Michael Jay Lissner

In Re NSL

2014-10-08T00:00:00-07:00

Kurt Opsahl for EFF

I spent the morning today in court watching Kurt Opsahl from the Electronic Frontier Foundation deliver oral arguments for In Re National Security Letters, AKA Under Seal v. Eric Holder. I had originally planned on attending this as a lay person holding a smart phone camera and taking pictures, but soon after I filed an application to take photos, I became the media “pool”, meaning I was the one guy responsible for taking photos and distributing to the press after the fact.

Well, I’m no photographer, but since nobody else applied to take photos, here are the photos that I took:

I hereby release these as public domain photos. If you want to give me attribution, great. If not, no worries.

Some Comments on NSLs and the Proceedings

The district court previously found that National Security Letters (NSLs) violate the First Amendment and today the government appealed that finding with a variety of interesting claims. Probably my favorite was when the government claimed that the gag orders that typically apply to NSLs were necessary because without them the FBI wouldn’t be able to use NSLs as an investigative tool anymore.

Matt Zimmerman, the attorney when this case was in the district court, put it well:

Gov't: “FBI couldn't function” if it had to review the appropriateness of NSL gags. #nsl #wow
— Matt Zimmerman (@zim) October 8, 2014

The interesting thing here is that it’s probably true. If the gag orders were removed, the thousands of National Security Letters that the government issues each year would need more review, making it so that the FBI no longer had an extra-judicial backdoor into investigations. The FBI wouldn’t want that.

There were a million other arguments made that I’ll leave to the lawyers to discuss, but all in all it looked pretty good for EFF and I think folks are feeling confident. From here, it’s now up to the panel of judges to issue their decision. My bet is that regardless of what the decision says, this one will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Perhaps they’ll need a photographer too.

Japan Pictures Posted, and a Sampling

2009-06-28T13:14:27-07:00

N and I got back from Japan a few weeks ago, and we’ve finally gotten the pictures posted. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send you a link to the whole collection.

For now though, here are some samples of some of the good ideas, bad ideas, and funny signs we saw.

Starting with the funny signs…

No camping, lighting fires, or…actually, while we’re at it, just stay out altogether.

If we just had more signs like this one, the world would be a better place.

No! It’s fine, our food won’t hurt you. Really!

I won’t hurt you either, I’m a gentle fellow. Look, I have a sign.

Being 6‘6” tall, this one hit close to home.

No danger allowed here folks. No danger allowed.

For that matter, no pipe smoking is allowed either. Because lots of Japanese smoke pipes.

In Japan newspapers will not have FEAR!

It’s important to use doors willingly.

Moving onto the good and bad Japanese ideas….

Check out the screen, that’s a camera mounted on the bottom of the plane.

This woman sits and polishes and cleans empty plastic bags. All. Day. Long. Recycling at its best/worst.

Look closely at these bikes. They can fit two kids on the bike itself. No trailers, not frills. Just useful, functional bikes.

OK, these are the worst idea ever. The Christians put a cross into the blade of the scissor. So much for having scissors that actually work.

Check this out: Not only do florescent bulbs glow in the dark, but night lights are built into most overhead lights.

Japan takes apples seriously. Judge the wisdom yourself, I suppose.

They’ve done it. They’ve made a silent fridge for hotel rooms.

On the other hand, they’ve tamed deer. This is a terrible idea. Deer are annoying. See here for details.

And finally, an umbrella rack with locks and keys, so everybody gets their umbrella back. What a crazy concept.

Peru Pictures Posted…Finally!

2008-09-07T14:56:39-07:00

N and I finally posted our pictures from Peru. We both had cameras, so we ended the trip with about 1,500 pictures. After two weeks of adjusting, cropping, and deleting pictures, we’ve wittled it down to only 757 photos.

I know, I know, that’s one heck of a lot of photos, but we decided there were just too many that couldn’t be deleted.

We’ve posted the photos on Picassa, so if you’re interested in seeing them, drop me a line, and we can get you permission to the album.

Enjoy.

Yosemite Pictures Posted

2008-02-19T23:07:59-08:00

Just a quick note today to announce that pictures from last weekend are posted in the photo area for those of you that have logins.

It was a fantastic weekend. Some friends and I decided to go to Yosemite to go hiking, show shoeing and camping. All in all, Yosemite remains one of the most beautiful places on earth. The pictures are impressive, but they still can’t tell the whole story. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving Pictures Posted

2007-11-29T23:45:18-08:00

The pictures from Thanksgiving are posted in the photo area. If you can’t find them, it’s probably because you need to login.

Thanksgiving was a blast. A friend and I made a circle north to Crater Lake, then to the Oregon coast at Gold Beach, south to Petrolia and then home again. Great pictures and good clean fun.