DownsizeDC – an advocacy group seeking to “to foster human progress by reducing State coercion” – filed the only amicus brief in the case and reports, “The Judge agreed with two of our main arguments. We said the new law is…

• Illegally vague. The Judge said there has to be a precise definition of who is subject to the law, and this law fails.
• Unfair, because it subjects people to detention even when they had no intent to cause harm or knowledge that they were risking such detention.”

U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest not only gave Hedges standing to challenge the law, she also issued an injunction to halt the legalized kidnappings!

The day after Judge Forrest issued her decision, Representatives Justin Amash (R–MI) and Adam Smith (D–WA) proposed an amendment to the FY2013 NDAA, that would strike section 1022 of the FY2012 NDAA and amend Section 1021 of the same Act to eliminate indefinite military detention for anyone detained in the jurisdiction of the United States of America.

The New York Times reports, “the left-right coalition fizzled in the face of charges that the two lawmakers were coddling terrorists.”

Even after the indefinite detention provision was ruled to be illegal, the Congress failed to repeal the section of law. The Chicago Police Department took their defiance of the Court one step farther. TruthOut Assistant Editor Yana Kunichoff reports, “A pre-emptive raid by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) on the home of two Occupy Chicago activists may have happened without a search warrant, said the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), and led to the disappearance of nine activists into police custody without charge for almost 24 hours.”

Zoe Sigman, an Occupy Chicago activist whose home was raided, said, “I’d like to stress that we have done nothing wrong. We have been planning to protest NATO and there is nothing illegal about expressing our feelings about a war machine. Now we’re being treated as mere criminals.” The CPD has released claims that the raid recovered Molotov cocktails, though activists said that the equipment is merely for home brewing of beer.

One protester said, “it’s important to continue protesting, because this tactic was obviously an attempt to intimidate.” I urge you to continue speaking out against tyranny, and I intend to do the same.

A ridiculous “debate” between a High School Social Studies teacher and students trying to discuss current events in politics turned into a bully pulpit moment as the students ended up educating the teacher in a chaotic shouting match. The fireworks go off at 1m20s into the video.

From the Salisbury Post (h/T the blaze):

When the student tells the teacher that Obama admitted to bullying a girl in school, the teacher goes on the defensive.

“Stop, no, because there is no comparison,” she says. Romney, she says, is “running for president. Obama is the president.”

When the student says they’re both “just men,” the teacher continues to argue that Romney, as a candidate for president, is not to be afforded the same respect as the president.

The teacher tells the class Obama is “due the respect that every other president is due.”

“Listen, let me tell you something, you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom,” she says.

The student replies that he’ll say what he wants.

“Not about him you won’t,” the teacher says.

Later in the conversation, the teacher tells the class it’s criminal to slander a president.

“Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?” she says of former President Bush. “Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?”

The student responds by saying being arrested for talking badly about the president would violate the right to free speech.

“You would have to say some pretty f’d up crap about him to be arrested,” he says. “They cannot take away your right to have your opinion. … They can’t take that away unless you threaten the president.”

Threatening a student with arrest for saying bad things about Obama: stay classy North Rowan High School social studies department.

The article goes on:

Principal Darrel McDowell referred questions about the video to Foil.

Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College and a widely known political analyst, weighed in on the video.

“I think what this broke down to was a perceived personal slight by an instructor against someone she sees in a positive view, and things just went out of control from there,” Bitzer said in an email to the Post.

Bitzer said he thinks the teacher did go a “bit overboard in being rude towards the student.”

“I think the student was also trying to pick a fight, honestly,” he said.

Bitzer said it appears the teacher’s attempt to make a point about showing respect for the office of the president gets overshadowed by her personal feelings for Obama.

The teacher is not being identified by the papers but has been pinpointed by the Internets to be Tanya Dixon-Neely, who clearly has some confrontational attitudes when it comes to teaching.

The principal at the school has stated they will not take any sort of punitive action against the teacher, so I’m hoping she has the sense to search her own name to see the outpourings of support for these students (who are clearly able to hold their own against what is arguably a verbally abusive and emotionally charged teaching style).

A mystery object, thought to be a military or law enforcement drone, flying in controlled airspace over Denver almost caused a catastrophic mid air crash with a commercial jet Monday.

The pilot of the Cessna jet radioed air traffic controllers to warn them that “A remote controlled aircraft” had flown past his plane far too close for comfort.

“Something just went by the other way … About 20 to 30 seconds ago. It was like a large remote-controlled aircraft.”

Flying at 2,800 feet, the drone is clearly sophisticated enough for long range operations, which puts it squarely in the purview of professional use. No agency or person has yet to step forward and claim ownership of the errant flying bot.

My theory is that this is step one of SKYNET — which is to give free toys to all the police agencies that is way above their technical understanding. Eventually the bots will own the skies and we all know how it’s downhill from there.

When I write, I usually start from this basis of incompetence and work with my massive (enthusiasm) I have from there, so I love this guy for telling it like it is from the campaign podium:

A lot of people seemed to like my statement from Monday’s video about media incompetence: That the mainstream media understands how to cover a conventional campaign, a horserace if you will, but does not understand how to cover a movement.

This is painfully true. Seriously, what other campaign that is supposedly “over” according to the MSM, is still fighting to win delegates, state-by-state and will have a massive presence—and voice, and message, and influence—at the national convention? Ron Paul is speaking at Minnesota’s GOP convention Friday. He will be at others. Is Rick Santorum speaking at any upcoming Republican state conventions? Is team Newt Gingrich fighting for delegates in caucus states? Has the Tim Pawlenty Revolution continued to take the nation by storm?

And has Santorum, Gingrich, Pawlenty or any other Republican candidate—including Mitt Romney—inspired their supporters from all over the country to travel thousands of miles to work feverishly in support of similar-minded candidates?

No. Hell no.

The supporters I met yesterday—20, 21 years old maybe? 18-19 perhaps?—were all part of a movement that is just getting started. They realize this too. It’s in their gut. It’s in all our guts. This remains true no matter how stupid or incompetent the MSM might be in understanding it.

The money bomb being referenced in this call for donations is the “Stand For Liberty” Moneybomb which has raised more than a quarter million as of 3:20PM EDT.

If Hunter wants a dose of telling it like it is right back at him, I’ll say the “mainstream media” or MSM isn’t as much incompetent as it is cynical about real change. To the cynical intellectuals in their ivory towers, the end game has always been: if Ron Paul can’t be bought off, he can’t be president.

UPDATE: I’ll add that I’ve read and appreciate their delegate strategy announcement.

1) Having recently WON Maine, we believe we can win several more states.
2) We will win party leadership positions at both the state and national levels.
3) We will continue to grow our already substantial total of delegates.

We will head to Tampa with a solid group of delegates. Several hundred will be bound to Dr. Paul, and several hundred more, although bound to Governor Romney or other candidates, will be Ron Paul supporters.

Unfortunately, barring something very unforeseen, our delegate total will not be strong enough to win the nomination. Governor Romney is now within 200 delegates of securing the party’s nod. However, our delegates can still make a major impact at the National Convention and beyond.

Best case scenario: Ron Paul endorsing Gary Johnson in a rousing speech, then flips the bird at Romney while explaining how his foreign policy ideas would make the stockholders of Fascist American Professionals, LLC proud to continue investing in the military and police state at the expense of tea party loathing taxes and more lost liberty.

UPDATE II: 24 hours later and the tally stands at $626K for the Ron Paul moneybomb/fundraiser. At least we’re getting a glimpse of one of the relatively few candidates who can wind down a campaign with grace, and not mired in debt.

It’s a move that signifies that Microsoft might just give a damn about supporting their OS as vigorously as Apple now that the Steve Jobs factor is no longer in play. As a disclaimer, I am primarily a Mac user as well as a Windows and Ubuntu user (and server monkey), so my allegiance is pretty much with “whatever the hell gets the job accomplished”

From the Wall Street Journal:

In a program unknown to most computer users, the company has been using its small chain of retail stores and its online computer store to sell customized versions of popular PC models that have been streamlined for a cleaner look and better performance. It calls these machines “Signature” PCs. They retain the maker’s brand, but sport a special Signature desktop and configuration. And they cost about the same as the identical stock version of the machine sold elsewhere.

Microsoft also offers a program that, for $99, will turn users’ Windows 7 PCs into Signature versions, if the owner brings the computer into one of its 16 stores, due to grow to 21 outlets in coming months. All Signature computers come with 90 days of free phone support, as well as help at the stores’ “Answer Desks,” which are like the Genius Bars at Apple stores.

I’ve been testing three Signature models and comparing them with the same machines as sold elsewhere without the Signature modifications. I found the Signature versions much cleaner and easier to navigate and faster in a variety of tests.

I’d venture to say if you care about your data not potentially being lost in the process of these Signature upgrades, they will be about as blatant as Apple in selling you an external drive from in the store.

But hey, it’s about time Microsoft went about stealing that whole Genius Bar idea on top of the blatantly follow-the-leader store fronts. More power to them. I’m simply wondering that if they’re just going to copy what’s working well for Apple, can the Xbox tablet be far behind?

I snagged this photo from KidSyc’s woefully unattended music blog, thought I’d let our avid readers come up with a caption.

With apologies to “Whose Line Is It Anyways” — the comment rules are made up and the points don’t matter. Give us your worst, or best, or whatever.

Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook are now dramatically more important than the blogosphere. Pundits who used to maintain well thought out blogs, are devoting more of their time to these other services. It is a bit of a tragedy for those of us who remember the vibrancy of thought and significance that blogs once had. But, crucially, these systems avoid the problem described above. By expressing yourself on Twitter, and especially on Facebook, you are getting out of the echo chamber. Your liberal co-workers will be exposed to what you think, and vice versa. My facebook stream is an incredibly valuable thing. I get a sense of what a much broader slice of America actually thinks than I would if my only source of news were still Reason and National Review Online.

Of course, my networks are limited to the people that I have met and interacted with, but even that is a much broader slice of the world, and especially a wider spectrum of opinion than you can get in a DailyKos comment thread.

Even better, I can get a sense of what issues motivate those who generally couldn’t care less about what is going on in Washington, DC. 5 minutes with the images and stories that they gravitate to can tell you more about America and where we are going than days spent nodding your head along with Huffington Post or the Drudge Report. You can learn more from this media, and it can also do more. Take the image attached to this post for an example. At least 20 odd facebook friends have shared it over the past week. It’s quick, funny, and true. You don’t have to click on it to get the message. It isnt changing my mind. But what about that web designer who made it from a small Bible Belt town to Brooklyn or San Francisco? When she posts it, everyone in her high school class will see it. They may or may not like it, but they will think about it.

The past 5 years have seen incredible movement on issues that were once seen as un-changeable. Support for gay marriage has gone from a fringe position to the mainstream. This impassioned speech from an Iowan child of two mothers reached people who will never hear of Andrew Sullivan or Dan Savage. It has been viewed over 16 million times. Coincidence? Over 50% of Americans now support Marijuana legalization. I have tried to contribute to that in a small way. The Republican primaries featured Ron Paul, a candidate who seriously advocated for de-militarization and ACTUALLY cutting the federal budget. None of these developments are in the interest of those who hold power in this country. They are happening nonetheless. To some degree, Social media can take credit for all of these developments.

Blogs will remain an important part of this developing media culture. Their great golden age has passed, but they are now a vital part of an immensely more powerful ecosystem. This is a good thing.

Rob Morris is building his own little Social Media Empire here.

Frank is upset at the collapse of civilization going on around him, all the fails and stupid being televised with über-intense graphics.

Frank is upset that people are mean to one another and get rich at it while his life in a cubicle farm is boring and safe.

Frank is upset that his neighbors yell at their TV through paper thin walls, where he can hear them vicariously worrying about celebrities like Lindsay Lohan on “TMI” (a spoof of TMZ). Frank is upset that their baby does nothing but scream, a sure sign the next generation will be about the same.

Frank is upset because he can see the TV is teaching people to be mean to one another.

Frank is upset because he got fired from his job for sending flowers to the receptionist’s home and Human Resources is overly sensitive to potential sexual harassment litigation.

Frank is upset because he learned he had a brain tumor, from a doctor who calls everyone (except him of course) a cocksucker.

Frank — played by Joel Murray (yes, brother to Bill Murray) — is so upset that he decides to grab his handgun (every good American owns one) and blow his brains out while watching the mean things unfold on TV later that night. He ends up flipping channels, growing more depressed as the programming become more bizarre in it’s succinct indictment of pop-culture. He stops on a show called “My Super Sweet 16″ where a sixteen year old girl named Chloe — a spoiled and thoroughly overindulged teen princess reality “star” — throws a tantrum over not getting an Escalade over an equally lavish car from her parents. The parents capitulate as Frank gets a surprise phone call from his preteen daughter, throwing an identical tantrum because she just received a Blackberry phone instead of an iPhone.

Frank stops being upset and kills Chloe. In the process he runs into a witness in the form of the awkward and rebellious teenager Roxy (played by Tara Lynne Barr), she and the pair then set off to shoot “mean people” and the otherwise rude and we’re exposed to gratuitous amounts of blood in the process. As expected, those who live by the gun die by the gun in the end.

Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait — the hilariously pitchy stand-up comedian who starred in the “Police Academy” movies — this time capsule tale has all the right ingredients of a scathing cultural satire, with a sly nod to the American security theater in the process.

We give this funny blood-drenched Bonnie and Clyde duo an emphatic must see rating. “God Bless America” was released in 2011 and is destined to be a sleeper hit among gore, dark humor and pop culture fans alike. You can stream it online for $6.99 or get it on DVD / Blu-ray and loan it to mean people as a warning.

In a surprise move today, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign has announced they will no longer be spending money campaigning in upcoming primary states, but will remain on the ballot. Instead the campaign is concentrating efforts on adding to their delegate tally and adamantly deny they are suspending anything.

Ron Paul’s campaign remains tight lipped about the strategy shift, only saying that more details would be released in the coming days. Many states have sent majorities for Ron Paul after his supporters showed incredible organizational prowess to show up en masse for local conventions and party meetings.

A current count of delegates from Wikipedia’s 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries page shows Ron Paul with 126 delegates, trailing Mitt Romney’s 788 delegates. A difference of 662.

Prior to the 2012 presidential campaign, Paul and his libertarian strategy people had been working diligently to erect twin organizations Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty, which have paid off well as campus campaign rallies have dwarfed even Obama.

It appears that Mitt Romney will ultimately secure the Republican nomination after the confederacy of media dunces successfully conspired against Paul’s message of ending the Federal Reserve and reversing America’s aggressively interventionist foreign policy. Yet as the presidential front comes to a bitter end for Paul’s acolytes, we’re in for a new kind of ride as the campaign has other tricks up its sleeves with an under-documented ability to influence upcoming local and national elections.

Because of his tenacity and obvious support strength, Ron Paul has also undoubtedly earned a speaking spot at the Republican National Convention held in Tampa, Florida at the end of August. Probably some stuff about holding Romney’s feet to the fire as the GOP faithful get a good dose of reality about how little tolerance the people have left for big bad government from either party. But I get ahead of myself.

Ron Paul’s presidential campaign may be doing the lowered expectations dance because Romney has clenched the nomination (somewhat) fair and square — but don’t be surprised if the whole “revolution” thing uses this as an opportunity to shift their focus to more winnable fronts. Now comes the re-trenching in order to grow their organization into a libertarian movement to actually be reckoned with at the presidential representation level… but probably not until 2016.

Romney’s position may be consistent, however it is not historically accurate. Until recently, consensual polygamy was a fairly common and accepted practice, and is still common in some parts of the world. Which meant that marriage could be a man and multiple women, a woman and multiple men or multiple men and multiple women. Additionally, Romney’s position – and to a certain extent Obama’s position – implies that governments have been involved in marriage for nearly 3,000 years. This is not true. Daniel Waechter of PrivatizeMarriage.org writes, “marriage licenses have only existed on any significant scale since 1929. No one in the US before that was required to have a marriage license in order to practice their fundamental right to marry.”

Historically marriage has been handled by churches, not government. Jesse Kline of the National Post writes, “the central question… is whether the state should be dictating the domestic arrangements of consenting adults.”

Getting government out of the business of issuing – and in most case “requiring”– a marriage license will be a challenge because government doesn’t like giving up power it has, nor does government like losing revenue sources once obtained. Providing marriage licenses is big business for the state. On average, 2.3 million couples are married per year in the United States, with the average marriage license costing $33.74; that provides a steady stream of income (roughly $77.6 million) for those who want control over your life.

People have become too accepting of government licensing and regulation. If you don’t want government regulating who you can share Thanksgiving dinner with, if/where you attend church or who you can date; why then are you willing to accept regulations on your committed relationships?

The Obama campaign has a faceless Julia to represent what they believe will be the fantasy life of a woman from cradle to grave according to their big government nanny socialism.

Here is a compilation of the real Julia if Obama is re-elected. Browse the gallery to see what some very clever people have done to Obama’s campaign poster woman.

He announced the news during an interview with ABC News earlier today, saying, “I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

He went on to say, “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

It seems like a timing issue to us with his sudden announcement of support for same sex marriage. Does he need the gay vote in order to win his re-election campaign? What a good way to take the focus off of rising gas prices and the average American’s inability to find work.

GIDDYUPDATE: John Cook at Gawker correctly calls this announcement bullshit (we sniffed it on the heels of North Carolina slam dunking a ban on civil unions, a vote where Obama’s prolific presidential punditry was nowhere to be found until after the fact).

“He now believes that gay couples should be able to marry. He doesn’t believe they have a right to do so. This is like saying that black children and white children ought to attend the same schools, but if the people of Alabama reject that notion—what are you gonna do?”

They hit the verdict on the weak patter, “Is it a politically wise dodge? Maybe. This was obviously a hastily arranged interview—we’re told that ABC News’ Robin Roberts, who is close to Michelle Obama, was only tapped in the last 48 hours by the White House to come down—designed to clean up the mess left by Biden’s pro-gay marriage comments in as advantageous way as possible. And for Obama to declare that he considers North Carolina and other states’ bans on gay marriage to be unconstitutional would probably energize the GOP base. But those bans are unconstitutional. And anyone who supports their legitimacy—as Obama just did, in no uncertain terms—even if they oppose the policy, is adopting the retrograde position in the contemporary gay marriage debate. Obama is moving backward, not forward.”

SHOTGUNTOTHEFACEPDATE: Mother Jones informs us that Obama has now come to the same hostile foot-dragging towards nationally recognized gay marriage as former Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Obama has endorsed marriage equality federalism—not the notion that marriage for gays and lesbians is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution that can never be taken away. Obama has adopted the same position that Vice President Dick Cheney did in 2004, when Cheney said he believed in marriage equality but that the states should be allowed to decide by a show of hands, as North Carolina did Tuesday, whether gays and lesbians have the same rights as everyone else.”

From the Washington Post, “Keith Judd, who is serving a 17 1/2-year prison sentence for extortion at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, took 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia’s Democratic primary Tuesday night — 72,000 votes to Obama’s 106,000.”

“Race likely plays some role here. In the 2008 primary, 2 in 10 white West Virginia voters said race was an important factor in their votes, second only to Mississippi. Those voters went for Clinton 8 in 10 times.”

“As for how Judd got on the ballot: West Virginia has very liberal ballot laws and Judd is an opportunist. He ran in the Idaho Democratic primary in 2008.”

“Obama wasn’t likely to win West Virginia’s five electoral votes this fall before last night — and the Judd result confirms he has almost no chance of carrying the state in November.”

Thankfully he won’t be getting any delegates, since the move seems to be rooted more in the symbolic. I have no doubt that Judd the Vote will go down as a hilarious folk lore of West Virginia though, the time they gave that sitting president a dose of discontented reality.

I love the title of this quiz, because apparently this can be answered by a mere 15 questions (I passed BTW, whew). Mad props to Christian Science Monitor for making me laugh out loud a few times.

At one point I was slightly bewildered by the question of my hypothetical daughter getting married and answered “whatever.” But that falls far from my ability to decipher this Ayn Randian ultra-nihilistic approach to unemotional parenting when they phrased the rest, “just don’t develop any altruistic feelings for your spouse, as doing so will interfere with the imperative to act in accordance with the hierarchy of your values.” Translation: Be sure your future selfish lesbian daughter isn’t marrying a charity case, or something.

Whatever. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Here’s the full list of my 15 answers, for the curious:

Spotted at the Nevada GOP state convention by Gene Hahn.

The first party, which holds conventions online, is able to hold multiple votes at the same time and party members elected NOTA to two positions on the National Committee, which under party bylaws means the positions will remain unfilled. After an objection to fill the “vacancy” created by electing NOTA, the Chair ruled the motion out of order and the the party founder stated, “if the members choose ‘None of the Above’ to fill an office, the office goes unfilled… it’s the members saying that there’s nobody they want in that office.” During the brief dispute, Robert’s Rules of Order were never quoted and there was no need for a parliamentarian.

The second party, which excludes party members who can’t afford to attend the convention, can only accommodate one vote at a time. Disputes can cause the process to continue for hours on end, and that happened this weekend. Reason.com reports that it began Saturday afternoon when one delegate pushed for someone to speak on behalf of NOTA for Chair. The only two candidates were the current Chair & current Vice-Chair, plus NOTA. The current Chair was eliminated on the first ballot, in the second round, NOTA beat the Vice-Chair. Immediately after the vote was announced one delegate alleged vote tampering and a new round of balloting took place. The delegates voted to ignore the results of both the second ballot and the re-vote. The events carried over into Sunday and more candidates were added to the race. During this disputed election, Robert’s Rules of Order were quoted many times and there was a need for a parliamentarian. Delegates to the convention then had to hurry to elect a Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer & At-Large Representatives to the National Committee.

One of these parties has only been around for 6 years, the other for 40.

If you guessed that the party that had a dysfunctional Chair election was the newer party, you would be incorrect. The party with the dysfunctional Chair election is the Libertarian Party, and the party that elected NOTA to two positions on the National Committee is the younger, Boston Tea Party (not to be confused with the Boston affiliate of the “Taxed Enough Already” groups).

There are other differences between the two parties. For example, the LP will be running hundreds of candidates with ballot access in almost every State, while the BTP will likely only run Presidential ticket with ballot access in a handful of States. The LP platform is modified every two years, the BTP platform can never be changed and forever reads, “The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose.”

The BTP continues to experience growing pains, however the LP is proving that age does not always equal wisdom.

The much despised CISPA — which has been exposed as a sham cybersecurity bill following on the heels of the failed SOPA/PIPA effort (causing mass confusion) — was finally passed by a Republican majority in the House of Representatives last week. Of note is where 47 of the 66 members of the House Tea Party Caucus voted in favor of the bill. Presumably because it has the word “protection” in the title. Who would be against protecting those cyber tubes? Unamerican marxist taliban zombies from China, that’s who.

Forbes writes, “[T]he bill underwent some last minute changes, which may have made CISPA even worse than in previous iterations.”

“TechDirt’s Leigh Breadon points out that under the final version of CISPA the, ‘government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a “cybersecurity crime”. Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all.’”

“The Tea Party may be the small government wing of the Republican Party, but when it comes to national security suddenly limiting the state becomes far less critical. If SOPA had been billed as a cybersecurity law, it may have found a great deal more support in congress, and had a better time resisting internet backlash. For opponents of anti-piracy laws, this is an important thing to bear in mind.”

“Furthermore, internet companies that recoiled at the intellectual property implications of SOPA were much more agnostic when it came to CISPA, with some actively supporting the bill. Though many civil liberties groups these companies allied themselves with in opposing SOPA were as incensed by CISPA as well, many internet companies remained largely on the sidelines.”

“In other words, CISPA doesn’t threaten the bottom line of these big tech companies the way SOPA did, even if it is just as noxious for other reasons.”

“‘CISPA permits both the federal government and private companies to view your private online communications without judicial oversight provided that they do so of course in the name of cybersecurity,’ said Texas Republican, Ron Paul – who did not cast a vote on the bill (perhaps for political reasons.)”

“And as Paul Tassi notes, CISPA is ‘a slippery slope, and we shouldn’t be handing the government access to our personal information, even if that personal information is in fact innocuous.’”

Yikes!

So which Tea Party House members are the traitors to liberty and need stiff boots of voter outrage? Patrick Cahalan at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen gives us a marked up list of people who should have their internet taken away for obscene stupidity. Well, at least take away their power to mess with our internet.

In an oddly worded statement, Gingrich said “today, I am suspending the campaign, but suspending the campaign does not mean suspending citizenship.” Like I said, odd.

He has still not openly endorsed Mitt Romney in what has been the slowest dance for a never-going-to-happen shot at vice presidential pick. His campaign manager hinted that it would be forthcoming so it’s probably a matter of teasing. With third wife Callista at his side smiling, Gingrich told reporters the “truly wild ride” was over.

In part of his exit speech, Gingrich laid out his plans for the future — promising yet again he would eventually be getting back around to that lunar colony idea — but apparently not until his grandkids are old enough to rule over them:

“I’m cheerfully going to take back up the issue of space,” he added, referring to his much-mocked proposal to build a lunar colony by the end of his second term — which he explained that his wife repeatedly told him was not his best moment during the campaign. “This is not a trivial area.”

He insisted that while he is “not totally certain” he will get to the moon colony, he believes that his grandchildren Maggie and Robert, on stage with him today, would.

He failed to mention how he plans to fund or build a lunar colony with a looming campaign debt of $4.3 million.

For five days Daniel Chong was left without food or water, resorting to drinking his own urine and attempted to take his own life to end the pain of starvation.

His crime? Smoking marijuana with some friends for a 4/20 celebration. From NBC San Diego:

Chong said he was at a friend’s house in University City celebrating 4/20, a day many marijuana users set aside to smoke, when agents came inside and raided the residence. Chong was then taken to the DEA office in Kearny Mesa.

He said agents questioned him, and then told him he could go home. One agent even offered him a ride, Chong said. No criminal charges were filed against him.

But Chong did not go home that night. Instead, he was placed in a cell for five days without any human contact and was not given food or drink. In his desperation, he said he was forced to drink his own urine.

“I had to do what I had to do to survive….I hallucinated by the third day,” Chong said. “I was completely insane.”

Chong said he lost roughly 15 pounds during the time he was alone. His lawyer confirmed that Chong ingested a powdery substance found inside the cell. Later testing revealed the substance was methamphetamine.

After days of being ignored, Chong said he tried to take his own life by breaking the glass from his spectacles with his teeth and then attempting to carve “Sorry mom,” on his arm. He said nurses also found pieces of glass in his throat, which led him to believe he ingested the pieces purposefully.

So not only do they put him in a cell, but a DEA cell is literally the gateway to methamphetamine. Brilliant.

I expect Chong’s vindication will indeed be monetary, and the DEA will attempt to sweep this abuse under the rug as an isolated incident of incompetence.

He spent three days in the intensive care unit at Sharp Hospital and his kidneys were close to failing.

Chong and his lawyer spoke to the media on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the claim they will file with the federal court system on Wednesday.

“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said his lawyer Gene Iredale, who compared Chong’s experience to the torture suffered by inmates at in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq

The DEA has not apologized to Chong, said Iredale.

The incident also caused Chong to miss his midterms at UCSD. He said he does not know if he will return to school, as his perspective on life has changed since his isolation.

San Diego defense attorney Gretchen Von Helms said the victim could get millions if he files a lawsuit.

“In all my years of practice I’ve never heard of the DEA or any Federal government employee simply forgetting about someone that they have in their care,” she said.

For their part, DEA San Diego Acting Special Agent-In-Charge William R. Sherman has issued a weak apology and promised to review procedure. Because nothing says “oops, we’re sorry” than identifying the exact part of the operation manual that says don’t leave a prisoner in jail without food or water and try to blame it on the arresting agent’s reading comprehension failure.

Better yet, how about some real criminal charges being filed against the DEA agents who took Chong into custody. If this is the result of a “war on drugs”, then a prosecutor should feel comfortable calling this heinous act a war crime.