meta-roj

don’t pray where someone might notice. it scares people

no arrest made, so this is merely a cautionary tale.

‘we will not be silent” is interpreted as a threat

no arrest made, so this is merely a cautionary tale.

in dc, portable videogames are a threat.

no arrest made, so this is merely a cautionary tale.

(and this time, i mean it)

it’s hard to find on the news so far today, but the ruling itself (in ACLU v. NSA) is available here [pdf]

XI. Conclusion

For all of the reasons outlined above, this court is constrained to grant to Plaintiffs the Partial
Summary Judgment requested, and holds that the TSP violates the APA; the Separation of Powers
doctrine; the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution; and the statutory law.
Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss the final claim of data-mining is granted, because litigation
of that claim would require violation of Defendants’ state secrets privilege.

The Permanent Injunction of the TSP requested by Plaintiffs is granted inasmuch as each of
the factors required to be met to sustain such an injunction have undisputedly been met.59 The
irreparable injury necessary to warrant injunctive relief is clear, as the First and Fourth Amendment
rights of Plaintiffs are violated by the TSP. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965). The
irreparable injury conversely sustained by Defendants under this injunction may be rectified by
compliance with our Constitution and/or statutory law, as amended if necessary. Plaintiffs have
prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution.

As Justice Warren wrote in U.S. v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258 (1967):

Implicit in the term ‘national defense’ is the notion of defending
those values and ideas which set this Nation apart. . . . It would
indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would
sanction the subversion of . . . those liberties . . . which makes the
defense of the Nation worthwhile. Id. at 264.

i was cruising around looking for this function, and couldn’t find it quickly, so i have to assume that if it does exist, it’s buried somewhere.

i’m looking for a thunderbird extension that will add a button to the message-composition window that will send the message at a specified date/time (and, if we’re feeling really fancy, add some conditions to the sending).

it’s a simple thing. where’s my h4x0rz at?

(it looks like the closest fit – sendtools – doesn’t work with versions post 1.0)

it’s never been this easy before.

(and it’s for the global fund for women, and it can be tax-deductable if you do it right).

with war building in the middle east once again, it’s time to discuss president bush’s new policy on war-fighting technology. bush has abandoned science that will destroy life, and in this perpetual war on terror, which is, as we are often reminded, all about keeping us safer (meaning “save our lives”), the united states just isn’t going to spend the money any more.

Bush Says He’d Veto Bill Easing Stem Cell Fund Limits [bloomberg, 2006.05.20]

“I have made very clear to the Congress that the use of taxpayer money to promote science that destroys life in order to save life, I am against that,”

this is not a new policy, in fact, it’s been in place at least a year –

Fact Sheet: Valuing Life Through Embryo Adoption and Ethical Stem Cell Research [white house, 2005.05.24]

Taxpayer Money Should Not Promote Research That Destroys Life.

even better, there’s evidence to support this interpretation of this quote from defensetech.org.

maybe not a terrorist, but a protester.

today i stumble into a piece by one mike ferner, who has apparently been booked for wearing the wrong t-shirt.

“Hey, listen. I’m a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I’m sitting here not talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I’m not protesting and you can’t kick me out.”

“You’ll either go or we’ll arrest you,” Adkins threatened.

“Well, you’ll just have to arrest me,” I said, wondering what strange land I was now living in.

You know the rest. Handcuffed, led away to the facility’s security office, past people with surprised looks on their faces, read my rights, searched, and written up.

and so, another saga begins. how ironic, that this should come to my attention just a few hours after writing about a police state…

update (2006.07.11): i’ve gotten an email from mike ferner, and, understandably, he’s buried in email at this point. i’ve sent him an “i wasn’t using my civil rights anyway” t-shirt (perhaps for his court appearance…), and offered whatever else i have available. the illinois aclu has taken the case.

in case you weren’t feeling safe enough in this new america, i decided to scratch around some statistics to see just how safe you should feel. i’ve written previously on the prison economy, so this is a bit of a tangent from that material. today we explore the cost-per-capita and law enforcement employment statistics for the united states of america.

the bureau of justice statistics makes much of this information readily available, so this shouldn’t take much time at all.

from their most recent report on justice expenditure and employment in the united states, we can find two simple measures:

as of march 2003, there were nearly 2.4 million “full-time-equivalent employees” in law enforcement in the united states. the population of the united states in july of 2003 (closest data set readily available) was 290,850,005. july 1982 population estimate is 231,664,458.

also according to the bureau of justice statistics, we spent a total of $185 billion on law enforcement in the united states in 2003, or about $636 for every man, woman and child in the country.

more disturbing are the growth rates – law enforcement spending is up 418% from 1982 to 2003, and using a percentage-of-GDP metric, has gone from 1.1% of GDP (1982) to 1.8% (2003) – a 61% increase. law enforcement employment has gone from about 1.27 million people (1982) to 2.36 million people (2003). that works out to .55% of the population in 1982 and .81% in 2003 – a 68% increase.

and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface when you think about security guards, private investigators, and even private armies operating in this country.

do you feel 60+% safer than you did in 1982?

oh! hello, officer!

update (2005.07.05): the same source data provides 1,118,936 police in 2003 (table 5, page 6), or 3.85 police per 1000 population, so right in the neighborhood of slovakia and the czech republic, according to this table.