Rep. John Shimkus, one of the leading figures who seems to have known about Predatorgate for some time but done little, has found a novel defense which I hope he will keep using: Insult the voters.
Yes, really:
He insisted the page program is safe. “They are as safe there as they are at home,” he said. “In fact, in a lot of homes–they’re safer in our program than they are in a lot of homes.”
I am certain that voters all across America will appreciate hearing this assessment of their parenting.
A lot has been going on in Virginia. Turn out that my line (borrowed from an old T-shirt about Ed Meese) that Sen. George Allen is a pig just pre-dated the discovery that he’s an ethnically half-Jewish pig whose own mother was afraid to tell him about his ancestry for fear of his reaction. But Sen. Allen says don’t worry, he eats ham sandwiches.
For that, and many other things, the George Allen campaign is hurting. Here’s a good round-up of the latest. It begins like this:
“Some of this I’ve brought on myself.”
That’s it. That is the entirety of what Sen. George Allen had to say to Virginia voters last night about the several controversies that have dominated the campaign in the past few weeks. This, the senator’s campaign had announced, was going to be “an unprecedented two-minute statewide television address reaching out directly to Virginians.” Finally, it seemed, Allen was going to explain “macaca,” and his angry, defensive reaction to the public revelation of his Jewish heritage, and the various ugly accounts of his use of racist symbols and words over the years.
But no.
Jim Webb raised $3.5 million in the last reporting cycle, which is a lot less than Allen has, but much more than Webb has seen until now, and enough to get some serious media. (Allen has a cash mountain, but his staff didn’t release recent fundraising numbers, suggesting it’s maybe not going so great recently.)
The most interesting thing in the Post blog linked above is that the Allen campaign is working on shoring up its base, not contending for the swing voters. That’s a very defensive move and heartening, given that the two most recent polls show a tie and an Allen lead. I wonder if Allen’s polls tell a different story?
DreamHost Blog » iTunes Music Sore,
today, October 3rd, 2006, The Day Against DRM, we’re announcing a new (beta!) product:
Files Forever!What is it?It’s a new service (during the beta only open to DreamHost Customers) that allows you to sell your own digital files, a la iTMS.. but with a few key differences:
No DRM is allowed.. period! Once you upload your file to sell, you pay a tiny one-time storage fee, and we serve it FOREVER at a nice, permanent, URL. Anybody who buys a file somebody offers via Files Forever get an online backup of it included.. that is, they may re-download the file as many times as they want, FOREVER! Any file you buy from Files Forever you can also “loan” to your friends via the service! They are then allowed to download the file as much as they want until you ask for it “back.” (This is awesome, trust me.) We handle all the payment processing / shopping cart stuff, and take just 5% + 50c for credit card fees. (We combine purchases to minimize these costs too.) You can even offer an “affiliate cut” for people who re-sell your files! That’s it pretty much!
You can also keep the files you upload private.. so Files Forever also doubles as a very cost-effective permanent online archive solution, as well as an easy way to email big files to your friends.
I think this is pretty clever.
When it comes to that serious gut-check moment, Lamont shows that he’s just not tough: he’s willing to negotiate with terrorists. View it and weep:
Actually, this is a good commercial, but not a great one: the takeaway line is about negotiations; the issues discussed are mostly things that are state-level not federal. But it does help define the candidate as a good guy.
Some more items with varying relevance to Predatorgate.
Wishful thinking dept? Or just old-fashion lying? You be the judge: Fox News identifies Foley as…a Democrat. (Yes, really.) Update: And then they did it again in a completely different caption! Amazing.
The Trademark Blog says You Can’t Make Up This Kind Of Irony: “Congratulations to the Foley Hoag firm, which won the exclusive right to be known as Foley, today.” (Explanatory link.)
Human Shields: NRCC head Rep. Tom Reynolds — second most likely head to roll after Hastert — did a press conference. Surrounded by kids. Reporters asked if the kids could be cleared out so they could ask the R-rated questions. Reynolds said no — prompting some bloggers to accuse him of using the kids as “human shields” to avoid tough questions.
Foley enters rehab and the rumors start to swirl. People keep emailing me saying he checked into a Scientology rehab center. I have no idea if this is true and don’t care. (In keeping with the national trend, the Scientologists have put their picture of Foley accepting an award that used to be on this page down the memory hole.) More interesting is this AP story (ephemeral link, sorry):
When disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley announced he was entering rehab for treatment of alcoholism and “other behavioral problems,” some of those who have known him for years were shocked and suspicious.
Some friends and acquaintances said they rarely saw him drink.
A former colleague, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said on Fox News Channel: “I don’t buy this at all. I think this is a phony defense. The fact is, I think he’s responsible for what he did here and I think it’s a gimmick.”
Meltdown: So here’s the serious item: The GOP leadership can’t keep its various stories straight. If they are not guilty of something, then they certainly are doing the most amazing job of acting like co-conspirators who have been discovered. The Washington Post speculates that Predatorgate may move several house seats.
I’m on EFF’s Advisory Board, but I have nothing to do with this fine project.
EFF Sues for Information on Electronic Surveillance Systems
FBI Withholds Records on Tools to Intercept Personal Communications
Washington, D.C. – The FLAG Project at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed its first lawsuit against the Department of Justice Tuesday after the FBI failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning DCS-3000 and Red Hook — tools the FBI has spent millions of dollars developing for electronic surveillance.
DCS-3000 is an interception system that apparently evolved out of “Carnivore,” a controversial surveillance system the FBI used several years ago to monitor online traffic through Internet service providers. One Department of Justice report said DCS-3000 was developed to “intercept personal communication services delivered via emerging digital technologies” and that it was used “as carriers continue to introduce new features and services.” According to the same report, Red Hook is a system to “collect voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information.”
The FLAG Project first filed its FOIA request for information about the surveillance systems on August 11, 2006. The FBI acknowledged receipt of the request, but the agency has not responded within the time limit required by law.
“Recent allegations of domestic spying by the U.S. government already have both lawmakers and the general public up in arms. Americans have a right to know whether the FBI is using new technology to further violate their privacy,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “The Department of Justice needs to abide by the law and publicly release information about these surveillance tools.”
EFF’s FLAG Project, launched last month, uses FOIA requests and litigation to expose the government’s expanding use of technologies that invade privacy.
“Transparency is critical to the functioning of our democracy, especially when the government seeks to hide activities that affect the rights of citizens,” EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel, who directs the FLAG Project. “We have recently seen numerous instances where federal agencies have sought to conceal surveillance activities that raise serious legal issues.”
For the full FOIA suit filed against the Department of Justice:
http://www.eff.org/flag/dcs/dcs_complaint.pdf
For more on the FLAG Project:
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