Miscellany

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, George Bush’s latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress: “I’ve now just read a copy of the final ‘compromise’ bill. It’s even worse than expected. When you read it, it’s actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program with the ‘Protect America Act,’ so it shouldn’t be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is.”
Users of text messaging services have a Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the text messages stored on the service provider’s network. Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Company (9th Cir. Jun. 18, 2008). Analysis from Orin Kerr.
What’s the hottest stop on the indie rock touring circuit? It might be the halls of Congress. From The A.V. Club, Random Rules: Jonathan Coulton: “I actually ran into OK Go in the basement of the Senate building in Washington D.C. I was being walked around to various congressional staffers to talk about digital freedom. I was there on behalf of the Digital Freedom Campaign, and they walked me around. We had a bunch of meetings, talked to Congresspeople about what they could do to keep the bits flowing as easily as possible, and why it was important to independent musicians like me. OK Go was there because they were also speaking as part of some hearing, and I ran into them in the basement of the Senate building”