– Geraldo: Newt Gingrich called Juan Williams a ‘racial epithet.’
Yes, seriously. [via]
– Former John Kerry Staffer Arrested For Disclosing Identities of CIA Operatives Who Interrogated Top Al-Qaeda Leaders To The Media:
The Justice Department charged that John Kiriakou, 47, who worked as a CIA officer from 1990 to 2004, revealed the information to journalists and that one reporter passed some of the secrets onto attorneys representing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Kiriakou worked for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator from March 2009 to April 2011, according to Senate records.
I’m sure the outrage over this will match the tantrum the media threw for Valerie Plame, yes?
– A novel idea from Justice Antonin Scalia: if you dislike the political advertisements on the television, turn it off:
Scalia was asked about the decision during a presentation before the South Carolina Bar on Saturday, exactly two years after the court handed down the 5-4 decision in the case that led to the rise of Super PACs. They are outside groups affiliated with candidates that can take in unlimited contributions as long as they don’t directly coordinate with the candidate.
“I don’t care who is doing the speech — the more the merrier,” Scalia said. “People are not stupid. If they don’t like it, they’ll shut it off.”
– Jim Hoft reminds us of this regarding last night’s debate: Yes, Brian Williams is moderating the debate. The same Brian Williams who bowed to Obama.
– More stupid government regulations, this time on the media of street photography:
Included in the city’s proposed overhaul of food vending regulations are some changes to its long-existing but+ newly controversial rules governing street photography.
As you’ll recall, a post I did onD.C.’s minor-but-arrestable criminal offenses led to attention on the fact that the city regulates street photography — a practice dating back to the bygone days when it was common for vendors to ply the sidewalks offering snapshots to tourists. But the regulations are broadly worded, leading some to question what business the city has regulating photography at all, which led to a commitment from the D.C. attorney general to review the regulations.
And now, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is proposing some clarifications.
Under the proposal, Section 562, the definition of street photography subject to regulation is now defined as “the business of operating on public space and taking photographs, for profit or gain, of any person or persons upon public space with the intent to immediately, or within a reasonably brief time, deliver the photograph to the purchaser.”
Read the whole thing.