] Before there was Karl Rove, Lee Atwater or even James
] Baker, the Bush family's political guru was a gregarious
] newspaper owner and campaign consultant from Midland,
] Texas, named Jimmy Allison. In the spring of 1972, George
] H.W. Bush phoned his friend and asked a favor: Could
] Allison find a place on the Senate campaign he was
] managing in Alabama for his troublesome eldest son, the
] 25-year-old George W. Bush?
]
]
] "The impression I had was that Georgie was raising a lot
] of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and embarrassing
] the family, and they just really wanted to get him out of
] Houston and under Jimmy's wing," Allison's widow, Linda,
] told me. "And Jimmy said, 'Sure.' He was so loyal."
]
]
] Linda Allison's story, never before published,
] contradicts the Bush campaign's assertion that George W.
] Bush transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the
] Alabama National Guard in 1972 because he received an
] irresistible offer to gain high-level experience on the
] campaign of Bush family friend Winton "Red" Blount. In
] fact, according to what Allison says her late husband
] told her, the younger Bush had become a political
] liability for his father, who was then the United States
] ambassador to the United Nations, and the family wanted
] him out of Texas. "I think they wanted someone they
] trusted to keep an eye on him," Linda Allison said.

A very interesting read but I don't know that those who are polarized for Bush will pay much attention. The crap that the Swift Boat Veterans pulled on Kerry had its effect but for some reason Bush has been able to remain teflon coated when it comes to his National Guard issues. This interview, plus the upcoming "60 Minutes" interview on Wednesday with the former Lt. Governor of Texas that admits he pulled strings to get Dubya in the Guard will probably just work to make more anti-Bush people to actually vote. If it works, great.

George W. Bush's missing year

In an unprecedented move, Dolemite is trying to actually be organized about PhreakNIC. Since some people pay more attention to memes than e-mail *cough* [DECIUS] *cough* I thought I'd put up a meme. If you've been told by me that you're getting a slot for speaking at PhreakNIC, you've gotten an email from me recently. This email has the schedule with your timeslot listed. Make sure it works for you and email me back so that I can know you're cool with that time.

Werd.

Dolemite

] JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dario Cruz has lived in the United
] States for 16 years, but just became a citizen last week
] as he and about 200 other immigrants were naturalized.
]
] One of the things he had always wanted to was register to
] vote, but when he was offered the chance to do that right
] outside the ceremony, he knew something wasn't right --
] the place on the form where you're asked to choose
] Democrat, Republican or independent was already filled
] out.
]
]
] "It's like one side," Cruz said. "You don't get to
] choose."
]
]
] According to Cruz and his family, every form was checked
] off Republican.
]
]
] It was something his wife, Linda Cross, first noticed.
] She said she asked what was going on, and was told the
] woman registering voters said they were with a Republican
] organization.
]
]
] "I am Republican," she told Channel 4's Jim Piggott. "I
] was very angry with that if they want to register
] whatever party, you shouldn't try to dictate to people
] what party they are going to register; who they are going
] to vote for, because then you don't have any freedom."

Later it mentions that "For the record, any registered voter can vote for any candidate of any party in a general election, but in most primaries in Florida, people can only vote for candidates of their own party." While this is true, it's still a slap in the face to new immigrants to have their party choice made for them.

News4Jax.com - Election 2004 - New Citizens Say GOP Took Away Their Right To Choose

This is a rather interesting read after all the recent press and essays regarding the increased surveillance of society. I would have to agree that with the proliferation of cameras all over the world there is a better system of checks-and-balances with those who are supposed to be protecting us, but I'd still rather have more privacy altogether. Oh, if only the concept of ethics was enough to make people behave well...

] In the mid-'90s, when I began writing "The Transparent
] Society," it seemed dismaying to note that Great Britain
] had almost 150,000 CCD police cameras scanning public
] streets. Today, they number in the millions.
]
] In the United States, a similar proliferation, though
] just as rapid, has been somewhat masked by a different
] national tradition -- that of dispersed ownership. As
] pointed out by UC-San Diego researcher Mohan Trivedi,
] American constabularies have few cameras of their own.
] Instead, they rely on vast numbers of security monitors
] operated by small and large companies, banks, markets and
] private individuals, who scan ever larger swaths of urban
] landscape. Nearly all of the footage that helped solve
] the Oklahoma City bombing and the D.C. sniper episode --
] as well as documenting the events of 9/11 -- came from
] unofficial sources.
]
]
] This unique system can be both effective and inexpensive
] for state agencies, especially when the public is
] inclined to cooperate, as in searches for missing
] children. Still, there are many irksome drawbacks to
] officials who may want more pervasive and direct
] surveillance. For one thing, the present method relies
] upon high levels of mutual trust and goodwill between
] authorities and the owners of those cameras -- whether
] they be convenience-store corporations or
] videocam-equipped private citizens. Moreover, while many
] crimes are solved with help from private cameras, more
] police are also held accountable for well-documented
] lapses in professional behavior.
]
]
] This tattletale trend began with the infamous beating of
] Rodney King, more than a decade ago, and has continued at
] an accelerating pace. Among recently exposed events were
] those that aroused disgust (the tormenting of live birds
] in the Pilgrim's Pride slaughterhouse) and shook
] America's stature in the world (the prisoner abuse by
] jailers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq). Each time the
] lesson is the same one: that professionals should attend
] to their professionalism, or else the citizens and
] consumers who pay their wages will find out and --
] eventually -- hold them accountable.

We will watch the watchers

] However, instead of thanking Adam for his promotion of
] their product, officials at MGM and the MPAA have chosen
] to pressure the FBI into pursuing criminal charges. Adam
] was first tipped off about the investigation when the FBI
] raided his and his fiancee's apartment in May of 2002 and
] seized thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment.
] Adam later received a copy of the affidavit filed in
] support of the search warrant, and was shocked to
] discover that this document, prepared by the FBI,
] contained significant amounts of erroneous and misleading
] information. For example, two social security numbers
] were listed for Adam, one of which is not his. References
] were made to a cease and desist letter sent by the MPAA
] to an email address that did not exist. His online
] friendship with other Stargate fans across the globe was
] portrayed as an international conspiracy against the
] MPAA. And perhaps most disturbing of all, it was later
] revealed that the FBI invoked a provision of the USA
] Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. The
] FBI's abuse of its powers did not stop there. When they
] seized Adam's computer equipment, he was given written
] documentation stating that it would be returned within 60
] days. The equipment that they did return did not arrive
] until more than 8 months later, and only then after much
] prodding from his lawyer. Much of it was damaged beyond
] repair - one laptop had a shattered LCD screen, an empty
] tape backup drive was ripped apart for no apparent
] reason, his fiancee's iBook was badly damaged when it was
] pried apart with a screwdriver.

1. Welcome to the new world of criminal copyright prosecutions. This reminds me of operation Sun Devil. The FBI is usually far more professional then this. Apparently they've assigned a bunch of idiots to their copyright sqaud, which is reasonable at first glance in that its not very important, but ultimately a mistake because this issue is too controversial and too visible to be handled by thugs. These guys aren't going to stop behaving this way until a judge throws the book at them (as occured to the Chicago Secret Service agents who raided Steve Jackson Games). Therefore, I suggesting holding on to your seats. There will be a bunch more stories where this came from, and as the net is a hell of a lot louder then it was in 1991 you can expect the FBI to feel some very serious pressure over the issue as the horrors mount up.

2. The seizure of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, the destruction of said equipment, and then the choice of legal venue meant to maximize the financial costs associated with trial... This has all the earmarks of an investigation that is intended to be punative in and of itself. Punative investigations are unconstitutional.

3. This is why copyright issues need to remain in civil courts and not criminal courts. We don't need our security forces out smashing computers for the MPAA. There is absolutely no reason why the MPAA couldn't have filed a civil motion in this case in the jurisdiction the actual website was in.

It seems clear that a properly delivered cease and desist letter would have solved the problem here. No fuss, no muss. Handling crimes like this in this manner is extremely expensive for taxpayers and tends to disrupt and destroy innocent people's lives when they accidentally become the target of it.

Moving copyright cases into the criminal justice system was bad, bad, bad law. It seems like we're going to get a stiff lesson in why.

Stargate Information Archive - Federal Charges Filed Against SG-1 Archive

Alan Moore, who helped to transform the comic book into modern literature, has an interview on Salon.com. If there was ever a paranoid schizophrenic author that got it right, he'd be as close to the mark as any. I definitely suggest reading the whole interview.

] The funny thing is that Alan Moore hates to talk about
] film and television, because, as he explains later in our
] interview, both "have a lot to answer for." He's not
] talking about how they've distilled his densely
] researched, intricate tales of socio-historical
] interrogation, like "From Hell" and "The League of
] Extraordinary Gentlemen," into narrowcasted popcorn
] movies. Instead, he means the way they've had such an
] impact on human consciousness that many people were only
] able to articulate the horrific reality of 9/11 by
] comparing it to a disaster film.
]
] Moore clearly believes that the same mechanism has
] foisted a deadly, unwanted and unnecessary war upon the
] world. "Television and movies have short-circuited
] reality," he asserts. "I don't think a lot of people are
] entirely clear on what is real and what is on the
] screen."
]
] Moore, now 50, has a peculiar perspective on this problem
] of "misrecognition" between fiction and reality --
] because so many of his works have seemingly anticipated
] or prefigured so much of what has come to pass. "V for
] Vendetta," Moore's dystopian early-1980s narrative about
] a future fascist Britain under siege by a notorious
] terrorist who was subjected to unbearable torture, echoes
] much of our current dilemma in the so-called war on
] terrorism, all the way down to the criminalization of
] homosexuality, the panoptic PATRIOT Act-like surveillance
] state and a homogeneous media that glosses over real news
] in favor of sensationalism.

Alan Moore | The man who invented the future

This is a horrible story to hear, but the irony in the naming of the girl involved is something I just had to point out. Make sure you never name your children after tragic plays.

A man doused his girlfriend and three small children with gasoline inside a car and set them on fire early Wednesday as he drove, authorities said. All five died after the car crashed in flames.

Residents reported hearing the crash and seeing two adults engulfed in flames, stumbling across a road near Bonny Lake, a small town east of Tacoma.

Antigone Monique Allen, 18, who had recently filed an assault complaint against the 24-year-old man, survived for about nine hours at a Seattle hospital, sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said. She managed to tell investigators what happened before she died.

Horrible Irony - Careful what you name your children

] ICANN should see DNS Whois for what it is, a relic of a
] simpler time, and focus instead on the IP address Whois
] systems, where their efforts might reap meaningful
] results.

After the drama I stirred up last week (see the politech list) Circle ID offered to feature an article from me about the DNS Whois issue. Here it is.

DNS WHOIS: Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Free registration required and all that jazz...

Islamic religious leaders from the Middle East will be invited by the National Security Council to join Thai Muslim religious leaders in scrutinising the Koran for correctness, after a new version turned up including distorted teachings.

Mr Thaksin said he had read the new version of the Koran, which had been translated from the Arabic language into Thai.

Deputy Prime Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha gave him a copy. It contained distorted religious teachings.

``It's an adapted version of the Koran being used to deceive Muslims. The one I read is the translated Thai version. The Yawi version has much more violent content.

``Those reading it for seven days in a row could go crazy because it is completely distorted,'' Mr Thaksin said.

The book, written in the Malayu language by Klualatikhor Danohmaeroh, was brought from Kotabaru in the northern state of Kelantan, Malaysia, by Islamic extremists who wanted to use the twisted teachings to indoctrinate local Muslim youths and raise tension and violence in the South.

Chapter 1 of the book encourages ``jihad warriors'' to fight for their religion and Allah for the glory of Pattani state and to form troops to fight ``those outside the religion'', while Chapter 3 tells the warriors to kill all opponents _ even their own parents _ and to sacrifice their lives to be in heaven with Allah.

Chapter 5 alerts the warriors to go to war to seize Pattani state back from religious renegades, and to die for their religion.

Chapter 7 quotes Chapter 123 of the Koran as saying that: ``You must kill all of them, those outside the religion around you, so they will know you, who have faith, are strong as well.''

Not really an issue that many of us in the US have heard about - at least not in the circles that I congregate in. This was the primary reason for the Protestant movement within Christianity. It was the basis behind King James calling for an English translation of The Bible.

The Koran states that it must always be in Arabic. It dictates that the prayer meetings are held in Arabic as well. The logic behind it is that it will ensure correctness, but that would only be the case if the entire world spoke Arabic. Even if one were to learn Arabic as a second language, interpretations will vary from one person to the next, depending on their native language. It seems that the politically slanted factions of Islam are taking advantage of the fact that there's no "Universal Translation Authority" (akin to the Council of Nicaea for determining the contents of The Bible) and playing televangelist. Sure, there are English translations of The Koran, along with many other languages, but there is no central authority for Islam that certifies them for correctness - most likely due to the "Arabic Only" dictate within it.

This brings up a completely different struggle - do you remain true to the original teachings and ignore the need for correct translations or do you "become progressive" and create a certifying authority? Obviously I'm opening a can of worms with this debate.

Dolemite

Koran rewrite upsets PM

] "The government ought to make a greater effort to give a
] fair and balanced representation of political viewpoints
] on its airwaves to soldiers, sailors and airmen around
] the world listening," says Tom Athans, executive director
] of Democracy Radio, a nonprofit group in Washington that
] promotes political diversity on the airwaves. "It's
] important for the U.S. military, when using tax dollars,
] to not provide just one political perspective without
] giving consideration to opposing points of view."
]
] After the Florida recount in 2000, when overseas military
] ballots were an important element in Bush's narrow
] victory, the influence of what amounts to propaganda
] beamed daily to U.S. troops must be considered a domestic
] political factor of no small consequence. "There's no
] question when one-side programming like American Forces
] Network is presented to troops, it's going to impact
] their voting behavior," says Athans.

I thought it was bad enough letting Fox and Clear Channel buy up as many stations as they could afford. From this article it clearly sounds like those heading up the Armed Forces Networks are taking sides and forcing their views on the troops and their families.

Gee, wasn't there a movie made about this?

Rush Limbaugh's forced conscripts