Covered at Reason 24/7: Former FCC Leaders Want Even More Television Censorship

There are a number of folks out there
who feel the team name for the NFL's Washington Redskins is
culturally insensitive. Racist, even. Since the team has thus far
clung to their controversial mascot, some former FCC leaders are
proposing forcing their hands by trying to punish television
broadcasters who say or air its name.

Politico reports:

In a letter to
Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt,
former Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Nicholas Johnson, and
others contend that an indecency case could be made against
broadcasters who air the offensive name.

“It is impermissible under law that the FCC would condone, or
that broadcasters would use, obscene pornographic language on live
television,” they write. “This medium uses government owned
airwaves in exchange for an understanding that it will promote the
public interest. Similarly, it is inappropriate for broadcasters to
use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday
reporting.” 

Never using the team’s name, they chastise broadcasters for
using a name that is equivalent to the “n-word.”

But networks can use the “n-word,” too, if they want to. It’s
the cultural pressure and consequences that stopped the use of such
language, not government demands or fines.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Despite Focus on Gun Restrictions, More States Move To Loosen Laws

Almost all of the media attention is on
states like New York, Connecticut, Colorado and Maryland that have
moved to restrict self-defense rights by making it harder to
legally own and use firearms. But some scribblers at the West
Coast's dear old newspaper of (scratchy) sort-of record peeked up
over their cubicle walls and noticed something unexpected: Even
more states are moving to protect the right to bear arms,
and even to loosen restrictions on guns. Howdatappen? As
reporters Mark Z. Barabak and Melanie Mason put it, "[t]he result
is a significant disparity between states — some side by side — as
President Obama pushes for new federal gun controls." Not just a
significant disparity, you should note, but a growing divergence in
the legal treatment of self-defense rights at the state level.

From the
Los Angeles Times:

The first state to act after December's Sandy Hook shooting was
New York, where Republicans control the Senate and Democrats the
Assembly. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, worked with lawmakers of
both parties to pass a sweeping bill that beefed up the state's ban
on assault-style weapons and required universal background
checks.

Other states have moved in the opposite direction, loosening
restrictions on gun ownership and increasing the number of places
where firearms are permitted. Many have Republican governors, a
Republican-run statehouse or both.

In Michigan and Ohio, lawmakers have made it easier to obtain a
gun. Arkansas, Maine and Mississippi have passed laws to protect
the privacy of gun owners. Wyoming enacted legislation allowing
judges to carry weapons in the courtroom, and South Dakota passed a
law authorizing school employees to carry guns on the job.

More than a dozen other states are considering legislation that
would enhance gun rights, including Texas, North Carolina, Missouri
and Georgia.

As you might guess, not all state-level control freaks are happy
that their counterparts elsewhere are moving law in a
less-authoritarian direction. But, you know, tough shit.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: DEA Snooping Thwarted by Apple Messaging Encryption, Even With Warrants

The
DEA can’t get at some internet messages sent via Apple devices even
when it has a warrant.

From CNET:

Encryption used in Apple's iMessage chat service has
stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on
suspects' conversations, an internal government document
reveals.



An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET
discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that
because of the use of encryption, "it is impossible
tointercept iMessages between two Apple devices" even with a
court order approved by a federal judge.



The DEA's warning, marked "law enforcement sensitive," is the most
detailed example to date of the technological obstacles -- FBI
director Robert Mueller has called it the "Going Dark"
problem -- that police face when attempting to
conduct court-authorized surveillance on non-traditional
forms of communication.

Brave new world.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Wants To Limit Retirement Accounts

Complaining that "some wealthy
individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in
these accounts," the Obama administration announced a plan to cap
the total sum of any individual's retirement accounts at $3
million. Stashing cash beyond that point, the administration
insists, builds sums "substantially more than is needed to fund
reasonable levels of retirement saving." The administration's
argument seems to be based on the use of the word "million,"
implying that only nasty rich people would want to accumulate such
a hoard. But is that true? How much is enough for "reasonable
levels of retirement saving."

As it turns out, that's one of the toughest questions to answer
for retirement planning. Many advisors suggest you base your
retirement savings on something like 70 percent of your
pre-retirement income, multiplied by how many years you expect to
live. So ... Just when do you plan to kick off? As
one article on retirement planning puts it, "basing your
retirement needs on income is like basing your fuel needs on the
size of your car’s gas tank. What really matters is how far you
have to go and what kind of gas mileage you get." Part of that "gas
mileage" for retirement planning includes inflation. By the time
you retire, will $3 million buy luxury? Or a sandwich?

From
Bloomberg Businessweek:

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would cap
multimillion-dollar tax-favored retirement accounts like the one
held by Mitt Romney, his Republican rival in 2012.

Obama’s budget plan, to be unveiled April 10, would prohibit
taxpayers from accumulating more than $3 million in an individual
retirement account. That proposal would generate $9 billion in
revenue for the Treasury over the next decade, according to a White
House statement released today. ...

Brian Graff, executive director and chief executive officer of
the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, said
his group will “vigorously oppose” the idea.

“It is a ‘plan killer,’” he said in an e-mailed statement. “As
business owners reach the cap, they will lose their incentive to
maintain a plan, and either shut down the plan or greatly reduce
benefits. This would leave workers with a greatly diminished plan
or without any plan at all.”

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Says He Needs Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

The
2016 race for president may already
be getting under way, but there’s a more imminent election in
2014, and the campaigner-in-chief is
in California today raising money for that effort, and, by
extension, for his second-term plans.

From Politico:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a DCCC
fundraiser it would be difficult for him to pass a slew of
second-term agenda items without Nancy Pelosi regaining her
speakership.



"I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that it would be a whole lot
easier to govern if I had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker," Obama said at
the second Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser
he attended, this one at the home of San Francisco investor Gordon
Getty.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Sequestration Fearmongering Failing

The “Administration That Cried Wolf” is
now reaping the consequences. As the sequestration drags on, more
and more Americans are wondering what the big deal was about the
cuts.

Via
Greg Sargent at The Washington Post:

A
new McClatchy-Marist poll finds that the percentage of
Americans who don’t believe the sequester cuts are hurting the
economy has actually jumped 13 points over the last month,
while the percentage who think they are damaging the economy is
going down:

When it comes to the impact of the automatic spending cuts on
the economy, 40 percent of adults nationally say they have had no
effect on the economy. 36 percent believe they have had a negative
impact while 14 percent say the sequester cuts have had a positive
one. 10 percent are unsure.

There has been an increase in the proportion of Americans who
think these across-the-board spending cuts have had little impact
on the nation’s economy.

That wasn’t what the president was hoping to hear.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Obama Says He Needs Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

The
2016 race for president may already
be getting under way, but there’s a more imminent election in
2014, and the campaigner-in-chief is
in California today raising money for that effort, and, by
extension, for his second-term plans.

From Politico:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a DCCC
fundraiser it would be difficult for him to pass a slew of
second-term agenda items without Nancy Pelosi regaining her
speakership.


"I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that it would be a whole lot
easier to govern if I had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker," Obama said at
the second Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser
he attended, this one at the home of San Francisco investor Gordon
Getty.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Oregon Considers Legalizing Marijuana

Legalizing just medical marijuana might not
be able to get a hearing in places like
Florida, but the effort to legalize recreational marijuana
continues elsewhere.

From the Statesman-Journal:

Forty years after Oregon became the first state in the
nation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of
marijuana, lawmakers are considering a bill that would regulate its
production, processing and sale.


"Marijuana legalization is coming to Oregon sooner rather than
later," said Anthony Johnson of Portland, Ore., an activist who
leads New Approach Oregon. "It makes sense to regulate marijuana
like alcohol and for the Legislature to take the lead on the issue
and make sure sensible regulations are in place."

There’s a lot more money to be made for the government in
keeping drugs illegal than there ever was in keeping gays from
getting married, so don’t expect politicians to jump on the
anti-drug war bandwagon as fast as they did in support of gay
marriage. Nevertheless, the eventual end of the drug way may be
becoming just as inevitable as gay marriage.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: ACLU Strategist Praises Rhode Island Domestic Drone Bill

Allie Bohm of
the ACLU has praised the domestic drone bill being considered by
legislators in Rhode Island. The bill requires public
accountability for the use of drones by law enforcement officials,
that UAVs not be equipped with weapons, and a ban on data
retention. 

From
The Atlantic:

As anxiety about domestic drone use continues to mount, at least
30 states are weighing new laws that would regulate them. A Rhode
Island proposal is among the best, according
to Allie Bohm at the ACLU. Unlike her, I haven't read
every bill introduced by a state legislature. But I have read the
bill The Ocean State is mulling, and many of its provisions
desserve wider attention. I'd be thrilled if something with this
many civil liberties protections was actually passed and
enforced.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: UN Arms Treaty Passes

The United Nations General
Assembly voted today to approve an arms treaty that seeks to
regulate the global arms trade. The U.S. voted for the treaty,
while Russia and China abstained. Last week Iran, Syria, and North
Korea blocked the treaty. Countries bound by the treaty will have
to publicly report arms sales every year. 

From The New
York Times:

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to
regulate the enormous global trade in conventional weapons, for the
first time linking sales to the human-rights records of the
buyers.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Bitcoin Now a Billion Dollar Market

The cryptocurrency bitcoin
is becoming increasingly popular. All bitcoins now in circulation
(there are about 10.9 million of them) are now worth more than a
billion dollars. The debt crisis in Cyprus is being cited as one of
the reasons that bitcoin is exploding in value as
more
Europeans seek ways to keep the government away from their
money.

From
Tech Crunch:

Hang around in the tech industry long enough and you or someone
you know will be heard saying, “that’s so crazy it just might
work.” Two years ago, if you’d have told me that an open-source,
P2P currency would soon be a thriving, billion-dollar market, I
would’ve told you that you were on a lonely bus headed to
CrazyTown, U.S.A. But today, Bitcoin officially became a crazy idea
that’s actually working.

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---

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Automated Tolls Track Everybody Crossing Golden Gate Bridge

You have to run an
intrusive  security gauntlet to board an airplane. Gone are
the days of traveling Amtrak anonymously — the nation's skanky,
money-losing, publicly owned railroad now requires photo
identification to buy a ticket. You even have to show ID for most
bus lines. But, at least you can get behind the wheel of your car
and travel the roads with some anonymity. You can cruise— What's
that? Oh, never mind. Starting this week, almost everybody crossing
the Golden Gate bridge must submit to identification by either RFID
or by license-plate recognition cameras hooked into the Department
of Motor Vehicles database. There is a provision for
anonymous FasTrak accounts, but it's neither convenient nor widely
advertised.

Happy motoring.

From the
Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Yesterday, the Golden Gate Bridge switched to all-electronic
tolling. As of March 27, drivers entering San Francisco no longer
have the option to pay the $6 cash toll to a human toll collector.
Unfortunately, all of the bridge's electronic payment options track
the identities of those paying the toll, and all represent a loss
of privacy for visitors or commuters entering San Francisco by car.
The current implementation of electronic tolling here (and
elsewhere) is unnecessarily privacy-invasive and represents a
missed opportunity to collect tolls electronically in more
privacy-friendly ways.

Since March 27, motorists entering San Francisco have three
different payment options. One option involves recognizing an RFID
token in the motorist's vehicle, while the remaining two use a
camera to photograph and recognize the license plate. (A cute new
animation from the bridge operator explains the options, though not
their privacy consequences.)

Don't miss Reason's coverage of the spreading use of
license-plate
cameras on roads hither and yon in this great, non-anonymous
country.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Drone Companies Worried About Cultural Backlash

Not every drone is trying to kill you
or spy on you on behalf of a nosy government agency. Unfortunately
for the companies that make these other drones, the growing public
discontent over the potential misuse of the unmanned aircraft may
end up spilling over in areas where there probably is no real
opposition.

Via the
Associated Press:

The civilian unmanned aircraft industry worries that it will be
grounded before it can really take off because of fear among the
public that the technology will be misused. Also problematic is a
delay in the issuance of government safety regulations that are
needed before drones can gain broad access to U.S. skies.

Some companies that make drones or supply support equipment and
services say the uncertainty has caused them to put U.S. expansion
plans on hold, and they are looking overseas for new markets.

‘‘Our lack of success in educating the public about unmanned
aircraft is coming back to bite us,’’ said Robert Fitzgerald, CEO
of The BOSH Group of Newport News, Va., which provides support
services to drone users.

Drone manufacturers point out that even in the hands of law
enforcement agents, their products have a legitimate use in helping
in rescue efforts and other activities that don’t have the
potential to violate citizen privacy. Their arguments would
probably have more traction if law enforcement agencies at all
levels of government weren't constantly looking for excuses to
bypass the Fourth Amendment.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Ashley Judd Not Running for Senate in Kentucky

Actress Ashley Judd had been considered a
possible candidate to run against Republican Mitch Senate Minority
Leader McConnell when he’s up for re-election in 2014. Not going to
happen.

From Politico:

Ashley Judd, the Hollywood movie star and
eighth-generation Kentuckian, has decided not to launch a
star-studded campaign to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell.


Judd made her announcement via Twitter Wednesday
afternoon.

No word yet on whether McConnell will face a primary challenge,
though tea party activists
seem inclined toward it.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Police Want Traffic Cameras Used for Wider Surveillance

Traffic cameras. Don't you hate the damned
things? It's bad enough having some robo-snitch ratting on you for
going a few miles over the limit on an open road or shaving a
yellow without worrying that it actually picked up a guy passing
you but snapped your plate instead. Then again, it could be worse —
traffic cameras could just be general surveillance cameras,
tracking your face and your license plate and monitoring the public
in a wild display of Bloomberg-esque mission creep.

Come to think of it, that just may come to pass. Lawmakers in
both Washington and Oregon are considering changing the law to
allow traffic cameras to be used as ... well ... Big Brother's
all-seeing eyes. The Washington measure already passed the House
and awaits Senate approval. Oregon hasn't advanced that far, yet,
but give 'em time.

Police say they won't use the cameras to track people for minor
crimes. Of course not.

From
Northwest Watchdog:

PORTLAND – Police in Oregon and Washington want to expand the
reach of red light cameras to catch the really bad guys –
murderers, child abductors, armed robbers.

Both state legislatures are considering proposals that would
eliminate provisions in the state laws that keep police from using
the cameras for anything but red light running.

Police say they just want to use it to catch felons.

In Washington, police say being able to use the license plate
image captured by red light cameras might have helped them catch a
suspect in the drive-by shooting of a 21-year-old woman in Seattle.
As the law stands now, police can only use the image to enforce
traffic infractions.

But civil liberties advocates fear changing the red light camera
law is one step closer to broadening government surveillance.

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Covered at Reason 24/7: First Family’s Taken Three Vacations So Far This Year

Covered at Reason 24/7: First Family’s Taken
Three Vacations So Far This Year

The White House was shut down for visitors, to save about
$70,000 a week, after the sequester went into effect. The sequester
isn’t austerity, and even if it was, the White House remains far
from austere.

From the Weekly Standard:

In the first three months of the year, members of the
first family have been on three vacations, averaging a vacation a
month. And now it's being reported that the first daughters are on
a spring break vacation in the Bahamas.


The Obamas began the new year in Hawaii. "President Obama departed
Hawaii this morning for Washington, after spending NINE days
vacationing with family and friends in his native state. Here’s a
quick look at how he spent his vacation," ABC reported on
January 6, 2013.

President Romney would likely be getting skewered by the press
for this.

h/t John

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