The Whole Gizmodo/Apple Iphone Prototype/Search Warrant Dealio in a Nutshell

Ed from Hot Air covered this but here's the short version of the story in case you haven't been following it.

Gray Powell, an Apple engineer, takes a prototype of the next generation iphone to a bar one night and accidentally leaves it there. Somebody finds it and takes it home planning (they say) on returning directly to the owner. But by the next morning it's been remotely wiped clean by Apple so they can't find out who it belongs to. So the finder calls (they claim) various Apple numbers trying to find out where to return it but gets the run around.

A few weeks later someone (the finder?) sells it to the technology blog Gizmodo for $5000. Gizmodo then publishes the complete details of the new iphone. Apple goes apoplectic and demands the phone back. Gizmodo returns it. A few days later San Mateo sheriffs raid Gizmodo's editor's house and take away his computers as part of a theft investigation.

But it turns that there are CA and federal laws which forbid authorities from using search warrants on journalists to find out the identities of sources - they have to issue subpoenas instead. So Gizmodo claims that their blog is a form of journalism and so the search warrant was a violation of state and federal law. And in addition to all this it turns out that the law enforcement task force, REACT, who raided the editor's house seem to be basically a private police force [within law enforcement agencies] for companies on its steering committee. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:34 PM | Comments (1002)
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Incredible. The "MFM" in the headline is deliberate; following a commenter's suggestion, I'll call them that instead of "MSM." (The MF stands for what it typically does.)

Via Hot Air, with more.

"Mostly Peaceful:" Imagine, my friends, were Tea Partiers to beat effigies of Democrats. Or have children do so.

That picture is of Arizona's governor.

Thanks to Heather Radish.

So far today, we have, shockingly enough, seen the media and the Democrats (BIRM) rush to brand their opponents "Nazis" after a full month of telling us that was overheated and irresponsible talk that could lead to violence, and then poo-pooh actual violence at an immigration rally as "mostly peaceful."

Posted by: Ace at 03:42 PM | Comments (265)
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Mexico's Ambassador to the United States announced today that his government issued a travel advisory to Mexicans saying they should avoid traveling to Arizona. It seems the Mexican government, despite its own stringent immigration laws, thinks expecting Mexicans in the US to follow US law is tantamount to harassment.

This got me thinking that perhaps we should focus on some of the dangers Americans face when traveling to Mexico. According to a warning issued by on April 12th, the US State Department, there are quite a few things much scarier than 'harassment' to worry about.

Recent violent attacks have prompted the U.S. Embassy to urge U.S. citizens to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states (see details below) and advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in those areas to exercise extreme caution. Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or whom they otherwise view as a threat to their organizations. These attacks include the abduction and murder of two resident U.S. citizens in Chihuahua.

...Criminals have followed and harassed U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana. Travelers on the highways between Monterrey and other parts of Mexico to the United States (notably through Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros) have been targeted for robbery and violence and have also inadvertently been caught in incidents of gunfire between criminals and Mexican law enforcement. Such incidents are more likely to occur at night but may occur at any time.

...In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens living in Mexico have been kidnapped and most of their cases remain unsolved. U.S. citizens who believe they are being targeted for kidnapping or other crimes should notify Mexican law enforcement officials and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City or the nearest U.S. consulate as soon as possible. Any U.S. visitor who suspects they are a target should consider returning to the United States immediately. U.S. citizens should be aware that many cases of violent crime are never resolved by Mexican law enforcement, and the U.S. government has no authority to investigate crimes committed in Mexico.

...During demonstrations or law enforcement operations, U.S. citizens are advised to remain in their homes or hotels, avoid large crowds, and avoid the downtown and surrounding areas. Since the timing and routes of scheduled marches and demonstrations are always subject to change, U.S. citizens should monitor local media sources for new developments and exercise extreme caution while within the vicinity of protests.

Wow, sounds like a nice country. If you are thinking of vacationing anytime soon, I'd stay away from a dangerous place like Mexico and consider...Arizona. Sedona is lovely.

As I said, this will be an occasional series. If you see any interesting stories about the dangers of Mexico, send them to me at Dangersinmexico at Gmail (dot) com.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:59 PM | Comments (134)
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Democrat: Arizona law like 'Nazi GermanyÂ’

Arizona illegal immigrant law is a Nazi measure says Catholic Archbishop Mahony

(Newsweek) Arizona or Nazi Germany?

Sharpton, other activists compare Arizona immigration law to apartheid, Nazi Germany and Jim Crow

Roger Ebert Compares Arizona Immigration Bill To Nazi Germany

NYT Former Reporter Greenhouse Fires on Arizona's 'Police State,' Makes Nazi Comparison

I'm sorry, but wasn't it just a short month ago we were being piously instructed every ten minutes that branding an opponent a Nazi was the worst sort of overheated rhetoric, un-American and dangerous, and likely to provoke political violence?

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (260)
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Can't happen here, of course. Greece was plagued by irresponsible spending and politicians who lied about the country's massive liabilities and a high tax rate that discouraged growth.

So, like I said, Greece is nothing at all like Obama's America.

GreeceÂ’s credit rating was cut three steps to junk by Standard and PoorÂ’s, the first time a euro member has lost its investment grade since the currencyÂ’s 1999 debut. The euro weakened and stock markets throughout the region plunged.

Greece was lowered to BB+ from BBB+ by S&P, which also warned that bondholders could recover as little as 30 percent of their initial investment if the country restructures its debt. The move, which puts Greek debt on a par with bonds issued by Azerbaijan and Egypt, came minutes after the rating company reduced Portugal by two steps to A- from A+.

And fear is spreading:

"The latest developments mean that the chances of Greece solving this situation without restructuring its debts are now dim," said Diego Iscaro, senior economist at IHS Global Insight.

As in the financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, investors around the world are fearful about who holds what debt and how much.

Unsurprisingly, stocks tanked.

"We have the makings of a market crisis here," said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 2.6 percent, Germany's DAX slid 2.7 percent and the French CAC-40 in France ended 3.8 percent lower. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down over 100 points in mid-afternoon trading, while the broader Standard & Poors' 500 index fell back below 1,200.

Posted by: Ace at 01:03 PM | Comments (128)
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It's a terrorist missile system, because it is hidden in a run-of-the-mill shipping container, the sort that burdens 80% of the ships at sea. And that's a terrorist weapon, then, because a lawful military force displays its military nature openly. This is expressly designed to hide in plain sight on an ostensibly civilian ship, one our Navy would be very reluctant to fire upon... until it itself has fired first.

A ship armed with one of these could ignore warnings from an aircraft carrier and keep inching closer until it's in range -- while our boys hold fire, not wishing to attack what appears to be a civilian transport -- and then hit us.

And, of course, it could fire on an American city before being inspected at port.

The NYT:

A Russian company is marketing a devastating new cruise missile system which can be hidden inside a shipping container, giving any merchant vessel the capability to wipe out an aircraft carrier.

Potential customers for the formidable Club-K system include Kremlin allies Iran and Venezuela, say defense experts. They worry that countries could pass on the satellite-guided missiles, which are very hard to detect, to terrorist groups.

"At a stroke, the Club-K gives a long-range precision strike capability to ordinary vehicles that can be moved to almost any place on earth without attracting attention," said Robert Hewson of Jane's Defense Weekly, who first disclosed its existence.

A promotional video for the Club-K on the website of Moscow-based makers Kontsern-Morinformsistema-Agat shows an imaginary tropical country facing a land, sea and air attack from a hostile neighbor.

It fights back by loading three shipping containers concealing Club-Ks onto a truck, a train and a ship, disperses them, and then launches a devastating strike on its enemy, destroying its warships, tanks and airfields.

"The idea that you can hide a missile system in a box and drive it around without anyone knowing is pretty new," said Hewson, who is editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons.

"Nobody's ever done that before."

Thanks to Dave @ Garfield Ridge, who gives it his It's Not Old Seal of Freshness. He thinks it's cute the promotional video features the cruise missile taking out identifiably-American war-vehicles, just in case Iran and North Korea and Al Qaeda were thinking, "Gee, looks neat, but I can't think of a single thing I could do with that."

Because that's so alarming, here's a cute picture of bear cubs to smooth everyone over:

Bears thanks to Dr. Spank.

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (214)
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Pollsters cannot account for this phenomenon, but they're 99% sure it's due to hate.

Sweet, sweet warming hate. Like a shot of good whiskey, or the joyful frisson one feels after setting fire to an immigrant's convenience store.

Also, young voters aren't very enthusiastic this year.

The fact that voters under age 50 -- and particularly those under 30 -- are less enthusiastic about voting this year is not a new phenomenon; voter turnout typically skews older. The current data, based on Gallup Daily tracking conducted April 1-25, confirm that so far, 2010 provides no exception to this traditional pattern.

...

Gallup Daily tracking data reinforce the value of younger voters for the Democrats, showing that 18- to 29-year-olds favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in their local districts by a 12-point margin. In contrast, the Republican candidate is on top among all groups of voters aged 30 and older.

This is several days old by now, but Gallup finds the narrowest partisan gap since 2005 -- just one point of difference, obliterating the Democrats' 10-12 point advantage between 2006 and 2008.

The six-point rise in Republican support since the first quarter of 2009 is due entirely to a growing proportion of independents who lean to the Republican Party, rather than an increase in the percentage of Americans who identify as Republicans outright. (Gallup measures party identification by first asking Americans whether they identify as Republicans, Democrats, or independents. Those who are independent or express no party preference are then asked whether they lean more toward the Democratic or the Republican Party.)

In fact, the 28% of Americans who initially identify as Republicans today is identical to the figure Gallup measured in early 2009, when the Democrats still had a double-digit advantage in support. Since then, there has been a three-point reduction in the proportion of Democratic identifiers, and a three-point decline in the percentage of Democratic-leaning independents.

To some extent, then, this represents simply conservative-tilting voters coming home after going crazy on acid for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Still, you need to get back what you had before you can think about getting more.

Posted by: Ace at 10:10 AM | Comments (288)
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Contessa Brewer's show.

Good God she is stupid.

And a whore.

On CBS's morning show, too, a newsreader intoned, "The law makes it a crime to be an illegal immigrant."

In related news, Minnesota is "seriously considering" a law that would make the intentional killing of a human being a crime. This new crime is being called "Murder," as an obscure old English common law provision termed it, at least until they come up with something catchier.

"Largely Peaceful:" Anarchists went wild in DC this past weekend and all the media described the rally as "largely peaceful."

Stick with that -- in a podcast on amateur partisan webzine Slate, David Plotz says we should go after Wall Street with "pitchforks, knives, guns, clubs we find, mace..."

Inciting violence against political targets must be fun! Maybe I should try it some time.

Posted by: Ace at 09:37 AM | Comments (174)
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Sorry for the back to back post on the topic but this was too fun to pass up.

Back in '06 Human Events took a look at the immigration laws of Mexico and found some interesting things....

Mexico welcomes only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society:

* Foreigners are admitted into Mexico "according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress." (Article 32)

* Immigration officials must "ensure" that "immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents. (Article 34)

* Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets "the equilibrium of the national demographics," when foreigners are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," when they do not behave like good citizens in their own country, when they have broken Mexican laws, and when "they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy." (Article 37)

* The Secretary of Governance may "suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest." (Article 3

...

Foreigners with fake papers, or who enter the country under false pretenses, may be imprisoned:

* Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be fined or imprisoned. (Article 116)

* Foreigners who sign government documents "with a signature that is false or different from that which he normally uses" are subject to fine and imprisonment. (Article 116)

There's much, much more sweet hypocrisy at the link.

"Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets "the equilibrium of the national demographics,"? That sounds, what's the word I'm looking for? Ah yes, RACIST!

I know liberals will say that we aren't Mexico and shouldn't pattern ourselves after them. Well, i guess it's nice to know there are some cases in which they believe in American exceptionalism. Too bad it's only in cases that lead to bad policies like open borders.

More to the point, I really don't want to hear about racism or fairness or well, anything from the Mexican government about this. Of course as FUBAR points out in the comments, the Mexican government is advising Mexicans not to travel to or do business in Arizona.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:42 AM | Comments (140)
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Ace blogged a bit about it last night but there's so much garbage being spewed about I think it's worth noting some of the more egregious claims individually.

Eugene Robinson has a fairly typical column on the supposed horrors of Arizona's new law.

(Arizona Governor Jan) Brewer, who caved to xenophobic pressures that previous governors had the backbone to resist, should be ashamed of herself. The law requires police to question anyone they "reasonably suspect" of being an undocumented immigrant -- a mandate for racial profiling on a massive scale. Legal immigrants will be required to carry papers proving that they have a right to be in the United States. Those without documentation can be charged with the crime of trespassing and jailed for up to six months.

Oh the horror! "Legal immigrants will be required to carry papers proving that they have a right to be in the United States" Why it's Nazi Germany all over again.

Wait, hold on a second. This just in...that provision has been part of the US Code for quite sometime.

Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of
alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him
pursuant to subsection (d) of this section. Any alien who fails to
comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to
exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.

My God! We've been living in a xenophobic, racist, Nazi police state all this time. Why didn't someone tell me?

And people thought Palin was an idiot for her Death Panel remarks. At least she was speaking in political terms about the future consequences (which by definition are open to debate) not misrepresenting long standing law.

Now, we can debate whether or not states should or can incorporate federal laws into their own codes and enforce them. That's something reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom and propriety of but let's not let thee fools get away with crying "Nazi", "racist" "xenophobic" or any of the other usual suspects. It's a cheap rhetorical device the left excels at since they can not put together any convincing arguments.

Added: Marco Rubio walks a fine line on the AZ law.

States certainly have the right to enact policies to protect their citizens, but Arizona’s policy shows the difficulty and limitations of states trying to act piecemeal to solve what is a serious federal problem. From what I have read in news reports, I do have concerns about this legislation. While I don’t believe Arizona’s policy was based on anything other than trying to get a handle on our broken borders, I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with ‘reasonable suspicion,’ are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position. It could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens. Throughout American history and throughout this administration we have seen that when government is given an inch it takes a mile.

He then goes on to call for Congress to work on an enforcement immigration bill, not a comprehensive one.

(Via Ben Smith,)

Related enough...there are a lot of people calling for an economic boycott of Arizona. Below the fold, it's a lovely place that you may want to consider when making any vacation plans. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:04 AM | Comments (186)
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