This issue is a left over from the Bush Administration. George Bush issued a presidential directive called Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 (HSPD12) whose stated intent was to create a more uniform ID system to allow Federal employees to access Federal facilities. Note, and this is critical and often ignored, the employees in question are NOT engaged in ANY secret or sensitive work nor have access to places within Federal facilities where such work occurs. These are just average employees, students, academics and contractors engaged in NON-secret, NON-sensitive work. There is nothing wrong with Bush's original directive. Where it all went wrong is how the Bush Administration chose to implement it. This was at the peak of the Republican culture of fear and surveillance, so Bush's crew decided to implement the process in the most intrusive way possible. My wife and her fellow NASA scientists and various NASA facilities, including JPL, were presented with a form that in effect asked them to sign away their right to privacy, giving the government permission to investigate ANYTHING and EVERYTHING about them including their medical history and personal life. I would assume people on the left and right would agree that this is an excessively intrusive, not to mention costly, way to treat employees who have no contact with sensitive or secret matters. The implementation led to objections, and in some cases lawsuits, within places like the Department of Education, Bureau of Land Management, and NASA. The lawsuit with perhaps the most widespread impact is JPL Employees vs. NASA, Department of Commerce, and Caltech. This case pits some of America's top scientists and engineers against the US government bureaucracy in defense of the basic right to privacy in America.

I have covered this case almost from the beginning, since my wife brought it to my attention with a stack of printed out emails from NASA scientists discussing this. You can read the details in the following articles:

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part I: Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part II: The Suitability Matrix

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part III: The Resignation Letter

And the most recent info on the case, where it headed for the Supreme Court, can be found here.

And it is in the Supreme Court that the US Attorney General's office gets it wrong, essentially making a major error in how facilities like JPL function. This comes from the JPL scientists who are fighting the case:  read more »

They hate us for our freedoms...that's what they told us about the Islamic militants. Of course the reality is much more complicated, but as a first approximation it makes a good sound bite. Fine...for purposes of argument, let's say they DO hate us for our freedoms.

So why are we giving into them by giving up so many of our freedoms? If they hate us for our freedoms, why don't we embrace and cherish those freedoms as an act of defiance against the extremists?

Instead, Bush and Co. did all they could to reduce freedoms Americans enjoy, increasing surveillance to levels unparalleled in free societies, trying to eliminate habeas corpus, advocating torture, trying to avoid jury trials, etc. Bush did his best to surrender our freedoms that he claims extremists hate us for. Obama has reversed some of the worst of Bush's attacks on our freedoms, but not enough. More needs to be done.

But Americans are now in the habit of surrendering those freedoms that we claim Islamic extremists hate us for. The latest is attacks on religious freedom.  read more »

One of my annual diaries (when I remember to do them) is honoring the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WW II, which happened to coincide with Hitler's birthday on April 20th. I happen to feel that it was a particularly good birthday present for Hitler: the defeat of his elite force by a bunch of half starved, barely armed Jews. In 1943, it also coincided with Passover. Passover came earlier this year, but I can think of no better expression of the Passover tradition than the Warsaw uprising against Nazi Germany.

A few years ago, at a Seder we attended, the hostess compiled her own Haggadah for the evening. Within it she included something that seemed out of place and too modern...except that it was perfectly appropriate for a night that in 1943 was the Passover Seder, such as it was, just before the Warsaw uprising. In her photocopied Haggadah she included this (source unknown):  read more »

One of my annual diaries (when I remember to do them) is honoring the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WW II, which happened to coincide with Hitler's birthday in 1943. I happen to feel that it was a particularly good birthday present for Hitler: the defeat of his elite force by a bunch of half starved, barely armed Jews. In 1943, it also coincided with Passover. This year the anniversaries don't coincide quite so well as they did last year, but they are still close and still significant.

I can think of no better expression of the Passover tradition than the Warsaw uprising against Nazi Germany. My appreciation for this is heightened by the fact that I am currently in the middle of the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Though I am only in 1942 so far, I find my knowledge of the history of the period is greatly enhanced and my appreciation of the 1943 Warsaw uprising even greater.  read more »

Change is in the air! Today, one of the worst eras in American history will come to a close (lasting legacy of economic depression aside), and a new, almost certainly MUCH better era will begin. It is time to celebrate.

How will you celebrate the end of the Bush regime and the beginning of the Obama Presidency? With the passing of one very depressing era, and the start of a new, very hopeful one, I am considering several ways to commemorate the event.

Perhaps it is time to show my pride as a liberal American. Be PROUD to be a liberal American. Our nation was founded on liberal principles and we should remind everyone around us that it is PATRIOTIC to be liberal.

 read more »