Update on the RNC Arrests

Max Specktor, a cultural studies student, will have a hearing, along with the other RNC 8 in November. Mr. Specktor, a self-described community activist, has said that he plans to plead not guilty to conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism, among the first times that Minnesota's version of the Patriot Act has been used in criminal prosecution. 

What is particularly loathesome about the entire affair is that the group had been infiltrated by paid informants for the FBI for over a year. Regardless of the difficulties of obtaining inside information on an allegedly terrorist group, this practice of buying information from those who might serve as agent provacateurs should end as a matter of policy. When there is money involved in a transaction of information, the seller has less and less reason to be truthful in the information transmitted, if the perceived value will result in a higher price. One must ask, at what point does such an infiltration become a frame up of otherwise innocent Americans?

Why Don't You Know You Are Free Wednesday II

To bring everyone in the class up to speed on what has transpired so far, the Bush Administration embarked upon a path to violate, in part or whole, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in February of 2001, well before the 9/11 attacks. At least AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth were involved in the program as it was established. In the case of Qwest, though, the Bush administration met resistance in the person of Joseph Nacchio. Fast forward to today, Mr. Nacchio was sentenced to a six year jail sentence over the summer, in what some might call a political trial, especially given the fact that the defendant couldn't testify about classified information. Now the phone utilities involved in this heinous violation of the law are refusing to release details about their cooperation. Although the above pieces does describe the FBI's methodlogy behind the eavesdropping. But if a friend of a friend has a name close to 'Bin Laden,' you've probably been eavesdropped on.

Here's a brief refresher on the definitions of suspicion and reasonable doubt.

And Texas is the freest state in the union.

In related news, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in support of a moratorium on state and local Internet taxes. Who are the two members of the House of Representatives that would be so bold as to vote against this? None other than Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat from California's 14th and Rep. Michael Turner, Republican of Ohio's 3rd. Rep. Eshoo represents Palo Alto, and has this statement strongly in favor of the moratorium on her website. The only reason she voted against it, is because it is temporary. The funny part is that Rep. Turner's vote was apparently an accident.