version of this post was published by New River Voice December 13. The owner did not post a link to that issue on his website and ironically lists the books I recommened by their Amazon links. Is that why the version that appeared on newsstands eliminated my links or even the names of the publishing houses and any reference to my blog in the author's note?)

Happily, I just found a link to the article in the books section posted December 18, but that version, while linking to the publishers, omits my mention of Powell's as an alternative to Amazon or a link to my blog. I added a comment January 13.

Thank you for posting the links to the original publishers. I notice that you have advertisements for your Amazon shop to the right. Have you looked into whether Powell’s Books has a co-marketing plan. Wouldn’t it be better to support an independent bookseller on line, as well?

That great family-run bookstore for three generations, of Portland, Oregon , inceasingly relies on its national internet trade to stay in business. While Powell’s doesn’t offer the deep discounts of the chain stores which view books as just another commodity, Mike Powell explained to Scott Timberg for his December 3 Los Angeles Times story, “Powells turns the page,” that his customers are charged

market price because we pay market wages, market benefits, market rents.

(The store is unionized.)

I got back the comment,

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Let's see if it gets posted. If it does, I'll post a link. If not, as Tony Soprano said,

forgedaboutit!

NRC approves more nuke plants for Virginia

Photo of Lois Gibbs of Love Canal fame who spoke against the new nuke plants near Louisa, Virginia when she was in Charlottesville.

With over 200 miles of shoreline and some 13,000 surface acres of water, Lake Anna is a recreational centerpiece that maintains a rural charm. As Virginia's second largest lake, it has become a premier choice for water lovers. Here, you can enjoy water sports of your choice - power boating, sailing, water skiing, wake boarding, jet skiing and certainly swimming. One of the most common reasons water enthusiasts love Lake Anna is because of its clean water. If you're an angler, you'll find that Lake Anna is a proven year-round fishery. One of the best lakes to fish for lunker largemouth bass on the eastern seaboard, Lake Anna is also known for its hard charging stripers and fine eating crappies. Catfish, bream and walleyes are also on the lake's menu.

--Lake Anna Business Partnership

Sounds idyllic. Besides the marinas and restaurants, there are homes strung out along the shores of the lovely lake near Louisa, VA. What a great place to build two additional nuke plants. (There are already two.) But this is exactly what Dominion Energy applied for on September 25, 2003 .

I happened to be in Charlotesville in March 25, 2005 for the Virginia Festival of the Book when the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) brought down Lois Gibbs to explain why the North Anna application was a bad idea. Health hazards, adverse environmental impacts, nuclear waste uncertainties. She sure convinced me.

For details, read BREDL's report, issued in June of 2004. Read the August 2, 2007, BREDL comments filed with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, citing concerns about the water temperature of the discharge.

But, today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ignored all this and authorized an Early Site Permit (ESP) to Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC for the site. The NRC staff has 10 business days to issue the permit, valid for up to 20 years. This is the third permit approved. The NRC granted one for the Clinton site in Illinois on March 15, and for the Grand Gulf site in Mississippi on April 5. A fourth ESP is being processed for the Vogtle site in Georgia.

The NRC published a final safety evaluation for the North Anna ESP in August 2006, a final environmental impact statement in December 2006, and then the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) conducted a hearing on June 29, 2007, ruling that the permit could be issued. See: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/esp/north-anna.html. Those in Louisa County can view the documents at the library, 881 Davis Highway in Mineral, VA.

Supposedly, safety and environmental issues have been resolved and the site is suitable for construction and operation of a nuclear plant. The company (or any other potential applicant interested in the site) still must seek NRC approval to build one or more nuclear plants on the site. But what are the chances of refusal?

Is any site suitable? Especially one this close to the Nation's and the State capitals. How can the Bush administration harp on the need for Homeland Security and at the same time go full speed ahead, building new nuclear plants? Wouldn't wind, solar, geothermal, etc. be a better idea? Think of the opportunity costs of continuing to shovel money at nukes, oil and coal, just because they are entrenched and have so much influence.

The Need for a New GI Bill

Photo from UCLA's web article on the GI Bill.

For some reason, my newsletter from Jim Webb (D-VA) (email) went to my spam folder. This is his Veteran's Day plea for a better GI Bill for Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. I'd add that I wouldn't be opposed to backdating this to include Vietnam vets, if any of them would like additional education. Heck, how about education for anyone willing to perform national service? As Webb says,

The United States has never gone wrong when it has made sustained new investments in higher education and job training.

It would be especially fitting to make such an investment, given the fact that the "All Volunteer Force," and for that matter, the draft before it, is hardly an equal opportunity employer.

The Department of Defense has published an annual report Population Representation in the Military Service starting in 1974. The 1998 report notes that,

Analysis of Vietnam era veterans indicated that individuals of high socioeconomic status comprised about half the proportion of draftees compared to their representation in the overall population.

Interestingly, the reports for 1997-2004 are available online. Thus the last information is for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004. The 1997, 1998, and 1999 reports included a chapter examining socioeconomic status v.s the general population. This is no longer the case. The 2000 report did have a chapter about representation in the army.

Webb's measure S.22 received a hearing in the Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs on July 31 with no action since then. Bobby Scott's companion bill, H.R. 2702, introduced June 13, has been referred to subcommittee and there the tale ends to date.

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Webb writes,

In terms of providing true opportunity and creating a level playing field among Americans of all walks of life, the original World War II G.I. Bill was perhaps the most important piece of legislation in our history. Designed to help veterans readjust to civilian life, this landmark legislation helped 7.8 million World War II veterans pursue a college education. The program cost about $14.5 billion (in 1940s dollars), and for every dollar invested, the government estimates that seven dollars were generated.

From political figures to Nobel Prize winners, the effectiveness of the G.I. Bill has been demonstrated by the broad success of those who benefited from it. As former Senator Bob Dole, himself a recipient of that G.I. Bill's benefits, mentioned recently during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, "It made a big difference. I think it's the single most important piece of legislation when it comes to education. It changed America more than anything I can think of."

We have an opportunity to enact equally important legislation today for those who have served post-9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan. On my first day in office, I introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007 in order to provide our returning troops benefits that mirror those provided to our veterans after World War II.

In the current debate about how to properly support our newest generation of veterans, history has taught us that we must not overlook the great transformative power of education. This Veterans Day, I believe it is time that we commit to a more robust educational assistance program and that we provide a first-class education for the men and women who have served us honorably in Iraq and Afghanistan.

First as an infantry combat Marine in Vietnam and later as a full Committee Counsel on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, I saw first-hand the inequities of the Vietnam-era G.I. Bill and the difficulties that so many veterans of that era encountered as they re-entered the civilian world.

Under the current Montgomery G.I. Bill, designed primarily for peacetime not wartime service, a service member must pay $100 a month for the first year of his or her enlistment, in order to receive up to $1,075 a month toward an education up to a total of $38,700. The average amount a veteran receives these days is $666.67 a month.

This amount is insufficient for readjustment to civilian life after serving two, three, or four tours of duty, as many of our post-9/11 servicemembers have. This compensation is hardly enough to allow a veteran to attend many community colleges, let alone a traditional four year institution.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, himself a Vietnam combat veteran, has since joined me in leading the charge in the Senate, in addition to 23 Senate colleagues who have signed on as co-sponsors to my legislation. Congressman Bobby Scott introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives, which enjoys the support of 75 co-sponsors, including Congressman Jim Moran.

The United States has never gone wrong when it has made sustained new investments in higher education and job training. Enacting a more robust G.I. bill akin to that of the World War II era is not only the right thing to do, but its the smart thing to do, in terms of investing in the economic health of our country. As someone who hails from the soldier-citizen tradition, I hold immense personal pride in those who answer our nation's call to duty.

Now as a U.S. Senator, I hope to put into place the mechanisms that will allow future generations of Presidents, Senators and Nobel laureates to rise through the ranks on a sturdy educational foundation provided by the G.I. bill.

Uranium Mining for Virginia

Cartoon from the November 3, 2007 Roanoke Times by Chris OBrion (email, website), used with permission from Mr. OBrion, who moved back to Virginia from Olympia, WA in 2002. Previously, he had worked at the Fredericksburg, Virginia Freelance Star. OBrion has stuff for sale at Cafe Press.

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Chatham is home to a sort of literary aristocracy including poet Ellen Voigt and Pulitzer Prize winner Claudia Emerson and WaPo book editor Jonathan Yardley. And Walter Coles is hardly Jed Clampitt of the the 60's sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, whose proposed reinvention as reality series stirred public uproar in Appalachia about negative stereotyping .

Coles Hill in Charham, Virginia in Pittsylvania County, has been in Walter Coles's family since 1785, according to Tim Davis, the editor of the Chatham Star-Tribune, in his October 3 story, "Local company hopes to mine uranium." The house Coles resides in dates back to 1810 and the farm, which originally included 5,500 acres, was used to raise tobacco, wheat, and cattle. Coles attended Fork Union Military Academy and the The Citadel, in Charleston, S.C. After serving in Vietnam, he join the U.S. Agency for International Development, an arm of the State Department, in 1969. He has lived and worked in Asia, Jordan, Egypt, and Jamaica. After retiring from the foreign service in 1999, he spent five years as an international consultant on land reform and privatization, his last job being in Afghanistan. His wife, Alice Clement Coles, who still works with the State Department, is the sister of former delegate and Virginia transportation secretary Whitt Clement.

Otherwise, OBrion has drawn an interesting comparison between oil and uranium. And as he wrote in an email to me,

Two factors that almost led me to ditch the cartoon: I remembered the
outcry over the Beverley Hillbillies reality show, and I knew that
Coles wasn't in any way poor.

But it's just such a catchy tune.

Indeed , the "Ballad of Jed Clampitt" hit number one on the country charts in 1966. The composer Earl Scruggs and his bandmate Lester Flatt appeared as themselves in six episodes of the show. Their other foray into popular culture, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" ended up in the movie Bonnie and Clyde. But , fiving lie to rural rube stereotypes, Earl Scruggs has recorded with the likes of Sting, Elton John and the Byrds.

*

Cole's ancestral home sits on one of the largest uranium deposits in the United States. There is also uranium in Orange County, which raised questions recently when a shale company prosed a quarry there. Rising uranium prices and the resurgence of the nuclear power industry after federal underwriting in the 2005 energy bill, have led Cole , along with friends, family and Canadian investors in Virginia Uranium, Inc. to lobby the Virginia Assembly to study lifting the moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia. The company's president is Norm Reynolds, former head of Marline Corp, which bought up uranium rights in both Orange and Pittsylvania Counties, the last time the state was considering the mining of the ore.

Cole, with the help of his brother-in-law, persuaded Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, to amend Virginia's 2006 energy bill to include a study of possible uranium mining in Pittsylvania. Cale Jaffe, a lobbyist for Charlottesville's Sourthern Environmental Law Center told the Richmond Times Dispatch, the final bill had no direct mention of uranium mining, but the study resurfaced in drafts of the 2007 Virginia Energy Plan. Sure enough, you can read them, starting on page 50 , in the plan Governor Tim Kaine released September 12.

The Law Center says on its site,

There is no precedent for large-scale uranium mining in eastern states such as Virginia, where the population density puts more people at risk and where a wetter climate increases the chance of radiation contaminating streams and groundwater. Virginia has no experience with regulating uranium mining.

The studies from the 1980s raised serious questions that were never answered. Many questions remain today, including where the uranium would be processed, how the mine waste or “tailings” would be disposed of, what safeguards would be in place to protect the environment and public health, how would the facility be secured from earthquakes and floods, and many more.

Security, Privacy & Government Accountability

To review this post on Newstrust, go here.

Chart tallying calls to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding their position on telecom immunity.

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Changes to that law must be considered carefully and openly – not eviscerated in secret Administration interpretations or compromised through fear or intimidation

Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman

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As the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up its consideration of the currently proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) laws, advocates for the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution have advocated that the Committee strip of provisions for telecom immunity and blanket warrants from S.2248, the Senate Intelligence Committee's proposed replacement for the Protect America Act. Chris Dodd's presidential campaign sites is maintaining a "citizen-generated whip count" which encourages calls to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee asking them to oppose telecom immunity. It also asks callers to report back and post the reactions they receive. The American Civil Liberties Union's current letter writing campaign asks that the Senate require individual warrants.

Back on October 2, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine the implications of the PAA."Preserving the Rule of Law in the Fight Against Terrorism" featured testimony from Committee Chairman Leahy and from Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Office of Special Council , who had, along with his boss John Ashcroft, resisted the Administration's warrantless surveillance program. Goldman, now at Harvard Law School, based his testimony on his book, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration (W.W. Norton, 2007).

Yesterday's hearing, "How to Protect Americans’ Security and Privacy and Preserve the Rule of Law and Government Accountability" looked at the S. 2248. (FDL's Marcy Wheeler live blogged a transcript is here.) Representing the Administration's position was Kenneth L. Wainstein (complete testimony), Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department's National Security Division. He decried FISA's outdated provision that

substantially impeded the Intelligence Community’s ability to collect effectively the foreign intelligence information necessary to protect the Nation

and outlined a defense of telecom immunity and criticism for the increased reporting requirements and sunset clause of the current bill. Supporting his testimony was that of Patrick F. Philbin (complete testimony) , a partner in the DC law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, who had served as Deputy Attorney General in the Office of Special Counsel from 2001 to 2005.

Leahy (complete testimony) opened his statement by criticizing the PAA's granting of "sweeping powers" for warrentless surveillance without meaningful privacy or civil liberty protection. After having received some of the documents requested from the administration, Leahy still expressed reservations about telecom immunity included in S.2248 :

The Congress should be careful not to provide an incentive for future unlawful corporate activity by giving the impression that if corporations violate the law and disregard the rights of Americans, they will be given an after-the-fact free pass. If Americans’ privacy is to mean anything, and if the rule of law is to be respected, that would be the wrong result.

A retroactive grant of immunity or preemption of state regulators does more than let the carriers off the hook. Immunity is designed to shield this Administration from any accountability for conducting surveillance outside the law. It could make it impossible for Americans whose privacy has been violated illegally to seek meaningful redress.

The lawsuits that would be dismissed as a result of such a grant of immunity are perhaps the only avenue that exists for an outside review of the government’s program and honest assessment of its legal arguments. That kind of assessment is critical if our government is to be held accountable. One of my chief inquiries before deciding to support any legislation on this subject is whether it will foster government accountability. Anyone who proposes letting the telecommunications carriers off the hook or preempting state authorities has a responsibility to propose a manner to test the legality of the government’s program and to determine whether it did harm to the rights of Americans.

... The FISA was enacted in the wake of earlier scandals, when the rights and privacy of Americans were trampled while no one was watching. We in the Senate, and on this Committee, have a solemn responsibility to hundreds of millions of our fellow citizens. Because the American people’s rights, freedom and privacy are easily lost; but once lost, they are difficult to win back.

Ranking member Arlen Spector (R-PA) said in his opening statement,

With respect to the request for retroactive release of liability, I have great reluctance. Part of that stems from the secrecy that the government has interposed. When we were seeking subpoenas last year for the telephone companies, we were thwarted by action of the vice president in contacting Republican members without notifying the chairman.

And as I see the situation, I think the telephone companies do have a strong, equitable case, but my inclination is that they ought to get indemnification; that the courts ought not to be closed.

I doubt very much the cases will be proved, but if plaintiffs can prove them, I think they ought to have their day in court. And it is costly, but that's part of the cost of the war on terrorism.

Russ Feingold, (D-WI) (complete testimony) ,expressed his belief that the Intelligence Committee, on which he also sits, would have benefited from a public hearing such as the current one, with input

not just of the Administration, but also of outside experts who may have brought a different point of view to consideration of the legislation.

One "outside expert" testifying , Morton H. Halperin (complete testimony), Director of U.S. Advocacy, Open Society Institute and a member of the Board of Directors of the Constitution Project and its Liberty and Security Committee, posed two interesting questions. Regarding the first,

• What electronic communications should the government be able to acquire using procedures different from those mandated for criminal investigations;

Halperin noted that there was an ongoing debate about whether the change was "necessary and constitutional" and proposed to "leave that discussion to others." Instead, he chose to focus on his second question of

• what procedures should be put in place so that all concerned groups can know clearly what the rules are and have confidence that the rules are being followed?

He outlined four major failures he found in the Intelligence Committee bill:

• Section 701's statement that “Nothing in the definition of electronic surveillance under section 101 (f) shall be construed to encompass surveillance that is targeted in accordance with this title at a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.”
• the lack of required, advance court orders for surveillance ;
• the lack of effective procedures and oversight to insure the law was not used to acquire the communications of a "U.S. person or a person in the United States"
• lack of proclaiming that FISA procedures were the sole means to conduct electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes and that private companies must cooperate only if they receive a court order or a certification specifically authorized by this statute .

The other "outside expert, "Edward Black (complete testimony) , President and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, had this to say,

We should all want protection both from terrorists and from illegal spying, search and seizure by our own government. In crafting our efforts to combat terrorism, we should not forfeit our privacy or weaken our First or Fourth Amendment rights. As a nation, we should not countenance the sort of autocratic surveillance of ordinary citizens which we find so abhorrent in repressive foreign regimes.

According to the Dodd site, to date only Jon Kyl supports telecom immunity, but it appears john Cornyn (TX) is learning that way. The three in addition to Feingold on record as opposing immunity are Joe Biden (DE), Ted Kennedy MA), and Ben Cardin (MD). The ACLU reported on October 31,

American Civil Liberties Union, Move On.org, People For the American Way and bloggers from Open Left, Salon, Fire Dog Lake and others delivered petitions to Senate and House offices signed by over 250,000 Americans who oppose granting amnesty to the telecom companies that violated the Fourth Amendment and their privacy.

So, it remains to be seen whether, once again, Congress will give the Administration what it desires when the issue is fighting terrorism or whether it will stand up for the Constitution. Things look more hopeful than they did last week, I have to remember that in December 2005, that Republican Senators' dismay with NSA revelations made me wonder whether we had reached a tipping point with regard to renewal of the Patriot Act.