From Ted Koppel over on NPR. You don’t even have to read it, you can listen to it.

Key point:

Here’s what scares me: One of these days, we’re going to have another catastrophe in this country. I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready.

[…]

The point is that we need to begin setting up a network that reaches from the federal government to the state level, from the states to the cities and townships and from every police, fire and sheriff’s department into each and every neighborhood. I know they can reach me when they want to, because I hear from them when they have a fundraiser coming up.

In Wonkette apparently [update: an aid to (it would appear)] Rep. Richard Pombo said some nasty stuff about Connecticut. Does anyone have any idea what set this guy off?

Of course if they elect Lieberman again, I might well have to agree with him.

It would appear that Parker Brothers thinks we are all so incapable of dealing with cash that they best switch Monopoly to plastic. (You can read about it at engadget. Or here at Sky News.) While I think this is crazy, they might have something, given that most cashiers these days can’t count change without the register telling them what it is. Much less understand why you are handing them $12.07 when the bill is $6.82 but I digress.

The NY Post commissioned a study of Ann Coulter’s work and discovered she “cribbed liberally in her latest book”. Post article, online here (via comments), and Editor & Publisher has a synopsis.

In other news, there is a fun Ann Coulter quiz.

Hints, quality of writing and historical context are good clues.

I think the headline is sufficient editorializing on this.

We report, you giggle

Why? Because it’s fun… Anyway, looks like the NSA could be hacking the Internet. Okay, technically the activity alleged is packet sniffing on a router network that covers about 1/3 of Internet traffic. I think the FBI would have some serious words with anyone who tried something like this and was not the NSA. You know, of the “no contact with a computer for 20 years” kind.

In entertainment news today, Sir. Paul McCartney, author of hit song “When I’m 64″, turns 64. So, umm, yeah, that’s it I suppose.

Okay, so today we have Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post with an op-ed titled The Name Is Kafka… Franz Kafka (I’m not sure why he spends the first three paragraphs making fun of the CIA web site, but the rest of the op-ed is pretty interesting.)

Key quote:

But your rights and mine are not supposed to be at the whim of the government, let alone the president. They are based in the Constitution and the willingness of those we put in power to obey it — even as interpreted by judges they may disagree with. The most distressing aspect of this story is the apparent attitude of our current rulers that the Constitution is an obstacle to be overcome — by conducting dirty business abroad or by wildly disingenuous interpretations of laws and the Constitution.

and

The fact that there are countries in this world where the government can torture people in secret and without fear of courts is supposed to be a tragedy — not a convenience.

[Bumped to top of homepage, since there was so much discussion and it scrolled off so quickly. -ed.]

Today, specifically I’m talking about the estate tax and the 18 families that have spent ten years lobbying to save a combined 1 trillion dollars on their taxes. That’s trillion with a T. And that’s one trillion more in debt and deficit spending that you, I, the fence post, and our kids our going to have to come up with. If the repeal of the estate tax becomes final, we are talking about vesting over a third of this nations wealth in the hands of less than 1 percent of the population by the middle of this century. And a population that has never done anything to earn that money.

(more…)

Just saying, this guy deserves serious consideration.

For those needing a quick mid-week cat fix…

Today the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Garcetti v. Ceballos. In the 5-4 decision the court decided that the first amendment and whistle blower protections do not protect someone acting in their official capacity. More in the New York Times

The gist of it is Mr. Ceballos complained to his boss that ethically questionable practices were being used to obtain search warrants. Mr. Ceballos was subsequently passed over for promotion. The central issue, according to Mr. Justice Kennedy (via the NYT article):

The controlling factor in this case, Justice Kennedy wrote, was that Mr. Ceballos was acting purely in an official capacity when he complained internally about the search warrant. “Ceballos wrote his disposition memo because that is part of what he was employed to do,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “He did not act as a citizen by writing it.”

Anyway, interesting article and interesting issue. Among other questions this raises, does this mean the a government employe that complains about ethical issues to his boss has less protection than if he aired his grievances live on 60 Minutes? Which, any constitutional issues aside, is a poor management position to take. I would think one would want to encourage employees to come to them first before they light the whole bridge on fire so to speak. However, that does not mean that the Constitution mandates good management practices.

So, just out of curiosity, I was wondering what the peanut gallery thought of this ruling…

Emotional support pets in restaurants, aircraft, and hotels today, in The New York Times.

In a totally expected turn of events, it looks like Bush might be using his NSA data mining program to get information on who is calling journalists and when according to an ABC news blog.

Best quote on this I’ve seen so far is from Greg Story, “[…] I’d better prepare. Does the arm band go on the right or the left? Sorry, I’m a fascist newb.”

Now he’s free calling…

Bush hits 31 percent approval ratting third lowest ever and tied with his dad’s low point. In other news Congress and the President combined for the worst “right track wrong track” result since the question has been asked…

Given that Bush caused me a serious flight delay on Monday when he decided he had to go to Florida it is good to see people realizing he is annoying… And seriously folks, when your numbers are this low, running around closing airports for hours on end is not going to win you any friends. (Although I’m sure Brendan would have live blogged seeing Air Force One on the other side of the airport.)