Police State
Poor Eric Holder. He might have saved himself a lot of trouble by simply looking up reporter James Rosen’s phone records among the records of all Verizon customers collected by the NSA, as reported in The Guardian.
That action occurred under a FISA court order and was an expansion of phone surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists which began under the Bush administration Patriot Act.
Catherine Herridge at Fox News reports that, in March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied that NSA intentionally collects data on millions of Americans.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that police may take DNA samples from anyone they arrest. Here’s a piece by Jeffery (the other) Rosen about Scalia’s dissent in favor of the fourth amendment.
Update: It’s not just your phone calls anymore. This morning’s Washington Post reports that the government mines your internet data too.
IRS Song and Dance
IRS lavish spending on conferences included this video. Meanwhile the agency harassed conservative groups. An anti-abortion group was ordered not to protest near Planned Parenthood in exchange for its tax exemption and was asked intimidating questions.
“The questioning included requests for copies of Facebook postings, the content of prayers, political beliefs of members, résumés of board members and dealings with the media.”
Those Damn Catholics
Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee’s geeky jokes finally got him busted.
The multimillionaire president once cracked that he hoped the multimillionaire football coach, Jim Tressel, “won’t fire me”. His comment that Ohio State doesn’t play “the Little Sisters of the Poor” put him in hot water with – the Little Sisters of the Poor. But the one Gee Gaffe too far for the board of trustees was his jab at “those Damn Catholics” at Notre Dame. He said, “the fathers are holy on Sunday but holy hell the rest of the week” and “can’t be trusted on a Thursday or Friday”.
As one of those “Damn Catholics” who roots for the Irish I really can’t quibble with Gee’s remarks. Well, maybe the one about the Little Sisters of the Poor – after all, the Buckeyes do play the Akron Zips.
As penance for his sins Dr. Gee must now be remediated. Sounds painful, but it’s just the usual college commie cant about “civility, inclusion, and collective aspiration”. In other words he’s about to become as boring as every other politically correct academic who isn’t advocating bestiality.
Update: No remediation for Gee. He’s retiring.
Off the Record
President Obama has proclaimed himself a fierce defender of the First Amendment . On cue, Eric Holderman called for a meeting of news honchos to clear the air about his secretive and nasty behavior toward them. True to form, the meeting was off the record.
Strange behavior for a couple of guys who only know what they read.
Update: Here’s a great Nat Hentoff piece on two Obamas. (He mentions the efforts of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to lead the pushback for the first amendment. Nat’s a RCFP steering committee member and so am I.)
War Bar
All good things must come to an end. Wars too. The president just doesn’t say how. Krauthammer is not impressed.
