• Why is the Justice Department ordering documents with titles such as “Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure” and “Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes” to be destroyed? According to The Memory Hole, a memo was sent out to Federal Depository Librarians to destroy a these documents and more “to prevent disclosure

of their contents.” Why? Is this unusual?

• There’s a searchable copy of the 9/11 Commission Report available online. (via Boing Boing) The most relevant chapter seems to be Chapter 8, which I’ve downloaded but not yet read. John Emerson at Seeing the Forest, though, reads the chapter as an indictment of Bush’s handling of the gathering threat. (via TalkLeft)
• You want indictments? You got ‘em. David Corn has read the 9/11 Report, and posts an assessment.
• Holden, Pie, Athenae, et al, did a nice job maintaining Eschaton for a time, but it’s damn nice to have Atrios back inna house. See this post on Richard Cohen and the failure of leadership.
• At The Talent Show, Greg notes that George W. Bush is one of our most forward-looking presidents.
• The ACLU explains the PATRIOT ACT’s assault on the Fourth Amendment. (via TalkLeft)
• Have you no decency, Congress? At long last, have you no sense of decency? Kevin Drum alerts us to a move by the House of Representatives to deny gay and lesbian Americans their opportunity to appeal to federal courts for marriage rights.
• The mainstream press is getting pretty creeped out by all the bloggers reporting from the political conventions. Could they be worried that they’ll be shown up? (Rhetorica)
• Corante is covering the INDUCE Act hearings and the progress of the bill. At the hearings yesterday, the head of the Copyright Office actually argued that INDUCE doesn’t go far enough! See Corante’s take here.
• Wired News’ coverage of the INDUCE Act hearings included a link to Open Secrets, which monitors campaign donations. I went to the site, plugged in my zip code, and had loads of info on top donors and top recipients of campaign contributions in my little corner of Seattle. I know it’s not an original thought, but I found myself a little sick to my stomach when I saw just how much money my representatives are being given by private industry. It doesn’t seem like we have a system that promotes representatives who are responsible to the voters.
• I love being able to give a shout out to Republicans every once in a while. Don’t know if there’s some lurking beast hidden in this bill, but on the face of it Representative Ron Paul’s (R-TX) Voter Freedom Act seems like a righteous move. (via Reason Hit & Run)
• Finally, you remember Annie Jacobsen, the lady who wrote the piece about the 14 suspicious Middle Easterners on her flight? Kevin Drum wraps up the story. Seems the real deal is that is was Mrs. Jacobsen who was the problem; she was panicked and overreacting. Well, I got taken in. Just goes to show.

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Friday, July 23rd, 2004 @ 11:15 am Nothings
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