I have no disagreement with what you’ve said. A shield law that is effective could be written, but such a law is unlikely to pass, even if it were to be proposed.

There is no settled law that possessing classified information, by a journalist, is protected by the 1st amendment. Publishing it is protected by the Constitution, but the act of obtaining the information falls under the espionage statutes. The judge that issued the warrant was obviously of that opinion and his opinion stands. Our (the collective [...]

What Turley fails to grasp (I don’t believe he fails, he just ignores) is that the statutes are written in such a way that it is a criminal act to obtain classified information without the proper authorization to do so, for any purpose. The DOJ stance is that publishing may be a 1st amendment right, [...]

Over reach, yes. Illegal? You will have to demonstrate that. The law is designed with over reach in mind and it is not against the law to prosecute an individual that possesses classified information without the authorization (proper security clearances) to do so. In fact, the law is specifically written to allow it, and only [...]

What you describe is exactly what the U.S. government did during WWII. I will argue that the press is more free to print now than it was 70 years ago.

I believe that it was actually worse during the 20th century. Before Vietnam the mainstream press parroted the government line, on foreign policy at least, to the point that the government was surprised when it began to receive negative pushback in the mid-60′s. I cannot imagine our “free press” printing any classified information during WWII, [...]

Your example isn’t very relevant to this case. This case is about information concerning North Korea, which was classified according to proper procedures in place (at least we can assume that is the case, because your example precedes the Executive Order signed into place in 2009 by Obama, which outlines those procedures). Anyone that has [...]

While what you say is entirely true, I stand by my statement and as evidence I give you…….the State Government of Texas, duly elected by the asshat majority that populates that particular section of the country. Hopefully, that will change in the next 8 years or so.

For the record, I oppose the XL pipeline on environmental grounds (ground water pollution and global warming). However, if we think stopping XL will stop tar sands we are deluding ourselves. U.S. citizens have no say in tar sands development–the absolute most we can do is slow the process by a few years until Canada [...]

The Harper government believes the U.S. is over a barrel (pun intended). The preferred route is the XL route because it is the least expensive and therefore the highest profit for the oil sands corporations. If the U.S. fails to approve, Harper fully intends to build a pipeline across BC to the Pacific coast and [...]

Your comment reminded me of a short story I read 30 years ago, maybe longer than that. The average IQ had deteriorated to the level of moron and society was falling apart. No one could design anything that would actually work, no one could fix anything that required more sophistication than a couple of wraps [...]

Sorry, Tomemerald, I was too hard on you in my previous comment. Diesel algae is called that because it is a dark brown, slimy growth with the exact look and texture of algae growths we see around fumaroles and in hot springs. Makes no difference to mechanics whether it is actually a fungus, it is [...]

You haven’t been around diesel much. Google diesel algae, i guarantee you pages of hits.

And, I doubt the fuel loaded from the commercial tank was bad, so I agree with you. I’ve guessed that the tug’s own tanks weren’t clean and my first guess is algae growth. Algae can bloom in a clean tank, and when it does it is very bad news, requiring a complete cleaning of the [...]

Yes, water will screw up injectors. Water coming in the exhaust or on top of the pistons is much worse. Water isn’t compressible–a big shot of water will bend rods and even break cranks.

And that is one of the reasons that the sample is taken from the bottom of the tank! And “bad diesel” is just that–it can be water contaminated, contain sediment/rust/dirt, or it can have gone bad due to algae growth. Yes, algae will grow in diesel fuel.

Meant “yes”, typed “no”.

No, but you know that there are definitely rough seas between there and Seattle in December. I have no idea what the towing characteristics of a drilling rig are–but the pictures give me the impression that it pulls like a pig, which is a real problem in 30-foot-plus seas. Pitching makes lines go slack, and [...]

“The marine weather forecast seemed good enough for mid or late December”

I almost laughed out loud at that. A North Pacific Winter forecast is good for maybe two days, and that’s stretching it.

You pull a gallon before fueling, and you pull it from the bottom of the tank. It’s not rocket science. That said, bad fuel still happens, but if bad diesel was loaded onto the tug, there are other ships floating out there that have bad fuel, too. Another possibility is that the tug has contaminated [...]