Saturday, August 03, 2002

A good day for American jurisprudence Courageous U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler stood up to Ashcroft and ruled that the Department of Justice must release in 15 days all the names of those it has arrested and detained in its investigation of the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks. She quotes an earlier case, saying "secret arrests are a concept odious to a democratic society." The decision is worth reading in its entirety.  I am delighted to see Bush and Ashcroft's passion for secrecy at any cost rebuffed. One significant quote from a DOJ official "No individual arrested after the September 11 attacks has been charged in connection with those attacks." It seems clear that the secrecy has served mostly to cover up the incompetence of the FBI. Now, lets see what the appellate judges do.   Permalink  1:58:50 AM   Google It!  What do you think?  [] comments.

Bush Campaign Flew Enron, Halliburton Jets During 2000 Recount Enron Corp., Halliburton Co. and Reliant Energy Inc. -- three companies whose finances are being examined by U.S. regulators -- were among the corporations reimbursed for the use of their corporate jets by the Bush committee during the 36-day recount that gave Republican Bush Florida's 25 electoral votes and the presidency. The Democrats should have fun with this one. Tip o the hat to Strangelove. Permalink  1:31:03 AM   Google It!  What do you think?  [] comments.

Second thoughts on trading supermarket cards After reading Eugene Volokh's posts on the subject, I have changed my mind about trading the supermarket discount cards. While I would take a juvenile pleasure in screwing with the supermarkets, Volokh's is the principled and correct stand. If you don't want the supermarkets to have that information about you, don't get one. I guess I won't get one after all. I have one friend who started using Safeway's online delivery service, and she said that they prepopulated her online shopping list with her most frequent purchases. She said that it was very useful but creepy. I wonder what the credit card companies do with the information that they have on our purchases? Permalink  1:17:23 AM   Google It!  What do you think?  [] comments.