A FEDERAL COURT HAS ORDERED VERIZON to release the names of subscribers to the RIAA.

What’s most troubling is that the RIAA (and MPAA) people are executing legal documents — swearing under oath that they have investigated these matters — when their actions are really based on software that’s about as accurate as the direct-mail software that sends Army enlistment offers to my cats. I wrote about that problem in this article, which noted that evidence in the case indicated that the “copyright ‘bots” were identifying obvious non-infringing works as infringing, and human beings were signing off on subpoenas “under penalty of perjury” to get these taken down.

If I had a “Harry Potter book report” and the RIAA or MPAA came after me with claims that I had an illegal copy of the Harry Potter movie, I think I’d pursue an abuse of process action, and seek prosecution for perjury. And if lawyers were involved, I’d consider filing a disciplinary complaint with the appropriate state bar.

THE GARY HART JUGGERNAUT is gathering steam.

MORE REPORTS of an increase in North Korean refugees.

NUKES IN SPACE? My TechCentralStation column is up.

UPDATE: This post by Jay Manifold relates, too.

LAZY JOURNALISTS, CON’TD: Tom Maguire reports that the wreath-laying-on-Jefferson-Davis’s-Birthday story is bogus, but it’s in Dowd’s column. Meanwhile, Charles Johnson’s parody Arab-News network is getting continued play for its parody story complaining that the last space shuttle mission was the first step in “Israeli occupation of outer space.”

Don’t these guys check anything? Stay in Big Media, Mo — you’d never make it in the blogosphere.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Orrin Judd asks, “does anyone edit the Post?“ What’s a paltry $1.8 trillion error among friends?

INDONESIA has charged Abu Bakar Bashir with treason for plotting to kill Prime Minister Megawati, and for involvement in the bombings of 38 Christian churches. Meanwhile, Abu Hamza is charged with trying to set up terrorist cells in the United States.

LILEKS ON MEDIA BIAS:

Do reporters suppress the nature of ANSWER / ACTION because they don’t want to embarrass the movement? No. Do they secretly admire the ANSWER / ACTION / WWP positions on China, North Korea, and other dictatorships? Of course not. (Cuba is another story.) Are they inclined to wonder who’s behind the rallies? No. NeoNazis, Klansmen, Separatists, Militias, the Promise Keepers – these words make reporters’ antennae quiver. “Communist” does not. It’s an institutional blindspot, and if you doubt it, consider this:

A fashion designer premiers a line of clothes emblazoned with the hammer-and-sickle. The story runs in the variety section; there are quotes from fashionistas about retro iconography, the kitschy appeal of Socialist Realist art, and nostalgia for the stability of a binary, pre-terrorist world. The story would have the tone of a worldly cultured person peering through a monocle at a butterfly whose wings were amusingly deformed.

Now imagine that a fashion designer splatters swastikas all over the Spring Line. Would the items be reviewed with the same bemused detachment?

The hammer and sickle don’t evoke the same reaction in the average journalist as the swastika – and that’s the problem. Bias isn’t a sin, if you ask me. But indifference is.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh, who had the, er, advantage of living part of his life in a communist country, has comments, too.

OKAY, the liberties taken with the plot in The Two Towers were bad enough, but this ought to be a hanging offense. Has Peter Jackson no shame. . . .?

RAND SIMBERG just saw Gary Hart on TV and thinks he could beat Bush, “particularly given the lame home security policies of the Administration, which are extremely vulnerable to attack from, well, a non-idiotarian perspective.”

TED BARLOW offers a brief explanation of why radio sucks.

TERRORIST RAIDS IN SOUTH FLORIDA? Seems likely. (Via World Wide Rant).

HATE SPEECH LAWS IN ACTION: If the government doesn’t like you, they advertise for people who are offended by what you say.

Feh. Tarring and feathering is a traditional remedy for such governmental overreaching. Much more of this and I’ll be calling for the custom to be revived.

A LOT OF PEOPLE ARGUE ABOUT THE DESIGN OF SURVEY INSTRUMENTS. But this one seems about perfect to me. . . .

“I WANT INFORMATION, NOT INTERMEDIATION!” An eloquent plea to CNBC.

CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER. No, really.

SIGNAL TO NOISE: As I mentioned here yesterday, I was kind of unhappy with the way my interview played in a local TV spot on the antiwar protests. I was unhappy because the story juxtaposed me saying that International A.N.S.W.E.R. was an unsavory outfit that supports North Korea (as it is) with interviews featuring local protesters in a way that seemed to give the impression that I was accusing the local protesters of supporting North Korea — even though I had been at some pains with the TV people to make the distinction clear.

And, sure enough, some people who spoke to me today had seen the story and gotten that impression. Just about as many other folks, however, saw me on a program about antiwar protests, paid no attention at all to what I was saying, and assumed that I had organized the local contingent. I might as well have been reading from the phone book. So much for nuance.

Then, just now, I got a phone call from a pleasant older-sounding fellow from Powell, Tennessee who had seen the spot, drawn the same conclusion, and wanted me to sign him up as an antiwar protester for my next trip to Washington!

He seemed a bit disappointed when I told him that I wasn’t in the business of doing that. But he cheered up when I gave him my Dad’s number. “He’ll know who to put you in touch with,” I remarked.

The media coverage may be confusing, and people may not pay attention anyway, but my family has all bases covered. . . .

A HART / MCCAIN TICKET? It’s a pundit-show dream come true. . . .

BOY THESE GUYS ARE JUST CORRALING ALL THE TALENT, aren’t they?

AZIZ POONAWALLA’S DEAN2004 BLOG has a link to video of a speech by Howard Dean that he calls “fantastic.” Aziz emails: “In this speech, and in Kerry and Gephardt’s speeches afterwards, you really get a sense for how lost the Democrats are in terms of how poorly they have communicated their message (any message). Dean stands out in contrast to the others by being clear as to what he stands for. You mentioned that the Dems need to regroup – Dean is the only one who seems to be following your advice.”

I don’t have time to stream the video at the moment — this is a busy day for me — but if you do, follow the link.

UPDATE: Arnold Kling emails that he’s unimpressed with Dean, who he says flunks Oil Econ 101.

TIM BLAIR HAS INFORMATION on how to help victims of the Canberra fires.

THE “SUCKIFICATION OF REASON” — as told by Cynthia Cotts in The Village Voice.

UPDATE: Jeremy Lott has a chronological correction to Cotts’ piece.

THERE’S AN INSTAPUNDIT MIRROR SITE UP.

JOSH CHAFETZ calls on President Bush to denounce French unilateralism on the Security Council.

HEY, WAIT! I keep hearing that it will be minority soldiers who disproportionately die in a “white man’s war for oil,” but here’s more evidence that, well, it’s not that way:

WASHINGTON — The American troops likeliest to fight and die in a war against Iraq are disproportionately white, not black, military statistics show — contradicting a belief widely held since the early days of the Vietnam War.

In a little-publicized trend, black recruits have gravitated toward non-combat jobs that provide marketable skills for post-military careers, while white soldiers are over-represented in front-line combat forces.

The tilt toward white combat troops is recognized by many senior commanders and a small group of scholars who study the military.

“If anybody should be complaining about battlefield deaths, it is poor, rural whites,” says Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois.

I wonder if the Pentagon will institute an affirmative action program to remedy this disparity.

UPDATE: Here’s a post saying that the claim of disproportionate minority deaths wasn’t even true in Vietnam.

TRENT TELENKO has found something interesting regarding Pakistan, North Korea, and nuclear weapons. As well as evidence of a dropped ball.