The New York Times, February 28, 2008:

President Bush was asked whether he agreed with Senator Barack Obama that the United States would be better off if the president were willing to hold direct talks with leaders of countries like Iran and Cuba.

Though the president has generally shied away from commenting directly on the presidential campaign, he launched immediately into a vigorous criticism of Mr. Obama's idea.

"Embracing a tyrant?" he asked, seeming worked up at the idea. "It'll send the wrong message. It'll send a discouraging message to those who wonder if America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners, it'll give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity."

The Washington Post, February 28, 2008:

More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.

I recall a fairly well-researched, data rich study done in the U.K. shortly after they went whole hog for cameras on every street corner. Its unsurprising finding was that human monitors disproportionately focused on and tracked good looking young women. Given the generally law-abiding public behavior of young women, (and the sex of the monitors) this was assumed to be a misuse of the technology. (Perhaps one of our resident trolls would like to explain why this is an acceptable 'externality', or how this sort of thing 'never' happens here in the U.S. of A.)

Some phone companies make "call data records" (CDRs) of text messages including text content (and in fact, the feds at one time pushed for such content to be treated as "call data" (despite the obvious personal information content of such; the equipment I've used has a programmable "switch" that can either keep or block the actual text from the CDRs produced, as well as a switch as to whether such should be delivered to a LEA with just a "data" [or "pen register"] type warrant). In the process of troubleshooting, we sometimes have to go digging through the CDRs (and legally, this is allowed, as long as we don't divulge or improperly use this; same as listening in to call audio as well for maintenance or troubleshooting purposes). Can't say much, but you'd be blushing if you saw some of the late-night text messages ... and that goes for both (apparent) genders' texting, I'd say.

But nobody I know has scrolled through them just for vicarious kicks; it's your job on the line (as well as criminal penalties) if you do so....

Cheers,

A very large percentage of the prison population is diagnosed with some form of acute or mental illness. Indeed, over 50% of ALL inaptient psychiatric care is delivered in prisons. In a perverse way, the old "state mental institution warehousing" of patients that was so vilified in the middle of the 20th century has simply been transferred to prison compounds, where even less treatment is provided and where the risks and dangers to the patients (AKA prisoners) is extremely high.

With the return of brain injured and mentally ill soldiers, expect burgeoning prisons for our veterans, already committing suicide, violence acts and running afoul of the criminal justice system in record numbers. Just wait until they're all back in the States....

Then it has to be a markup and it has to be extensible. If you don't create XTPML out of TPL someone else will.

Go for it!! You'll be famous (at least in the trades).

Cheers,

I meant to write "diagnosed with some form of acute or chronic mental illness"

Sorry for confusion above and beyond my usual incoherence.

"George Bush told the truth yesterday.

In his Press Conference yesterday, Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush candidly explained why he was so eager to have Congress grant amnesty to telecoms:

Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance."

And here's the traitorous Democrat Nancy Pelosi on impeachment...."No. Not yet. Nope. Not yet either! No. Still not enough!"

Right now any member of Congress who is not screaming at the top of his/her lungs for the impeachment of Bush/Cheney is a traitor to the Constitution and the American people. And that most certainly includes Clinton, Obama and McCain.

NONE of them are worthy to take the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States!

Journalism (to use the term quite loosely) is operating under several constraints and has become focused on specific methods of presenting news.

The first constraint is simplicity. This is not necessarily a simple story.

The second is that the media does not want to look soft on terrorism.

They are also constrained by their methods of presenting the news. The media likes the for-and-against story, the he said/he said. The telecom immunity does not have good traction for this method because the two sides are going to talk past each other. Pro-telecom immunity spokesman just shout, "Terrorists! Security!" Anti-immunity spokesmen can't really respond directly to that in what the media perceives will be a satisfactory way (they might look soft on terrorism). Anti-immunity spokesmen would address the deeper issues of proper behavior in a Constitutional republic and no pro-immunity spokesman can counter that.

The media also favors personal perspective--the victim, the dramatic circumstance. In this case, we don't know who was spied on and how that might have "harmed" them. The media knows that many people in the U. S. operate under the false assumption that if someone isn't doing anything wrong, spying on them is no big deal. So it takes a lot to overcome this without looking soft on terrorism. Right now there aren't any sympathetic victims to hang a story on.

If the Congress held hearings on this issue, it might get a little traction because there would be footage and maybe some compelling stories, much like the sickbed image of Ashcroft.

But as long as Congress fails to do its job, the media just can't cover the story.