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So many e-mails have arrived about my previous column, in which I described the plight of prisoners at the Guantanamo prison camp, that a follow-up column is in order. First, in response to specific points made by various correspondents:

_ Many of my correspondents interpret the fact that almost all these men deny having anything to do with al Qaeda in particular or terrorism in general as evidence of their guilt. The logic of this position is that guilty men often deny their guilt, so such denials are actually incriminatory. This also happens to be the position of the U.S. government. Indeed, the increasingly harsh coercive interrogation measures used against the prisoners are largely a product of the failure to get the vast majority of them to reveal useful information about al Qaeda or anything else.

This, needless to say, is the nightmare logic that as a historical matter was employed wholesale by totalitarian regimes. Since the possibility that the authorities had either made a mistake or had knowingly arrested an innocent person could not be considered, the prisoner’s failure to confess simply meant he hadn’t been tortured enough.

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It is a sign of how indefensible Guantanamo is that its defenders have been reduced to arguing that comparing it to a miniature Gulag is unfair. Apparently, the claim that a prison camp is not as bad as the Gulag is considered an adequate justification for imprisoning men for years on end, under brutal conditions, often on the flimsiest of pretexts, with no prospect of ever being allowed to tell their story to a court or any other neutral judge of their guilt or innocence.

It should be unnecessary to point out that America is not a totalitarian regime, and that George W. Bush is not Stalin. Nor should anyone deny that the fact that the Gulag destroyed the lives of millions while Guantanamo is only destroying a few hundred men makes for a very great difference indeed. But it’s also a very great mistake to think that Americans are fundamentally different people from Russians, or Germans, or Chinese.

God forbid that America should suffer another major terrorist attack any time soon. If it does, we may discover that, if we were to randomly put 100 of us in a room, we could find a Goebbels and a Streicher, or a Beria and a Vishinsky, easily enough. Could we also find a Sakharov, a Bonhoeffer, or a Father Kolbe? Let us hope we are not put to that test.

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Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) has introduced a bill to cripple all digital radios. The Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006 (H.R. 4861) requires all digital radio makers to build their devices so that they only permit “customary uses” of broadcasts. That means that no one ever gets to invent any new radio tech ever again unless the RIAA approves of it. Finally, it requires radio device makers to cripple their products to prohibit “unauthorized copying” — which is a lot more broad than “illegal copying.” As we’ve heard, the RIAA’s position is that no copying is implicitly authorized — they don’t even think you should be allowed to rip your CDs.

Fergusun is committing political suicide. No constituent of Fergusun’s woke up this morning wishing for a way to do less with her radio. There’s no manufacturer who can sell more radios by advertising “Now! With fewer features!” This is a bill to steal from tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, who’ll never get to invent the next generation of awesome music tech, in order to line the pockets of yesterday’s recording industry fatcats.

For a picture of what the RIAA considers permissible, take a look at the comments they filed with the FCC on this topic back in 2004. Here’s the list of restrictions they asked for then:

* Receivers may only record or permit recording of covered content: (a) in direct and immediate response to a consumer pressing a record button; (b) based on a date and time preprogrammed by the consumer.

* Preprogrammed recordings shall be for a minimum period of 30 minutes in duration.

* A replay buffer may be used to initiate a recording of a previously broadcast transmission provided that the buffer does not exceed 30 minutes in duration.

* Each recording of covered content shall be stored and retrieved as a singe continuous session and may not be divided into recordings of individual songs on an automated or non-automated basis using ID information or audio characteristics…

Watch this space for ways that you can tell your lawmaker that voting for this will cost her/him the next election.

Link

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Chris Seibold of Apple Matters points out that today is the 19th anniversary of the launch of Apple’s groundbreaking Mac II—it was the very first Mac with color capabilities! The basic model came with a floppy drive and shipped for $3,898; you could get the fancy pants version (1 MB of RAM, a floppy drive, and a 40MB SCSI hard disk) for $5,498. We like to complain as much as the next person about how expensive Apple products are, but hey, at least they’ve gotten a little cheaper over the years.

Satellite view at 4:50 p.m. EST shows the sun disappearing from the sky.

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Millions of eyewitnesses watched in stunned horror Tuesday as light emptied from the sky, plunging the U.S. and neighboring countries into darkness. As the hours progressed, conditions only worsened.

At approximately 4:20 p.m. EST, the sun began to lower from its position in the sky in a westward trajectory, eventually disappearing below the horizon. Reports of this global emergency continued to file in from across the continent until 5:46 p.m. PST, when the entire North American mainland was officially declared dark.

As the phenomenon hit New York, millions of motorists were forced to use their headlights to navigate through the blackness. Highways flooded with commuters who had left work to hurry home to their families. Traffic was bottlenecked for more than two hours in many major metropolitan areas.

Across the country, buses and trains are operating on limited schedules and will cease operation shortly after 12 a.m. EST, leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters in outlying areas effectively stranded in their homes.

Despite the high potential for danger and decreased visibility, scientists say they are unable to do anything to restore light to the continent at this time.

“Vast gravitational forces have rotated the planet Earth on an axis drawn through its north and south poles,” said Dr. Elena Bilkins of the National Weather Service. “The Earth is in actuality spinning uncontrollably through space.”

It was the first day of school and a new student named Chandrashekhar Subrahmanyam entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said, “Let’s begin by reviewing some American History. Who said “Give me Liberty, or give me Death?”. She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrashekhar, who had his hand up: “Patrick Henry, 1775″ he said.

“Very good!” Who said “Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?” Again, no response except from Chandrashekhar. “Abraham Lincoln, 1863″ said Chandrashekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, “Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrashekhar, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do.” She heard a loud whisper: “Fuck the Indians,” “Who said that?” she demanded. Chandrashekhar put his hand up. “General Custer, 1862!”

At that point, a student in the back said, “I’m gonna puke.” The teacher glares around and asks “All right! Now, who said that?” Again, Chandrashekhar says, “George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.”

Now furious, another student yells, “Oh yeah? Suck this!” Chandrashekhar jumps out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher, “Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!”

Now with almost a mob hysteria someone said “You little shit. If you say anything else, I’ll kill you.” Chandrashekhar frantically yells at the top of his voice, “Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001.” The teacher fainted. And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, “Oh shit, we’re fucked!”

And Chandrashekhar said quietly, “George Bush, Iraq, 2005.”

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The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges’ behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn’t call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn’t try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn’t changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

“When you mess with my money, I want to know why,” he said.

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn’t move until the threat alert is lifted.

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Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.

In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee’s lawyers described as “systematic torture.”

Government lawyers have argued that another portion of that same law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, removes general access to U.S. courts for all Guantanamo Bay captives. Therefore, they said, Mohammed Bawazir, a Yemeni national held since May 2002, cannot claim protection under the anti-torture provisions.

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“Unfortunately, I think the government’s right; it’s a correct reading of the law,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “The law says you can’t torture detainees at Guantanamo, but it also says you can’t enforce that law in the courts.”

Thomas Wilner, a lawyer representing several detainees at Guantanamo, agreed that the law cannot be enforced. “This is what Guantanamo was about to begin with, a place to keep detainees out of the U.S. precisely so they can say they can’t go to court,” Wilner said.

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Texas Monthly’s latest issue is all about Texas and the War in Iraq. There are a number of good articles which I suggest you read. The code for online access this month is Dripping Springs. Actually I suggest you read all the articles. They are from the points of view of people for whom the war is close-up and personal. Some are soldiers, some are family members. One person is a school counselor who has to deal with children losing their parents in war. For all of these people, the war matters in a way that most of us don’t and can’t understand. That’s why I think everyone should read all of the articles offered.

There’s one article I want to talk about in particular though, an article about a soldier who suffered because of the war and found he had nowhere to turn for help. It took place in 2003.

The article was about Master Sergeant James Coons, a soldier who committed suicide because of PTSD. He wasn’t a combat soldier. He worked on computers, but he took his duties very seriously. After he helped in the morgue, he started having problems sleeping, and soon became dysfunctional. They sent him first to Germany, then finally to Walter Reed Medical Center, where he was undiagnosed and basically ignored. They put him on outpatient status and had him stay by himself in a local hotel. He killed himself in his room. His wife was expecting him to return on July 4th and she called his room two days earlier. She never made contact. She asked the staff to check on him, but they refused. A staff member finally checked on him on the morning of the 4th and found him hanging from a pipe in the ceiling; he had used a bedsheet.

Read the entire thing…

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With the Senate voting Thursday to renew the USA Patriot Act, the measure moves to the House, which is expected to pass the legislation next week.

On or before March 10, President Bush is expected to renew the law that broadens the power of the U.S. government to obtain private records and to conduct wiretaps and searches, despite the deep bipartisan misgivings of some in Congress.

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“Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president,�? said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to pass the bill package.

Wrong, idiot, that is exactly how it will be used. A good example right there in the act is this:

The renewal includes several measures not directly related to terrorism. One would make it harder for illicit labs to obtain ingredients for methamphetamine by requiring pharmacies to sell nonprescription cold medicines only from behind the counter.

So now if you have a cold you’re doing something that’s in the Patriot act, feel better already?

Freedom is on the march! But apparently you can’t march properly without some nice jackboots.

“Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.”

— George Carlin