Now THIS is a new one! Think Progress » The Minnesota GOP’s Stealth Attack On Privacy
This week the Minnesota Republican Party is distributing a new CD about a proposed state marriage amendment. Along with flashy graphics, the CD asks people their views on controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, illegal immigration, and so on.
The problem – the CD sends your answers back to headquarters, filed by name, address, and political views. No mention of that in the terms of use. No privacy policy at all.
…
Without a privacy policy, the state party can tell your views to anyone at all. If you give the “wrong” answers on abortion or other issues, they can tell your boss, members of your church, or anyone else.
Holy Jeebus H. Crisco! Some will argue that people assume what they are getting when they answer those questions, but the fact is that gathering personal, non-anonymized information and sending it back without any notification or privacy policy is spyware and I believe it’s against the law.
Wonder if this is a first, or just the first time it’s been caught…
I have no idea what to make of this ports controversey. On one hand there are arguments that it’s not really a big deal, but on the other hand even a counter-terrorism expert in this administration says “security fears are well grounded.”
Of course, on the gripping hand, anything that makes Bush look bad (and this is making him look BAAAAAD) can’t be all that bad to focus on.
Bush @ 34% Approval. “You know things aren’t going so hot when the ‘good news’ is that Cheney is at 18 percent approval.”
So went to the Sybaris/Deadboy & The Elephantment/Fiery Furnaces show last night. I’ll keep the review short.
Sybaris: Kinda cool. I dug it. Singer had an odd inflection to her voice that I liked. Think ummm Cranes with more rock and less mewling. Grade: B-
Deadboy & The Elephantment: I REALLLLLLY liked this group. Guy on guitar, girl on drums. White Stripes with less pretention and more blues. I’ve gotta dig up their album somewhere. Grade: A
The Fiery Furnaces: Oy. What can I say? I didn’t like it. Throw four angry cats in a sack, give them rock band instruments and tie the sack closed. Not my cup of tea, although I can see how some like it. my biggest gripe is the random thematic changes in the middle of songs. It’s like they had about 100 ideas for an album but only room for 12 songs so the figured out a way to put all 100 ideas on it anyway - 10 ideas per song! When they played songs that sort of stuck to the same theme I liked it alot better. Grade: D+
CJ wonders (via other linkage & quotes) is socialized medicine good for art? It would be interesting to do some sort of statistical analysis of the number of artists/art produced in a country vs. the state of its national health care…..
Yeah, nothing like an activist judge denying a woman any contact wit hher son because she’s a member of a satirical religous group that happens to have very…lax views on sexuality. And this woman never brought her son to the event in question.
Damn those liberal activist judges! Yet another reason I am a staunch supporter of the complete separation of church and state.
I went to the most excellent Sigur Ros show last week (can’t believe I didn’t write about it after!) Thjis review at IndianaplolisMusic.Net sums it up bettter than I.
Sigur Ros uses dynamics to create passionate concert experience
Amazing show. It’s hard to say because the Chicago show was 6 months ago, but it might have even been better than that show.
Going to see The Fiery Furnaces concert tonight. Cheap tickets to a band recommended by CJ even though I’ve never really heard their stuff. Here’s hoping I enjoy it!
I’m not really a rap/hip-hop fan but I heard the track “Re-Fresh” by Common Market on the KEXP podcast and reallllllly dig it. The rest of their stuff (streams on their website) is pretty cool too. I love the jazz samples that are used a lot.
I’m sure I’m going to get ripped for this (although CJ is with me on this one). Is the issue of ports being sold to the UAE really that big a deal?
As CJ’s post points out it really does seem to be hinging on an “OMG Foreigners!!!” feeling, which isn’t really what the Democratic party should be about. It reads like anti-Arab fearmongering.
But even more convincing is this counterpoint to the anti-UAE ports controversy on Think Progress (a very progressive blog run by the American Progress ActionFund). Not exactly a home to neocons.
Now, there SHOULD be debates on whether our ports should be foreign owned at all (not just a company owned by, as Ann Coulter might put it, swarthy brown people), or whether the United States government should be the controlling interest in our ports. There SHOULD be huge debates on this administration’s failure to do anything about port security. Why didn’t the President know about this until AFTER it was approved? But not over “scary Arabs owning our ports.”
Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun to watch Bush twist in the wind on this issue, and it’s nice to see the Democrats actually engaging in spine-like activity for once. And Bush & his cronies are dissembling just as much as ever over it (the compromise is not a compromise, it’s 21 ports not 6).
But couldn’t we grow a spine over something a little bigger with more meaning? It’s not like there aren’t a million other things that truly are dangerous we could focus on…. no WMDs, 9/11 security failures, etc etc etc etc.
But hey, I guess in the end anything that hurts Bush & the GOP in the leadup to the ‘06 elections…..
The fight by the “pro-life” movement (a movement that just seems to care about “life” until its born, then its social Darwinism from there out) isn’t just against abortion - at its heart it’s against all forms of birth control.
And don’t think it’s not happening in Indiana. SB 04 is out there trying to make it so pharmacists don’t have to do their job if someone wants to get their prescription for the pill filled.
If “pro-life” activists truly want to stop or lower the number of abortions happening, maybe they should look at this stat from the Kaiser Family Foundation (PDF):
Researchers estimate that widespread use of EC (emergency contraception) could potentially prevent up to half of the approximately 3 million unintended pregnancies that occur annually in the U.S., and one study has suggested that broader use could help prevent as many as 700,000 pregnancies that now result in abortion.
Could prevent as many as 700,000 abortions annually?!! Any pro-lifer who is against Plan-B (emergency contraceptive) can only be against any sort of birth control. If their goal was to truly reduce abortions, they wouldn’t be against it. Hell, they’d be fighting FOR it.
via atrios