It looks like the worst-case scenario outlined by Alternet yesterday is coming about sooner than expected. Senator Orrin Hatch leads a GOP charge to eliminate the sunset provisions in the Patriot Act, thus making permanent the sweeping antiterrorism provisions of the first bill and setting the stage for PATRIOT II. Let’s hope Hatch doesn’t have the votes.
Author: KcM
Don’t suspect a friend – report him.
Wiretaps, deportations, DNA databases, secret arrests, you name it. Alternet summarizes the many dangerous implications of PATRIOT II, Attorney General Ashcroft’s upcoming salvo against American civil liberties. The Bushies are going to need another war to pass this one off on us. (Via Genehack, whom I’ve got my eye on…)
Tea the Milky Way.
Might be time to update our tea time traditions…Drinking tea in space, by way of Breaching the Web.
Running the Table.
Although Saddam’s regime appears to be on its last legs, the Bushies have not yet begun to fight. In fact, this administration now seems recommitted to the task of destroying whatever remaining credibility America has left in the Middle East and the international community. For, despite recent setbacks in Afghanistan, Rummy, Wolfowitz, and the rest of Dubya’s neocon hawks now turn to Syria as the best candidate for our next splendid little war, a war that even England is loath to enter. And one has to assume Iran, Irkutsk, and Yakutsk are next. (Then maybe the Bushies will be content to take a card.)
Monkey Island or Bust.
If (like me) you prefer more old-fashioned saber-rattling, the new trailer for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean is now online. With Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, and Jonathan Pryce hamming it up this much, and Keira Knightley (Rachel Weisz look out!) and/or Orlando Bloom as your eye candy of choice, this one could be fun summer afternoon fluff.
Are we shooting people or what?
In praise of Three Kings, “the most caustic anti-war movie of this generation.”
Kings of the Road.
I’m taking a day trip to Philly tomorrow to catch the Sixers take on the Sacramento Kings with some friends in the program. AI v. Webber and Bibby in a possible finals matchup…should be grand. So, see you Monday, and remember to set your clocks back.
Against all odds.
As March Madness draws to a close, John McCain leads a move in Congress to ban betting on college sports. Perhaps this isn’t the best time to mention that I win my pool if Texas loses today. (No worries, Senator, there’s no money at stake…this time.)
Return of the King (of the World).
The New York Times checks in with James Cameron as he plans his next project, in fantabulous 3-D… (Via High Industrial.) Update: Cameron talks Alien 5. Sign him up.
I don’t want to see this, Jonesey!
Detective Story, the third web installment of The Animatrix, is now online. Nice to look at, but wooden dialogue and a pointless story make this one rather disappointing. I’ve heard good things about Final Flight of the Osiris, but first I have to steel myself to sit through Dreamcatcher.