PaulSpoerry.com

Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, this week announced his intention to hold hearings that will probe the extent of the cooperation between telephone companies and the NSA.

After resistance from the White House last year, the Republican-controlled Congress chose not to examine the issue, but it has been raised once again by a recent Bush administration request for immunity for the phone companies. That retroactive immunity was included in the government’s most recent House and Senate funding requests for US intelligence services, and it would grant the telephone companies immunity regardless of the legality of their actions.

Before granting such immunity, though, Reyes is determined to find out exactly what these companies might have done. In a statement issued by the Intelligence Committee, Reyes said, “Before granting immunity for any activities, it will be important to review what those activities were, what was the legal basis for those activities, and what would be the impact of a grant of immunity.”

To find out, Reyes plans to hold hearings in June to determine the nature of the NSA’s surveillance program and to find out whether it was legal. The hearings will also consider the issue of whether laws need to be changed to allow intelligence agencies to better track terrorist communications.

Reyes says that he “will not prejudge the outcome of these hearings,” but the fact that he has serious questions about the retroactive immunity suggests that he won’t be easily persuaded to sign off on it. That’s good news for organizations like the EFF, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with AT&T over the issue. Even if the administration doesn’t get its way in Congress, it will continue to push for the courts to throw out such cases on the grounds that they will expose state secrets. Thus far, though, the combined case against the telephone companies remains alive.

Original story

 If you don’t know what GTD is… well, you’ve been living in a box. GTD is the shorthand for “Getting Things Done”, which is a work-life management system and book by David Allen. It’s intention is to “transforms personal overwhelm and overload into an integrated system of stress-free productivity”.

There are many people who are REALLY into GTD, but you don’t have to be a die hard to take advantage of the methodology as it’s a very common sense approach to dealing with work/life. GTD is based on the “notion that with a complete and current inventory of all your commitments, organized and reviewed in a systematic way, you can focus clearly, view your world from optimal angles and make trusted choices about what to do (and not do) at any moment”.

So here’s my list of top 5 GTD websites that help you to work faster and get more done while stressing less. These sites are regularly updated with interesting, thought provoking content.

• Lifehacker - Probably my favorite of the bunch, Lifehacker makes getting things done easy and fun. It’s stuffed full with the latest in personal productivity technology and reveals the million ways hardware and software can improve our busy lives. This is one of the few sites on my iGoogle front page RSS feed.
• Lifehack.org - Similar in both name and concept to Lifehacker, Lifehack.org brings hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating your daily life, increase productivity and getting organized.
• DigIGetThingsDone - A cool blog covering GTD in general as well as deeper into the specifics. It covers software, using Wordpress and more.
• ZenHabits - A personal blog about setting and achieving goals through the building of good habits that must be cultivated through daily practice.
• RirianProject - Extremely easy to digest site covering GTD. Most of the site is done in “lists” format. For instance:
  • 9 Little Known Ways To Sleep So It Counts
  • 5 Back-to-Basics Strategies For Renewing Your Energy
  • 5 Powerful Hacks to Immediately Improve Your Presentations

David Allen’s website