Day: January 20, 2006
Washington Post Turns Off Its Blog Comments
WaPo snafu: The Washington Post today turned off the comments function of its Weblog at www.washingtonpost.com because people just wouldn’t follow the rules:
… there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech. Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we’ve decided not to allow comments for the time being. It’s a shame that it’s come to this. Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it’s a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about.
So a few bad apples spoiled it for everybody. Now, if you have a comment on a washingtonpost.com post, you’ll have to keep it to yourself because someone used profanity in a comment.
Come on, give me a break, Posties. What level of discourse did you expect? The Harvard Debate Club?
We here at Pensito Review understand the WaPo editors’ frustration because we get a lot of comments on our posts, too. Well, not a lot, really, but some high-quality ones. Well, not that high-quality. Actually, some of them are nasty and hurtful and sprinkled with surprising examples of profanity that we have added to our personal arsenals.
You may not know this, but there are wingnut nutjobs out there with nothing better to do than go around to thoughtful, intelligent, well-designed and left-leaning Web sites like this one and squeeze the boils they have for brains into comments on multiple stories. They are rightly called trolls. But do we take off their comments? Nope. We let other readers respond with their own comments, often creating lively and pyrotechnic strings of comments.
We do, however, remove comments with death threats and refer them immediately to the FBI.
At Pensito Review, we would never turn off comments, mainly because the comments our readers leave often are funny, clever, thoughtful, insightful and make us feel like superior spellers and grammarians. We believe in freedom and free speech, and if you want to show your ass by leaving a ranting, rambling, obscenity-laced blurt of brain pus, why, that’s OK with us. Heck, we do it ourselves sometimes. Well, there was that one time on washingtonpost.com, anyway.
Pensito Review: Off the Wires
Italian Court Told to Prove Jesus Existed
ROME – Lawyers for a small-town parish priest have been ordered to appear in court next week after the Roman Catholic cleric was accused of unlawfully asserting what many people take for granted: that Jesus Christ existed. Hey, in most parts of the United States it’s unlawful to assert Jesus didn’t exist!
U.S. Rejects Any ‘Truce’ With Bin Laden
WASHINGTON – Rejecting a suggestion by Osama bin Laden of a negotiated truce in the war on terror, Vice President Dick Cheney said there was only one way to deal with terrorists. “I think you have to destroy them,” Cheney said. “And we are aggressively doing that by allowing them to fly airplanes into tall buildings and blow themselves up with homemade bombs.”
‘Evo Fashion’ Hits Bolivia
LA PAZ, Bolivia – When President-elect Evo Morales wore a brightly striped sweater on his world tour, the fashion police howled: “Are we not men? We are Evo!”
Italian Official: World Must Confront Iran
ROME – Iran’s nuclear program is testing the resolve of the international community, and the world needs a unified approach to the escalating diplomatic standoff, Italy’s foreign minister said Friday. In related news, Italy is withdrawing its troops from Iraq — and you can bet it’s not to send them into Iran.
U.S. Allows Cuba Into Baseball Classic
NEW YORK – Cuba will be allowed to play in the World Baseball Classic, after all. But if they break Mrs. O’Malley’s window, they’re going to be in really big trouble.
Man Who Shot Pope Back in Police Custody
ANKARA, Turkey – A court ruled Friday that the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 should return to prison to serve more time for killing a journalist and for other crimes in Turkey. Now that’s justice. It’s OK to put a cap in the Pope, but knocking off a journalist will land you in the hoosegow.
Iran Moving Currency As Pre-Emptive Move
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran is moving its foreign currency reserves out of European banks as a pre-emptive measure against any possible U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, the Central Bank Governor said Friday. Oh yeah? And where do they think they’re going to spend them rials when the world slaps them silly with trade embargoes?
Chirac Nuclear Comments Draw Ire in Europe
PARIS – President Jacques Chirac drew scorching criticism in Europe on Friday for suggesting France would consider a nuclear response to state-sponsored terrorism. Duck and cover, Washington!
Straw: No Flights Via Britain Since 9/11
LONDON – Britain’s foreign secretary denied Friday that he had withheld any information from Parliament. Jack Straw also said there had been no secret CIA flights through Britain since the Sept. 11 attacks. “Honest. No really, I mean it,” said Straw. “Is this the face of a guy who’d lie to Parliament?”
Whale Swimming in London Lost, Likely Sick
LONDON, England – A whale swam up the River Thames past Parliament and Big Ben in central London on Friday, then beached itself. And we thought Benny Hill was dead!
More GOP Sleaze: ‘Family Values’ Proponent Rep. Connie Mack in Adulterous Affair with Rep. Bono
Moral compass gone astray: What will finally drive a stake through the Republicans’ false claim that they are the party of high morals? I doubt it will be the latest soap opera to play out within their ranks. Buzzflash has named Rep. Connie Mack, Republican of Florida, as it’s Hypocrite of the Week:
[Rep. Mack] has been seen cooing and cuddling with Republican Congresswoman Bono in the back of the House of Representatives. Mack’s estranged wife also dropped the bombshell that Connie was lying when he claimed, during his Congressional run, that he had moved his “beloved” family, which he is now in the process of abandoning, into the Congressional District he represents. As one Florida news report noted about Mack, “During his campaign, he stressed family values and told questioners he and his family were committed to Southwest Florida.”
Rep. Mack, whose real name is Cornelius H McGillicuddy, is the son of former Sen. Connie Mack, and the grandson of a famous baseball player who was also named Connie Mack.
Rep. Mary Bono represents Palm Springs, California. She remarried after the death of her husband, Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame, but is said to be seeking a divorce.
Avian Flu: Turkish Samples Show Mutations
From the journal “Nature”:
Scientists studying virus samples from the human outbreak of avian influenza in Turkey have identified three mutations in the virus’s sequence. They say that at least two of these look likely to make the virus better adapted to humans.
The Turkey outbreak is unusual, because of the large family clusters of cases; the fact that many of those infected have only mild symptoms; and the speed with which infections have arisen — 20 cases, including four deaths, in less than two weeks.
So scientists are urgently trying to establish whether the virus is behaving differently in this outbreak from previous ones in Asia. In particular, international teams are investigating the possibility that the virus is moving between people.
“With such a large number of cases within such a short period of time, human-to-human transmission is something that we’ve had to consider,” says Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman at World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva.
[…]
Russ Tice — Patriot or Paranoid?
Rocking the NSA: Last year, Russ Tice was fired by the National Security Agency after being diagnosed as paranoid by a government psychologist. He had alledged that a co-worker of Asian descent was spying for China. As a diagnosed paranoid, Tice’s security clearance was revoked and he was fired after 18 years of working in various government intelligence departments.
On Dec. 16, the day the “New York Times” published its bombshell article on how the NSA was spying illegally on American citizens at the direction of President George Bush, Tice sent a letter to Congress offering to “spill my guts,” revealing what he says are lots of nasty NSA secrets.
According to GovExec.com, the NSA appears to be trying to reign in Tice:
Complicating matters further, NSA sent Tice a letter Jan. 9 telling him that he has to notify the Defense Department inspectors general or NSA of his complaint, and of the information he intends to share with Congress. The letter added that Tice has to receive direction on how to proceed from the secretary of defense or NSA director – two of the people he alleges were involved in illegal or unconstitutional activity.
Tice said he does not intend to comply with NSA’s order.
“I’m done with the NSA. I don’t work for them anymore,” he said. “The thing is, they’re freaking out now because they don’t want me to say anything.”
And while Tice’s revelations are not related to those uncovered by the “Times,” he says they run so deep at the NSA and Defense Department that they are so classified as to be unactionable:
“To be honest, this stuff is so deep and black that I don’t think they’re going to [press criminal charges],” he said. “Even though laws more than likely have been broken, I doubt very seriously that they’re going to charge anybody with anything because that might compromise some of this stuff by bringing it into the courts.”
Although Tice claims a private-sector psychologist examined him and found no evidence of paranoia, he is a disgruntled employee who waited to come forward as whistle-blower until the NSA story broke nationally. So far, no congressional committee has officially responded to Tice’s offer, and the situation is further complicated by the fact that any hearings would have to be closed, secured and in the presence of legislators with high security clearance.
Only time will tell if Russ Tice is indeed a patriot in the service of truth and justice, or a bitter ex-employee consumed by paranoia.
Bush Subpoenas Google for Records of All Searches in June and July of 2005
Subpoena this : As part of a probe into access to porn websites by minors, the Bush Justice Dept. has subpoenaed Google for the records of all searches made in its databases between June 1 and July 31 of last year:
Children looking at porn is bad, but letting Bush sift through everybody’s online searches is a precedent for government intrusion that could only have dire ramifications in the future.
The Justice Department includes a request for Google to produce a random sample of one million Web addresses, known as URLs.
The data request is part of a broader government effort to track the effectiveness of a 1998 law, the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, which penalizes Web site operators who allow children to view pornography, the filing said.
A 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Ashcroft vs ACLU, upheld an injunction that blocked the government from enforcing the law and the Justice Department is seeking evidence from Google and others as part of an appeal of this injunction.
The motion by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez vs. Google details the negotiations between the government and Google’s lawyers, who have resisted the request as overreaching, burdensome and a violation of trade secrets.
“Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches,” Nicole Wong, Google’s associate general counsel, said in a statement. “We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously.”
Children looking at porn is bad, but letting President Bush sift through everybody’s online searches is a precedent for government intrusion that could only have dire ramifications in the future.
