Maybe Google has a spine?

Via WaPo,

Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it’s forced to give the government.

The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic.

Google, one of nine companies named in NSA documents as providing information to the top-secret PRISM program, has demanded that U.S. officials give it more leeway to describe the company’s relationship with the government. Google and the other companies involved have sought to reassure users that their privacy is being protected from unwarranted intrusions.

Maybe a little bit late but at least they are distancing themselves from the administration.  It's amazing what self-preservation will cause people and companies to do.

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Timing is almost everything

I've got a job interview - actually a phone screen interview - this morning and yesterday I came down with a wicked head cold and some sort of infection.  Timing is almost everything.  Nevertheless I will muddle through as best I can, because perseverance and preparedness have to count for something, right? Details matter.

If I were the president and these scandals were all unfolding, I would make sure that I controlled how the information about each of these scandals came out.  I wouldn't be surprised if the terrible leader was still being a very good politician and doing everything he can behind the scenes to control not only the spin on everything coming out, but the timing.

I hope his political opponents are thinking the same thing. Look at the Guardian interviews with whistleblower/traitor Snowden on the NSA leaks.  Not everything came out at the same time, and the ACORN investigation/sting run by James O'Keefe was bled out slowly with one video at a time.  It made the scandal loom larger, hold the public consciousness longer and also gave the agency enough rope (time) to hang itself by claiming, each time, that these were isolated incidents.

My point is simple - those involved in investigating these scandals are facing a hyper-political administration.  There had better be some thought going into managing the politics and the timing of revelations.  All at once could overwhelm the administration and also the public's perception, but it could also result in a temporary impact.  It could also mean that the various scandals will compete for the headlines and to a degree, cancel each other out.  That may be what the president is hoping to have happen.  On the other hand, a slower, staggered release of scandal-related material may have a longer lasting impact but take longer to take hold.  There are pros and cons to how to handle all these concurrent scandals.  I'm not sure that Republicans are staying on top of how to manage them all, but they should be.

Meanwhile, I hope my voice holds up for an hour.

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CBS News compares Iranian Mullahs to...the Tea Party

Bias-free, neutral CBS News? When was that? This blows that notion out of the water.

Those radical Muslim hard-liners lusting for a nuclear bomb to wipe the stain of Israel off the map of the Middle East are just like the American tea party.

That’s according to CBS News London correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, who commented Monday on the results of Friday’s sham Iran election, which was won by a delusionally described “moderate,” one of eight candidates approved to be on the ballot for the Islamic Republic’s voters to “choose” from...

How could anyone compare the American tea party to a slate of candidates that had to get the supreme leader’s approval to run for president of Iran?

In Palmer’s words, Rowhani is “extremely close to the centers of power in Iran,” which doesn’t quite sound like the tea party at this point.

Disgusting.  That's all I will say about that. 

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Quick hit: Supremely Disappointing Court

Just happening this morning, the Supreme Court has ruled Arizona's law that requires proof of citizenship for voting purposes illegal.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.

The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law.

Federal law "precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself," Justice Antonia Scalia wrote for the court's majority.

The court was considering the legality of Arizona's requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "motor voter" registration law.

Is it just me or does this seem like a 10th Amendment issue?  We'll need more details to determine the decision's logic, but if this is supposed to be a conservative court, I'm not impressed.

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Quick hits: Immigration, Sequestration & the Pope

Immigration reform: There is supposed to be a covenant between the people of America and the soldiers who risk their lives to protect the freedoms. The soldiers who protect American freedoms are not tasked with protecting the freedoms of those who are not Americans. Those who are in the country contrary to the rule of law, and are likely not paying taxes, aren't living up to their end of the covenant.  Granting them citizenship status is a slap in the face of the soldiers who risk their lives to defend freedom.  They are not supposed to be defending dishonesty.

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Sequestration:  Has the government fallen apart since the sequestration cuts kicked in earlier this year? Um, no. So why did the Democrats, particularly the president go into "the sky is falling" mode before the cuts, and then afterwards saying the pain is still coming?  Because they don't want to cut spending, they want to grow government.  They will never be satisfied with any sort of government cutbacks unless the cuts are from defense spending.

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Pope Harley?  Just an image concern here.  There's nothing wrong with Harley Davidson donating motorcycles to the Vatican or Pope Francis blessing a swath of bikers, except for the image that is creates.  I'll let you decide to whose image I am referring.

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Bonus: Add this to your list of impinged freedoms. Who owns your personal information?  This isn't the same as the Verizon, AP and Prism scandals which are about metadata.  This fourth amendment issue is about your actual health records.

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Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there

"I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd." I think a lot of dads think that way.  You want to do your best for your children always, and it isn't always easy. But they are worth the effort.

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