The bloggers are employees who are free to write in a casual blogging style. One made a joke about heavy drinking in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday. Responses range from sardonic or hostile to genuinely thoughtful.

Perhaps most impressive, the agency is actually listening to (and not merely damage controlling around) citizens’ comments. Well, at least they’ve done it once thus far. In one post, they celebrate the TSA critics for ironing out some inconsistencies in their enforcement of the removal of electronics.

Some local branches had decided that ALL electronics had to be removed (if you can fit a bomb in an iPod nano…), and the blog’s commenters asked about it. This week, the TSA made sure that all local agents knew that small electronics can stay in bags.

This is an interesting exercise in e-government, and as a regular traveler, I hope they keep it up.

(Link via NYT)

Dear Rep. Sires,

I am a voter in your district, and I am writing in regards to H.R. 3773, the RESTORE Act. I urge you not to support this legislation unless it meets two key conditions.

First, the bill must not be amended to grant immunity for telecommunications providers who cooperated with the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program. Such a grant of immunity will cut important court cases off at the knees before we can learn the full nature of the administration’s spying. In short, you must not reward the administration for their blatant disregard for the law of the land, including the very balanced Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and you must not reward common carriers for their willingness to join in the illegalities. Bush’s threat to veto the legislation without such a grant of immunity only confirms concerns that the law has been broken.

Second, do not approve the bill without all of its current protections for civil liberties. In particular, insist that the bill retain or strengthen the following provisions:

• Section 5, requiring oversight and periodic audits of surveillance activities
• Section 7, requiring the Department of Justice to conduct a timely audit of all warrantless surveillance programs since September 11, 2001
• Section 8, requiring record keeping of all surveillance of United States persons
• Section 10, reiterating FISA as the sole legal justification for the gathering of electronic surveillance

Not incidentally, the Bush administration’s willful disregard for FISA is an impeachable act if ever there was one, but sadly it is not the only one committed in the past seven years. Speaker Pelosi may consider impeachment to be off the table, but I do not, and if you and your colleagues do not stand up for the Constitution, I fear for the future of our democracy.

Sincerely,

Bill D. Herman

The failure to temper future soldiers’ enthusiasm for the Bauer approach—in addition to reports that interrogators in Iraq plagiarize tactics displayed on the show—had previously led West Point’s dean to make a bizarre, on-set appearance before begging 24′s producers to be gentler with the show’s almost exclusively Muslim torture victims.

From what I’ve read of research on interventions designed to increase media criticism abilities, this kind of thing would work better in the short term than in the long term, but most researchers can’t afford to have actual celebrities show up in person for their studies. Best case scenario would be if such efforts are indicative of a broader push to curb torture in the military, and not just a cheap PR move.

The federal law, passed in 2005, orders states to adopt Department of Homeland Security-approved ID cards. It also requires citizens to have one of these cards or other federally-approved ID, such as a passport, to fly, open a bank account, or receive most federal services–including receiving Social Security.

The Maine legislature told the Feds what they could do with their federal ID cards on a nearly unanimous vote: 34-to-0 in the state Senate and 137-to-4 in the House. States that are considering similar resolutions include Montana, Georgia, Washington, and Massachusetts.

The story hit the AP on November 26, and the headline was, “Protester Immolation Virtually Unnoticed.” You may have been unaware until reading this very blog post.

Ritscher posted his intentions and an obituary on his website. No matter your ideology, read both. The domain registration is paid through 2009, which suggests forethought but not particularly careful planning. (I would have paid through 2099 and explicitly donated the site’s content to the public domain.)

The story is remarkable, and he comes across as lucid and sincere. Reviews on the action are mixed, of course, ranging from worship (“I heard you, Malachi“), to regret (“more good to us alive than dead“), to cynical, partisan dismissal of Ritscher and the small hint of media coverage of his story (“AP: Lionizing an Anti-war Activist’s Suicide“). I, personally, am moved, but this post seeks to explore the media vacuum surrounding the story.

Many commentators have expressed outrage that the media never covered this story properly, yet I disagree with the standard explanation of partisan bias.

I have earned press coverage, working with a reporter who actually wrote the story, only to get buried because somebody more powerful wanted it buried. It happens. This just isn’t an example.

The TV news networks are happy to bury stories on social activism and they do so all the time to save room for ham-handed cross promotions of other media properties. Yet Ritscher’s death is orders of magnitude more newsworthy than a rally or march–and even basic activism makes it into the paper as long as the numbers are there and the organizations do some basic media work.

Ritscher’s story, however, never really broke. Even the Chicago Tribune let this story get stale with little more than a peep, a fact lamented by this indy paper story that helped bring more attention to the story. BoingBoing covered it on November 8, but the only major media reporters cribbing their notes work at the “tech” desk.

Partisan bias may play a role, but it is not a sufficient explanation for a veritable 3-week blackout. In part, the problem is that all media outlets have become addicted to cheap content.

(I’m also guilty, of course. How much do you think we bloggers spend on news gathering? Why bother when you can link? Why even read the rest of the net when there’s BoingBoing or DailyKos or Drudge? Newspapers rely on press releases and wire services, and local TV news desks have been known to plagiarize the morning paper’s news without so much as a follow up call to verify that the paper got it right. But I digress.)

Ritscher’s story took people-power to explain, and the reporters have all bein laid off.

The other part of the problem is timing. News cycles move on, and if it’s yesterday’s news, a station or paper would generally rather let it go than show up late to the scene, even if they know that it’s otherwise worth covering. It took days before anybody noticed that he was missing, and therefore it took days before the police (the requisite officials who can explain the story on the news) knew what to say about it.

If the media have to write a story from scratch (for large swathes, the AP story is like a cut-and-paste of the blogosphere’s collective coverage), if it takes patience to understand what happened, if it takes historical context–oh, and if it’s right before national elections–good luck. Because you’re news story just won’t be news.

Even if you set yourself on fire near an expressway in a major city to protest an increasingly unpopular war.

Now, that says something terrible about the news media, but it does not illustrate ideological bias at the editorial desk.

Like the “No Fly” list, you’ll be unable to see where you stand (does this post add to my score?) or have the chance to challenge it–unless the EFF, ACLU, or another civil liberties group can win another court battle.

If the terrorists really had attacked us because “they hate our freedom” (perhaps the dumbest claim ever uttered by any administration), then we’ve done nothing but help them for the past 5 years.

In layman terms: the NSA cannot just randomly wiretap citizens without going through the formal procedures that have been established a long time before there was a war on terror.

More indepth legal analysis and the ramifications of this case by Derek Bambauer of Info/Law, Susan Crawford, and Jack Balkin. Professor Balkin also graciously hosts the opinion and the order.

In case you missed it, USA Today (in a shocking fit of investigative journalism) reported yesterday that the NSA has collected millions of Americans’ phone records from Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth. They never got a warrant from the FISA court, the secret court established to approve all domestic surveillance. (Remember that pesky 4th Amendment guarantee “against unreasonable searches and seizures”?)

This is downright offensive to anybody who deserves to call themselves an American. Congresspersons from both houses and both parties, including Republican Senator Arlen Specter from PA, have spoken out against the clearly illegal program.

Among those who have decried the program, Markey is the funniest by far. His other one-liner: the news represents “another telecom merger between NSA and AT&T.”
If you are a Quest customer, by the way, write your phone company and tell them you appreciate their protection of your privacy. They said no to the NSA. Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth, however, rolled over with nothing more legally binding than a “please, sir” from the NSA. Shaaaady.

Designed by a New Jersey graphic artist and Arab civil-rights advocate, Patriot Act: The Home Version pokes fun at “the historic abuse of governmental powers” by the renewed antiterrorism law.

While the game may be fun, creator Michael Kabbash of Green Brook is serious about how he feels the law has curtailed freedom. The object of the game is not to amass the most money or real estate but to be the last player to retain civil liberties.

“I’ve had people complain to me that when they play, nobody wins. They say, ‘We’re all in Guantanamo, and nobody has any civil liberties left,’ ” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s the point.’ “

The board game is available for free download at the designer’s site.