I've updated my post on the Megaload hosting companies and potential data destruction.

I think it's time for Chuck Schumer to retire. Here's his latest: $140 million for research on how to test drivers for drug use.

The Obama DOJ has cited the NDAA in a brief opposing habeas for a Guantanamo detainee. Here's the Government's brief and the detainee's cert petition.

I'd rather watch The Bachelor than talk more about Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Florida, but if you have more to say, here's an open thread, have at it.

All other topics are also welcome.

Q Poll - Romney 43, Gingrich 29.

PPP - Romney 39, Gingrich 32.

SUSA - Romney 41, Gingrich 26.

NBC/Marist poll - Romney 42, Gingrich 27.

I like the Insider Advantage/NewsMax poll, that says Newt is surging to within 5 points and has the momentum.

Go Newt! I don't believe it, but I like it. Now, if only Trump decides to run, this would be perfect.

The late David Broder was wrong so consistently that pointing out he was wrong yet again may seem like a pointless exercise, but I think Paul Krugman's column today on Broder being wrong about British Prime Minister David Cameron's "expansionary austerity" (talk about an oxymoron) is important:

[I]n October 2010 David Broder, who virtually embodied conventional wisdom, praised Mr. Cameron for his boldness, and in particular for “brushing aside the warnings of economists that the sudden, severe medicine could cut short Britain’s economic recovery and throw the nation back into recession.” He then called on President Obama to “do a Cameron” and pursue “a radical rollback of the welfare state now.”

Strange to say, however, those warnings from economists proved all too accurate. And we’re quite fortunate that Mr. Obama did not, in fact, do a Cameron.

Sadly, High Broderism, with its combination of ignorance, lack of intelligence and misplaced confidence, lives on. We are ruled by idiots.

Speaking for me only

Update: Megaupload's U.S. attorney, Ira Rothken, has tweeted that the two hosting companies, Carpathia and Cogent Communications, have agreed not to destroy the data on the Megaupload servers for at least two weeks while Megaupload works on a solution with the Government.

It sounds like they are working to get funds unfrozen to pay the hosting companies. Which would make Carpathia's statement that it doesn't have the ability to allow users to access the data a little suspect. Either they have the ability to provide access or they don't. Before the takedown, Megaupload users could log on to upload and download, so why can't they now if the Government doesn't object? If some special password is needed, wouldn't Megaupload's lawyers obtain it from their jailed clients and provide it to Carpathia?

[More...]

Update: Shaun White makes the history books. On his third run, when he already had the Gold, he steps up his game and gets the first ever perfect score of 100 from the Judges. Really amazing runs, and considering two days ago he was hobbled by an ankle injury, truly a feat. He is just incredible.

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Shaun White hurt his ankle Thursday but still qualified in first place and will compete tonight in the Men's SuperPipe finals at the X Games in Aspen. He's great, no question, but I'm rooting for Louie Vito. Big changes for Louie this year, no drinking and he's signed with Red Bull. Here are the finalists. You can watch live at 9pm ET on ESPN, TV or online. [More..]

Bump: In an interview on "60 Minutes" tonight, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta criticizes Pakistan for arresting Shakil Afridi, the doctor that the CIA asked to run a fake vaccine program in hopes of getting DNA to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence at the Abbottabad compound. An inquiry commission in Pakistan has since recommended that Dr. Afridi be charged with high treason. Panetta says Pakistan should release Afridi:

“For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part.

[More...]

"The House I Live In", by Eugene Jarecki, a documentary film that rips our War on Drugs and policies of over-incarceration, won the Grand Jury Prize for best Documentary at Sundance. [More...]

Nearly 400 arrests yesterday at Occupy Oakland.

More of the same stories about Republican primary candidates. I'm back to "Who cares?"

An op-ed in the New York Times highlights Justice Sotomayor's concurring opinion in the warrantless GPS case of U.S. v. Jones, decided last week. (Opinion here) [More...]

The digital world is eroding our privacy. Every week, users post 3.5 billion pieces of information on Facebook. Twitter has over 100 million users. Google has over 900,000 servers. The content on social media sites reaches 80% of all internet users.

The data trail we leave behind on the internet is enormous.

“There has never been another time in history where privacy was under the kind of assault it is today,” said Rainey Reitman, activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “Consumers have increasingly digital lives and they are developing an unfathomably large data trail every day.”

There is a perfect storm, Reitman says, involving digital lives, low-cost storage that allows companies to save everything, and the revenues that incent those companies to collect as much data as possible.

[More...]

While the validity of the charges in the Megaupload indictment will take years to work its way through the courts, and many will have little sympathy because of the amounts of money the defendants earned, consider the case of British student Richard O'Dwyer.

O'Dwyer set up a site in his basement, TV Shack.net. He didn't download copyrighted material, he just provided links to it. His site was hosted on servers located in the UK, not the U.S. His site did not violate laws in the U.K. But the U.S. charged him with criminal copyright violations and sought his extradition. A few weeks ago, a court in the U.K. ordered his extradition. He will now come to the U.S. where he is facing two crimes, each with a 5 year penalty. [More...]

The media says Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are "trading jabs" with Mitt Romney hoping for a "knockout." The idea of either one of these guys in a boxing ring is pretty comical.

Update: Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll just released: Curtains for Newt? He's trailing Mitt by 11 points, and the paper says Mitt's lead looks "insurmountable", especially since it cuts across "geographic, ethnic and gender lines." Why did Herman Cain board a sinking ship?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The New Zealand Herald has an editorial today criticizing the U.S. and FBI's co-opting of NZ police to launch the over-the-top raid at Kim DotCom's rented mansion in the MegaUpload takedown.

Some 76 officers, six times as many as took out Osama bin Laden, swooped - a lot more than are deployed against allegedly desperate homegrown criminals, except perhaps for terrorists in Te Urewera.

The paper, which says it has no reason to support DotCom, given that it tangled with him in the past over an unpleasant and expensive defamation claim, concludes with:

In short, a legal resident here, which Dotcom is, is entitled to our protection against unreasonable harassment by foreign jurisdictions. It is rooted in a notion, unknown in our law books but familiar to every one of us: a fair shake. There needs to be a good deal of official disclosure about the background to this case if it is to lose the stench that hangs around it.