Someone stop this shit!

I am trying hard not to start this post with an accusitory statement directed at Bush and the Media but its really hard when everything is their fault. Ok heres an idea, its your fault! Why havent you done something to let the media know you dont want anoother war, let alone one with Iran? Why dont you tell the government? You have elected representatives that are supposed to listen to you. If enough of us said something mabye it wont happen. Instead, war with Iran looks like a foregone conclusion.

Centcom has been gathering info on Iranin targets.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2512097.ece

The administration has been gathering dirt to use to point out Iran's many flaws.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/30/wiran230.xml

The U.S. trains middle eastern militaries to fight against Iran.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/30/wiran130.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

But now that I go back and look for stories it appears that the freedom hating British are the only ones who care enough to report this.

In the immortal words of Kent Brockman, "this reporter places the blame squarely on you, the people."

Arresting protesters is what the cool kids do.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=19100

No big suprise, so of course there will be no outrage, and reprinting this is probably pointless. I guess thats one of the reasons the older generations decrys the utter cynicism of ours.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=19099

Texas Legislature Antics

This is so funny that it requires very little introduction, but it does seem really funny considering the voting reform legislation the piece begins with.

Wisconsin Crazy of 27 Sept, follow-up

Good news for those freshmen who live on the west end of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, Jeremy Miller, who made news earlier this week, was arrested without incident by military police in San Diego. Apparently, the criminal mastermind who shut down half the campus and disrupted the lives of many, was caught when he tried to use his brother's military ID to get some medical attention. I would hate to see what this guy would do to the MPD if he were actually in the city.

Images to delight and taze

The Friday Bacon

Myanmar, Continued

It would appear that the military dictatorship in Myanmar has started taking coercive actions against the protesters. Here are updates, from the Guardian and from the BBC. However, in rounding up Buddhist monks and nuns by the hundreds, the military might be picking one enemy too many, the entire Buddhist population of Myanmar, that is. With cutting off the internet, though, I fear that unless the rest of the world finds a way to productively intervene the key statistic of this affair may be bodies in mass graves. After all, the worst acts of violence are wrought in silence, ala Abu Ghraib.

Religious opression comes in many flavors.

In this country if its not the Christians that are opressing you, its usually a school.

http://www.ksat.com/news/14214756/detail.html

the more you know

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092601024.html

I'm in ur phonez stealin all ur rightz

Basically the phone companies gave all your calls and emails and internet activity to the government. The courts have said it was illegal. Now, in order to avoid being sued, basically by all of us, the telecom companies are asking the government for immunity from prosecution.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20884696/site/newsweek/page/0/

Wright your elected representatives at every level of government and tell them to hold these companies responsible. We may not be able to hold the old media responsible for failing in their duty to us in the run up to the Iraq war, and the Democrats are still too chickenshit to hold the administrations feet to the fire, but hopefully we can make the telecom companies pay for the greveous wrong they have done us. Ma-bell folding under the pressure from a huge law suit is a small price to pay for freedom. Some people have to pay for our freedom with their lives.

The Crazies of Wisconsin, 27 Sept

The crazy of the day actually struck very close to home. According to the Associated Press, the student body has nothing but praise for the alert system. I, however, have personally heard students complain that the alerts were mostly confusing, especially the last of the three e-mails that were sent out.

Here's the text of the first e-mail that was sent over the UW email system, from Captain Johnnie Diamante, sent 24 Sep at 6:06 pm.

UW Police and City of Madison Police are currently searching for a suicidal
man who claims to have a gun. The search is focused on the area of UW
Hospital at 600 Highland Drive. Police are asking people to stay away
from the area. The entrances to the Hospital are blocked. The emergency
room is open. The emergency room can be accessed from University Avenue
to University Bay Drive.

Police are seeking Jesse A. Miller, a white male, 6 feet tall, 160 lbs.
Miller may be moving in the west campus area and armed.

More information will be forthcoming. Tune to local media for additional
information.

Here's the second e-mail, sent at 8:26 pm.

UW Police and City of Madison Police are continuing to search for a
suicidal man who claims to have a gun. At this time, police are asking
people to avoid the campus area. If you are currently on campus studying or
attending a campus activity, please stay indoors. If you must leave the
campus area, do so by traveling in groups or by campus buses, which are
still operating.

All UW-Madison classes held west of the Veterinary Medicine Building,
2015 Linden Drive, are canceled for the evening and the UW-Madison women's
soccer game against Northern Iowa University at 7 p.m. at the McClimon
Track and Soccer Complex also has been canceled.

For more continuing updates on this situation, visit <http://www.wisc.edu>.

And, finally, the last e-mail, sent out at 11:24 pm.

University Police have information to believe that Jesse Miller, the person
of interest in this situation, is a danger to himself, but not to members
of the UW-Madison campus community. Police believe that Tuesday's incidents
reflect a cry for help.

As of 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, campus operations had returned to
business-as-usual for tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 25, with continued
heightened security at UW Hospital and Clinics and in the West Campus Area.

Students should plan to attend classes, all employees should report to work
and anyone with an appointment at UW Hospital should plan to arrive at the
designated time.

Check the <http://www.wisc.edu> home page or your local news for the most
up-to-date information.

"This has been an unusual and troubling situation, but we have confidence
that UWPD and other police agencies have handled this situation well," said
Provost Pat Farrell. "I want to thank students, faculty and staff for
heeding campus safety alerts and spreading important information."

One can only assume that this particular Wisconsin crazy is still on the lamb. What I find most interesting about the whole affair is the scare tactic of the second e-mail, contrasted with the 'it's okay, he's only dangerous to himself' tone of the third. I, personally, am glad that I can dispel a mistaken nationally syndicated news article. How many students did that guy talk to, after all?

More insane Christianizing

They better think fast before this ends up in court.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709220333

The Wisconsin crazy

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/APC0101/70924081/1003/APC01

Ya but could they shave a bear?

Its the new meme!

This one matches the suspect discription

Myanmar

So far this whole series of events has given me hope for the people of Burma. I have recently taken to saying that people deserve the type of government they have. The fact that this has not been violent at all yet is tremendous and encouraging. Hopefully it will be unthinkable for the army to harm a monk, because at this point as long as the monks have the peoples intrest at heart this can conceveably end with a representative government that looks out for its people.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/26/myanmar/index_np.html

Mukasey, continued

Here is an article from the Raw Story that purports to shed more light into the 1995 trials of the Blind Sheikh and his co-defendants. The article is written by an individual who wrote a book on the same subject.

Rage, Smoke, and Mirrors

For those of you who don't know what Hillary Clinton's voting record is when it comes to the war, Tim Russert called her on it, brought to the Log Cabin by Raw Story. I would like to, hopefully briefly, discuss a couple of the points brought up by the video.

The first is, and I cannot stress this enough, Hillary Clinton voted to authorize the war "with conviction." She believed that invading Iraq was the right thing to do, in the face of whatever evidence or testimony that may have existed to the contrary.

The second is her mention of "presidential action." Touching this particular theme should be like touching the third rail for a presidential candidate, especially after Bush's excessive disregard for the separation of powers and his ever-expanding definition of presidential authority. Anyone on the Democratic side of the aisle that supports this idea should not have a viable chance for the Democratic nomination.

The third is her notion that we must assign responsibility, but focus on the problems that the country is facing now. I find this argument to be slightly disingenuous as if she had opposed the war from the beginning, perhaps some of the more negative ramifications might have been mitigated, for instance, less of a significant portion of the Iraqi population having fled to surrounding countries, or perhaps a few hundred thousand of them might not have become casualties. However, if the American people choose to hold her responsible for supporting this geopolitical shell game by making her the Democratic presidential candidate, perhaps we should consider abrogating civics classes.

Why dont you understand that you are free?

About halfway through this article the Department of Homeland Security spokesman, Russ Knocke, points out why this kind of infringment of the rights of the people is wrong. Its easy to exercise your freedom when what you are doing isnt controvercial, but then you arent really exercising your freedom. You may be saying to yourself that if you havent done anything wrong then you dont have anything to be afraid of. Allow me to point out that reading a book on marijuana is not illegal. Also it is not evidence of doing anything illegal. You may find that last statement disagreeable but consider that someone of the libertarian perspective might be interisted in changing the laws on marijuana but have never used such and even if marijuana becomes legal, never intends to use marijuana. I happen to be that kind of person. The point is that this is a search of a person to collect information about them with the intent of finding criminal activity. The more you look for something the more you are likely to see it, even when it isnt there.

Also, the collection of data about people exercising their rights is something that should worry everyone. For example, imagine if the government were to collect a database of everyone that is excercising their 2nd amendment rights. What purpose do you think would be behind this? Ultimately what do you think the government would use this information for?

This is why I am a member of both the ACLU and the NRA. They protect your rights even if you dont know what they are or why they are important.

Or I could alternatively draw your attnetion to the fact that the government collected files on those that worked with Martin Luther King Jr. to end segregation and on Dr. King himself. They may not have used those files to any profoundly nepharious purpose but I bring this up to point out that what is the law today may not be tomorrow, and may not be right. Persecuting the people who are fighting to change things is not only wrong but its not what the police are there to do. They are supposed to be protecting us not rooting around in our luggage. Despite what they say, rooting around in our luggage does not protect us. There are drug and bomb sniffing dogs and xray machines that can give them reasonable cause to believe there is a threat presnted by the bag. This is all a waste of effort and is not necessary to prevent terrorism. The FBI knew that the 9/11 terrorists were in the country before the attack went off. The FBI knew they were planning an attack and were taking flight training. More information wont help them prevent the next attack and wouldnt have prevented the last one. They had all the information they needed they just didnt communicate across agencies efficently and failed to act.

All this activity to gather every bit of information about our lives is a waste of the valuable resolurce of a law officers time. More than that, the extra information creates noise of meaningless information that causes false positives and wasts more time chasing down people who have done nothing wrong but "acted suspicious" and oversensitive people, say in Boston, over react causing the police to over react which could in the end allow the real threat to slip by unnoticed. While we are harrasing medical marijuana activists, muslums, breast feading mothers, engeneering students, artists, and scantily clad co-eds, the person that is none of these things, the real threat, that just looks like the middle aged business man with a roll behind briefcase walks into the city.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/092207dnnatdata.37ebf94.html

Holding the Quran? Thats a tazing.

The cops present a likely story here. You be the judge. In this case did the cops use the tazers as a crutch or was this a situation where they would have had to shoot the subject?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOtuOwIe7GhBEi-pc_F702VREoJw