It’s not just the NSA that’s collecting massive amounts of personal data with judicial approval. In a ruling publicized by EarthRights International, a federal judge in New York approved a subpoena by Chevron to obtain any documents Microsoft has related to the identity of 30 anonymous individuals allegedly of interest in the litigation, including every IP address over a period of nine years.
The case involves an $18.2 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuador court, for massive environmental contamination from oil drilling. The Ecuadorian court found that Chevron had dumped toxic waste into Amazon waterways used by indigenous groups for drinking water and caused massive harm to the rainforest. Chevron responded by filing a lawsuit in U.S. court alleging that the plaintiffs engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the company.
As part of this lawsuit, Chevron has subpoenaed Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to request all information related to the email addresses of more than 100 advocates, journalists, lawyers, and others. These individuals are not parties to the suit, but Chevron alleges that they are involved directly or indirectly in the litigation, and may have been outspoken critics of Chevron’s conduct. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan explains the scope of what Chevron was seeking from Microsoft:
To summarize, if Microsoft still has and were to produce the requested information, Chevron would learn the IP address associated with every login for every account over a nine-year period. Chevron could identify the countries, states, or even cities where the users logged into accounts, and perhaps, in some instances, could determine the actual building addresses.
Category: Politics As Usual
Why these women are so damned mad
It’s just like a regular graduate degree
Only lighter, and less filling! (And more profitable for “reformers”.)
State Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks last month informed the New York City-based Relay Graduate School of Education that it can open a master’s degree program in Newark next fall.
Launched in New York in 2011, the program has made news — and waves — since its start. It was created by leaders of three prominent charter school networks and aims specifically at teachers who work in low-income and urban charter schools.
Relay already runs an alternate certification program out of Newark’s North Star Academy Charter School, serving about 75 students a year mostly from charters in that city. North Star is part of the Uncommon Schools charter network, one of the three organizations behind Relay. The others are KIPP and Achievement First.
As Relay did when it launched a master’s program in New York, the application for a Newark campus has drawn opposition from the state’s teacher colleges. Understandably so: Its approach replaces graduate-level coursework based on academic theory and research with skills-based workshops and “modules” on topics like classroom management, planning, and assessment.
“Fundamentally, it’s about what defines a graduate degree, with the distinction between what is basically a training program and one that represents a broader education,” said Christopher Campisano, director of Princeton University’s teacher preparation program.
Princeton was part of a consortium of 24 programs that opposed Relay’s application in a position statement sent in September, saying Relay “did not meet the standard” of a degree-granting program.
“While the results of a good education are ultimately vocational in nature, the belief that the primary purpose of education is the development of professional competence is not only misguided, it is extremely dangerous,” read the position statement.
Was the America revolution a flop?
Cory Booker is not a progressive
As Salon points out, and as I’ve been saying for years. New Jersey voters apparently prefer to vote on personality, not actual issues that affect their lives:
“We just had the worst financial decline in my lifetime, and there were really, really bad actors involved in it,” Booker says. “The mortgage lending agencies, ratings agencies, undercapitalized insurance companies. All of these things are egregious things that from a public policy perspective we must take action on.”
You’ll notice Booker didn’t include “banks” on that list. And those who have done battle with him in the rough-and-tumble world of Newark politics (the documentary about the 2002 campaign that helped launch him to stardom was called “Street Fight”) are skeptical of his zeal to take on these bad actors.
“Cory’s definitely no Democrat but he plays the liberal game,” says Ronald Rice, the longtime Newark state senator whom Booker defeated in 2006. “His whole life is Wall Street and Silicon Valley. We picked that up when he first came here. He was always a part of the privatization movement.”
Booker’s critics point out that he collected over half a million dollars from the financial industry during that first, unsuccessful mayoral run against cartoonish machine pol Sharpe James. Since defeating Rice, James’ hand-picked successor, in 2006, Booker has overseen major layoffs of public employees, including over 150 cops in 2010. Murders are down substantially and the population is inching upward for the first time in decades, prompting talk of a revival, but unemployment, poverty and carjackings remain exceptionally high and public services are often maligned (even if tweeting at the mayor about an unplowed street can occasionally produce an encouraging response).
Booker is also a vocal fan of charter schools and “education reform.” He’s tight with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a hero to conservatives for hurling rhetorical grenades at labor unions whenever the opportunity presents itself, and New York City Mayor and unabashed 1 percenter Michael Bloomberg, who (like many titans of big finance) is raising cash on Booker’s behalf.
And yet, for all of this, one other thing is true about Cory Booker that neither he nor his opponents can deny: Rather than revolting against him, New Jersey Democrats have gone all in.
The reason? As Booker puts it, switching to the third person, “Because he’s gonna win. Our internals reflect that.”
Feds consider probing Santorum
Of course, it’s highly unlikely anything will actually come of it, which is the problem. These arrangements are so common in politics, they’re hardly worth mentioning — because no one is ever successfully prosecuted:
The Federal Election Commission is asking former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and an anti-gay marriage organization to tell the agency why it should not investigate an allegation that they violated campaign finance limits during the last election.
The complaint, brought by Fred Karger, a gay rights activist who ran a quixotic campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, accuses Santorum of coordinating with the National Organization for Marriage to pay $1 million to Vander Plaats to endorse him, with the money eventually going for ads backing Santorum. That would be a violation of campaign finance law.
Head of the group the Family Leader, Vander Plaats is an influential member of Iowa’s evangelical community who got a reputation as a kingmaker after he endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the surprise winner of the 2008 caucuses. So there was considerable competition among last year’s contenders for the GOP presidential nomination to win his backing.
Vander Plaats endorsed Santorum two weeks before the caucuses. Santorum eked out a victory overeventual nominee Mitt Romney at the caucuses, propelling his long shot campaign towards being a more serious contender.
Continue reading “Feds consider probing Santorum”
Trying to crush the credit unions
I might have already posted this, but it’s important:
With fast-growing credit unions posing more formidable competition to banks, industry trade groups are pressing the White House and Congress to end a tax break that dates to the Great Depression.
“Many tax-exempt credit unions have morphed from serving ‘people of small means’ to become full-service, financially sophisticated institutions,” Frank Keating, president of the American Bankers Assn., wrote to President Obama last month.
“The time has come to abolish this exemption,” Keating said in the letter, which was part of a blitz that included print and radio ads in the nation’s capital.
Continue reading “Trying to crush the credit unions”
Uncle Jim at Petting Zoo, Miami vacation, 1938
Virtually Speaking Sunday
6p PT 9p et
From the Virtually Speaking Media Panel: Marcy Wheeler & Cliff Schecter discuss developments of the week; countering the narratives of the legacy media. Informed, lively and informal. Plus political satire from Culture of Truth. Jay Ackroyd moderates.
From the Virtually Speaking Media Panel: Marcy Wheeler & Cliff Schecter discuss developments of the week; countering the narratives of the legacy media. Informed, lively and informal. Plus political satire from Culture of Truth. Jay Ackroyd moderates.
– Egypt: what do we know and how do we know it?
– Snowden: what do we know and how do we know it?
– Snowden: what do we know and how do we know it?
– Right wing legislative attacks on Choice: what can we learn?
Listen live or later http://www.blogtalkradio.com/
Good King Christie
Vetoed for the third time a program that would convert foreclosed homes to affordable rental housing.
It seems the NJ chapter of Americans for Prosperity doesn’t like it because it’s a “bailout”, and as you know, “independent,” “moderate” Christie is running for president in 2016.