Letter Never Sent

Much of the recent legislation designed to combat terrorism has frightening consquences for civil liberties. But only one man in the Senate has cared enough to try to moderate these assaults against our liberties. Russell Feingold single-handedly stopped a vote because he argued that the bill needs a floor debate in order to offer ammendments.

If you care about this subject, go to the aclu website and send your representatives an email about your opposition to this expansion to government authority.

A day or two ago while I was watching CSPAN I sat and listened to a reporter ask the White House Press Secretary, Ari Fleisher, about a request by the Bush administration that the television media refrain from broadcasting whole segments or parts from bin Laden’s taped press releases over concerns that these videos may contain ‘hidden messages’. This seemed to me a completely unfounded concern and I supposed that the goverment was more inclined to make this request out of a desire to control the propaganda. Namely because if there were ‘hidden messages’ these broadcasts are easily available through other means. This shows the extreme sensitivity that our government has towards supporting its war cause by controlling what we see and hear. As this article shows, fears of ‘hidden messages’ were merely an excuse by the government to control what we see and hear. When video is shown the networks must add to it the official party view: “They agreed to accompany the tapes with reports providing what they called appropriate context.” The responses of the Taleban and bin Laden have been censored even though it may provide the only glimpse Americans see of the other party. I think they didn’t want any Americans to see what bin Laden was saying for fear that people might take that and actually think about this situation with that in mind. Also on video, bin Laden doesn’t seem like the lunatic that he is painted to be. If he is responsible for the WTC crash the US has failed to present evidence of this. I find his rationale to create violence dispicable but to me it is not much different from the same rationale used by Bush to wage the US war. Both parties have identified themselves as the representative of Good in a battle for Good and Evil.

As evidence of this new attitude towards free speech, the FBI has been busy closing down websites for ‘terrorist organizations’. A New York based website, iraradio.com accused by the FBI of supporting the IRA has been closed at the government’s request. Terrorist organizations, as defined by our government, are basically any group or individual that advocates a position opposite that of the government especially when advocating resistance to the government. By the current definition, the Boston Tea Party is an example of a terrorist act. The government now has broad powers to seize the assets of companies and individuals THEY regard as supporting ‘terrorism’. From the website in question: President Bush recently signed a new law that lets the FBI, CIA & OHS seize assets “without any notice and/or any real un-reasonable evidence of ANY company or person that helps, supports, or does anything that can be called or labeled terrorism or is found to be connected to terrorism in any way or means possible”. Word has spread about several Internet companies that have had their assets seized using this new law.

I might add that an official declaration of war has not been made by our president even though the rhetoric of war is being tossed around with reckless abandon.

In a classic example of poetic justice, right-wing loonie Rush Limbaugh has revealed that he is almost completely deaf. I am sure this won’t keep him from meting out his sage wisdom to his legions of concerned dittoheads. I don’t like to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others even people whose philosophies and attitudes I find repellent and hateful, but there is something humerous in this.

The media propaganda juggernaut is in high-gear. On Fox News they were actually discussing a similar subject, psychological warfare or Psych Ops. War and violence is wrong. I don’t care for what reason. It is weird the amount of time that is spent in the media emphasizing how there were no civilian targets. I think there is an acute awareness of how disgusting war actually is. There is a lot of work being done to develop ways to preserve the ability to control without unleashing indiscriminate violence. That’s when it becomes clear that the true nature of government is coercion. This love of violence and revenge and this arrogant attitude towards the rest of the world should be cut out like a cancer. I was at a bar last night with some coworkers and the reports of the American attacks on Afghanistan were on the television alongside a football game. It was so surreal and it reminded me how fucked up our society has become, how consumerist and petty, proud of our ignorance, selfish and impotent. I wonder how long this will be the case.

It was suprisingly difficult to find info on the new term of the US Supreme Court even though some very important cases will be decided dealing with pornography and the internet. This is one of those topics where I’m never sure which justices will go which way. It should be interesting. The Washigton Post had a general overview of some of the cases on the docket. I’m sure Slashdot has some info but when I checked their site was unreachable.

I read some utterly laughable pieces of ‘journalism’ today at ABCNEWS.COM. One was about how to talk to your children about war. It had some pretty funny parts that I think should be quoted. “That happens with countries, too. One country does something terribly wrong, like blowing up those buildings, and they won’t let the people who were responsible be punished. To make sure something like that never happens again, our government is going to send a lot of our soldiers to that country to force the people who did these bad things to be punished. Just like policemen catch and punish bad people in our country, soldiers catch and punish bad people in other countries.” It shows how easily basic assumptions are fostered in our society without the benefit of nuance and complexity or any regard for grasping the actuality of a given situation. Where do people get the idea that war is good, or that law enforcement is here simply for your safety and protection? It turns out that the fairy tales we’re told as children aren’t just the normal ones like bible stories or the existence of the easter bunny and Santa Claus. The brain scrubbing starts young. Children know the score. We don’t give them enough credit.
The other piece was even more funny. The tagline was this: “Will Sept. 11 change our apolitical, slacker youth?”. The article as you can imagine is a generous helping a fluff with some potentially worthwhile bits. I can just imagine a pillar of the community type, white joe six pack at his breakfast table reading something like this shaking his head saying, “Dear God, help our children be more patriotic.” It does however mention the ability of the internet to provide alternate sources of opinion. Although there is quite a consensus among the mainstream media about what should be done with regards to the WTC crash/disaster. The online outlets are not quite so inflexible with their dogma. I think the media suffer from the assumption that Americans don’t want the truth which might be true in some part but does nothing to help things get better. I think the government and the media will find themselves in a predicament if they focus too heavily on international issues. It may foster an interest in what’s going on around the world that could be damaging to the American party line we’re all supposed to support.

There was a illuminating article in the BBC that blames the fight for net freedoms partially on the terrorist attacks. It is illuminating because it shows how troubled world governments are by basic issues of freedom. People having been demanding more freedom from the world’s leading so-called democracies. There has been a similar attempt to scape-goat technologies that threaten the power of law-enforcement like encryption. This kind of attack on the movement towards greater liberty could have the effect of criminalizing anyone who supports such ideals. It reminds me of an American propaganda piece from the 50’s about how to spot a communist. Look for people who like to read or advocate a position that goes against the American government. The same thing could be applied in this case. People who advocate the right to view pornography, to use encryption could be identified as enemies of the state.

Oi, if you’re at work and you need to instant message someone and your admins don’t let you install programs then you can either burn the software onto a cd and run it from there or if you’re an aim user you can send im using a web based java applet. You can also click here to get it directly.

Here are some links to good stories on the WTC crash:

• The US playing into bin Laden’s plans to galvanize the islamic world against the US dominated west. At The Register.
• Was the attack on Afghanistan planned before the WTC crash? from the BBC.
• Why the US can’t win a ground war in Afghanistan from Salon. Number reason, they are tough as nails. Especially in their own backyard. Guys used to living in a forbidding, arid mountain region. Send in a few american kids who just didn’t know what to do with themselves after high school and voila you have Vietnam part 2. These Mujahadeen are CIA trained and quite possibly pretty well funded by other governments like Iraq and Syria. It’s the best military training american money can buy. Bush has already stated that Americans should be patient about military action as it may take months or years. Sure sounds like Vietnam to me.

Ok, enough WTC stuff for today. The new Counter-Strike release, version 1.3, is out! Woohoo! Recent changes include voice communication and now enemies can here your radio commands in game! Also, bunnyhopping has been fixed. Be prepared to wait to download the new version. All the servers are certainly getting hammered. Fileplanet had a two hour wait.

Read the list (from the Bush Body Count website) of people who have met an untimely demise at the hands of the Bushes and the Reich Wing, the alliance formed with the CIA and Nazis after the end of World War 2. Apparently, a lot of people have committed suicide after writing unpopular things about the Bushes. For the sake of paranoia, I wish to state that I will NEVER even think of committing suicide. Also, if you don’t like the Bushes stay away from small aircraft. They have a tendency to crash when such people are aboard.