Just in time for November’s congressional elections, the Supreme Court today handed down a 5-4 ruling (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission [PDF]) that decrees that the Government may not restrict corporations from spending as much money as they want to influence political campaigns, particularly with the production and airing of ads. The decision reversed [...]
Passengers aboard a December 25th Northwest Airlines flight subdued a Nigerian man who had ignited a device taped to his leg. Ever the reactionaries, the fine people at the Transportation Security Administration (as directed by the US Department of Homeland Security) have hatched some wide-ranging measures in order to alleviate the rest of us from [...]
According to National Review writer (and self-styled philanthropist) John J. Miller, a little shame is good medicine for the one-in-eight Americans currently taking advantage of state welfare: The federal government may think it’s doing people a favor by providing them with access to food, but it’s doing them a disservice if it also robs them [...]
I wrote two years ago about the carrot of convenience the corporations will dangle over the heads of the consumer nation to coerce them into forfeiting their own freedoms. New “fast-pass” traffic lanes between California and Mexico promise to speed processing of the 55,000 vehicles that enter the U.S., provided they’re willing to be tagged [...]
According to airport security goons, denouncing figures of authority is no longer a protected right. At least not in a reliable way. For instance, merely writing that Transportation Security Administration secretary Kip Hawley is an idiot on your state-prescribed zip-top liquids baggie–true as it may be–may provide authorities with the reasonable cause to detain you. [...]
Despite being decommissioned more than two years ago, the Defense Department’s Total Information Awareness program is still collecting data. According to a report in the National Journal, project names were changed to conceal their identities, but their funding remains intact, often under the same contracts. The projects that moved, their new code names, and the [...]
In an effort to contain deliberate misinformation campaigns perpetrated by diarists, the Homeland Security Department coordinated a week-long exercise to disrupt their would-be hacker adversaries. The test scenario, observed by more than 115 government agencies, companies and organizations, included such challenges as responding to “deliberate misinformation campaigns” by bloggers. Foresman likened his agency’s role during [...]
Big Brother, as portrayed in popular fiction, is often a blatantly adversarial opponent, strong-arming the exhausted proles into their veal cages. It’s a romantic image, to be sure, but everyone knows that you catch more flies with honey, and absolute authority is not nearly as seductive as convenience. Make something more convenient, expedite it, make [...]
Bill Scannell has created UnrealID.com, a place for citizens to generate faxes to their senators regarding the Real ID Act. Note that the act is up for vote–tomorrow, Tuesday, May 10th. In a CNet article, Declan McCullagh writes: Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you’ll need a [...]