If you ever needed convincing that we need a strong, independent consumer protection agency, the continuing foreclosure crisis should provide all the evidence you need….

As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken, Midwestern cadence, the story of her involvement in the “tea party” movement is the tale of an average citizen in action.

“I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance…

StudentActivism.net has over 100 actions planned for today.

March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education is a grass-roots event in which students, faculty, and others are coming together around the country to speak and act. The Day of Action was originally conceived in California as a response to the current crisis in higher [...]

I grew up in the rural parts of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, two relatively conservative areas. Most of my friends and family are tried-and-true Republicans so…

Former President Bill Clinton came to the UC Berkeley campus Wednesday to speak on the need for innovative action as a means to combat poverty in an increasingly interdependent world.

In his address “Global Citizenship: Turning Good Intentio…

The filibuster as it is presently practiced in the Senate requires a super majority to do anything, and thus replaces majority rule with minority rule — a negation of democracy’s core principle.

On the front lines.

Google launched its version of a social networking site last week with Buzz. Many people were royally pissed dismayed by the privacy flaws in the initial launch. Google took the list of people that users emailed most frequently and created a public “friend list.”

As TechCrunch pointed out, “merging something designed for public broadcasting (Buzz) with something inherently private (Gmail) was just looking for trouble.”

The trouble has arrived. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a privacy complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. And today, Harvard Law 2L Eva Hibnick filed a class action lawsuit in California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

From the Chronicle:

Among other things, critics raised concerns this could — or possibly did — aid stalkers, jeopardize journalist sources, or hint at affairs.

Here at Above the Law, we immediately privatized our Buzz lists to keep stalkers at bay, hide our affairs, and, most importantly, to keep any of our tipster email correspondents anonymous.

The legal complaint accuses Google of breaking various electronic communications laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The plaintiff is seeking injunctions to prevent the company from taking similar actions in the future, and unspecified monetary relief.

Hibnick is seeking to bring the complaint on behalf of all Gmail users whose accounts were automatically linked to Buzz. The filing noted there were 31.2 million Gmail users in January and that Google “added the Buzz program to most or all of these accounts.”

That’s a big class action. And a speedy one. Buzz was just launched last Tuesday.

As pointed out by Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider, the company’s VP, product manager, and engineers immediately “went into code red” to fix the privacy problems and “save Google Buzz.”

Presumably their lawyers are now heading into code red too.

ogle Buzz Draws Class-Action Suit From Harvard Student [ABC News]
Local class action complaint filed over Google Buzz [Tech Chronicles/San Francisco Chronicle]
Google Buzz Privacy Issues Have Real Life Implications [TechCrunch]
Google facing lawsuit over Buzz privacy in federal court [Ars Technica]
The huge privacy flaw in Google Buzz (and how to fix it) [True/Slant]
How Google Went Into “Code Red” And Saved Google Buzz [Business Insider]

Google – Google Buzz – San Francisco Chronicle – Electronic Privacy Information Center – Class action

So far, analysis I’ve seen on the stunning capture of Taliban commander Mullah Baradar (here, here and here) has largely focused on the implications for…

Today a group of progressive and LGBT blogs are having a blog swarm aimed at getting the Human Rights Campaign directly involved in the push to get the White House to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell this year.

AMERICAblog’s Joe Sudbay explains:

Besides us, these blogs are also participating: Pam Spaulding, Pam’s House Blend, Michelangelo Signorile, Sirius OutQ & the Gist, Markos Moulitsas [mcjoan on behalf of Markos], DailyKos. Andy Towle, TowleRoad, Joe Jervis, Joe My God, Bil Browning & Phil Reese, Bilerico, Taylor Marsh, TaylorMarsh.com and Dan Savage, Slog

We need leadership from the White House to get the repeal of DADT. The President can include repeal language in the Defense budget he sends to Capitol Hill. There’s still time for that. In addition, Servicemembers United have crafted a repeal plan that would meet the needs of all the key players. If Obama wants the repeal in his budget, the Senate Armed Services Chair, Carl Levin, can include the language in his Committee’s Defense Authorization bill. That way, the repeal can be moved in a way that doesn’t require overcoming a 60-vote filibuster. It can be done. It should be done.

Michelangelo Signorile on why now:

As you know, the president said in his state of the union that he’d “work to repeal” DADT “this year,” and Defense Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen backed repeal but announced yet another study, which will take a year.

We do not have a year to wait and there is no need for another study. Democrats and supporters of repeal will lose seats this fall. We have momentum now, but it is being lost and there is no leadership on repealing the policy now. And if it is not repealed now it may be years away. There is no reason why, as Barney Frank as said, and as I and other opinion makers have stated, that we cannot have a vote now. The repeal can be pending the completion of the study. The repeal can be added as an amendment onto the Defense Authorization bill. It will be summer by the time that is voted on, and the study completion will then be just a few months away.

We must have a vote before the fall, but the Democratic-controlled Congress doesn’t move on anything without leadership from the Democratic president. The White House has been vague, saying it is waiting until Congress passes a bill. That’s unacceptable. We need leadership from the president.

Pam Spaulding explains why the HRC is key to this effort.

The largest LBGT organization in the country, the Human Rights Campaign — with nearly a million members, according to president and executive director Joe Solmonese — is seen by the White House, Congress, and the mainstream media as the community’s official representative inside the Beltway. HRC had the ear of the White House — attending strategy meetings on LGBT policy, and appeared numerous times at public social and political events, such as the signing of the hate crimes bill….

Tax-paying LGBTs have pulled out their wallets for the Human Rights Campaign for years, waiting for the day their investment would result in action once a gay-friendly administration and Congress were finally in place. Now is the time time to act. We need the full force of HRC flexing its political muscle to call for the President to publicly press for repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

And Dan Savage adds the why the netroots part of the equation:

Now maybe you need “radicals”—like these dangerous bomb-throwers—to scare politicians and “safer” groups and more “moderate” leaders in D.C. that politicians believe that they can work with. But there are times when the entire movement—the supposed “radicals” and our “moderate” leaders—need to speak with one voice. This is one of those times. We have an opportunity to end an injustice—and for the president to fulfill one of his campaign promises—but it’s not going to happen if the Democrat in the White House and the Democrats on Capitol Hill think they can get away with punting on this issue—punting on another one our issues—indefinitely….

It’s time. It’s time to this discriminatory, counterproductive, and damaging policy. Doing so isn’t even controversial anymore particularly within the military. It’s time. Call the HRC and ask them to get on board. Ask them to publicly demand that President Obama take the lead in getting DADT repealed this year.

HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160
TTY: (202) 216-1572
Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723

Just hours before the Olympics officially kicked-off, the Pacific Coast Collaborative gathered in Vancouver. If action is going to be taken on the environment, it’s going to have to start at the local level.