My biggest concern with the Arizona shooting - the internet

yes, violence targeting anybody, be they ordinary u.s. citizens, elected officials of our or any other government, or innocent civilians in the endless "war on terror," is something to be condemned and, by all means, prevented... but, as glenn points out, we should be hyper-attentive to our fear-mongering government using the excuse of any and all such horrific events - as well as the non-horrific ones, e.g. wikileaks - to further advance the national security state...

There has been much talk over the last several days, in the wake of the Arizona shooting, about attempts by some citizens to instill physical fear in elected officials. That's a worthwhile and necessary topic, but the fear that government officials are attempting to instill in law-abiding, dissenting citizens is far more substantial and sustained, and deserves much more attention than it has received.

why do i raise the specter of the national security state in connection with the arizona shooting...? here's our esteemed fbi director, robert mueller, speaking in tucson...

“The ubiquitous nature of the Internet means that not only threats but also hate speech and other inciteful speech is much more readily available to individuals than quite clearly it was 8 or 10 or 15 years ago,” Mr. Mueller said. “That absolutely presents a challenge for us, particularly when it results in what would be lone wolves or lone offenders undertaking attacks.”

fueled by wikileaks, obama's proposed internet id for everybody and now this, i predict a crackdown on internet freedom like nothing we've yet seen...

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Extremely disturbing [UPDATE] [UPDATE II]

Congresswoman, 6 Others, Killed By Gunman

a very bad feeling in my tummy...

Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, was shot and killed today at a public event outside a grocery store.

[UPDATE]

According to Darci Slaten, University Medical Center public affairs officer, Gifford's death has not been confirmed.

"She is alive and in surgery right now," Slaten said.

[UPDATE II]

Giffords was among at least 10 people wounded, and the hospital said her outlook was "optimistic" and that she was responding to commands from doctors despite having a bullet go through her head.

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Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ): another one bites the dust

let's take these corrupt bastards DOWN... repub or dem, let's move back to the rule of law...

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.

A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.

in most countries i visit or spend time in, the good citizens KNOW their government is corrupt... in the u.s. we tend to live in this delusion that our public officials actually have our best interests at heart... sure, there's the occasional congressman and senator, but those are just one-off, dontcha know... it's about time that people figured out that the whole goddam thing is rotten to the core, full of crooks, liars, and generally slimy folks...

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Uh-oh... The fired U.S. attorneys are going to talk to each other...

this is good...

Fired U.S. Attorney John McKay, now a visiting professor at the Seattle University School of Law, will host two fellow purged prosecutors for a forum on the U.S. attorney scandal.

Joining McKay will be David C. Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, and Paul K. Charlton, the former prosecutor for Arizona. McKay, Iglesias and Charlton are three of the most controversial firings of the eight ousted prosecutors, because they were either conducting sensitive investigations of Republicans or under fire for not prosecuting Democrats around the time of their dismissals on Dec. 7.

All three were also contacted by members of Congress or their staff at a sensitive time regarding ongoing criminal corruption investigations.

getting together may help them piece together the bigger picture of what happened as some of them will be able to provide bits and pieces that the others didn't have... they ought to see how many others would be willing to join them... they should also transcribe the proceedings and send it to leahy...

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Prisoners working on farms and in call centers. Are immigrant "detainees" next?

ya know, i don't have anything against inmates in correctional institutions being expected to work, but i have major problems with using them to subsidize business... it would seem to me, in my congenitally fevered state, that there would be a huge incentive for business to use MORE inmates in order to reduce the cost of doing business, and for government to incarcerate MORE people to supply the demand...

In a pilot program run by the [Colorado] state Corrections Department, supervised teams of low-risk inmates beginning this month will be available to harvest the swaths of sweet corn, peppers and melons that sweep the southeastern portion of the state.

Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.

what i want to know is what "fee" the farmers will be paying...

A group calling for changes in sentencing, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, is also uneasy about the program. The group views the inmates’ pay as problematic.

“This feels like the re-invention of the plantation,” said Christie Donner, the group’s executive director. “You have a captive labor force essentially working for their room and board in order to benefit the employer. This isn’t a job training program. It’s an exploitative program.”

But Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, said the merit of a hard day’s work outdoors was invaluable to an inmate.

“They won’t be paid big bucks, but we’re hoping this will help our inmates pick up significant and valuable job skills,” Mr. Zavaras said. “We’re also assisting farmers who, if they don’t get help, are facing an inability to harvest their crops.”

it was back in 2004 that this story appeared...

About a dozen states — Oregon, Arizona, California and Iowa, among others — have call centers in state and federal prisons, underscoring a push to employ inmates in telemarketing jobs that might otherwise go to low-wage countries such as India and the Philippines. Arizona prisoners make business calls, as do inmates in Oklahoma. A call center for the DMV is run out of an all-female prison in Oregon. Other companies are keeping manufacturing jobs in the USA. More than 150 inmates in a Virginia federal prison build car parts for Delco Remy International. Previously, some of those jobs were overseas.

At least 2,000 inmates nationwide work in call centers, and that number is rising as companies seek cheap labor without incurring the wrath of politicians and unions. At the same time, prison populations are ballooning, offering U.S. companies another way to slash costs.

i also would like to know what the call centers are paying...

when those being held in immigrant detention centers start being used in this fashion, the full plan will be revealed in all its ugliness...

Two advocacy groups for refugees said on Wednesday that the Bush administration routinely detained immigrant families in prisonlike housing that separated young children from their parents and sometimes provided inadequate medical care, food and educational opportunities, despite calls from Congress to house such families in “nonpenal, homelike environments.”

ah, the united states... ya gotta love it...

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