Bob Collins, writing in his news cut blog for Minnesota Public Radio, cites the Economist and US News with the first wave of a potential political push for delayed retirement. Collins notes, “the push to delay retirement is gaining some favor at a time when many older workers are being forced into early retirement because they’re losing their jobs.” Here’s the nut graf from US News: “The number of unemployed Americans ages 55 and older expressing interest in finding a job has grown by 60 percent since the end of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But finding work has proved difficult. The unemployment rate for older job seekers has more than doubled since 2007 to 7.2 percent in December 2009, and the average duration of the job search for older workers was 36 weeks in November—far longer than the 28 weeks most younger workers remain unemployed.”

ESRD

Gary Schwitzer, tenured University of Minnesota Journalism School associate professor, announced his resignation via Twitter. Schwitzer wants to focus on helping people understand issues related to healthcare and devote more time to healthnewsreview.org (hey, full-text for your RSS feed would be nice) which provides analysis of healthcare journalism. Last year, Schwitzer helped develop a health journalism program for the University’s J-School. It’s been shelved, because, after all, who needs quality healthcare journalism.

Intellectual property

Apple this week filed a series of lawsuits against HTC, the manufacturer of Google’s Nexus One smartphone which runs Google’s Android operating system. Apple claims infringement of 20 of its patents. The question is why Google wasn’t named in the actions.

Internet

Sunlight Foundation’s interactive coverage of the healthcare summit last week was among the best uses of the internet yet seen. Jake Brewer writes an in-depth article detailing how the organization pulled it off.

At the RSA security conference, Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing, Scott Charney, suggested an internet usage tax be instituted to quarantine and cure malware-infected computers. “You could say it’s a public safety issue and do it with general taxation,” Charney reportedly said at the conference. IDG’s Robert McMillan reports that Micrsoft claims “there are 3.8 million infected botnet computers worldwide, one million of which are in the US. They are used to steal sensitive information and send spam, and were a launching point for 190,000 distributed denial-of-service attacks in 2008.” Not for nothing, but most malware-infected computers run Microsoft’s operating system. Hey, Microsoft, here’s an idea: You broke it, you fix it.

Mercury 1.0, a standardized best-practice stack for running Drupal has been released by Chapter Three. Mercury includes everything you need to run an enterprise-level, Pressflow-based Drupal instance and includes Varnish, Memcached, and Apachesolr. Oh, and it also runs on Amazon’s cloud servers.

Steve Yelvington loses a little virtual shoe leather tracking down blog and comment spammers.

Finally, all six working drafts of the HTML5 working group have been published.

Media

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new report on how Americans get their news, “Understanding the Participatory News Consumer.” Not surprisingly, most in the US get their news from multiple platforms. Local and national television lead US news platforms, followed by the internet. The Pew report reveals that 33% of mobile phone users access news on their devices and 37% of internet users have “contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.”

Jay Rosen spells out eight key terms for determining legitimacy in journalism: Veracity, accuracy, transparency, intellectual honesty, currency, inquiry, utility, and polyphonicity (a plurality of voices). Rosen’s list comes as a reaction to the generally accepted legitimacy keys: objectivity, professionalism, code of ethics, balance, certification, etc. Highly recommended.

Publishing

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) surveyed magazine website practices of 665 responding consumer publications running the gamut in both size and publication frequency. Looking only briefly at the findings, I see things haven’t changed much since I was the online managing editor and webmaster at Utne Reader from 2002-06. A disturbing 45% of respondents reported that factual errors on the publication’s website are corrected with no indication to readers. (At Utne, as here, I was transparent with all corrections, liberally using the del tag.) Fact checking was another eye-opener: 27% reported that online content is fact-checked less rigorously than print, 8% reported online content wasn’t fact-checked at all, and another 8% said no published content—online or print—was fact-checked. (At Utne, print content was fact-checked thoroughly by dedicated staff members, while online content was fact-checked by writers and editors.) Overall, the report is really bad news for online publishing.

Craig Mod writes, in “Books in the age of the iPad,” that Apple’s iPad and what comes after will rid us once and for all of disposable books. That’s a nice fantasy, and I hope it comes true, but I suspect it will be quite a while before someone creates a definitive non-disposable long-form work for the iPad. I find myself, ever more often buying disposable books in electronic form, but still buying non-disposable works in physical form. And I find myself drawn more and more to what Mod calls “definite content.” I’m not sure I agree with him that definite content will get split between the iPad and print. But go ahead and try anyway, iPad publishers, amaze me.

Marc Andreessen takes a decidedly different view of the forthcoming iPad, telling TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld, “All the new companies are not spending a nanosecond on the iPad or thinking of ways to charge for content. The older companies, that is all they are thinking about.” Andreessen says that no matter how many iPads Apple sells, the open web will always be a bigger market—and the iPad will have a great browser.

User experience

Nishant Kothary of Mix Online has written a provocative article on the future of wireframes. Kothary posits that content strategy, information architecture, and visual design are converging. I’m not so sure. In my own practice content strategy, information architecture, and usability have converged, but I still prefer to work with a creative director that’s responsible for visual design. Kothary argues that wireframes—as commonly implemented—overly restricts the potential of a design and suggests a more visual approach (even though he calls it “functional”). Kothary takes for granted that wireframes should be visual, and by using the “functional” label, he clearly defines what is and isn’t in scope for a particular wireframe.

Utne’s grief comes from the potential impact of the co-op’s relocation on other locally owned small businesses in the neighborhood. And from the move from a small 5,500 square foot intimate boutique-like retail space to a larger more impersonal, more commercial space. Utne’s also unhappy about the Co-op’s management not communicating effectively about its growth plans.

But as Barth Anderson, writing as El Dragon, points out in his “The Utne Reader: Small grocery stores too big” response, Utne is thinking only about the micro element of a much larger picture. Anderson quotes Greg Reynolds of Riverbend Organic Farm as saying, “It’ll be a good bump for the co-op and it’s going to be a good bump for everyone who sells to them.” Anderson reports the Linden Hills Co-op is Riverbend’s fifth biggest customer and bought 33% more produce last year than it did the year before. “As a customer of mine,” Reynolds told Anderson, “Linden Hills Co-op is growing fast, and after a big move like this, they’ll buy more. They’re a fast-growing co-op, and that’s good.”

What’s “enough” for Utne clearly isn’t for either Linden Hills Co-op or Riverbend Organic Farm. In order for the entire organic foodchain to be sustainable, co-ops like Linden Hills Co-op and organic farms like Riverbend have to grow larger than Utne would like. One of the primary principles of the co-op movement—as Elizabeth Archerd, member services manager for the Wedge Co-op (which has annual sales US$30 million and occupies 11,000 square feet), points out in the comments to Anderson’s article—is voluntary and open membership. Co-ops are forced to grow because they don’t turn member-owners away.

It’s entirely possible that the Linden Hills Co-op could have communicated more effectively with regard to its growth plans, but I’ve got to say that I live in Saint Paul, and I’ve been hearing about the Linden Hills Co-op wanting to relocate to larger space for several years.

Are big box co-ops coming? If they’re cooperatively owned and managed, it really shouldn’t matter. Bringing good, affordable, sustainably produced food to more people should be seen as a good thing.

Disclosure: From 2002-06 I was Utne Reader‘s online managing editor and webmaster. I know Eric Utne personally and consider him a friend. None of that makes him any less wrong about this issue.

CitiBank blocked fabulis.com’s bank account for “objectionable content on their blog.” Fabulis.com appears to be setting up a rather innocuous travel portal for gay men.

Censorship

Iceland wants to become a haven for media freedom—under the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative—similar to the way that Delaware is a corporate haven. The idea is advancing, so far unopposed, in the Icelandic parliament. The initiatives core concepts—press freedom, source protection, and immunity for carriers—aim at forming the planet’s strongest journalism and whistleblower protection laws.

ESRD

Tracy Lynn Kaply’s blog, Kaply, Inc. is the best dialysis blog going. I’d say I just adore her attitude, but she’d probably punch me in the tits.

Intellectual property

Microsoft files DMCA notice on Cryptome alleging copyright infringement of the software giant’s surveillance compliance document. Cryptome owner John Young files a DMCA counterclaim, but Network Solutions takes Crytome offline and locks domain. Microsoft backs down a few days later.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) internet chapter leaked. The leaked material indicates an intention to override the WIPO and to use three-strikes as a model. ACTA negotiations are happening in private, without transparency or public input. Cory Doctorow’s “Copyright Undercover: ACTA & the Web” provides the best overview I’ve found.

Internet

Dropbox gets push-updates. We no longer need to keep checking the site for the latest stable release; they get installed automatically. If you’re using Dropbox, just reboot and you’ll get the latest stable release. If you’re not using Dropbox, why not? Dropbox is the best US$100 I spent this year. I’ve been hoping that Apple would buy Dropbox because MobileMe’s iDisk sucks so badly. Now I’m hoping that Dropbox takes MobileMe off Apple’s hands—they’d make it at least an order of magnitude more useful.

More evidence that the US patent system is broken beyond repair: Facebook has been awarded a patent on news feeds of users’ actions in a social network.

Google Fellow Amit Singhai, responsible for the search company’s page ranking, explains how Google’s page rank works in response to the European Commission’s inquiry. It’s apparently all about “signals.” “Signals are indicators of relevance, and they include items as simple as the words on a webpage or more complex calculations such as the authoritativeness of other sites linking to any given page,” writes Singhai. “Those signals and our algorithms are in constant flux, and are constantly being improved. On average, we make one or two changes to them every day.” Satisfied? Me neither.

Media

Apple’s control-freakery reaches even higher levels as the company rejects risque iPhone apps from small publishers while accepting same from large publishers. How long do you think it will be before Apple rejects a news publication it finds “offensive.” If you look at Apple’s history, it’s certain to happen. Dan Gillmor suggests journalism organizations reconsider the iPad because of this.

Politics

Michael Lind has an insightful piece in Salon about the new US political right being analogous to the old radical left: “Glenn Beck is the new Abbie Hoffman.” The new right has retained the tactics of the old left with everything from street theater to home schooling.

Privacy

The FBI opens an investigation into Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School Board utilizing covert webcam software to spy on its students. Cory Doctorow notes a commemorative tee-shirt.

On the change you can believe in front, the US House of Representatives voted to renew three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The vote wasn’t even close. Neither was the action in the US Senate where reform efforts were abandoned and the extension was passed on a voice vote. The expiring provisions under section 215 of the law, passed by both bodies of the US Congress, are roving wiretaps of unspecified targets; warrantless wiretaps of individuals without connection to criminals, warrantless access to private business records.

Publishing

The Sunlight Foundation streamed the health care summit live on its website. What made it extra special was a contextual sidebar that pulled donor information for the current speaker in real-time from opensecrets.org.

In a stunning move of cluelessness, the Associated Press has decided to disintermediate its network of corporate news organizations and go direct with a paid subscription service for the Apple iPad. This is right up there on the dumbass meter with the New York Times considering putting its blogs behind the metered paywall. Richard Perez-Pena sums it up nicely: “Many publishers have said the same thing, hoping that with touch screens, they can package and expand on their work in forms so spectacular, flexible and personalized that readers will pay for it.”

Technology

Any publisher with any sense—which is to say almost none at all—is rethinking its proclaimed love for Apple’s iPad. John Battelle nails it: “And that’s why I don’t like the iPad. Don’t tell me, as a media maker, what I can make and how I can leverage the technology in my audience’s hands. And don’t tell me, as a media consumer, what’s OK for me to interact with, and how.” Dan Gillmor has the extended mix.

User experience

Content strategy is on a trajectory similar to that of social media three years ago, according to Kristina Halvorson’s analysis of Google search returns.

Like many in my generation, I’ve known I’ll probably have to continue working my entire life for at least 20 years. The knowledge of no retirement for you is mildly disturbing, but we’ve had decades to adjust. What’s really shocking, though, is the cost of our healthcare insurance when we reach age 65. If I can manage to keep from getting fired or laid off from the University for another 18 months or so, I can qualify for the institution’s group retirement plans. Group plans—especially really big ones like the University’s—are much cheaper than individual plans. So, best case, in a year-and-a-half or so I could hypothetically retire from my position at the University and continue to freelance or even go to work for someone else. Or, of course, continue working at the University’s College of Design.

Before I turn age 65, I’d be eligible for the same health insurance plan we have now, only I’d have to pay the full, non-subsidized rate of US$1,125.60 per month for coverage for my wife and myself. After my wife and I both turn age 65—five years for her; ten for me—we’d be eligible for Medicare and the University’s medigap (supplemental) insurance. That’s US$192.80 for Medicare Part B + US$520 for the University’s supplemental insurance—for a total of US$712.80 each month (plus co-pays and deductibles).

That’s best case scenario and last year’s rates. Health insurance rates have been doubling every seven years. It’s a sure bet I’ll be paying two or three times as much for health insurance in my “retirement” years than my mortgage. Because I’m an end-stage renal disease patient on dialysis, Medicare is closer than it may appear—I automatically qualified for Medicare (.pdf; 737KB) 18 months after I started dialysis.

Who could have planned for this?

Medicare Part A covers 100% of hospitalization minus annual deductible (US$1,068) unless you’re hospitalized for more than 60 days, then you pay US$267 per day until day 91; then you pay US$534 per day and everything—100%—for anything beyond 150 days. That’s not so bad (except for the deductible), because hospitalizations rarely last longer than a week or two. Medicare Part B covers 80% of most non-hospitalization “allowed” medical professional services minus a US$135 annual deductible. So long as your doctor agrees to “accept assignment” of Medicare’s allowed rate. If not, his or her fee is limited to 115% of the Medicare reimbursement, but you’re on the hook for the 15% overage + the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover.

The problem is the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover. It’s much larger than it seems.

The health insurance my wife and I had when I was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2000 cost roughly US$800 per month with a 20% co-pay, a US$1,000 deductible, and an alleged US$3,000 out-of-pocket cap. If you’re a reasonable person, you’d think that in addition to the cost of the premiums, the most I’d have to pay in any year for healthcare is US$3,000, right? Well, that’s not the way it worked. By January 2003 we were personally bankrupt solely because of my medical bills.

What needs to happen is simple. Medicare needs to be improved to pay 100% of all healthcare, with reasonable premiums—say US$200 per individual per month—and reasonable co-pays and deductibles for hospitalization and professional treatment and care. Overutilization is addressed with reasonable co-pays and a real, reasonable annual out-of-pocket cap of, say, US$3,000. And it gets extended to every citizen in the US. Call it Medicare Plus for all. Work for a health insurer? Find work elsewhere; at least you’ll be able to afford your healthcare.

I had written a short article, “Is it possible to teach creativity?” (second item; the longer, original article is also available (.pdf; 61KB)) for Emerging, the bi-annual magazine of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. Someone in Bleedorn’s network sent her a copy of the article and she contacted both Brad Hokanson, the subject of the article, and me.

The magic for Bleedorn turned out to be the fact that Hokanson uses Paul Torrance‘s 50-year-old scoring criteria for creative and divergent thinking in his undergraduate creative problem solving course. Turns out that Bleedorn is one of the planet’s most effective evangelists for Torrance’s work.

My academic background—both as an undergraduate and graduate as well as a short teaching stint—is in humanistic psychology. There was a natural connection with Torrance’s creativity work, and he visited our campus several times each year. Most of us—students and faculty—were quite familiar with the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (.ppt; 2.7MB). So I was intrigued when Hokanson mentioned using Torrance’s methodologies in his classwork.

Bleedorn, as it turns out, took only a single course with Torrance—when he was still at the University of Minnesota—but the two carried on a professional relationship until Torrance’s death in 2003. Torrance hired Bleedorn as a research assistant and she went on to obtain degrees in education and educational psychology from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in leadership and human behavior from United States International University. Bleedorn founded the apparently now-defunct Institute for Creative Studies at the University of St. Thomas. She’s written extensively, most recently Education is Everybody’s Business: A Wake-Up Call to Advocates of Educational Change, published in 2005. Bleedorn is currently a principal with Creative Development Initiatives.

Bee Bleedorn is also 98 years old.

At the end of our meeting, Bleedorn—did I mention she’s 98 years old—asked me something along the lines of what my professional aspirations were. What I heard was, “what are you going to do with your life, sonny?” Horrifyingly, I didn’t have an answer.

Ouch.

We’ve known for years that usability success rates are misleading. If 70 percent of users are successful, 30 percent fail. As usability experts, we tend to forget the 30 percent failure rate and focus on the 70 percent success rate.

It takes Nielsen most of a screen to get to the really useful data: “During the last decade, we’ve collected formal usability metrics for 262 websites. In 2000, the average failure rate was 39%; in 2010, the average failure rate is 22%.” Nielsen attributes a doubling of conversion rates (one percent to two percent) to the doubling of website usability.

The big elephant in the room question remains unanswered: What’s an acceptable usability failure rate?

Recellularization may eventually allow an end-stage renal disease patient—like me—to “grow” a replacement kidney (or two), using cadaveric organs from donor animals or humans as a basic infrastructure upon which my own cells can combine to create a matching organ. The advantage of using one’s own cells for a replacement organ cannot be understated; since the organ is grown from the patient’s own cells the chance of rejection is greatly reduced as is the necessity of ongoing immunosuppressive drugs.

Taylor’s recellurization process, which she says can be done “with virtually any organ,” uses detergents passed through the organ’s blood vessels to strip away cells from the source organ until only a nonliving infrastructure remains. The infrastructure is then repopulated with appropriate cells from the recipient (or a compatible donor). The structure and integrity of the source organ’s blood vessels are retained during the stripping process and a solution of oxygen and nutrients are then passed through these vessels. Because the recipient’s cells are used to repopulate the source infrastructure an immune response is not triggered.

University of Minnesota’s Great Conversations: Innovative Science; Doris Taylor and Patricia Simmons 14 April 2009:

Gillmor’s tweet, “to make them know the truth,” took my breath away. Literally.

So I tweeted back: “Really? You’d make them know the truth? Journalism or evangelism? Thin ice methinks, very thin.” Gillmor and I ping-ponged comments back and forth a couple rounds and it dropped.

But this “make them know the truth” stuff is important. Just who’s truth are we talking about here? Yours? Mine? Theirs? Thanks, but no; I’m capable of thinking for myself and I’m almost always more comfortable with my truth than yours. That’s not the job of journalism. Journalism’s job is to report. Accurately. And to call bullshit when seen, even if it means—especially when it means—calling out individuals when they lie. They used to call that speaking truth to power. Journalists, for the most part, don’t do much of it any more and would be well served by following the Quakers’ lead.

To be clear, Obama did, in fact, lower the federal taxes for most US citizens. But the cuts were small—less than US$15 per week for the average worker—and in many cases offset by rising state taxes. To be even clearer, I’d gladly support higher federal and state taxes proportional to the positions on which Obama campaigned and was elected. Except Afghanistan.

At the same time though, we need to agree that journalists of every stripe must return to reporting and calling bullshit when appropriate. But please, leave the evangelism to the evangelists.

Although Maitreya, arguably, originated with Buddhist thought, other spiritual movements and religions—including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Bahai, theosophy, the ascended master teachings, and others—have adopted the concept.

Throughout recorded history, individuals have claimed to be Maitreya, usually to form a minor Buddhist sect or cult.

One of the modern followings, Share International—an outgrowth of theosophy—believes Maitreya fulfills the prophecies of most major religions: Christianity (the second coming of Christ); Hinduism (the Kalki avatar of Vishnu); Islam (the Imam Mahdi); Judaism (the Jewish Messiah). Benjamin Creme, the originator of Share International, and his followers believe that Maitreya was embodied in the Himalayas and moved to London in 1977 and then to the US, emerging gradually so as not to impede free will. Largely as a reaction to Creme’s activities, the evangelical Christians (mostly in the US) claim Maitreya to be the Antichrist. Ironically, Creme and his followers do not claim Maitreya as a religious leader; only that Maitreya will unite the global population to reorder social priorities, making food, housing, education, and medical care universal human rights. [....]

In addition to the billions it received from AIG, Goldman also soaked the US taxpayers to the tune of US$12.9 billion.

You know the rest of the story: AIG bailed out Goldman and the US taxpayers bailed out AIG to the current tune of US$180 billion, with no guarantee that’s the end of it.

The SEC reportedly wants to know whether the demands of Goldman and other Wall Street firms “improperly distressed” the already flailing mortgage market. What’s not in doubt is that in 2006 Goldman began to make enormous bets that the US mortgage market would fail. As the mortgage market imploded, Goldman’s profits soared. It’s not inconceivable that Goldman would undervalue the securities in dispute with AIG. After all, the lower the securities were valued, the higher Goldman’s profits. Independent reports—if there is such a thing on Wall Street—indicate Goldman consistently valued the securities at prices lower than third parties, according to Morgenson and Story.

This is not to say that AIG is blameless in this fiasco. As Morgenson and Story report, AIG gambled heavily by writing more insurance than it could have ever possibly covered. More importantly, “without the insurer to provide credit insurance, the investment bank could not have generated some of its enormous profits betting against the mortgage market,” write Morgenson and Story.

Late yesterday I learned that Seattle-based Omni Group—the company that makes three pieces of software I live in every day: OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and OmniPlan—has intentions to make iPad versions of its software. Most importantly, company chief executive Ken Case wrote that Omni has already started work on an iPad adaptation of OmniGraffle and is putting its work on OmniGraffle 6 for the Mac on hold. I’m not real happy about the Mac version being put on hold, but I learned a long time ago to try to ride the horse in the direction it’s going.

The importance that the bulk of Omni’s team came out of the University of Washington—an institution with one of the historically best human interface labs on the planet—can’t be understated. [....]

Jobs declared that Apple had negotiated a “breakthrough” US$30 per month unlimited data plan deal with AT&T. That’d be the same AT&T that already can’t support the network demands of iPhone users. And breakthrough? Well, not so much; I had an unlimited mobile data plan from Qwest for US$25 per month several years ago, on a network with actual capacity.

Existing iPhone/iTouch software will work on the new device in either a pixel-for-pixel rendering in the center of the display, or in what has to be an extremely ugly “pixel double” full-screen mode. How many developers will be willing to make iPad-specific versions of their iPhone software? If the process is the least bit resource-intensive, my bet is not many. Before dismissing this as curmudgeonly carping, remember that Apple solely—and heavy-handedly—controls the only distribution channel and that Apple has set the price ceiling for serious apps at US$10.

Forget about using the iPad while standing up. The iPad’s keyboard is the same software keyboard used in the iPhone/iTouch, taking up half the screen when deployed. While seemingly almost useable while sitting (an optional dock with physical keyboard will be available), how fast can you type with one hand? Bet good money that somebody right now, in his basement, is developing the iBib—some sort of strap contraption that lets you suspend the iPad from around your neck in order to type with both hands while standing or walking around.

Other complaints: The same walled garden ecosystem as the iPhone/iTouch, no camera(s), no Flash support in the browser, no multitasking, limited video codec support, no DisplayPort, and a weird aspect ratio (it appears to be close to 4:3). Most of these can be fixed.

The one feature of the iPad that I find extremely interesting is the processor: a 1GHz Apple A4, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip. Apple’s now in the chip design business and it’s only a matter of time until this approach migrates up (or down, depending on your perspective) the company’s mobile product line.

Update: Thursday, 28 January 2010, 07:39AM CST: After mulling on my intense subliminal distaste for the iPad, I think I now understand it: The device is targeted solely at consuming media, not creating it. (Also added material to third graf about Apple’s ham-fisted control of only distribution channel and setting price ceiling for serious apps at US$10.)

What better way to kick-off the new section than to publish the basic process the company has been using for more than 30 years to architect information, first in video and print and now most recently on the web. The process has evolved over the years and while I’ll begin with a brief skeleton, my intention is to expand it using Hasten down the wire‘s wiki and eventually publish it as a book-length work.

Important note: This is a work in progress, an attempt to make years of notes understandable to a broad audience. I’ll be adding to it regularly, as time allows, so bookmark it and come back often. In a break from my usual practice of being fully transparent in changes made after initial publication, I’m just going to integrate changes and additions into this article in order to keep it easier to read. And don’t forget to check the project wiki. [....]

Corporations were granted fictional personhood in 1886 when the US Supreme Court, in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, found that corporations were subject to due process and beneficiaries of the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. With that decision, corporations were solidly identified with private property instead of the public grants and interests that had been their overarching governance previously. That single decision also significantly weakened the public claims on corporate charters, and is seen by most corporate governance experts as an endorsement of the corporation being a “natural entity” with natural rights, rather than a created fiction chartered by the state for a specific purpose in the public interest, subject to state control. It was a mistake; an error.

As David D. Kirkpatrick notes in the New York Times, “A lobbyist can now tell any elected official: if you vote wrong, my company, labor union, or interest group will spend unlimited sums explicitly advertising against your re-election.”

The court’s ultra-conservative majority used a questionable interpretation of the First Amendment to establish that corporations enjoy the same constitutional protections as citizens. Except more. In short, if this ruling does nothing else—and many experts claim that large corporations will not exercise their new rights—it more solidly codifies corporate personhood. Already some corporations are not welcoming this new development. According to an Associated Press report, some 40 corporate executives sent a letter to congressional leaders, through Fair Elections Now, urging approval for public financing of US congressional elections. [....]

The Post writers report that FBI Director Robert Mueller knew about the problems in “late 2006 or early 2007.” Concerns about the bureau’s illegal actions first arose in late 2004 but the illegal activities continued until 2006, when the Justice Department inspector general’s investigation began.

The illegal requests were clear violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and involved records of calls, not the content of the calls. Prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI was required to obtain subpoenas or national security letters to gain access to telephone records. The USA Patriot Act broadened the use of national security letters by allowing lower-level officials approve them in more cases but still required a verified link to an active terrorism case. [....]