Hey, Maybe It Could Happen ...

Only a little over a week ago, I suggested in a Garrison Center column that the FBI should be disbanded. The news hook for that suggestion was the destruction of evidence (text messages between FBI agents) from an important time frame in the Russiagate witch hunt investigation.

Yesterday's release of the House Intelligence Committee's memo on FBI/DoJ abusive manipulation of the already far too easy FISA warrant process seems to portend major repercussions for the FBI. Disbandment? Unlikely. But perhaps a house-cleaning far more thorough, and a visit to the woodshed far more painful, than any in its century of lawlessness and skulduggery.

One suggested minor reform:

The FBI is legendary for not recording interviews with suspects and witnesses, instead using -- and testifying in court in accordance with -- written notes produced by the agents during those interviews.

That needs to stop. Right now. Completely.  For prosecution/court purposes, the rule should be that if it isn't on verifiable audio or video, an FBI employee's testimony on it is inadmissible for lack of credibility. The FBI has proven itself too untrustworthy for the word of its agents to be accepted as true without very strong corroboration.

That would be a start, anyway.

They seem to be feeling the heat. Good.

An Assertion Apropos of a Former, and Possibly Near Future, Controversy

Can members of a political party committee claim copyright in their correspondence with other members of that committee, on an official committee list, for the purpose of preventing the display of that content to the party's membership and the public?

My assertion: No.

I believe my interpretation of the applicable law (as explained in this Copyright Office circular -- PDF) is reasonable. It is as follows:

• Messages from committee members to the committee's official discussion list are works "prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment."
• Messages from committee members to the committee's official discussion list are works "specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work."

Membership in the a political party committee constitutes being an "employee" under the agency doctrine explained in the circular vis a vis "Control by the employer over the work" insofar as the work is done under the authority of, and according to the rules laid down by the employer (the party and/or its national committee); "Control by employer over the employee" (the party and/or its national committee outline the terms, schedule and objectives of the committee's work and how the members are identified and qualified); and the status and conduct of the employer (commissioning committees for the production of specified work product is part of its regular operations as noted in its governing documents).

So, fair warning: If you are a member of a Libertarian Party committee and I am a member of that same committee, don't bother trying to pull any "you can't show the rest of the party what I'm saying on the committee's discussion list because I claim copyright in it" shit. It won't fly.

Libertarian Party Activism Update ...

... because some of you are interested in and/or financially or morally support the stuff I do in the party.

Libertarian Party of Florida

The LPF rules committee wrapped up its work last week, as its proposals had to be published by a deadline of 30 days prior to the state convention. I think I made reasonably good contributions to the committee's work, and am glad to have had the opportunity to work with several wonderful party activists. I don't know if I'll be offered appointment to another term, but if so I'll gladly serve.

On the other hand, I won't be attending the state convention in person, for two and a half reasons:

Reason 1: I have some (routine) medical stuff going on the week before and after the convention and expect to be busy with that and other stuff.

Reason 2: The convention is nearly 300 miles away, basically adding a half-day of travel on either end, exacerbating Reason 1.

Reason 2 1/2: I'm saving my pennies, as there's a reasonable likelihood that I'll need to do some extra travel for ...

Libertarian National Platform Committee

As you may recall, I was elected to serve as LPF's alternate representative to the national platform committee last year.

The main representative, Frank Caprio, recently changed his voter registration from LPF to something else, thereby de facto resigning his membership in LPF and any positions in, or representing LPF.

For the moment, this means that as alternate, I will cast the LPF's vote on the platform committee. Of course, there's a chance that LPF's convention or executive committee could choose a new "full" representative, or promote me to that status formally.

But either way, I've committed to participating, and that means that if there is a pre-national-convention meatspace meeting of the committee, I'll need to travel to attend it. So I'm giving up a few fast food combo meals I would otherwise have eaten, and forgoing travel to the state convention, in anticipation of needing to cover plane fare and hotel for such a meeting.

On the platform committee's email list, I am personally recommending that we NOT have a pre-convention meatspace meeting. Having one is a tradition, but:

• It's a pain in the ass to organize, since most platform committee members want to attend their own state conventions and state conventions cover many of the weekends between now and New Orleans.
• In recent years, online meeting/project facilities have become pretty damn good. I don't see why 20 or so people need to shell out air fare and hotel room rental to do stuff we can do from our homes.

But that's just my opinion and I'll be going with whatever the committee decides.

As far as substantive developments on the committee, I have nothing to report, really. We're just now winding up to elect our permanent chair, and we're also trying to find a better discussion platform to move to (we're on Yahoo! Groups, which is frankly becoming very cranky and unreliable these days).

So, there's your activism support. Thanks to those supporters who have, so far, covered my national convention "package" and hotel room. If any other expenses that I can't personally cover come up, I'll throw myself on your mercy at that time :)