Four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. Simple, huh?
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The ACLU has struck another blow against Bush-style fascism on behalf of Joe Does everywhere. Dan Eggen of the Washington Post reports, Judge Rules Provisions of Patriot Act Unconstitutional:
A federal judge today struck down portions of the USA Patriot Act as unconstitutional, ordering the FBI to stop issuing ‘national security letters’ that secretly demand customer information from Internet service providers and other businesses.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York ruled that the landmark antiterrorism law violates the First Amendment and the separation of powers because it effectively prohibits recipients of the FBI letters from revealing their existence and does not provide adequate judicial oversight of the process.
Marrero wrote in his 106-page ruling that Patriot Act provisions related to NSLs are “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values.”
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More court battles may be on the horizon for the Bush administration. According to The Guardian, the National Security Archives has sued the White House over their mishandling of email. “A private firm today filed a lawsuit claiming the White House illegally abandoned an automatic archiving system for its email in 2002. ¶ The legal move, taken by National Security Archive (NSA), a group advocating the public disclosure of government secrets, is the latest attempt to find out whether the Bush administration lost millions of electronic messages. ¶ Email problems at the White House first came to light during a special investigation into the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent in 2003, and the issue was raised again this year during inquiries into the role of presidential aides in firing US attorneys.”
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Not much news from the APEC meeting in Sydney, but The Hill makes mention of this bit of Aussie humor. “The White House was not amused Thursday by the antics of an Australian comedy group that breached President Bush’s security in Sydney… The group staged a faux motorcade, pretending to be the delegation of Canada with one of the comedians dressed as Osama bin Laden, and made it past two police checkpoints before being stopped.” The Sydney Morning Herald has more.
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Scientists now have a theory to explain how an asteroid was set on a collision course with the Earth a cataclysmic event that is a leading theory to why many dinosaurs went extinct. Space.com has the low down, Dino-Killing Asteroid Traced to Cosmic Collision. “Scientists think the celestial smash-up took place some 160 million years ago in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The collision would have hurled numerous large chunks of debris into space. And the scientists think one of those fragments crashed into Earth 65 million years ago to form the Chicxulub crater near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Another likely carved the Tycho crater on the moon, they said. ¶ The results, published in the Sept. 6 issue of the journal Nature, rely on a series of computer models and do not represent a firm conclusion, though they are supported by information collected from the Chicxulub crater by past researchers.”
Extra:
- As ek noted in The Morning News, Luciano Pavarotti has died from pancreatic cancer. Here is part of his obituary from The New York Times:
Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian singer whose ringing, pristine sound set a standard for operatic tenors of the postwar era, died early this morning at his home in Modena, in northern Italy. He was 71…
Mr. Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera… Millions saw him on television and found in his expansive personality, childlike charm and generous figure a link to an art form with which many had only a glancing familiarity.
Early in his career and into the 1970s he devoted himself with single-mindedness to his serious opera and recital career, quickly establishing his rich sound as the great male operatic voice of his generation — the “King of the High Cs,” as his popular nickname had it…
In his later years Mr. Pavarotti became as much an attraction as an opera singer. Hardly a week passed in the 1990s when his name did not surface in at least two gossip columns. He could be found unveiling postage stamps depicting old opera stars or singing in Red Square in Moscow. His outsize personality remained a strong drawing card, and even his lifelong battle with his circumference guaranteed headlines…
So, what else is happening?