(no subject)

What Glenn said:

[L]ocal police and federal officials work with BP to harass, impede, interrogate and even detain journalists who are covering the impact of the spill and the clean-up efforts.

...

The very idea that government officials are acting as agents of BP (of all companies) in what clearly seem to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media is infuriating. Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest -- preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts -- but [the] creepy police state behavior [described before this paragraph] is intolerable.

...


Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week. [Emphasis by Greenwald]

It's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN's Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it "very easy to hide incompetence or failure". [emphasis again by Greenwald]

...

A "willful" violation of the new rule could result in Class D felony charges, which carry a penalty of one to five years in prison under federal law.

The only words I have to add are "abominable", "disgusting", and "throw the folks who thought this up and enforce it into jail -- the sooner and nastier, the better." "Unconstitutional" comes to mind, as do others that a saintly, innocent person such as myself isn't supposed to know (or at least not use publicly).

(no subject)

Just to get it on the record: The Knicks signing Amar'e Stoudamire to a five-year, $100-million deal isn't the best thing they could do, and it could be a disaster if he gets hurt again, or if no other significant moves get made. But they had to do something, and since they're not playing defense under Mike D'Antoni anyway, they might as well get a terrific player who's proved he can handle they style, and who may attract other top talent. In short, a gamble, but one they can justify, and far better than the alternative of hoping and praying.

(no subject)

Sports and folk music. Two great tastes that go great together.

Yes, this is to promote the music of Dan Bern, who is clearly a sports fan, and a fun musician, too. Here's "Joyce and Galarraga", celebrating the should-have-been perfect game thrown by Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga (who got robbed by a bad call on the 27th out by umpire Joyce, who wept when he realized that he had in fact blown it). He has another song commemorating a recent sporting event, but "Isner and Mahut" seems not to be online.

( Cut because I hate to send my friends screaming into the hills due to bandwidth stuff )

Dan Bern. Go forth and listen.