Random Morning Notes

Bush Outsources Torture The AP details the Eurpopean Union report. The CIA has conducted more than 1,000 clandestine flights in Europe since 2001, and some of them secretly took away terror suspects to countries where they could face torture, European Union lawmakers said Wednesday. … ''The committee deplores the fact that, as established during the committee's investigation, the CIA has used aircraft registered under fictitious company names or with private companies to secretly transfer terror suspects to other countries including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Afghanistan,'' according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press. --- The End Of "Fair Use" Exception To Copyright Law? A couple days ago, Steve Yahn at E&P reported "New Trademark Law Might Restrict Free Speech " Embedded deep in H.R. 683--"The Trademark Dilution Revision Act"--is language that would remove key protections that have been part of U.S. law since 1996. --- This is serious trouble. Plus the proposed changes would eliminate protections not just for newspapers, TV and bloggers, but also for writers, photographers, illustrators, and other artists. And corporate critics. All of whom, with the proposed changes in the law, could be sued for copyright infringement for basic news reporting, satire, and editorial criticism. Marvin J. Johnson, the Legislative Counsel for the ACLU gave this testimony to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. (pdf warning) --- Snowed Jim VandeHei and Michael A. Fletcher for WaPo expose Tony Snow as the most gullible person on the planet. They report (with my emphasis added): Snow, who in his roles as a pundit on Fox News and elsewhere has rapped Bush on several occasions, joined the White House only after extracting a promise that he would become an adviser to the president on day-to-day strategy. … "The president's message and vision are firmly in place and are not going to change," [Bush political adviser] McKinnon said. --- In related news, The Daily Show presents another episode of The Decider. Norm at onegoodmove has the clip. Personally, I look forward to Snow going mano a mano with Helen Thomas. --- Phone Jam-a-rama TPM has posted a timeline. --- Democrats and Blogs Kevin Drum posted results of a poll question regarding blog readership by registered Democrats. Seems there's "roughly 10 million registered Democrats who read blogs on a regular basis."