Warrent Used to Raid Journalist's Home Possibly Invalid
Welcome to Steve Jobs' police state. Literally. California, enamored by Apple hype, sanctioned a possibly unconstitutional police raid on a journalist. Below is Wired's account of the events. Is Jobs worse than Gates at this point? Is it time for an Apple boycott?
Police raided the house of an editor for Gizmodo on Friday and seized computers and other equipment. The raid was part of an investigation into the leak of a prototype iPhone that the site obtained for a blockbuster story last week. Now, a legal expert has raised questions about the legality of the warrant used in the raid.
On Friday, officers from California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team in San Mateo, California, appeared at the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen while he was not there and broke open the front door.
Chen and his wife discovered the officers when they returned from dinner around 9:45 that evening. According to an account he posted online, Chen noticed his garage door was partly open, and when he tried to open it completely, officers came out and told him they had a warrant to search the premises. The warrant had been signed just hours earlier, at 7:00 p.m., by a San Mateo County Superior Court judge. It allowed the police to search Chen, his residence and any vehicle in his control.
The officers were in the process of cataloging the items they had already taken from the premises and told Chen they had been in his home a “few hours already.” According to California law, a search warrant may be served between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. unless otherwise authorized.
The officers told Chen he could request reimbursement for the damage to his front door.
Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Chen is protected from a warrant by both state and federal laws.
The federal Privacy Protection Act prohibits the government from seizing materials from journalists and others who possess material for the purpose of communicating to the public. The government cannot seize material from the journalist even if it’s investigating whether the person who possesses the material committed a crime. Full Story
The Daily P.P. Awards Predictive programming - when TV tells you how it's gonna be
Monday night's award goes to CSI: Miami (episode "Count Me Out") on CBS. The entire CSI franchise is anathema to civil liberties and science. But that is well-worn territory.
This rerun, originally aired in December, was about catching a meth dealer who murdered a Census taker. The episode only briefly touches on any anti-government sentiment inherent with such a topic but two subtle moments in the episode plant a seed that all Americans may be criminals.
Detective Calleigh Duquesne expresses the dangers for government employees like the Census taker because of "all of the anti-government people out there." Later in the episode a charcter, who was upset that police were on her property unlawfully and that taxes are too high, was arrested for falsely imprisoning her maid.
We live in a world in which a 17-year old can sign up to possibly die in a foreign war but cannot buy a video game where his avatar would do the same thing. At least in California. Yes, that California. The state on the edge of bankruptcy has as one of its priorities the restriction of much needed commerce in the guise protecting the youth from "anti-social behavior."
Worrying about "anti-social behavior" in modern day video games is akin to having concern for your rabbi's foreskin. This is not the Pac Man days. Most of the games of concern have online components that usually exceed the popularity of the single-player campaigns. Playing with others - SOCIALLY - is how most of these games are marketed.
California censors also cite studies about the violence desensitization and aggression. These studies are as reliable as alchemy. The studies are so flawed, in fact, that they've figured into the prior actual rulings (all of which have stuck down gaming censorship). Judge Consuelo Callahan said in the 9th Circuit ruling:
"None of the research establishes or suggests a causal link between minors playing violent video games and actual psychological or neurological harm, and inferences to that effect would not be reasonable"
Ultimately, the national past time of America's soccer parents are feigning outrage over getting involved in their child's life. Their motto should be "Government, please raise my kid for me." And since all government start quelling free speech "for the children." we need to see protecting the First Amendment has a very grown-up matter. Full Story
The Daily P.P. Awards
Predictive programming - when TV tells you how it's gonna be
Sunday night's award goes to American Dad (episode "Bully for Steve") on Fox. In order to teach his son, Steve, how to stand up for himself, dad Stan becomes his bully. Father beating up son, or child abuse, is the humor here. Funny stuff? But this is only found out because of the surveillance system at Steve's school. A system in which the principal (who seems to have secret proclivities) is the only one with access. This is much like what is going on in Pennsylvania in which a school district used laptops to spy on the students at home in their bedrooms. Men in private rooms secretly watching teenagers - the new norm.
Apple is imposing a two-per-person lifetime limit on iPad purchases. Now, Steve Jobs and company are either:
1) Employing the old artificial scarcity illusion to make their tablet look like it is just so in demand (which it is not)
2) Hiding a problem supply-side
3) Or, more sinister: Steve Jobs is a control freak who likes complete say over media access, rumors, and apps, and now what his costumers can buy.
Steve escapes the "evil" label that Bill Gates has because of all the Apple slaves in the tech media. And we're an Apple company here at CoOlDiGgY! Apple would be eMachines if it were not for its hype machine. Now ask nicely and maybe Steve will allow you to give him your hard-earned money. Full Story
The Daily P.P. Award Predictive programming - when your TV tells you how's it's gonna be
Today's "winner" is NBC-Universal's entire week of programming (an apt term). It has been "Green Week" at the networks of NBC-Universal (a subsidiary of General Electric and soon to also be own by Comcast). That means every show had a pro-environment message somewhere in the episode. NBC-Universal calls their predictive programming behavior placement.
We here at CoOlDiGgY love Mother Nature and live a green and organic SoCal life without having to give Al Gore a dime. But NBC-Universal wants to shape public opinion to benefit the Earth? No. It's not about a conspiratorial political agenda. It's a PROFIT agenda. Period. So if GE has to use their TV networks to change your politics in order to make profits happen then your TV will nudge you in that direction. Motto: Corrupt the social views for public policies that is advantageous for bottom lines.
So GE gets NBC-Universal to get you to go (their kind of) green. So you buy GE's energy-efficient light bulbs. They have mercury in them but whatever.
Then you can totally live out your dreams of being like Liz Lemon by getting on the Smart Grid (brought to you by GE, of course). Yeah, GE's Smart Grid controls your appliances and spies on you but whatever.
And, of course, the most green thing you can do - nuclear power. At least that's what GE TV is telling you. Yes, GE is in the nuclear business. They even got the President to greenlight funding for the first new nuclear power plants to open in 3 decades (you see-nuclear power is so risky that only the federal government can afford to insure them). Forget that nuclear power, ever so "green" if you don't count the meltdowns and waste, consumes lots of water. So much water, in fact, that numerous states have had to pass on them due to droughts they are already having.
Yeah, it was Green Week at GE's NBC-Universal. But it wasn't to get you green-conscious. Not that kind of green, at least. If you are still touchy-feely about it then just remember that you are only enabling GE to continue being among the biggest war profiteers and skip out on paying their taxes after making almost $11 billion in profits. Green is only universal for GE.
Wall Street Journal asks "Why is NBC Telling You How to Live?
The tactic—General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal calls it "behavior placement"—is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. This is the power of persuasion that NBCU hopes to tap. "Subtle messaging woven into shows mainstreams it, and mainstreaming is an effective way to get a message across," says NBC exec
In just one week on NBC, the detectives on "Law and Order" investigated a cash-for-clunkers scam, a nurse on "Mercy" organized a group bike ride, Al Gore made a guest appearance on "30 Rock," and "The Office" turned Dwight Schrute into a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling.
The tactic—General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal calls it "behavior placement"—is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show.
Unlike with product placement, which can seem jarring to savvy viewers, the goal is that viewers won't really notice that Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycle bin, or that a minor character on "Law and Order: SVU" has switched to energy-saving light bulbs. "People don't want to be hit over the head with it," says NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker. "Putting it in programing is what makes it resonate with viewers."
TV has always had the ability to get millions of people to mimic a beloved character. Ever since Carrie Bradshaw on "Sex and the City" stopped in at the Magnolia Bakery, fans of the show wait in long lines for the once-quiet shop's $2.75 cupcakes. When Jennifer Aniston as Rachel on "Friends" cut her hair, salons across the country reported requests for the shaggy, highlighted, layered look known as "the Rachel."
This is the power of persuasion that NBCU hopes to tap. "Subtle messaging woven into shows mainstreams it, and mainstreaming is an effective way to get a message across," says Lauren Zalaznick, president of NBCU Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, which oversees the effort.
Since fall 2007, network executives have been asking producers of almost every prime-time and daytime show to incorporate a green storyline at least once a year. The effort now takes place for a week in April and November. Starting April 19 this year, 40 NBC Universal outlets will feature some 100 hours of green-themed programming, including an episode of the Bravo reality series "Millionaire Matchmaker" in which a 39-year-old tycoon with an eco-friendly clothing line goes into a rage after his blind date orders red meat.
In June, NBCU plans a week in which programming will emphasize healthy eating and exercise: The idea is that viewers will watch the shows and then spring into action. "It's about incorporating a marketer's message into a thematic environment," says Mike Pilot, president of sales and marketing at NBC Universal.
While the network says it tries to incorporate green programming throughout the year, the special emphasis twice a year creates an "event" that provides opportunities to advertisers, an NBC spokeswoman says. For instance, a Wal-Mart ad focusing on locally grown produce ran this past November after an episode of the medical drama "Trauma" in which emergency medic Rabbit rescues a window washer dangling precariously from a building; medics are alerted to the situation by a man sitting in his hybrid vehicle.
Behavior placement gives marketers extra incentive to advertise at a time when digital video recorders equip viewers with an unprecedented ability to skip commercials, says Jason Kanefsky, a media buyer at Havas's MPG. "You're not forcing your way into a program in any shape or form," he says. "You're just nodding your head at a program." ABC, CBS and FOX have plenty of product placement but haven't taken the step into behavior placement, network spokesmen say.
TV writers and producers are less enamored with behavior placement. Already on the hook to create holiday-themed episodes and accommodate marketers in other ways, some producers and writers grumble about additional demands. Requests for green-themed storylines come at the start of the year when programming executives sit down with producers and lay out which company-wide themes and holidays they will be working into shows.
No College Degree, Massive Amounts of Debt, One Health Crisis from Bankruptcy, and Beholden to the Banking Elite
Being middle class today does not carry the financial security that it once carried in the 1950s and 1960s. Interestingly enough, many Americans at that time did not own stocks yet somehow they managed well because they had access to affordable housing without toxic mortgages and many had the ability to work with one company and have some kind of security from their company. It was a mutual relationship as even Henry Ford shook the auto manufacturing world by upping wages for his workers. Yet today, we are being fed distorted information from Wall Street that we need to have this system where workers are disposable entities only to increase the profits of the corporate class.
If people are hurting so much why are we paying billions in bonuses to a small group of people that really haven’t helped the country? In fact, many of these are directly responsible for our current economic problems. At the root, this has been the cancer that has eaten away at what it means to be middle class. Social government welfare for Wall Street and Darwinian capitalism for the rest of us.
The middle class has it extremely tough today not because of random events but purposeful and directed robbery from Wall Street. This was a methodical and planned dismantling of the system. First, let us walk through some details of the middle class to create a profile:
The most common household formation in the U.S. is a married couple. Certainly this has changed over time but this is the most common arrangement in the U.S. But this has also led to the two-income trap that we have heard about so often:
Even though nominal wages are much higher today, inflation has eroded the buying power of Americans so much that even two incomes today cannot compete with one income forty years ago. After all, if you could buy a car with $200 then $1,000 would seem like a lot. But what is a $50,000 household income when home prices cost $250,000? This is really the essence of what has broken the middle class apart. Prices rose to astronomical levels because Wall Street created speculative casino products and injected the virus into the system. The middle class today is fearful of even having enough to retire. But beyond even retiring, many people have very little saved:
