Call Your Senator Right Now!

It only takes a few minutes to call your senator and register your opposition to immunity for telecoms for illegal wiretapping. Telecoms are ALREADY PROTECTED when they work within the law for wiretaps. This retroactive immunity is to protect some telecom companies who did not reject illegal requests for wiretaps. The precedent here is dangerous. Basically, it means that a private company can break the law, then ask for congressional protection after the fact. What's the incentive to follow the law at all after then?

The bill is about to be reintroduced Monday and supporters will try to ram it through fast to avoid debate.

Call Now and make sure your voice is heard before it's too late. I did.

Ron Paul

On a lighter note...

Now that the election is over I can post this "campaign ad" Mike Hill came up with as a joke. This never ran, but maybe if I had bought it and run it I might have won! The girls sound great.

Election Results Rolling In!

With about 33% of the vote it looks like I'm at about 13% right now. Not too shabby for just running to make a statement. On the downside looks like I have a higher percentage than Kinky right now. I'm still pulling for him though, and the night is a newborn babe.

Update: it looks like I held steady at 13% right to the final count. I'll concede the victory to my opponent John Smithee, but this is a win in the sense that I was able to achieve my goals, giving the voters an option on an otherwise unopposed ticket and raising the visibility of the Libertarian party and Libertarian issues in my district. I want to thank the almost five thousand people who voted for me, and also the friends and family who ran this campaign entirely on word of mouth. We made a showing without a single bumper sticker, campaign sign or advertisement and that's a result about which we can be be proud.

Vote Geek in 2006!

It's as much a surprise to me as to you, but I am announcing my candidacy for the 80th Texas State Legislature, district 86 in 2006. I'm running as a candidate for the Libertarian Party, and while most of my readers are outside of my district, I would appreciate your support in the form of an email if you can't give me your vote. I will NOT be raising funds for my campaign, so please do not send money. If you REALLY want to send someone money you can support the national Libertarian Party here.

Most importantly, in the spirit of blog quizes everywhere, try the World's Shortest Political Quiz to find out if you too may be a Libertarian.

Request Your Information from the TSA

Now's your chance to find out just what information the TSA has illegally collected about you. You had better hurry before they finish destroying the evidence records.

In direct violation of the Privacy Act, TSA has collected over 100 million records from commercial data providers to test Secure Flight. If your records are contained in this database, you have a right to obtain them.

If you're thinking, "No big deal, I've got nothing to hide." Think again. Some of this information comes from commercial sources, meaning credit agencies, which as we've all experienced means it can contain huge errors. Wouldn't you like to know if the TSA has you mixed up with some shoot-on-site bombing suspect?

The link below has a form letter you can print and fill out. Be sure to submit a request for each family member in a separate envelope, because, of course, you can't request someone else's information under the Privacy Act.

On the Record: Demand Your Data! Exercise The Right To Your Travel Records Held By The TSA
(courtesy of BoingBoing)

Free Mojtaba and Arash Day

Free Mojtaba and Arash

Free Mojtaba and Arash Day

BBC NEWS | Technology | Global blogger action day called

Tomorrow is "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day," and this blog will be participating.

The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22 February to the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day".
Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran.

Thanks Cory.

A Holiday Idea

The various holidays are coming up and McCulture dictates that we each dig deep into our personal balance sheets and glorify our credit ratings in a dismal, frantic and finally empty mockery of Potlatch. Instead of participating, I'm asking my family and friends who might otherwise send me a gift to instead donate to some worthwhile cause and send me a card or token to indicate which charity received the help. I don't insist on any particular cause or even that it be one that I support, although I'm happy to make suggestions if asked. I'm looking for an improvement in the ugly mood of this season not a dollar goal for some particular cause. And don't send me the original receipt for a charitable donation. Keep that and use it to reduce your tax investment in [insert objectionable government program of your choice].

Let's take back our lives.

Blognarik is Asking for Trackbacks to Support More Media Coverage for Third Party Candidates.

... so here's mine.

Badnarik/Campagna '04 for President

Badnarik: I will debate or be arrested

Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's 2004 presidential nominee,and David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004 presidential candidate, will debate John Kerry and George W. Bush in St. Louis on Friday. Or they will go to jail instead.

A majority of Americans say that I should be included in the events sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates,"� says Badnarik, 50, of Austin, Texas. "And the CPD, as a non-profit, has received special treatment from government on the requirement that they be non-partisan in their activities. Bi-partisan is not non-partisan."

“Unless I am allowed to participate, the debates become a massive campaign contribution to two of the candidates, illegal under the very campaign finance laws those two candidates have passed and signed as Senator and President.”

Badnarik/Campagna '04 for President

According to the Kansas City Star, Badnarik and David Cobb have been arrested.

CAPPS II is BACK With a Different Name

According to the Washington Post the CAPPS II program is back under the new name "Secure Flight." This is apparently a program designed to improve our safety by deciding who should go to GITMO using the same databases that get our credit history wrong. Recent "Terrorists" identified by the similar "no fly list" include Senator Edward Kennedy and Yusuf Islam, the singer who was once known as Cat Stephens.

The federal government said yesterday that it will order airlines to turn over millions of passenger records by November so it can begin testing a vast computer program that will hunt for suspected terrorists seeking to board commercial aircraft.

update: Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stephens) has been deported by U.S officials.

Badnarik Answers Slashdot Questions

Slashdot | Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik Answers

A nice explanation of why he's not some right-wing/left-wing nut who's stealing votes that rightfully belong to the Skull and Bones boy of your choice.

A Response From Washington on the INDUCE Act

Kudos to Kay Bailey Hutchison!
As I mentioned a while back, I, like many other people, sent a recordable CD to my Senators. I included a handwritten explanation of my reasons for opposing the INDUCE Act. Since the disk was begging to have something recorded on it, I burned a copy of Cory Doctorow's DRM speech to the disk in MP3. I don't know if they listened to the CD, but someone in her office read my note, and so in the figurative sense, they heard. I didn't get a firm position on the bill from this reponse, but I very much appreciate the reply. No word so far from the other Senator from Texas, John Cornyn.

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 2560, the Inducing
Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

S. 2560, introduced on June 22, 2004, by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would amend federal law to expand the definition of a copyright
infringer to include an individual who intentionally induces copyright
infringement, which as defined by the legislation would include aiding, abetting,inducing or procuring.

Currently, S. 2560 is under consideration by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, on which I do not serve. Should this legislation come before the full Senate, you may be certain I will keep your views in mind.

I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,

Kay Bailey Hutchison

Bill O'Reilly chickens out of his Patriot Act challenge

Michael Badnarik - Libertarian for President

(-PRWEB-) July 24, 2004 -- On July 13, Bill O'Reilly offered a challenge to debate anyone on the Patriot Act. His website has a transcript of this challenge.

Hollywood producer Aaron Russo (Trading Places, The Rose) accepted the O'Reilly challenge on behalf of his friend, Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. At this point, O'Reilly flipped 180 degrees and declined to debate Badnarik.

Below is a copy of correspondence between Russo and the O'Reilly people:

Bill O'Reilly chickens out of his Patriot Act challenge

Send a CD to DC

Click the Vote has a neat campaign to support legal filesharing and fair use. The "CTV Send A CD to DC campaign" asks you to print out a mailer, stick a CD in it and write a letter to your congress critter supporting fair use. You can send a CD you bought (and no longer need because you can keep the thing you bought, the music, in other media) or you can send a CDR. I chose to send a CDR and since I hate wasting storage space, I put Cory Doctorow's DRM speech as read by Jason Kottke on it as an MP3.

While your there be sure to visit Save the iPod!: Stop the INDUCE Act! and fight to protect this cool, but endangered gadget.

The Paladin Prince of Paranoia

Gene Stewart, the "Paladin Prince of Paranoia" offers up some refreshingly true words in tasty bites in his "Argonic Lines" column. I especially recommend "The Future of Magical Thinking."

An agonic line is a line of zero magnetic variation, where true and magnetic north are the same. Reality and misleading forces cancel each other out along such a line. It is therefore a line of thought where inner truth and outside influences balance out.

Bush is an Iranian Agent

In American Prospect Online - ViewWeb Mathew Yglesias makes a strong case for Bush as a "Tehranian Candidate."

To make a long story short, the results of a second Bush administration would be as follows: A bankrupt United States possessing a broken military -- as Phillip Carter has recently reported for the Prospect, it will take years to reconstitute the supplies that have been cannibalized for the Iraq venture -- faces off against a nuclear-armed Iranian regime that’s seen its two regional adversaries replaced with failed states in which Iran-affiliated warlords wield disproportionate influence.