Idaho Libertarian Times

Podcast #15 The off tangent ranty ranty podcast

PODCAST #15 Sun Jan 31 2010

Clearing the air on emissions testing in Idaho

Testing of Canyon County and Kuna cars and trucks for air pollution could begin by June 1, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality officials say.

BY ROCKY BARKER - rbarker@idahostatesman.com
Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman
Published: 01/31/10
"Two legislative committees narrowly endorsed the Department of Environmental Quality rules that will require vehicles in Canyon County and Kuna to pass emissions tests."
"The problem is the federal government keeps lowering the bar," said Nampa Republican Rep. Steve Kren.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1062630.html

10 Idahoans arrested in Haiti
Story Created: Jan 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM MST
Story Updated: Jan 30, 2010 at 11:27 PM MST
By Jen Wahl & Michael Calcagno
MERIDIAN - A rescue mission abruptly ended Saturday morning at the Haiti-Dominican Republic border as 10 Idahoans were detained for illegal trafficking of children.
http://www.2news.tv/news/83173907.html

Got Milk? Got Ethics? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry
Undercover Videos Show Ugly Realities Behind the Scenes of 'Factory Dairy Farms'
By ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS
Jan. 26, 2010
Undercover videos produced by animal rights groups are fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows. "These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals. "The overall environment at this facility was really a culture of cruelty and neglect."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/animal-rights-us-dairy-industry/story?id=9658866

Sergey Brin: Engine driver

Google's bold stand against China owes much to the ideals of the internet giant's co-founder

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sergey-brin-engine-driver-1869546.html

By Tim Walker

Saturday, 16 January 2010

When, two years previously, the world's largest internet firm had finally started doing business with the world's most populous country, Google's bosses agreed to impose search filters at the behest of Beijing. Thus search terms such as "Tiananmen Square" or "Dalai Lama" threw up results that were either innocuous or simply censored. Many of Google's idealistic employees, let alone its users, had long been troubled by the compromise. One of the site's founders, Larry Page, voted the motion down, as did the CEO, Eric Schmidt. But Page's co-founder, Sergey Brin, abstained.

For the Full Story see the link  above

via www.independent.co.uk

By Michael Geist

Wednesday January 27, 2010

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4737/125/#iframe_height=300

Part Three of the ACTA Guide (Part One on the agreement itself, Part Two on the official and leaked documents) focuses on the issue that has dogged the proposed agreement since it was first announced - the lack of transparency associated with the text and the talks. As yesterday's public letter from NDP MP Charlie Angus and the UK cross-party motion highlight, elected officials around the world have latched onto the transparency issue and demanded that their governments open ACTA to public scrutiny. Reviewing the ACTA transparency issue involves several elements: the public concern with ACTA secrecy, the source of the secrecy, and the analysis of whether ACTA secrecy is common when compared to other intellectual property agreements. 1. The Public Concern Over the course of the two years since ACTA was first publicly announced (it was secretly discussed for about two years before the public unveiling), there have been repeated calls from elected officials and public interest groups to address the transparency concerns. In fact, each time portions of the ACTA text leak, the concerns grow stronger. For example, a sampling of the global call from politicians for greater transparency includes:

• Senators Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown, United States
• Rep. Mike Doyle, United States
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren, United States
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, France
• Tom Watson (Labour), John Whittingdale (Conservative), Lindsay Hoyle (Labour), and Don Foster (Lib Democrats), United Kingdom
• Minister Åsa Torstensson, Sweden
• MEP Jens Holms, Sweden
• MEP Axel Voss, Germany
• MP Clare Curran, New Zealand
• Peter Dunne, New Zealand
• MP Charlie Angus, Canada

Moreover, the European Parliament has voted for a proposal to bring more transparency and public access to documents.  The resolution includes specific language about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  In particular, it states:

Acting in accordance with Article 255(1) of the EC Treaty, the European Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) publicly available.

The justification for the language is:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will contain a new international benchmark for legal frameworks on what is termed intellectual property right enforcement. The content as known to the public is clearly legislative in character. Further, the Council confirms that ACTA includes civil enforcement and criminal law measures. Since there can not be secret objectives regarding legislation in a democracy, the principles established in the ECJ Turco case must be upheld.

In addition to elected officials and parliamentary resolutions, numerous public interest groups from around the world have joined the call for greater ACTA transparency (current joint declaration is one example).  Business groups have also attacked the secrecy associated with the talks.

2.   The Sources of ACTA Secrecy

Identifying the sources of ACTA secrecy are alternately easy and difficult. The confidentiality statement that forms the basis of ACTA confidentiality has been leaked and makes it clear that the U.S. set the initial terms of secrecy.  A more detailed discussion can be found in several documents responding to access to information/freedom of information requests.  For example, the Declaration of Stanford McCoy of the USTR on ACTA disclosure of documents provides the U.S. perspective, while European Council response on ACTA transparency and disclosure of documents provides the EU view (second EU document here).

While those are the official positions, some countries have provided limited access to "ACTA Insiders."  The U.S. made the Internet chapter available under non-disclosure agreement to 42 ACTA insiders in 2009.  Canada intended to create an insider advisory group, but abandoned those plans after details of the possible members was obtained under the Access to Information Act and reported in the press.

More difficult is to identify who currently supports ACTA secrecy. According to an article in the EU Observer, roughly half of the 27 EU Member States support increased ACTA transparency, suggesting that making content publicly available would increase public confidence.  There have been similar reports in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. That still leaves the Asian countries and the U.S. as potential holdouts (USTR head Ron Kirk has reportedly said that countries would walk away from the treaty if the text were made available).

3.   Is ACTA Secrecy Standard?

The third major issue is whether the ACTA secrecy is commonplace.  Last fall, the ACTA partners released a joint statement arguing that "it is accepted practice during trade negotiations among sovereign states to not share negotiating texts with the public at large, particularly at earlier stages of the negotiation."  Yet a closer examination of similar international IP negotiations reveals that the ACTA approach is not standard.

U.S. NGO groups have made a strong case for how ACTA's lack of transparency is out-of-step with many other global norm setting exercises.  With regard to international fora, they note that the WTO, WIPO, WHO, UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, UNCTAD, OECD, Hague Conference on Private International Law, and an assortment of other conventions have all been far more open than ACTA.  For example, the WIPO Internet treaties, which offer the closest substantive parallel to the ACTA Internet provisions, were by comparison very transparent:

The two WIPO Internet Treaties (WCT and WPPT) were negotiated in a completely open meeting at the Geneva Convention Center. The public was allowed to attend without accreditation. The draft texts for the WCT and the WPPT were public, and the U.S. government requested comments on the draft texts, which were available, among other places, from the U.S. Copyright Office.

Two other documents offer similar reviews of the transparency of negotiation documents and opportunities for public participation.  Moreover, Jamie Love recently posted a comparison of the level of transparency during the FTAA negotiations with the ACTA talks.  Several drafts of the FTAA agreement were released to the public as the negotiations were ongoing.

The inescapable conclusion is that the ACTA approach is hardly standard.  Rather, it represents a major shift toward greater secrecy in the negotiation of international treaties on intellectual property in an obvious attempt to avoid public participation and scrutiny.

ACTA Guide, Part Two: The Documents (Official and Leaked)

By Michael Geist

Tuesday January 26, 2010

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4730/125/#

Negotiations in the 7th round of the ACTA talks open this morning in Mexico with civil enforcement issues on the agenda. Yesterday I posted on the developments to-date, including a chronology of talks, issues, and leaks that have led to this week's round of discussions. Part Two of the ACTA Guide provides links to the underlying documentation. Governments have been very tight lipped about the talks. Initially, only a brief summary following the conclusion of each round of the talks was provided. More recently, the agenda of each meeting is disclosed and a summary document (largely confirming Internet leaks) has been provided. Links to each of these documents is posted below. * The official agenda for the 7th round of negotiations in Guadalajara, Mexico * Statement on 6th round of negotiations in Seoul, Korea * Statement on 5th round of negotiations in Rabat, Morocco * Statement on 4th round of negotiations in Paris, France * Statement on 3rd round of negotiations in Tokyo, Japan * Statement on 2nd round of negotiations in Washington, DC * Statement on 1st round of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland * The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - Summary of Key Elements Under Discussion Of far greater importance are the leaked documents. These have confirmed how the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is designed to extend far beyond counterfeiting and how it would reshape domestic law in many countries, including Canada. Links to all the leaks are posted below. Note that many are dated and therefore reflect initial thinking but may have changed over the course of recent discussions. * Confidentiality statement: terms of confidentiality for ACTA documents (U.S.) * Business Group demands for ACTA * 2007 Outline Proposal for ACTA * EU Analysis of the ACTA Internet chapter * EU Advance Summary of the ACTA Internet chapter * Canadian non-paper on Institutional arrangements * Definitions (U.S.) * Border Measures Chapter (U.S. and Japan) * Criminal Provisions Chapter (U.S. and Japan) * Civil Enforcement Chapter (U.S. and Japan)

The ACTA Guide, Part One: The Talks To-Date

Monday January 25, 2010 The 7th round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations begins tomorrow in Guadalajara, Mexico. The negotiation round will be the longest to-date, with three and a half days planned to address civil enforcement, border measures, the Internet provisions, and (one hour for) transparency. Over the next five days, I plan to post a five-part ACTA Guide that will include sourcing for much of the discussion on ACTA, links to all the leaked documents, information on the transparency issue, and a look at who has been speaking out. I start today with a lengthy backgrounder for those new to ACTA or looking to catch up on recent developments. There are several ways to get up-to-speed. The recent Google-sponsored debate was very informative, particularly on the transparency issue. There has been some helpful mainstream media coverage from the Washington Post (Copyright Overreach Takes a World Tour, Q & A on ACTA) and the Irish Times (Secret agreement may have poisonous effect on the net). The Command Line ran a podcast on the topic last week and I've posted interviews on ACTA I did with Search Engine and CBC's As It Happens. Last last year I also created a timeline that tracks the evolution of ACTA and I gave a talk on ACTA last November that highlights the major developments in about 20 minutes (embedded below).3

via www.michaelgeist.ca

Podcast #14 Sunday Jan 24 2010

PODCAST#14, Sun Jan 24 2010, 15:46:56

The Weekly Podcast of the Idaho Libertarian Times.

Jan 21, 6:15 PM EST

GOP's 41st senator gets movie star's greeting
By LAURIE KELLMAN and ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican state senator who shook the political landscape from Massachusetts to California this week descended on Capitol Hill to a celebrity's welcome Thursday as he to introduced himself to a Congress he says has lost its way.
FULL STORY HERE

Dem health care talks collapsing
By PATRICK O'CONNOR & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 1/21/10 8:20 PM EST

Health care reform teetered on the brink of collapse Thursday as House and Senate leaders struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president’s top priority can survive.FULL STORY HERE

Obama blasts Court decision on campaign finance
Jan 21 01:41 PM US/Eastern By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
FARK TAG LINE:[President Obama blasts Supreme Court decision, saying the campaign finance ruling will lead to a "stampede of special interest money, " failing to add, "from groups that don't support me" (breitbart.com)]
FULL STORY HERE

Smear Fail!
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Fark Tag Line: DCCC attacks "right-wing extremist group" Cato Institute. You know, the same Cato that's to the left of the Democrats on national security, immigration, civil liberties, criminal justice, and foreign policy  (theagitator.com)
FULL STORY HERE

Dems fret: 'Every state is in play'
The Republican victory in Massachusetts has sent a wave of fear through the halls of the Senate, with moderate and liberal Democrats second-guessing their party’s agenda — and worrying that they’ll be the next victims of voters’ anger.
FULL STORY HERE

Press Takes a New Look at Tea Parties After Brown Win
It would have helped Dems if they'd done it sooner.
BY Mary Katharine Ham
January 20, 2010 12:12 PM
Now that voter discontent has appeared in the bluest of blue states, and it's focused on the president's handling of terror, taxes, and health care, it's become much harder to marginalize Tea Party activists and other critics of the administration as:
    "extremist mobs" by the Democratic National Committee, pawns of the insurance industry by Senator Dick Durbin, "un-American" by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, "brownshirts" by Representative Brian Baird of Washington, "manufactured" and "Astroturf" by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "evilmongers" by Senator Harry Reid, accused of "fear-mongering" by the president, and been deemed "political terrorists" by Representative Baron Hill of Indiana.
FULL STORY HERE

State Needs More Revenue? Why Not Tax a Tax?
by Todd Shepherd
Colorado, like every other state in the nation, is struggling with revenue.
So what’s a state to do? Well, let’s see, the state already taxes income, gas, sales on goods, personal property, corporate income, entertainment, energy, phones, etc. All that’s left to do is…tax a tax.
Never happen you say?
Coloradans must pay a $1.50 waste-tire fee every time they dispose of an old tire at a retail outlet. And according to an “FYI Memo” from the state department of revenue, “Effective August 5, 2009, the waste tire recycling development fee is considered part of the purchase price and is subject to sales tax.”
FULL STORY HERE

gamepolitics.com: Guest Column: On TSA Laptop Searches
Dan Rosenthal
Sooner or later, most gamers will face the dreaded scenario of having to leave their desktop PC's and consoles behind and suffer through the misery of modern air travel.
FULL STORY HERE

Virginia delegate Morgan seeks to decriminalize marijuana
By Rosalind S. Helderman
FARK TAG: Radical hippie state legislator proposes decriminalizing marijuana possession in Virginia. Actually, he's a 79-year old Republican and a pharmacist who may know what he's talking about
RICHMOND, JAN. 20 -- It's high times in the Virginia General Assembly. The lobbyists are cracking jokes about "joint" sessions, and the legislators are laughing that free Girl Scout cookies delivered Wednesday could prove useful
FULL STORY HERE

Too much choice leaving us bewildered and depressed
Modern life is making us miserable because we have too much choice, claims new research.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 1:38PM GMT 21 Jan 2010
FULL STORY HERE

John Monds For Georgia Govenor
http://www.votemonds.com/

Libertarian National Convention 2010: Official Site Up

The Libertarian Party's official convention site is up at http://www.lpconvention.com. In the category of "not especially surprising surprises," see the registration page: The usual suspects are back at their perennial efforts to levy a poll tax on delegates. The intent of the tax, which runs $99 and up ($49 and up after a kickback for patronizing a designated hotel) is to force all delegates to subsidize a luxurious venue and various extra-convention activities for the "privilege" of representing their state parties at the bylaws-required biennial business meeting which the membership has already paid for with its dues. Photo from fOTOGLIF To paraphrase George HW Bush and The Dude, "this will not stand, this aggression ..." Resolved, that activities and amenities above and beyond the requirements for holding the required business sessions should be paid for by those who are interested in said activities and amenities. The Libertarian Party isn't -- or at least shouldn't be -- a welfare agency or an extortion racket.

via networkedblogs.com

Survivor of Luby massacre defends Second Amendment

By Judith Pannebaker

Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp’s calm recounting of a sequence of events that occurred on Oct. 16, 1991, in a Luby’s restaurant in Killeen, kept the crowd at the Bandera County Public Library riveted. As one participant noted, “Nobody moved. You could have heard a pin drop.” It’s one thing to read about the massacre of 23 people in newspaper articles – and quite another to hear an account from a person who survived the killing field. Hupp, the author of “From Luby’s to the Legislature: One Woman’s Fight Against Gun Control,” appeared at a book signing at the library on Wednesday, Jan. 13. While in other parts of the country, the right to bear arms is a controversial issue, not so in Bandera. When Hupp asked, “How many of you own guns?” nearly every hand in the SRO crowd shot up. “This is going to be an easy audience,” she noted. “I don’t have to worry about offending anyone.” Hupp recalled that as a child, she and her brother, Bandera chiropractor, Allan Gratia, had grown up in a home where their father, although not a “gun fanatic,” had respected the Second Amendment. “When I was 21, a friend of mine, an assistant district attorney in Houston, gave me a .38 Smith & Wesson Air Weight,” Hupp said. At that time, however, it was illegal to carry a handgun in Texas. Worried about losing her just-acquired chiropractic license, she demurred from accepting the gun. “He told me, ‘You need to carry this at all times. You don’t see the things I do. Stuff happens and you need to be prepared’,” Hupp recalled. Fast forward to a sunny day in 1991 when she had met her parents for lunch in a Luby’s restaurant near their home in Copperas Cove. “Luby’s was packed that day since it was Boss’s Day,” Hupp noted. Suddenly, a pickup truck plowed through the front window, sending people flying. Thinking the crash was an accident, Hupp got up to help the driver – and then heard gunshots. She and her parents immediately took cover behind overturned tables. The truck blocked the exits. “It took me about 45 seconds to realize he was there to execute people,” Hupp said, describing the shooter going from person to person, deliberately taking aim and pulling the trigger. When the gunman was about 15 feet away, Hupp assessed the situation, noting, “I can use the table as cover and stablize my arm on the top. I’ve got this guy.” Then with a sinking feeling, she remembered that, fearing for revocation of her medical license, she had imprudently left her gun in her car “100 feet away in the parking lot.” All that was left in way of defense were salt and pepper shakers and a butter knife. Attempting to subdue the gunman, Hupp’s father, Al Gratia, charged, but was shot instantly. “The shooter had complete charge of the situation,” Hupp said. “My father was shot seven or eight feet in front of me.” She recognized the wound was fatal. However, her father’s sacrifice caused the gunman to veer to the left – away from Hupp and her mother, giving them extra moments. Just seconds later, a man launched himself through a plate glass window, opening an avenue of escape. “I grabbed my mother and starting running,” Hupp said. It was only after reaching safety that she realized her mother, Ursula, hadn’t followed her. “I should have known she would never leave my father.” After law enforcement officers stormed the building, the shooter “rabbited to a back room and killed himself,” Hupp said. In the final gruesome tally, 23 people had been shot to death and another 20 wounded. The incident at Luby’s remained the deadliest shooting rampage in the United States until the Virginia Tech massacre in April 16, 2007, in which 32 people were killed. In the aftermath of the shooting, interviewers asked Hupp about her feeling toward the shooter. “I can’t be mad at the man. He went nuts. It’s like being mad at a rabid dog,” she said. Hupp added repeatedly, however, “But I’m mad as hell at the legislators who legislated me out of the right to protect myself and my family.” She continued, “It’s the most frustrating thing in the world to lie and wait for it to be your turn.” Rethinking her decision to comply with then law, she said, “I’d rather be sitting in prison with a felony and have my parents here.” Hupp’s subsequent testimony about the shooting proved instrumental in the approval of Texas’ conceal carry statute. Via appearances on talk shows, she brought her story to millions of people who “wouldn’t have necessarily heard about the other side of gun control. “I wrote my book because I wanted my children to know my version of the story as it relates to guns and my recollections of how I formed by views of the Second Amendment,” Hupp said. Not surprisingly, she has little tolerance for people she regards as “squishy” when confronted with every US citizen’s fundamental right. “One time on a call-in radio program, a woman caller told me, ‘I’m not sure I could pull the trigger even to save my children.’ “I told her, ‘Then, by God, you shouldn’t be procreating – because even a goose protects its own’.” Hupp continued, “I’m not a hunter but I believe in the God-given right to protect myself and my family.” Not one to mince words, while testifying before a Senate subcommittee, she confronted New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, a member of the panel, saying, “The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting. It’s about protecting us from you up there.” Hupp concluded by painting a harrowing scenario. “You’re at a restaurant with your family and somebody in a trench coat catches your eye. As you watch, he pulls out a gun and starts executing people. If you don’t have a gun, do you think you might hope the guy behind you does?”

via www.bccourier.com

Outlook for Google’s China talks: nasty, brutish and short

Google said today that its envoys would be holding talks with Chinese authorities “in the coming few days” on the company’s refusal to continue delivering censored search results and its threat to pull out, but if it wants a preview of the sentiment within the government, all it needs to do is look at today’s edition of China Daily. The official state-run English language paper, often used as a vehicle for delivering the party line to the West, features not one, not two, but three pieces ripping into Google’s decision and motives — a strong signal that Beijing is not in a compromising mood.

via blogs.siliconvalley.com

The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama

David Kirby is an associate policy analyst, and David Boaz is executive vice president, at the Cato Institute. They are coauthors of "The Libertarian Vote," Cato Institute ;

Libertarian — or fiscally conservative, socially liberal — voters are often torn between their aversions to the Republicans' social conservatism and the Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility. Yet libertarians rarely factor into pundits' and pollsters' analyses. LINK.: The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama

January 21, 2010
Policy Analysis no. 658
by David Kirby and David Boaz

via www.cato.org