Book recommend: How Would a Patriot Act, by Glenn Greenwald.

Not just a great blogger, but a great mind and a great writer, Glenn Greenwald deserves wide attention from all points along the political spectrum.

From the preface:

Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government, and it is threatening to radically alter our system of government and who we are as a nation. This extremism is neither conservative nor liberal in nature, but is instead driven by theories of unlimited presidential power that are wholly alien, and antithetical to the core political values that have governed this country since its founding.

Trader Joe’s says no to “organic” Chinese products

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Trader Joe’s, the hip, wholesome food store with 15 locations in the Chicago area, said Friday it will phase out foods imported from China amid concerns that standards on “organic” products from the country aren’t as stringent as they should be.

Alison Mochizuki, spokeswoman for the Monrovia, Calif.-based grocer, e-mailed a statement saying the grocer will phase out single-ingredient products from mainland China by Jan. 1.

…

The change apparently does not affect products containing multiple ingredients, of which some may be from China. Mochizuki declined to comment further.

Whole Foods has no plans to stop selling single-ingredient products from China, which make up “a very small percentage” of the grocer’s private label products, spokeswoman Kate Klotz said in a prepared statement.

Jay Rockefeller, closet Republican

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Joe Lieberman, Steny Hoyer, Diane Feinstein….these are the Senators who have betrayed the country, pretending to be Democrats, while supporting the greed and kill philosophy of the GOP of Karl Rove and George W. Bush. Now we can add Jay Rockefeller to the list.

When the history books pillory the Republicans for their assault on civil liberties in the post-9/11 era, they should put a little asterisk next to “Republicans”–in memory of Democrat Jay Rockefeller.

In his role first as ranking member and now as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Rockefeller has been run over, bypassed, steamrolled and otherwise hoodwinked by the White House on so many occasions that he’s become something of a laughingstock among civil libertarians–at least among the more charitable of them. Whether he was antagonistic to civil liberties or simply ineffectual will be another question for the historians.

The latest surrender has come on the FISA bill, where the Senate version (.pdf) that emerged from a closed hearing last night included, to no one’s surprise, retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies who cooperated with the President’s warrantless surveillance program. (In the years before the program was revealed by The New York Times, Rockefeller’s opposition to it consisted of fretting to the Vice President in a hand-written letter.)

“Political” contributions to Rockefeller from the telecom industry have gone from zero to large in the last year.  He’s a disgrace.