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Showing posts from August 10, 2006

No, Joe, no!

It's been a while since your blogstress received bon mots from our friend, St. Jacques du Fenway, but yesterday's post, in which your Webwench suggested to to Joe Lieberman that he abandon his independent run and instead take an academic post somewhere, raised some hackles: Ma chère écrivaine, Please do not foist Lieberman on the pristine world of academia. What have we done to deserve such a punishment? --St. Jacques du Fenway

Red Alert: civil liberties on the block

Given the president's statement , just minutes ago, on the apparently foiled U.K.-based terrorism plot, it seems quite clear to your blogstress that this latest turn of events will be used as yet another reason to further concentrate power in the executive branch. Yesterday we learned that the administration wants to revise the War Crimes Act to exempt the abuse of imprisoned "enemy combatants" from oversight by U.S. courts. We saw how AOL posted online the search history of one its subscribers, and we know that the U.S. is searching such information -- as well as your phone records -- without going to the courts for warrants. And sitting in the Senate is a bill supported by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter that would officially exempt the administration from obtaining the warrants required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Hold on to your hats, don't use the phone, your e-mail or travel.