First, three years of mandatory data retention; now, this. Isn't Ireland turning into a grand little surveillance state altogether?

McDowell refuses to rule out bugging of TDs  [Irish Times, sub only]

Sinn Féin TD, Mr Arthur Morgan, has expressed dismay at the refusal of the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to confirm that Oireachtas members are not having their phones tapped.

In a written reply to Dáil question from the Louth TD, Mr McDowell said it would not be in the public interest to disclose the information...

Says Morgan: "Of course it is in the public's interest to know if their private telephone conversations with their public representatives are being listened to or not.

"What we are dealing with here is often very private and personal matters."

The news comes less than a month after it was revealed that Oireachtas members had their mail opened by the Garda [Irish police]. The matter has been referred to the Dáil Committee on Procedures and Privileges.

(For non-Irish readers, TDS are members of the Irish parliament, or Dail.) I am disappointed that only Sinn Fein deputies seem to be raising questions about such issues so far. Unfortunately, this tends to make people say, "Well, they would, wouldn't they?" with a snigger. Yet these are deeply important civil, citizen and democratic rights issues that should have Irish people reacting in outrage. And certainly should worry the deputies within other parties for their own sakes and that of their constituents.

10:39:41 PM  #   your two cents []

Geeking in the Third World [Slashdot]
10:30:28 PM  #   your two cents []

From The Shifted Librarian: "The RIAA's image is getting so bad and the music industry is becoming so reviled by its customers that Hilary Rosen has taken to expanding her spin into a Business 2.0 commentary titled Why the Recording Industry Loves Tech. The only problem is that it's still Hilary Rosen twisting the facts."

10:30:01 PM  #   your two cents []

From Boing Boing Blog: Shrub's resume. Harper's Index-style list of GW Bush's accomplishments in and out of the Presidency, presented as a résumé.

Accomplishments as president:

* Attacked and took over two countries.
* Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
* Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
* Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
* Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
* First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
* First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
* First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
* Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
* In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
* Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
* Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
* Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
* Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
* Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
* Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

Link Discuss (via JOHO the Blog)
10:28:14 PM  #   your two cents []

Rescue of Jessica Lynch entirely "staged" by US soldiers? An extraordinary story from the BBC, which says it will supply evidence that this is so in a news documentary to air Sunday in the UK. A cover story report in today's Guardian newspaper says that the Fedayeen had abandoned the hospital well before the 'rescue' and that the advance party of US soldiers had been informed of this via their own Arab interpreter the day before. More bizarre, US soldiers had actually fired on a vehicle carrying Lynch days earlier, driven in an ambulance, after a doctor told her he'd help her to get out of the hospital. Under heavy fire, the driver had to turn and take her back. The Pentagon claimed that she had gun and stab wounds. But doctors at the hospital say she had no gun or other combat wounds, only broken bones and a sprain consistent with a car accident -- and the Pentagon is now saying there is now some "conflicting information" about what wounds she actually has, refusing to say anything more.

The doctors say the soldiers arrived along with their film crew with night cameras and as the film rolled, started kicking in doors and shouting -- though they'd been told there were no Iraqi soldiers in the area anymore. Only a couple of doctors remained in the hospital and one patient, handcuffed to a bed frame. The doctors and the empty hospital are presumably in the military film, but only a five-minute edit of the 'rescue' was released (within two hours of the event itself, and rushed to US media) and the Pentagon has refused to release the full film to UK journalists who asked for it, to clear up discrepencies. Says one doctor, "I don't know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury."

Says another: "It was like a Hollywood film. They cried 'Go, go, go', with guns and blanks and the sound of explosions." The Pentagon will  not now say what, if any, kind of resistance had been met by the soldiers at the hospital, though they implied there was heavy resistance when they released the film -  and, er,  there are all those explosion and gunshot sounds in the background.

And on top of all this, the senior Downing Street official in Iraq at the time to represent the Prime Minister's office has complained that at the very least, the Lynch affair was overblown, a minor human interest element compared to the discovery of the bodies of her comrades. He won't be any more specific but did complain privately to the UK government that the Lynch presentation was particularly 'embarrassing'. Further, British military Group Captain Al Lockwood, the British Army spokesman at central command in Iraq, says that the British could not believe the pandering way in which the US military dealt with the US media, culminating in the Lynch episode, and the gushing, unquestioning acceptance of same by the US media. "In reality we had two different styles of news media management," said Lockwood. "I feel fortunate to have been part of the UK one."

Meanwhile, Lynch now says she can't remember anything that happened to her. Will the US media pick up on any of this? Or will it shy away from ruining a potential blockbuster action film through too many difficult questions?

Update, 16/5/03: Dan Gillmor's comments clarify why what may or may not have happened here is indeed important, not just part of the past that should now be put away:

It would be shameful if Lynch's real bravery was turned into a cheap publicity trick by the Pentagon, to score points with the American public.

If it's true it's a scandal. If not, we need to know so we can discredit the slander.

So you have to ask, once again: Where are the U.S. media in covering this story? AWOL, again.

10:13:44 PM  #   your two cents []

Fianna Fail's trouble is Labour's opportunity: According to a poll to be published in tomorrow's Irish Times, satisfaction with the current Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats coalition government has sunk to an all-time low, at 28%. This is a year on from last May's general election, when 61% of Irish people expressed satisfaction with the government. In contrast, the Times says that support for the Labour party and satisfaction with its new leader, Pat Rabbitte , has "soared". Labour is now the second largest party in the state with 22% of voter support, while Fine Gael has dropped to 20%. Mr Rabbitte's approval rating is now the highest for any current party leader, at 49% approval, up 5 points since Feb. At 9%, Sinn Fein has more voter support than the PDs (4%).
9:40:26 PM  #   your two cents []