Putting our trust in one single company

What could possibly go wrong?:

The ACLU has taken on a patent case for the first time in its nearly 90-year history. The government’s been allowing private companies to patent human genes. The ACLU thinks that violates the First Amendment and patent law. This is heady, complicated stuff. But when a patent creates a monopoly that restricts the free flow of information, a lot is at stake, and when we’re talking about something like genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer, real women are hurt. This video about the case features some of those women’s stories.

Thank you, ACLU!

I read the news today, oh boy....

Dubai circles the drain? Really? Dubai?:

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai’s major construction projects have been suspended or canceled. But with the government unwilling to provide data, rumors are bound to flourish, damaging confidence and further undermining the economy.

We've killed people in our concentration camps:

The American Civil Liberties Union has released previously classified excerpts of a government report on harsh interrogation techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These previously unreported pages detail repeated use of "abusive" behavior, even to the point of prisoner deaths.

The documents, obtained by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act request, contain a report by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defense Department interrogation operations. Church specifically calls out interrogations at Bagram Air base in Afghanistan as "clearly abusive, and clearly not in keeping with any approved interrogation policy or guidance."

The two unredacted pages from the Church report may be found here.

The ACLU's release comes on the same day as a major FOIA document dump by three other leading human rights groups: Documents which reveal the Pentagon ran secret prisons in Bagram and Iraq, that it cooperated with the CIA's "ghost detention" program and that Defense personnel delayed a prisoner's release to avoid bad press.

And just what ELSE are the thieves walking out with?:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is missing 67 computers, including 13 that were lost or stolen in the past year. Officials say no classified information has been lost.

The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight on Wednesday released a memo dated Feb. 3 from the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration outlining the loss of the computers.

Kevin Roark, a spokesman for Los Alamos, on Wednesday confirmed the computers were missing and said the lab was initiating a monthlong inventory to account for every computer. He said the computers were a cybersecurity issue because they may contain personal information like names and addresses, but they did not contain any classified information.

We're still unaware Tasers can kill?

A man in the northern California city of San Jose died after being jolted with a Taser, police said Thursday, apparently the sixth such death since the department began using the stun guns in 2004.

The man, who police said appeared to be in his 20s, got into a struggle with two officers when they tried to arrest him in the backyard of a home late Wednesday.

I think I'll go dig that bunker in my backyard....

Update: Canada is rewriting its rules about Tasers because the Canadians get it:

OTTAWA — Given the "high risk of death" in some cases, RCMP officers are now limited in their use of tasers to individuals who pose a clear threat to the public or police, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott„© said yesterday.

Mr. Elliott used two public appearances to provide new details on the RCMP's taser policy, which has come under fire after the death of Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski„© at Vancouver's airport in 2007.

The new restrictions have been in place since last June, but were laid out in full only yesterday, two months after the announcement that four Mounties who used a taser to subdue Mr. Dziekanski would not face criminal charges.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Mr. Elliott said the weapons can no longer be used against people who are simply refusing to co-operate with Mounties.

Why don't they just tell us who is so totally patriotic and beyond reproach

That they can fly. Then give all the rest of us little yellow stars....

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A senior FBI official has testified before Congress, detailing to Washington the current progress of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which was recently audited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The TSC has combined 12 existing terror lists which were kept by different departments and agencies within the federal government, and compiled a consolidated Terrorist Screening Data Base (TSDB).

However, according to the GAO report, the number of names in the TSDB has reached over 755,000.

Civil liberties groups and some lawmakers have called on the FBI and the White House to impose stricter oversight measures in an effort to make sure the terror list doesn't grow to encompass innocent people.

"As the number of people on our global watch lists steadily gallops towards one million, we should reevaluate how effective these lists are. If we must live with these blacklists, the very least we should ask for is that they remain relevant and functional," American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Senior Legislative Counsel Timothy Sparapani said. "Congress needs to intensify its oversight of these lists before we all become suspects in the eyes of the Terrorist Screening Center."

Nonetheless, TSC Director Leonard Boyle testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and explained their critical role "in securing our borders and the safety of the American people by providing to the nation's entire screening and law enforcement communities the identities of known and suspected terrorists."

Boyle told lawmakers that the TSDB has "a process for removing names from the watchlist when it has been conclusively determined they do not have a nexus to terrorism," as well as "a redress process for any individuals who believe they have been improperly delayed or otherwise inconvenienced because of the watchlist."

"The TSC has significantly enhanced interagency cooperation in the post-9/11 culture where information sharing is a must," Boyle said. "In fact, as the GAO report cites, 'The TSC plays a central role in the real-time sharing of information, creating a bridge among screening agencies.' The TSC has... provided a physical mechanism to ensure information sharing is done in an efficient manner."

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. It was ... what... two years ago that 60minutes ran their article about the ten Tom Johnsons (Thompson...Smith.. whatever) who CONTINUALLY were stopped at the airport. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been made more efficient, except maybe we aren't threatened by terrorist sippy cups.

The Bush administration likes corralling people and demanding papers, look at how they treated protesters. They like harassing citizens and making them cower. Maybe they even dream of dressing the airport security in uniforms and high black boots and dramatic insignias. The PNAC neocons love this kind of shit.

They're not going to change anything.