Here are the personal residences of the top Republican candidates. Better photo viewing here.

House with the most mirrors: Newt Gingrich.

In 2008, the media did a similar feature on the homes of Democratic candidates.

Lots of end of year stuff to take care of. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Wired: The year intellectual property trumped civil liberties.

Update: ICE launches a hotline and new form for detained individuals "to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights."

... detained individuals can call if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime. The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center. Translation services will be available in several languages from 7 a.m. until midnight (Eastern) seven days a week. ICE personnel will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action.

The new form, available here, instructs law enforcement they may not hold a detainee more than 48 hours after the individual would have otherwise been released.

On December 14, the Suffolk District Attorney issued a subpoena to Twitter for information related to Occupy Boston and some members of Anonymous. The ACLU moved to quash on First Amendment grounds. Today, the judge upheld the subpoena.

Twitter released the subpoena to the account holders of those named, @p0isAn0n @OccupyBoston #BostonPD #d0xcak3, who in turn posted it online. You can read it here. The subpoena also sought “IP address logs for account creation and for the period December 8, 2011 to December 13, 2011."

In this pastebin press release, an Anonymous member or supporter posted the reasons the subpoena was invalid.

More here.

It's good that Twitter provided the subpoena to the affected account holders. It's bad that a judge has upheld a subpoena for a hashtag. The ACLU has said it may appeal.

The Colorado Department of Revenue joined the short list of two other states asking the DEA to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I controlled substance, a classification reserved for substances deemed to have no medicinal value or a high potential for abuse. From the DEA website:

Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse, have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. Some examples of substances listed in schedule I are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), peyote, methaqualone, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”).

State law required the Director to write the letter. House Bill 1284, the 2010 law with regulations for medical marijuana, specifies the duties of the state licensing authority. It includes this provision:

"The state licensing authority shall....

....In recognition of the potential medicinal value of medical marijuana, make a request by January 1, 2012, to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to consider rescheduling, for pharmaceutical purposes, medical marijuana from a schedule I controlled substance to a schedule II controlled substance.

[More....]

Stratfor, the intelligence site hacked by persons who self-associate as AntiSec and members of Anonymous, has just issued this notice to its members, offering them a year of identity theft protection services from a company named CSID. The text is below: [More...]

I got an e-mail this morning from the New York Times saying I had canceled my subscription and could renew at a discount. So did 8 million others in their database. Only, I didn't cancel anything. I tried calling the Times and the phone lines were busy (3 different ones.) I can't remember the last time I got a busy signal calling someone.

Turns out, it was a mistake. To make it worse, the Times first told people on Twitter the e-mail wasn't from them: [More...]

I'm swamped. J too from the looks of it.

Open Thread.

Big stories for today: The the Zetas' radio network and the ongoing hacking of credit card and email databases by those identifying themselves as members of Anonymous/AntiSec or related groups.

Both are more interesting than which Republican will win the Iowa caucuses, but since we've had no politics posts all day, here's an open thread, all topics (politics or not) welcome.

Update: Also interesting, this article about fears over tiger prawns (giant shrimp) invading the Gulf of Mexico.

At the Washington Post: A long report on the Obama Administration's "global drone killing apparatus."

In the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents.

....The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.

It's also a billion dollar industry that has "created blind spots in congressional oversight."

TSA searches have been expanding in recent months, thanks to its 25 Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response Teams which conduct random checks without suspicion. First authorized in 2005, they are now increasingly being used at train stations. The checks are being noticed at LA's Union Station. An additional 12 teams are planned for 2012. Since last summer, the VIPR teams have conducted 9,300 suspicionless searches.

What's a Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response Team? According to TSA:

AntiSec members of Anonymous have struck again, this time hitting the credit card database of a law enforcement and military supply store, Special Forces.com. They say they obtained 14,000 email passwords and 8,000 credit card records fron the site months ago. From #AntiSec's press release on Pastebin, which I'm not linking to because it contains some data (although the release is readily available on Twitter, just search #AntiSec or #lulzxmas or #Anonymous.)

[T]he online piggie supply store SpecialForces.com. Their customer base is comprised primarily of military and law enforcement affiliated individuals, who have for too long enjoyed purchasing tactical combat equipment from their slick and “professional” looking website. What’s that, officer? You get a kick out of pepper-spraying peaceful protesters in public parks? You like to recreationally taser kids? You have a fetish for putting people in plastic zip ties?

[More...]

Meet William "Billy" Burton. He's a Thalidomide baby born with short arms and twisted hands. In 1992, at age 29, he was traveling abroad and ran into financial difficulties. He attempted to smuggle 12 pounds of marijuana from the Philippines to Australia.

Interrogated without counsel and under duress, Billy was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. When sentenced, he was eligible for release in 8 years. But the Philippines later changed its laws on parole and retroactivity and his minimum time to serve on a life sentence became first 30 years, then 40 years. He wouldn't get released until 2032.

Now 48, and having served the past 19 years at the maximum security New Bilibid Prison, south of Manila, this week Billy was granted a conditional pardon due to his deteriorating health by Philippines President Benigno Aquino III . He's been released to go home to Britain.

Here are some happy photos of him being released from prison.

His release is the culmination of a 20 month effort by organizations in Britain, including Fair Trials International and supporters of the UK Thalidomide Trust. Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne says he also was supportive.