steve cooley presents

http://vote.ss.ca.gov/

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Dear Barbara Boxer,

I feel very strongly that the Native Hawaiians have an inherent human right to self-determination and self-governance. I just listened to Senator Daniel Akaka speak on NPR about the difficulty he is having being seen by the Majority Leader and getting this bill to the floor. Apparently, the Republicans are holding this bill up.

Hawaii is built up with hotels, pollution is increasing with heavy traffic, and sea life is suffering due to excessive commercial boating. Because of these types of destruction, the ecology is shifting. The pace of life is feeling more and more like California. And Native Hawaiians are forced to live amongst such destruction without holding any power.

If they are not granted sovereignty, I fear that they will soon have no place to go that they can call their own. True Hawaiian paradise will be lost. This is why it is so important that land is preserved and set aside for the Native Hawaiians. I’m hoping that the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 (S. 147) will be passed. Is there anything else we can do together to assure this?

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Senator Frank Lautenberg: “

This is awesome! Scripting News reports:

According to The Raw Story…

According to The Raw Story, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) sent a letter to Tom DeLay saying his comments about judges in the Schiavo case may violate Federal criminal law. Not an April Fool joke.

”

(Via musings.)

go arrest him, I say!

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Think Secret owner seeks legal aid in Apple case: “Nicholas Ciarelli, the 19-year-old editor and publisher of Think Secret, is hoping to find free or low cost legal representation in his lawsuit with Apple, which sued the site earlier this month claiming that it illegally published company trade secrets…”

(Via MacMinute.)

I wouldn’t touch this guy with a ten foot pole.

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EFF defends bloggers’ rights to keep informants’ identities secret: “Cory Doctorow:
Apple is making legal threats against of bunch of rumors sites, demanding that these journalists disclose the identities of their sources. Bad, bad Apple. EFF is taking up the sites’ cause, defending their right to keep their sources’ identities a secret. Good, good EFF!

On December 13, Apple filed suit against ‘Does 1-20′ in a Santa Clara court. The company obtained a court order that allows it to issue subpoenas to AppleInsider and PowerPage for the names of the ‘Does’ who allegedly leaked the information in question. EFF is defending the publishers against these subpoenas, arguing that the anonymity of bloggers’ sources is protected by the same laws that protect sources providing information to journalists.

‘Bloggers break the news, just like journalists do. They must be able to promise confidentiality in order to maintain the free flow of information,’ said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. ‘Without legal protection, informants will refuse to talk to reporters, diminishing the power of the open press that is the cornerstone of a free society.’

‘I am very disappointed by Apple’s behavior and its new policy of issuing legal threats to its best customers,’ added Jason O’Grady, publisher of PowerPage. ‘Is corporate paranoia really more important than the First Amendment?’

Link“

(Via Boing Boing.)

Oh, I’m sorry, does the first amendment entitle you to steal and reveal confidential trade secrets? Would Coca-Cola mind if “the formula” was made public on your blog? What would Mrs. Fields say about the cookie recipe being made public on your blog? Would the US Government pat you on the back for revealing top secret weapons information on your blog? Are there first amendment privileges for that?

If you think that information wants to be free, and that Apple has no right to defend itself against the leaking of trade secrets, this basically amounts to you pushing a policy of big brother. Why not just post every single piece of financial data, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and the URLs to your unprotected home security cameras on your blog while you’re at it. Why should it be a secret that only you know? What if I posted that information on my blog and refused to reveal my source? It’s ludicrous to think that would be ok to do! You’d be pissed!!

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cnn.com

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) — Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel cannot sue a Web site that published a photo of him with two women above a caption reading “You’re never too old to be a pimp,” a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The term “pimp” was probably intended as a compliment, the court said. But Knievel said, “What good is law in the United States of America if five or six goddamn bimbos are going to rule against it?”

I’m sure he probably intended “goddamn bimbos” as a compliment.

Informed of the decision by a telephone call to his home in Clearwater, Florida, Knievel responded angrily.

“They disregarded the goddamn law and they ought to be discharged, they ought to be ashamed of themselves,” he told Reuters.

Knievel, 66, added that he would ask his lawyer to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

You know, one time back in the 80′s, when fat laces first popped up, I of course had some… I had a lot, actually, but I had this one pair that were super bright blue and magenta. Ugly as sin, but I liked them at the time. Anyway, we were on vacation in England, and a group of 3 kids around my age saw my fatties and started pointing and calling them “Fresh!!” which hadn’t caught on yet in the US… or not much where I lived anyway. I was pissed because I thought they were dissing my style, but in fact, they were not. Quite the opposite. Later in life, I saw that they were paying me a compliment.

To hear of Evel Knievel, once a bastion of ultracool daredevilness, be so… fucking… square… ah well, it’s kind of sad.

Evel, guess what: I guess the caption author was wrong. You are “officially” too old to be a pimp. You will never again be a pimp in my eyes.

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This probably won’t last long, but this is the best mashup album I’ve heard. The beastie boys and the beatles… The Beastles!

thanks for the headsup boingboing

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—–Original Message—–
From: Rick Ciampa [mailto:rick.ciampa@verizon.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 9:52 AM
To: James Longton
Subject: the rabbit stratagie

The CIA, the FBI and the LA Police Dept. are each asked to prove their
capability of apprehending terrorists.

President Bush releases a white rabbit into a forest and tells each agency
to catch it.

The CIA goes first. It sends animal informants into the forest. They
question all plant and material witnesses. After three months of intensive
investigations the CIA concludes rabbits do not exist.

The FBI goes in next. After two weeks with no leads it bombs the
forest, killing everything, including the rabbit. It makes no apologies; the
rabbit had it coming, it insists.

The LAPD go in. They come out after just two hours, with a badly beaten
bear. The bear is sobbing, “OK, OK, I’m a rabbit, I’m a rabbit!”

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So much for states-rights and…: “

So much for states-rights and federalism.

From the Post: “Also included in [i.e., slipped in furtively into] the final [omnibus spending] bill was a major provision barring states from enforcing laws that require health care providers, hospitals, HMOs or insurers to pay for, provide or give referrals for abortion.”

California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York — none of them can make their own reproductive rights policy.

More here from Ms. Magazine.

“

(Via Talking Points Memo.)

There they go. You civil liberties shipped off to fight the war on terism. I suspect they’ll not be returning.

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my latest letter to Mike Honda:

My question this time is to ask you what you think it is going to take to eliminate the “winner take all” rule for the electoral college nationwide? Colorado Prop 36 failed to pass, but I think we’re seeing the electoral college system fail consistently now. I’ve heard a lot of debate about how Colorado was leary to pass this because of a usurpation of power for the state as a whole. Many people think the only way to do this is to abolish the winner take all rule for all states all at once. I think this is a necessary step to restore the faith in the system to the disenfranchised voters like myself. I realize what it means for the power of california’s influence, but right now I’m not feelin’ any love from _any_ presidential candidate, and if all states are equally important, then all candidates have reason to visit all states… thus somewhat returning a more reasonably representative form of democracy to all of the nation’s citizens.

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2004 California General Election

Proposition 72

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