While progressive blogging communities were congratulating themselves for the FISA stalemate, Indiana passed a law forcing citizens to consent to warrantless searches and monitoring of their computers.

While liberal bloggers were polishing their Indiana primary predictions, Indiana passed a law denying their citizens full access to the Internet.

While liberal pundits were extolling the courage and conviction of Martin Luther King, the Missouri Senate approved a Constitutional amendment denying citizens the protection of ex post facto.

While liberal leaders were condemning China for human rights violations, the Missouri Senate approved a bill forcing house arrest on citizens--who had not been arrested.

And where was the media?  Where was your candidate?  Where the f**k were the so called liberals?

A recent AP article highlighted the stiff arm that Florida law enforcement was getting from House lawyers in their attempt to access Mark Foley's computers.  The Multimedia widget in the sidebar includes a link to the July 24, 2007 letter from House counsel which states the DOJ allowed Foley and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to conduct their own searches of Foley's computers and report back to the DOJ.  A novel investigative technique that I'm sure thousands would like to participate in.

Attorney General Mukasey is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an Oversight Hearing on January 30.  I have a few questions for him, maybe you do too.  

On Wednesday, October 17, the House Judiciary is holding a hearing with the fear based title, "Sex Crimes and the Internet: Danger is Just a Click Away".

The witness list was just released late this afternoon, but no prepared statements have been posted. Since some of the same names and organizations will be testifying, and most follow a script, the testimony should be similar to previous hearings.  Which means the Committee will be getting something less than the full picture.

With that in mind, I respectfully offer a list of questions for the Committee's discretion.

On May 26, 2006, Gonzales, FBI Director Mueller and other DOJ officials met with civilian representatives of Internet Service Providers (ISP) in a closed door meeting at the Justice Department. At issue were data retention measures, a pet project of Gonzales.

During the meeting, officials passed around pixellated images of child pornography aimed at pressuring the ISPs to agree to long term data retention policies.

It's clear the spirit of the child pornography laws were violated, but was the letter of the law violated. The Fifth Circuit says yes.

In January 2007, McCain (and Schumer) introduced S.431, a modified, stand alone proposal that was included in McCain's S.4089 from late last year.  With the recent attention surrounding MySpace, sex offenders and subpeonas, it's worth noting McCain's involvement in the commotion.

The bill, designed by McCain, but embraced by several Dems, is a Trojan Horse which trades child safety for Murdoch dollars, legalizes state sanctioned censorship, interferes with a task force of state Attorneys General, addresses less than 10% of the problem, and has the stench of a quid pro quo arrangement.

The genesis of the bill came from MySpace in self-defense of state and Congressional criticism/findings that the design of the site allowed minors to access adult material/communications, and predators to access minors.  MySpace solicited McCain to cockblock the posse of state AGs, then assisted McCain in drafting legislation favorable to MySpace's business interests, which implicated First Amendment principles.  In return, McCain was rewarded with a fund raising platform.

This diary is in response to the Congressional Committees Project (CCP), and the difficulty in obtaining timely transcripts of committee hearings.

Just three reminders why citizen oversight is needed:  Powerful Committee Chairmen that are clueless about the subject matter; alleged 'experts' presenting false evidence to a committee; alleged 'experts' presenting false/misleading statistics that continue to get repeated after being exposed (opening remarks of Senators Allard and Stabenow).