EFF sues U.S. over NSA surveillance program The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Bush administration on behalf of AT&T customers to halt what it called the "massively illegal" warrantless surveillance of Americans' Internet and telephone communications. In addition to suing the National Security Agency, the nonprofit Internet advocacy group also names President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as well as others. "For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and databases of customer records," senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston said in a statement. "Our goal in this new case against the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."....

Anthrax Suspect Didn't Act Alone, Leahy Posits Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday broke a years-long public silence about the anthrax-mailing case to cast doubt on the FBI's assertion that a bioweapons researcher acted as the lone culprit in the deadly attacks. Leahy, one of two congressional addressees of poison-laced letters in the fall of 2001, did not offer reasons for his suspicions, which could heighten calls for an independent review of the evidence that authorities gathered against Bruce E. Ivins. "If he is the one who sent the letter, I do not believe in any way, shape or manner that he is the only person involved in this attack on Congress and the American people," Leahy told FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III at a hearing yesterday. "I believe there are others involved, either as accessories before or accessories after the fact. I believe that there are others who can be charged with murder."....

TSA is testing X-ray portal for vehicles A new X-ray technology is being tested that could stop potential terrorists from blowing up a car bomb at one of the nation's airports, homeland-security officials say. The Transportation Security Administration is running a test at a North Carolina ferry terminal of a 21-foot-high archlike machine that shoots low-intensity X-rays at cars as they pass through. The photos show whether explosives or drugs might be in the car. The technology, called backscatter X-ray, is in use at several airports to screen passengers. Privacy advocates have denounced scanning people as invasive because the X-rays can see through clothes. Melissa Ngo, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who focuses on privacy issues, says using the technology for cars could pave the way for Big Brother government spying....If this is just an "anti-terrorism" device, why are they scanning for drugs?

NRA wins battle in House, but might not get to fight in Senate The legislative gun that the National Rifle Association (NRA) put to the head of the District of Columbia government might not have any bullets. The NRA won a decisive, bipartisan victory in the House on Wednesday on a bill that strips the District of Columbia’s government of much of its ability to regulate guns. But there is no agreement to bring the bill to the floor in the Senate — and with only seven legislative days left on the schedule, it is unlikely the bill will get floor time this year. The bill, which according to District supporters represented unfair meddling by Congress in city matters, could get wrapped into a continuing resolution — must-pass legislation that keeps the government operating when Congress leaves. But even advocates of the bill concede that’s unlikely. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate, was circulating a letter for signatures Wednesday urging Reid to bring up the bill before Congress goes home for the year. That could be more likely if there is a lame-duck session after the election. Hutchison is seeking out the 55 senators who signed a letter to the Supreme Court urging it to toss out D.C.’s handgun ban. The high court did just that in June....

Gun control target practice Gun control has suddenly emerged as the toxic issue of the 2008 presidential campaign, endangering Barack Obama's appeal among Democratic blue-collar and labor union households. The freshman Illinois senator has a long record of favoring gun bans in Chicaghttp and Washington, D.C., and a raft of other gun control bills that are anathema to gun owners, hunters and sportsmen alike. He insists now he supports Second Amendment gun rights to keep and bear arms that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld when it struck down the D.C. gun ban in June. But he refused to join 77 of his colleagues who signed a friend of the court brief to end the weapons ban and remains sympathetic to a broad range of gun ban statutes. Yet the Obama campaign has been running ads in key states with large populations of gun owners and hunters, insisting he supports the right to own a gun. He cannot run away from his record. The McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee and the nearly 4 million-member National Rifle Association are blanketing the country with ads, Web site videos and other broadsides detailing his record - especially in battleground states where gun controls are political poison....

POST-HELLER JUNK SCIENCE The recent Supreme Court decision concerning the Washington, D.C. handgun ban, District of Columbia v. Heller, is a big win for American gun owners because simply banning firearms is no longer an option. Now that an individual right to arms has been confirmed by the Supreme Court, firearm prohibitionists can only accomplish their goal of civilian disarmament by regulating the Second Amendment out of existence. In order to do this, they must frighten the public into demanding such strict regulation that possessing firearms, legally, becomes onerous. This fear can be created by emphasizing the costs to society of private firearm ownership, while hiding the benefits. Biased research has been, and now will continue to be, a favorite tactic that will permit gun-banners to chip away at our Second Amendment rights by showing the need for one new "reasonable" regulation after another....

THE TORT BAR'S COMEBACK After 20 years of state and federal efforts to reform a runaway legal system, the trial bar is reviving the monster, says the Wall Street Journal. At the federal level, lawyers and law firms invested in 2006 more than $85 million to get pro-lawsuit Democrats elected. Congress's new leadership has begun a political repayment plan -- packing legislation with provisions to increase the number and size of lawsuits. So far, this effort has been largely stymied by President Bush's veto threat. The tort bar sees 2008 as the real prize; it has already thrown $107 million toward increasing Democratic majorities. The trial barons are making more progress at the state level, as described in a report by the American Tort Reform Association....

U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous. The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public. The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous, which is protected by law in the United States and recognized in international law by groups such as the Council of Europe, has alarmed some technologists and privacy advocates. Also affected may be services such as the Tor anonymizing network....

Note To Readers

Blogger is all screwed up tonight. Even the dates and time are wrong on my posts. I give up for this round.

Inspector General Starts Investigation Into Improper Coordination Between NLCS Employees & Environmental Advocacy Organizations

U.S. Rep Rob Bishop (R-Utah), called on the Interior Department to act quickly to halt any improper activities involving the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) and environmental advocacy organizations.

Bishop is the Ranking Member on the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee.

Department officials have told Bishop’s office that the Department’s Inspector General has started an investigation into the NLCS, a division of the Bureau of Land management, after reviewing documents related to the agency.

Bishop further asked that employees involved in the investigation step aside from their positions and relinquish their duties until the investigation is completed by the Inspector General.

Federal law generally prohibits federal employees from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress. Emails and other documents being reviewed by the Department show extensive coordination between top NLCS officials and lobbyists for environmental groups.

“The Department must insist that any employee involved in violations of the Anti-Lobbying Law step aside until the Inspector General or the Justice Department has reviewed his or her conduct,” Bishop said. “Just as the employees of the royalty-in-kind program at MMS learned, we will not tolerate misconduct by public officials.”

Federal law generally prohibits federal employees from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress. Emails and other documents being reviewed by the Department show extensive coordination between top NLCS officials and lobbyists for environmental groups.

Wildlife Fence Troubles Tijeras Officials Officials with the village of Tijeras are taking on a fence. The five-mile-long wildlife fence along Interstate 40 near Tijeras designed to reduce the number of collisions between vehicles and wildlife is not just something of an eyesore, and it may be making things worse, according to Mayor Gloria Chavez. She said she and some of the village councilors feel that animals that used to cross the freeway hit the fence, become confused and linger around Tijeras. Chavez added that she thinks the wildlife may be hanging around Old Route 66, which is not fenced, and getting hit there. According to the Department of Game and Fish, there have been only a handful of collisions, two deer and a bear, since the fence went up in summer of 2007, but Chavez said she doesn't think all the collisions are being reported. "We need to compile more data," she said, "We just don't want to see wildlife getting killed, first of all, and then (wildlife) lingering here … especially with the safety of the kids at school." She referred to an incident in August when Roosevelt Middle School and A. Montoya Elementary School were on lockdown for over an hour....

Concession on offshore energy drilling clears path for quiet exit for senators Two parties that started September headed for a bitter clash that could have shut down the government are now preparing for a quiet departure as each tries to shift into campaign mode. Democrats have given in to GOP demands to lift a decades-old ban on expanding offshore drilling, paving the way for must-pass legislation to keep the government running after Oct. 1. Several senior Republicans say that concession makes it highly unlikely that the GOP will block the measure — and effectively shut down the government — even if the legislation includes other provisions the conference opposes. Meanwhile, Senate GOP and Democratic leaders have brokered a major deal to extend business tax breaks, patch the alternative minimum tax and renew dozens of expiring energy provisions — a bill each side said was necessary to complete before Election Day....

Democrats' Drilling Bill Angers Environmental Purists All summer long, House Republicans staged weekly news conferences outside the Capitol calling for more offshore oil drilling. And they were usually met by an assortment of environmental protesters chanting in unison, trying to drown out the GOP's pro-drilling voices. Some even wore polar bear costumes to protest Arctic drilling proposals. But then Democrats approved a bill Tuesday that could lead to drilling just 50 miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, reversing the party's long-standing opposition to exploration of the outer continental shelf. Now the usually united environmentalist front has begun to show some cracks. Those who supported the Democratic legislation are viewed on and off Capitol Hill as the pragmatic allies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Chief among them is the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta. Also falling into that category was the Sierra Club, an elder statesman among environmental groups whose motto is "explore, enjoy and protect the planet." Its top officials argued that ending the total ban on offshore drilling was a fair tradeoff for funding the transition to renewable resources. The purists who bemoaned Pelosi's legislation were led by Environment America, formed in 2007 as a collection of groups, including those formerly associated with various state Public Interest Research Groups. Environment America left no doubt where it stands: "Increased offshore oil drilling would threaten our beloved coasts and beaches with chronic pollution and potentially catastrophic spills while doing little to increase our energy supply and nothing to help Americans deal with energy costs." And once Pelosi added more drilling in the oil shale of the Mountain West to her bill, the National Wildlife Federation joined the call to arms: "Oil shale is a double disaster -- not only for America's western wilderness and water supply, but for our climate."....

Administration rips Democrats' energy bill as waste of time The White House slammed an energy bill that the House of Representatives passed Tuesday night, calling it a waste of time. The administration accused House Democrats of lacing the bill with "poison pills" that demonstrate a "lack of seriousness about expanding access to the vast domestic energy resources" off U.S. coasts. "Many of the other provisions contained in this bill are taken from other House bills that failed to pass through the Congress, or have been subject to veto threats," the Executive Office of the President said in a statement Tuesday night as the House voted on the bill, officially known as House Resolution 6899....

Drill-Shy Congress House Democrats have passed an "oil drilling bill" that bans drilling where most of the oil is. President Bush and congressional Republicans — especially John McCain — can't let them get away with it. Those who recognize that our reliance on foreign oil from regimes that fund or facilitate terrorists constitutes an ever-more-serious threat to our national and economic security are hailing Oct. 1 as American Energy Freedom Day. On that first day of the new fiscal year, the congressional prohibitions expire on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, as well as for the oil shale available in Western states. The Democratic-controlled, do-nothing Congress for once is frantic to do something before that deadline hits. In a big election year, with summer gas prices exceeding $4 a gallon, voters won't swallow an extension of the ban. So Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday had the House of Representatives pass legislation she unveiled less than 24 hours earlier, with Republicans blocked from offering amendments....

NASA: Arctic sea ice at second-lowest level on record NASA has issued a preliminary report confirming environmentalists' fears of disappearing sea ice at the Arctic. Sea ice is the thick permanent ice formed by frozen ocean water that remains even as seasonal ice melts away in the summer. In the past, it has covered about 60 percent of the Arctic. The sea ice at the Arctic has now been found to have melted away by as much as half, according to a preliminary report issued Tuesday by NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. "According to NASA-processed satellite microwave data, this perennial ice used to cover 50 to 60 percent of the Arctic, but this winter it covered less than 30 percent," NASA said in a statement. It is the second-smallest amount of coverage since NASA began monitoring the situation in 1979. The Artic's sea ice coverage this September is about 33 percent below average, compared with the record low of 39 percent below average recorded in 2007....

Documents suggest congressman used clout to fight forest-fire charges A senior federal official who was fearful of incurring a congressman's wrath sent his subordinates on a mad dash earlier this year to retrieve a certified letter demanding that the lawmaker pay a $5,773 fine for starting a fire that burned 20 acres of a South Carolina national forest. Mark Rey, the undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, said he didn't want Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., a member of the House Natural Resources subcommittee that oversees the management of the country's national parks and forests, to get the March 12 letter before he testified to the subcommittee. ''I'd just as soon have him not take a chunk of hide out of me,'' Rey said in an interview Wednesday. ``I don't think that rises to the level of a smoking gun. I think it rises to the level of a dripping water gun. Two days of justice delayed is not justice denied.'' Internal agency documents obtained by McClatchy document Brown's fierce, four-year protest of a criminal negligence citation and civil damages collection for a controlled burn he started on his property in March 2004 that spread to the adjoining Francis Marion National Forest....

Ag groups appeal sage grouse ruling Livestock and farming groups in four Western states are challenging a ruling by a federal judge in Idaho who ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider whether sage grouse deserve federal protections. The government decided against adding the bird to the endangered species list in 2005, a move that allowed ranchers and the oil and gas industry to escape stiff regulations. An environmental group sued in federal court last year to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit its decision on the sage grouse, a chicken-sized bird with long pointed tail feathers. Scientists say the popular game bird is on the decline and the population has plummeted in the face of accelerating oil and gas exploration in the West. West Nile virus, drought and residential development have also taken a toll on the bird. In December, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of the Western Watersheds Project, saying the federal agency had ignored expert advice and failed to use "best science" in its sage grouse decision. Last week, attorneys with Sacramento, Calif.-based Pacific Legal Foundation appealed that decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of ranching, livestock and farming groups in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Nevada. The appeal seeks to overturn the decision on a minor detail, a 60-day notice that attorneys for the Western Watersheds Project failed to file in federal court in advance of their formal lawsuit....

Wolves could be reintroduced to Scottish Highlands Following the successful reintroduction to the wild of birds such as red kites and white-tailed sea eagles, experts are meeting near Inverness to discuss whether wolves, boars and big cats should be next to be re-established. Dan Pulpett, from the environmental campaign group Trees for Life, said:"It is not just about trying to recreate the past but moving forward to re-establish healthy eco-systems in which these animals will play a crucial role. "There are also clear cultural and economic benefits. Lynx reintroduced in Switzerland and Germany have given tourism there a major boost." Mr Pulpett dismissed fears that the reintroduction of the creatures could pose a serious threat to Scottish people....

Farm groups worried about labeling law Farm groups are protesting the Agriculture Department's use of a new food labeling law, saying it has loopholes that could confuse consumers about where their meat comes from. The compromise laid out different types of labels, including one that would tag meat from animals that are born, raised and slaughtered in the United States as products of this country. Another label would spell out multiple countries of origin, such as "Product of U.S., Mexico and Canada." Farm groups say the new law as written by the Agriculture Department would allow meatpackers to label all beef and pork with multiple countries of origin - even meat that was born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. That could make it easier and cheaper for the meatpackers but eliminate the competitive advantage for ranchers who raise the U.S. meat....