Author: david

“Can we get Person A’s phone records, without a warrant?” No. “Can we get everybody’s phone records, including Person A’s, without a warrant?” Sure. No problem. Can it really be so simple? It’s hard to see why not.

“According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released yesterday, 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort.” Americans appear so far to have been soothed by government reassurances such as this: “The database… includ[es] called and calling…

No one knows exactly what “price gouging” is supposed to mean in a capitalist economy. Price fixing and collusion are a different matter, but that so far does not appear to be the issue currently with gasoline. There are some relevant things we do know. As traffic volume increases, private cars become less efficient: traffic…

This video “DearMr. President” is very powerful, insightful, and seriously moving. The singer, Pink, is a top-rank music star, and I think it will probably be playing on MTV. She opens it by saying, “This is the most important song I have ever written.” This second one, “I’m the Decider,” is just very clever, ingenious,…

LBJ liked to leak escalations, then deny them–two or three times over. When they actually occurred, it was already Old News. Such sequences can easily have a six-month or two-year time-line, if you wish to align them with elections. Is there an Iran strike in the pipeline? There is no good reason. It will be…

“The Smoking Quote”? In this item from ABC news, the wording of the quote they cite from President Bush decouples what he refers to as the “leak of classified information”– within this specific context –from the particular leak of Plame’s CIA identity: “He also spoke out after allegations surfaced that administration officials had leaked the…