Glenn Greenwald:

Over the years, Wired has repeatedly -- and always approvingly -- cited to, quoted from, and otherwise used my work. [. . .] But now that I've written critically about Wired, I'm suddenly converted into a dishonest, ethics-free, unreliable hack. That's par for the course. That's why so few people in this profession are willing to criticize other media outlets. Journalists react as poorly as anyone to public criticism; it doesn't make you popular to do it; it can terminate career opportunities and relationships; it's certain your credibility will be publicly impugned. But journalists need scrutiny and accountability as much as anyone -- especially when, as here, they are shaping public perceptions about a vital story while withholding important information -- and I'd vastly prefer to be the one to provide it even if it means that the targets of the criticism don't like it and lash out.

Via Atrios, HAMP'd:

U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks' efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday. [. . .] HAMP loan modifications fell by almost 46 percent in the third quarter, according to the report.

There is an untold story in this - homeowners have come to realize that HAMP modifications are a scam that only work for the banks. You will see uncontested foreclosures increase as a result, as homeowners realize that walking away is the better deal.

Heck of a job, Timmie!

Speaking for me only

Joan McCarter and David Dayen both highlight this Elizabeth Warren Op-ed on foreclosure fraud and her notion that the new Consumer Financial Protection Board. Warren writes:

[T]his mess might well have been avoided if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had been in place just a few years ago.

Excuse me, but this is simply not true. The main reason why this is not true is because Tim Geithner is the Treasury Secretary. To this day, Geithner has been against any and every measure that would assist homeowners and trouble banks in any way. It is hopelessly naive to believe that this Administration will do anything to help homeowners that would involve any pain for the banks so long as Tim Geithner has anything to sday about it..

Geithner is a corrupt incompetent who should be immediately fired.

Speaking for me only

Denver is finally about to get snow and a blast of arctic weather:

Snow is expected to fall in Denver by mid-morning Thursday, and temperatures will plunge to levels not seen so far this winter.

Temperatures will drop from the 50's to zero. Which means I have to get to a lot of places today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Danish police have arrested five men with alleged Islamic terrorist ties they say were planning an imminent shooting spree inside the newspaper offices of Jyllands Posten, the paper that published the 2005 cartoons that derided Muhammad.

Four of the five men reside in Sweden.

Danish media described the suspects arrested in Denmark as: a 44-year-old Tunisian national; a 29-year-old Lebanese-born Swedish national; a 30-year-old Swedish citizen of unknown ancestry; and a 26-year-old Iraqi seeking asylum in Denmark. A 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin was also arrested in Stockholm.

[More...]

Top ten lists for 2010 are beginning to appear. I'm doing a list of the top ten most annoying things on the internet -- things that are so annoying they are worthy of boycotting the offending sites.

1. News sites that automatically play videos with sound when you click on them. ABC News, are you listening? I won't even click on your news articles anymore. Sound should be an option you click on, it should not play automatically.In addition to people like me who find it an offensive intrusion into my consciousness, there are millions of people who read at work and don't want other people knowing. Sound prevents that by alerting any nearby co-workers and bosses that they're not working.

2. Videos from media sites and even You Tube that make you watch an ad before you get to the video clip. Put the ad on the side, or underneath, but don't force us to watch commercials. Vevo, are you listening? Not only won't I watch, I won't link to you or embed your videos. Five second ads are bad enough, but some sites now make you watch 30 second ads. I click off as soon as I see how long the ad is, and I don't return to the site. [More...]

The U.S. Attorney's office in Michigan is asking a federal judge to force the state's Department of Community Health to comply with a subpoena and turn over the medical marijuana records of 7 people under investigation by the DEA. Michigan law protects the confidentiality of those granted medical marijuana cards and makes disclosure a misdemeanor. The DEA subpoena seeks:

“copies of any and all documents, records, applications, payment method of any application for Medical Marijuana Patient Cards and Medical Marijuana Caregiver cards and copies of front and back of any cards located for the seven named individuals.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bruha says:

a “state-created confidentiality provision … must yield to the enforcement power of the federal agency.”

[More...]

A judge in Delaware has ruled police may not use GPS devices to track a suspect 24/7 without a warrant. The ruling is based on Delaware's state constitution, which like those in many states, provides greater protection than the federal counterpart. In suppressing the evidence obtained from the surveillance, the Judge wrote:

"The advance of technology will continue ad infinitum....An Orwellian state is now technologically feasible. Without adequate judicial preservation of privacy, there is nothing to protect our citizens from being tracked 24/7."

Though police can follow a suspect in public, there are limits to how long officers can keep up the tail, whereas a GPS device never sleeps and "provides more information than one reasonably expects to be 'exposed to the public,' " the judge wrote....

....if no warrant is required for such surveillance, "any individual could be tracked indefinitely without suspicion of any crime. ... No one should be subject to such scrutiny by police without probable cause,"

There is a split among courts on the issue. While the decision may be appealed, for now Delaware joins New York, Oregon and Massachusetts which say a warrant is required.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Department of Justice has withdrawn regulations from the Bush Administration that would fast-track federal review of state death penalty cases. In withdrawing the rules, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama DOJ would submit its own rules, but he did not provide a timetable.

The fast-track rules were initially authorized by Congress under then President Clinton.

San Francisco attorney Michael Laurence, whose Habeas Corpus Resource Center successfully challenged the Bush administration regulations, said California has failed to provide enough funding or lawyers for death cases in state court and has shifted the workload to federal courts. Fast-track rules would convert federal courts in California to "death penalty courts," with little time for other cases, Laurence said.

It would allow states to speed up federal review of death sentences if they have adequate procedures for appointing and paying lawyers to represent condemned prisoners.

I have not written about Wikileaks much because I'm not sure how I feel about what it is doing as a strategy, but I have been amused by watching so called journalists scream about the leaking of classified information. It really does lay bare how vacuous and useless journalism in this country is today.

Glenn Greenwald, as is his wont, has owned this issue. Here is his latest post on the subject. And here is a video of Glenn on CNN:

The college football bowl season heats up starting today (I had picks last week, including my 5 star bowl lock - Boise (-17) over Utah, Boise won 26-3 and it was not that close.) Here are my picks excluding the New Years Day bowls (which come on New Years Day):

West Virginia (-3) (3 units) over NC States, East Carolina (+8) over Maryland, Baylor (Pick) over Illinois, Oklahoma St. (-4) (2 units) over Arizona, Army (+10) over SMU, Syracuse (PICK) over Kansas St., North Carolina (-2) over Tennessee, Washington (+14) over Nebraska, Clemson (-6)(2 units) over South Florida, Notre Dame (+3) (4 units) over Miami, Georgia (-7) over Central Florida, and South Carolina (-2) (3 units).

Open Thread.

President Obama telephoned Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to compliment him on giving Michael Vick a second chance. According to Lurie, here's what Obama said:

"He said, 'So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance,...He said, 'It's never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.' And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.''

What's interesting is this was not a media interview, but a call that Obama placed on his own initiative. He obviously feels strongly about it. That's good news.