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I was thinking of writing the essay about being a female, identifying as a gamer, and growing up as that in the midwestern US. Because that still needs to be written.
Instead, I'm going to get in touch with my inner 17-year-old and talk politics.
You see, back when I was in high school, I was highly political and just this side of anarchist. I ranted and was full of loathing for the current administration. Nowadays, that has gone down to a deep dislike, mostly because it's really hard to rage against The Man and The Machine when The Man is signing your paychecks. (And is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future)
Except in this case.
A little more than a week ago, a bill on FISA guidelines was being collaborated on in the House. The Democrats who worked on it hail it as a "compromise". Someone should give Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi copies of Webster's Dictionary, because I don't think "compromise" means "giving the other party everything they wanted".
Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald has written about this at length. It's a horrible step backwards for US citizens' civil liberties, which is why the ALCU and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) have been screaming. What it amounts to is that the telecom companies who participated in the President and NSA's massively illegal spying program immunity. If the US Senate passes this, those companies will never face trial.
It isn't just the Fourth Amendment getting eviscerated here, it's Article I Section 9 of the US Constitution:
"No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Actually, Slate.com does a good job of explaining why the hell this thing is so bad here.
Currently, the bill is being delayed in the Senate due to the combined forces of awesome in the forms of Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) (full disclaimer: I really like Feingold. Up until the last year, he's been my senator, and damn if I wasn't always a bit proud of that fact), who are basically using the Senate's own procedural rules against it. (The EFF's Deeplinks blog has a running update log on it.)
From what I can tell, major media outlets are acting like their usual sycophantic selves and the only place I've been actually hearing someone question what the hell the House was thinking are online sources (like Salon.com, Slate.com, and Ars Technica). This shit is bad, and if it's passed, the world gets a little worse and it doesn't matter who the next president is.
Instead, I'm going to get in touch with my inner 17-year-old and talk politics.
You see, back when I was in high school, I was highly political and just this side of anarchist. I ranted and was full of loathing for the current administration. Nowadays, that has gone down to a deep dislike, mostly because it's really hard to rage against The Man and The Machine when The Man is signing your paychecks. (And is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future)
Except in this case.
A little more than a week ago, a bill on FISA guidelines was being collaborated on in the House. The Democrats who worked on it hail it as a "compromise". Someone should give Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi copies of Webster's Dictionary, because I don't think "compromise" means "giving the other party everything they wanted".
Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald has written about this at length. It's a horrible step backwards for US citizens' civil liberties, which is why the ALCU and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) have been screaming. What it amounts to is that the telecom companies who participated in the President and NSA's massively illegal spying program immunity. If the US Senate passes this, those companies will never face trial.
It isn't just the Fourth Amendment getting eviscerated here, it's Article I Section 9 of the US Constitution:
"No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Actually, Slate.com does a good job of explaining why the hell this thing is so bad here.
Currently, the bill is being delayed in the Senate due to the combined forces of awesome in the forms of Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) (full disclaimer: I really like Feingold. Up until the last year, he's been my senator, and damn if I wasn't always a bit proud of that fact), who are basically using the Senate's own procedural rules against it. (The EFF's Deeplinks blog has a running update log on it.)
From what I can tell, major media outlets are acting like their usual sycophantic selves and the only place I've been actually hearing someone question what the hell the House was thinking are online sources (like Salon.com, Slate.com, and Ars Technica). This shit is bad, and if it's passed, the world gets a little worse and it doesn't matter who the next president is.
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