Two implications of Bush's proposal to beef up border security with National Guard troops: The first is practical: it's another instance of the militarization of civil society, which I had criticized in an earlier post. The second is symbolic: by policing the border with troops trained for combat, Bush masterfully conflates two entirely distinct issues:… Continue reading Immigration and National Security
Category: Political
Total Information Awareness, Reprise
A few more thoughts on the massive NSA database of every domestic phone call, ever, in the United States... The database actualizes what was once only theory: DARPA's defunct Total Information Awareness project, which sought to "counter asymmetric threats [i.e. terrorism] by achieving total information awareness." Awareness of everything, godlike omniscience. Is this the only… Continue reading Total Information Awareness, Reprise
Can You Hear Me Now: The NSA, Me, and Papa John’s
The big surprise in today's USA Today story about the NSA building a staggering database of every single domestic phone call in the United States is not that such a database exists, but that the NSA waited until after 9/11 to begin building it. I think we had always assumed that the government was already… Continue reading Can You Hear Me Now: The NSA, Me, and Papa John’s
The sky is falling, but my phones are tapped, so I’m okay and you are too
I caught snippets of the Diane Rehm Show today, and there was a panel of experts discussing the domestic war on terror. There's the predictable apologist for the Bush administration, spouting the standard refrain that because there's been no terror attack on the U.S. since 9/11, all that illegal wiretapping and surveillance and profiling and… Continue reading The sky is falling, but my phones are tapped, so I’m okay and you are too
Terrorism Means Never Having to Say Your Sorry
I've been on the blogging equivalent of radio silence for several weeks now, waiting for my handlers to issue the code for me to go on active status. Last weekend was it: Vice President Dick Cheney shooting a 78 year-old man in the face with a shotgun. That was my signal. (Or, close enough: it… Continue reading Terrorism Means Never Having to Say Your Sorry
MTO Database from Amazon
I'll take a break from my travel blogging to mention Applefritter's astonishing article Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists. Individuals' public Amazon "wishlists" are, collectively, essentially a gigantic aggregate of data, waiting to be mined, and in this post, Tom Owad details how he used the wishlists to track the reading preferences of… Continue reading MTO Database from Amazon
I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
In his press conference this morning, President Bush was asked about the New York Times' recent revelation that the NSA was operating a covert surveillance program that monitored hundreds of Americans' phone calls and emails without any court supervision or warrants. Bush responded: My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to… Continue reading I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
Remembering Shock and Awe et al.
I was going through a desk drawer yesterday and I found a wrinkled piece of scrap paper, which goes back to the spring of 2003. It was the early days of the Iraq War, and I had jotted down some phrases which I was hearing over and over again on the radio and tv. Looking… Continue reading Remembering Shock and Awe et al.
Some of the best things in life are classified
What I want to write is so confidential, so classified, I can't even write it. It has something to do with the Pentagon the government. That's about all I can say. And that people involved have signed non-disclosure agreements. Which have been broken. Apparently. Maybe not. I don't know. The lawyers are deciding. The key… Continue reading Some of the best things in life are classified
It’s Not Looting If You’re White
My friend Adam pointed me towards another example of egregious racism in the mainstream press: the captions on photos of looters in New Orleans. Both pictures show residents of New Orleans wading through chest-deep flood waters, carrying various goods. According to the two AP captions, in the first photograph a young black man is returning… Continue reading It’s Not Looting If You’re White
Cellphones in Africa (New York Times article)
There's an article in the Times about the amazing popularity of cellphones in Africa. Factually, the data is quite amazing: between 1999 and 2004, the number of subscribers to mobile phone services increased at an annual rate averaging 58 percent. There are now nearly 77 million cellphone subscribers in Africa, up from just 7.5 million… Continue reading Cellphones in Africa (New York Times article)
The Evil Democracy
Here is a lesson in ironic juxtaposition: A freeze-frame of President Bush delivering his State of the Union address, with the closed captioning scrolling the words "THE EVIL DEMOCRACY." The Evil Democracy (Larger Image) / Posted to Flickr by kunja. Ironies abound in this photograph (which I found on the Flickr Bush cluster). First, obviously,… Continue reading The Evil Democracy
Who’s Your Pope?
Milk, It Does the Corporation Good
Covert versus Clandestine