Paranormal, Australia-Style

From what I've read, Fox New reporter, James Rosen didn't learn about the FBI's investigation into his solicitation of classified documents until this weekend, when the Washington Post did their story. And the WaPo only found out about Rosen's investigation because they were looking into the investigation and prosecution of the person who leaked the documents - they didn't know Rosen had ever been investigated as part of the matter; and neither did Rosen. Rosen wasn't charged. He was never told of the investigation.

That means at least three years passed between the investigation and the discovery of the investigation. And, if the WaPo didn't basically stumble upon the info, the investigation may have never been discovered.

But the media (who love stories about themselves), and the GOP (who jump at any chance to make Obama look bad), and the permanently-paranoid, are all sure this is intimidation. But how was the DOJ "intimidating" anyone ?

Surely, to intimidate someone, the person has to know he's being intimidated. Knowing that someone out there is watching you and can act against you is what intimidation means. But if you don't know they're looking at you (as Rosen didn't), and they make no effort to tell you (which the DOJ didn't), and make no effort to retaliate (which the DOJ didn't), they're not intimidating you. They're investigating you, spying on you maybe, but definitely not intimidating.

But one can be intimidated after the fact, sure. Reporters can worry that future attempts to procure classified info might get them investigated. But why wouldn't they already assume this? In instances like these, reporters have traditionally been allowed immunity from prosecution (as Rosen was), but that's not the same thing as immunity from investigation.

Surely you, as a reporter, would expect that the govt would run down every connection to the leaker in such a case - especially when your methods were so sloppy. You would likely be more surprised to find out that you weren't investigated, since that would mean the govt was letting an obvious connection to the leaker go unexplored - and that might be an even better story to investigate.

The options are: assume the government is laughably incompetent when it comes to tracking down and investigating leakers and will not look at you when they find emails from you asking the leaker to get more and more of the information the leaker is charged with leaking; or you can assume the government is going to look at everyone who has made significant contact with a leaker, especially the person soliciting and receiving the information that the leaker is charged with leaking. The first option seems unlikely. If you're encouraging someone to break the law, you should expect the govt to wonder why.

OK, I get that the media is in frenzy mode right now, but this one still seems way overblown. Rosen attached himself to someone who broke the law (at Rosen's urging, no less); and the govt did what it should do in a case like this; it figured out where the info went, and for what purpose. Which necessitated looking at Rosen. Then it ultimately determined that since Rosen was a journalist, doing journalistic things, and it did what govt has always done in such cases: it declined to bring charges. Rosen suffered no real harm. He got his story. His source got prosecuted. Rosen didn't even know anything had happened.

Or, if that's too much - if looking at a journalist to verify that he's acting as a journalist, and not as a foreign agent (or whatever) is too much - what should the process be? When the govt discovers a leaker of classified info, and the info is received by someone who works at a media outlet, should the government immediately stop all investigation of the receiver? If so, I can tell you what the official job title of all future spies will be.

RIP Ray.

I love the Doors. And I'm not ashamed to say it.

But that's the Doors song I wish was just a little bit better because I like some parts of it so much.

Sponsored Content Pretty Fucking Awesome

Oops. Misplaced comma. Should be SSD,D : Solid State Drive, Damn!

This weekend, I swapped out my PC's boot drive for a solid state drive (Samsung 980 Pro, 256G). Used the software included with the drive to clone the existing drive, then pulled the HDD and dropped in the SSD. Took a while to do the clone, and took almost as long just to find a way to hook up the SSD to do the clone (my crappy little Dell only has a single internal SATA connection, so I had to repurpose my external SATA drive's enclosure - lots of those little drive mounting screws rolling around on the floor, which attracted our new floor cleaning robot). But it went pretty smoothly otherwise.

And, the results: well, I forgot to time the HDD boot, so I can't give actual numbers. But, it really does boot almost instantly. The PC is up and ready to go a couple of seconds before my wireless mouse connects to the transceiver. It comes back from hibernation instantly. Programs launch super-fast, now.

Very cool!

Makes me with I had the cash to buy one for all my PCs!

What was Gimli hiding?

Even listen to Solsbury Hill through headphones?

Holy crap. There's this quickly spinning, shimmering stereo effect that's almost unbearable. Makes me nervous!

Adrienne So, at Slate, writes:

That’s when I realized that I had a problem. In fact, everyone I know in the craft beer industry has a problem: We’re so addicted to hops that we don’t even notice them anymore.

Damn straight. And, enough is enough.

Whenever I go looking for beer to buy, it seems that all I see are IPAs, beers with "hops" somewhere in their name, fruit- (or vegetable! .gag.) flavored monstrosities, the old standbys that I got sick of (and on) back in college, or the Belgian-style stuff. But the ultra-hoppy stuff seems to dominate, and increasingly so. And that's fine once in a while, but it's far from what I want in an everyday beer. So, I've been drinking a lot of the Belgian stuff, which can be hoppy, but doesn't use hops the way Emeril uses garlic. It's also expensive, if it's actually Belgian. And it's usually got a big load of alcohol in it. Which makes it less than ideal for an everyday beer.

I hop (hah. err... hope) that brewers get off their hop kick soon. Bring back malt! Bring back sweetness! Bring back every day drinkability! Viva la balance! Don't make me go back to Rolling Rock and Newcastle!

A man who police said had a second job as an “armed security officer” was being investigated after he accidentally shot a student Rangeview High School in Aurora, Colorado on Monday.

According to KMGH-TV, a school employee who also has a second job as a security officer had offered a student a ride home at the end of the day. The gun discharged, hitting the student in the leg, when the school employee tried to secure his weapon in the glove box of the car.

This AM we had some landscaping put in: trees, shrubs, etc..

Mrs just now IM'd to tell me that the house wifi wasn't working. I asked if the cable was working. And the answer was... no.

$10 says the fuckers cut our cable. And probably our neighbor's, too.

The landscapers were supposed to be there at 8:30 this morning. And I was going to show them where the cable was buried. But they were late and I couldn't wait any more, so I left.

There are no caps big enough to express how MOTHERFUCKING DONE WITH OWNING THIS HOUSE I am.

--

Landscapers say they called the cable co 2x to come and mark the location of the cable, but it never got done.

FUCKCUFKCUFKCIFUICKCIFKCXJKL:J!@!#&*(@#*()&@!