Plead the First

Republican lawmakers are having fits over the terrorist surveillance bill that the Democratic-led House allowed to expire. Will the evildoers run amok now, thanks to the bill’s expiration? Not exactly. Ed Brayton sums it up nicely:
[T]he law now reverts to the old FISA statute and the Patriot Act amendments to that statute. … It […]

Rush Limbaugh dazzles us with his fifth level thinking:
“If I really wanted to torpedo McCain, I would endorse him,” Limbaugh said on his radio show. “Because that would send the independents and liberals who are going to vote for him running away faster than anything.”
“What people don’t realize is that I am doing McCain the […]

Greensboro Politics has posted an interview with Greensboro City Manager Mitch Johnson. One part jumped out at me (emphasis added):
Ryan: Does City Hall have a communications problem?
Mitchell: “Um…. Well, Um… I think based on, based on what’s…. I would say yes. We have not been effective getting a message out and communicating the environment in […]

Great quote from Sam Spagnola over at David Hoggard’s blog:
Our government and system of justice puts the burden of proof on the government, not the accused. If Johnson has a case, it is up to him to prove it. Wray doesn’t have to prove his innocence, although I believe for the most part that he […]

The FBI would like to get to know you a little bit better:
The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
Millions of fingerprints are already kept […]

A letter writer in today’s News and Record compares the sale of Mexican flag license plates with genocide:
Now I ask, why is the N.C. license plate office allowed to sell a plate with a flag of a foreign country but not a Confederate flag plate? … This is just another example of the increasing genocide […]