The Carter Gilson Report

A forum posting sheds some light on Star Simpson and the blinky thing at Logan:

She parked her car in the airport loading zone and waited for her boyfriend. Eventually, she stepped out of the car and asked one of the ticket agents whether his flight had been delayed.

The ticket agent asked her what the flashy-LED was, and she said, “It’s art,” then walked away.

Go read the whole thing. A bit of an overreaction by the man? I think probably.

Think Progress:

The Department of Homeland Security “has given up on one of its broadest anti-terrorism data-mining tools after investigators found it was tested with information about real people without the required privacy safeguards.”

And people wonder why I get so cynical about this government.

Secretary of Homeland Security Nosferatu Michael Chertoff announced today that DHS would be taking over screening passenger names from the airlines. This is supposed to make the process more complete and secure. Considering how well DHS has handled things in the past, I expect the Airline industry to crash under the weight of waiting to get approval to take off. Maybe they’ll tell us to use duct tape.

When the Washington Post editorial calls you out on giving in to Bush’s demands (which is what they usually suggest):

THE DEMOCRATIC-led Congress, more concerned with protecting its political backside than with safeguarding the privacy of American citizens, left town early yesterday after caving in to administration demands that it allow warrantless surveillance of the phone calls and e-mails of American citizens, with scant judicial supervision and no reporting to Congress about how many communications are being intercepted. To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers by an administration that seized the opportunity to write its warrantless wiretapping program into law — or, more precisely, to write it out from under any real legal restrictions.

Yes, even Fred Hiatt’s crew thinks this was a crap bit of legislation that has less to do with Terrorism™ then with protecting the ongoing activities of a rogue administration.

The Blotter:

In testimony before Congress this week, U.S. intelligence officials were straightforward in saying they believe Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and freely operating there.

“It’s not that we lack the ability to go into that space,” said Tom Fingar of the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“But we have chosen not to do so without the permission of the Pakistani government,” Fingar told members of Congress who demanded to know why the U.S. did not take more decisive action against a known enemy.

U.S. officials say Pakistan consistently denies the U.S. military permission to go after known al Qaeda training camps.

That’s Pakistan, our top ally in the region. I think we really need to re-examine our roll as the bitch in that relationship.