Aug 9, 2013
Is it Festivus yet? Because it was time for the airing of the grievances, apparently. A Glenn Greenwald tweet points to yesterday's NYT editorial "Breaking Through Limits on Spying," noting that it should be read by "the 'NSA-reveres-the-law' crowd," which reminds me to revisit his often-mentioned (by me) "cartoon super villain" post from July 2006. Ah! I feel better now. Carry on, everyone! Following up on some of the tangential points mentioned in that discussion (and yesterday, by Armando), McClatchy's reporting from last month on the former CIA employee who actually did get prosecuted in Italy on an "extraordinary rendition" case. We also revisit an unexplored tangent from the Louisiana sinkhole disaster, namely Desmogblog's reporting on alleged EPA election time "censorship" of its own fracking water contamination report. Finally, acting on a tip from @gnarlytrombone, we read noise of rain's May 12th diary, "WI's Overpass Light Brigade, the Law and Building a Movement," as a counterexample to the gun rights movement's seeming monopoly on the ability to conduct and win street-level litigation of civil rights directly with the cops.