From Suburban Guerrilla today: (Link)/ Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story has a really depressing piece on Alternet today. Basically, she's saying what the rest of us are thinking: What won't they do to stay in power? I know all the arguments. God knows, I've been immersed in this stuff for years now. But it's the wrong fucking question. We should be asking, "What are we willing to do to stop them - and how?" We already have the power to stop them. It's maddening to me, how people are all t...

This is big. California's 6th District appeals court has ruled in Apple v. Does that bloggers, like journalists, are protected under California's shield law. (Link)/ "The Court also held that the website editors were journalists entitled to claim California’s Journalist Shield to prevent them from being held in contempt for not disclosing sources and to claim the First Amendment’s protections for journalists. "This is a *huge* win! Now journalists can feel safe knowing that they can protect t...

For torture in Iraq. (Link) Burke and her team are well aware of the likely stand the defendants will take. "They had a contract with the government, so therefore they should be entitled to something called the 'government contractor defense,'" Burke explains. "You're not liable because the government wouldn't be liable. The government has a lot of immunity from tort suits. So if all you're doing essentially is acting as an arm of the government, then you have some immunity too." As a lega...