Links seem to have broken recently.

Rendering wrong for me on both Chrome and Firefox.

"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"

It's always been interesting to me that freedom of the press is not just part of our Constitution, it's in the very first amendment. The Founders were apparently pretty serious about the importance of the press's function in a free society, and added no ifs, ands, nor buts.

The word the Founders used in the amendment, abridging, is also interesting. Abridge a much brighter line than, say, the word freedom -- Abridge means to diminish in any way.

So it's pretty clear, at least to me, that it was a first principle of our Founders that the press should not be interfered with. End of story.

Today, the very government that's charged with upholding the Constitution is working hard to dramatically tamp down the press's ability to work freely. The press is being investigated, accused, and harassed, e.g.:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-13/world/39226618_1_classified-information-obama-administration-justice-department
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/james-rosen-justice-department-co-conspirator-obama_n_3305857.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/us/prosecutors-press-subpoena-for-times-reporter-in-leak-case.html?_r=0

for simply doing their jobs. They are being spied on, probably to a far-greater extent than we know about. And now the head of the NSA, Starfleet Commander Keith Alexander, is calling for the press to be stopped from telling us what it knows about the staggering Spy On Everyone program.

According to Reporters Without Borders, the US ranks 32nd in the world on the ability of our press to do its job:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

This is a sad state of affairs, and I don't see signs that it's going in the right direction. My hope is that the current NSA revelations will serve to shock Americans into a clear vision of what's happening to our civil liberties, and to coalesce us around the goal of ending the authoritarian cancer that's been sweeping our government for years.

There are many things we Americans must rebuild in the coming years. Among these, I hope that we can rebuild our government's respect for the job of the press, as envisioned by our founders and set into law.

Regards,

First-Way Manny

Inevitable?

Red Sox: the Elizabeth Warrens of baseball

Keepin' it real.

(Sorry. My only gloating post.)

C'mon people. Use your noggin. Obama knew, and approved of it.

What's the difference between these two statements:

1. General Alexander "did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel. News reports claiming otherwise are not true".

2. "The NSA did not share with President Obama the existence of any foreign intelligence operations directly involving German Chancellor Merkel."

Which was the actual statement? Which was not? Why do you think that is?

Think!

When the Outrageous! Outrageous! IRS scandal broke because someone at the IRS stupidly thought the phrase "Tea Party" in an organization name might possibly mean it was a political organization, Obama immediately fired the IRS head who had zero to do with the awful, terrible, horrible mistake. Zero. Wasn't in charge when it happened, wasn't under his control, yet he was on the street.

By contrast, Starship Commander Keith Alexander is still in place after letting a 29-year-old new-hire contractor walk off with the jewels of US intelligence, and now after allegedly failing to tell the President that we're tapping the phone lines of allies.

Why?

Think.

Things stay the same. Things change.

I swung by Whole Foods tonight to pick up coffee beans. Dr. Bronner's wacky-but-wonderful soap was on sale, so I picked up a giant bottle. The last time I bought a bottle of that stuff was decades ago in college, upstate New York. A crunchier place and a crunchier time.

Came home and called my aunt in New York City. She's a trip. 89, still driving. Driving in NYC. Yikes.

She spent her career working in a gynecology office at one of the local teaching hospitals, she was involved in administering studies around new diagnoses and procedures. When I was a kid, nobody would give me a straight answer about what she did. I guess that saying "vagina" and whatnot to anyone not yet of college age was verboten*. Tonight we bantered on about a cornucopia of women's naughty bits as we discussed the research her old lab is doing.

When I was a kid, even in NYC (although it was the Archie Bunker part not any of the fabulous parts), nobody spoke about homosexuality. Yesterday, my 13-year-old was excited to tell me that gay marriage is finally a settled issue in NJ. He's into social justice big time, and watches the Young Turks.

Somehow, I had this expansive feeling tonight that even with all of our woes from 30 years of a withering siege by the 1%, we have moved very far forward in our ability to handle sex stuff in a much more open and healthy way. Hiding things, being scared of certain subjects is not good.

Now, let's go take our country back so we can talk about sex stuff while not living in our cars.

Regards,

Circumspect Manny

*if I use a German word, will this automatically be vacuumed up by the NSA? If so, say "hi" to General Alexander, tell him I love his Starship bridge.

Can someone ring up the Germans, and

tell 'em that Snowden is lying and/or not telling us anything we didn't know already?

They seriously need to chill already, they look silly falling for this Merkel's-phone-was-tapped nonsense.

Liberal or Progressive?

WTF? ObamaCare phone service reps working for private contractors?

I just read a story about Erlang Davis, a woman who got fired from her job as an ObamaCare phone service rep because she fielded a call from Sean "Scammer" Hannity, and the call was on the air.

HR told her she was being fired for having contact with the media. Scammer generously offered to pay Davis her former salary, $26,000 a year.

So, I thought "hmm.... HR? Fired for talking to the media? $26,000 a year? Absurd rules and poverty wages? Must be... a private contractor, not a government job!" I couldn't find the identity of Davis' employer, but sure enough, our President is farming out ObamaCare call center jobs to private contractors that treat people like... well, just like Ms. Davis was treated.

Why do does the White House do this? Why do I bother asking? We all know they do it so the Predator Class members that own the contractor can make another zillion, who cares about the 99% lumpenproles that are smashed against the rocks before being discarded into a future of a slashed strengthened social safety net.

F#$k that s%*t.

"Oh Manny! You suck! Do you want ObamaCare to run like the POST OFFICE?"

Actually, YES I FUCKING DO. Our Post Office does a great job, they're inexpensive, and they pay a living wage. What's not to like? (Other than the Predator Class making more zillions off of it, of course.) And they couldn't possibly have fucked up the computer systems anywhere near as bad as the blessed private-sector nitwits did.

Enough!

Unprecedented unity by EmoProg FireBaggers

Has led to Larry "Toonces" Summers being kept from more mischief, JP Morgan actually paying a fine of some non-trivial sum, the Monsanto Protection Act getting 86ed, a Congressional Democratic revolt against war in Syria, and other substantial wins for the American People.

Keep up the good work!

We're just getting started!

Regards,

First-Way Manny