links for 2010-07-22

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, charged that libel judgments in foreign courts were "undermining" freedom of speech and of the press and "chilling" open debate in the United States.
"While we cannot legislate changes to foreign law that are chilling protected speech in our country, we can ensure that our courts do not become a tool to uphold foreign libel judgments that undermine American First Amendment or due process rights," he said in a statement

Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn't some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won't take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?

Founded two years ago by Edwy Plenel, a former editor of Le Monde, and other former print journalists, Mediapart has pursued a business strategy as iconoclastic as its approach to news. Unlike the majority of news sites on the Web, it charges readers for access. Over the last month, fueled by the newfound notoriety, subscriptions have surged by 20 percent, to 30,000.