Letters to the Editor
Bill Owen
Published Letters: 477 Editor's Choice: 5
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RFID might be limited for now
[Read the article: Lee Hamilton denies Michael Mukasey's claim about 9/11]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But they are working on it... DHS has an rfp for RFID that among other things, will "sense all tokens carried by travelers seated in a single automobile, truck, or bus at a distance of up to 25 ft while moving at speeds up to 55 mph." And, "For bus traffic, the solution must sense up to 55 tokens." - http://tinyurl.com/5rkmca
Many devices already have RFID chips in them like the tokens you use to pay for your gas, your car door opener, passports, and ID cards etc. These can be used to track you. They will be used to track you.
Recent cell phones have gps built in, this allows your provider and presumably the gubmint to keep track of your movements.
Here is a link to short concept video on how DHS plans on tracking you at airports.
http://www.spychips.com/RFIDairport.html
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Legal Precedent for a Yoo Indictment
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Josef Altstoetter was charged and convicted of war crimes at the Nuernberg Tribunals. His offense was the authoring of legal memos that facilitated the construction and operation of the extermination camps.
The crimes charged in the Altstoetter case also included participation in the sterilization of so-called "racially impure" persons through special hereditary courts. Large numbers of these "racially impure" persons or persons suffering from hereditary diseases were sterilized. On others, classified as "useless eaters," euthanasia was practiced. The German judicial process was perverted to protect perpetrators of these crimes and brutalities, which took place in concentration camps and elsewhere, by granting immunities, pardons, and amnesties. This favorable treatment was thus in
stark contrast to the discriminatory measures taken against Jews, Poles, gypsies, and other designated asocials. The crimes charged in the Altstoetter case pertained to the
deteriorating administration of justice in the Third Reich. In collusion with organizations such as the SS and SD, members of the Justice Ministry aided and gave effect to statutes, decrees,and orders intended to deny due process of law to individuals
in Germany and in areas controlled by Germany.
RECORDS OF THE UNITED STATES NUERNBERG WAR CRIMES TRIALS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. JOSEF ALTSTOETTER ET AL.
(CASE III) FEBRUARY 17, 1947-DECEMBER 4, 1947
The opening statement of the prosecutor could be used, almost word for word, in the opening statement at Yoo's trial in the Hague.
But a court is far more than a courtroom; it is a process and a spirit. It is a house of law. This the defendants know, or must have known in times past. I doubt that they ever forgot it. Indeed, the root of the accusation here is that those men, leaders of the German judicial system, consciously and deliberately suppressed the law, engaged in an unholy masquerade of brutish tyranny disguised as justice, and converted the German judicial system to an engine of despotism, conquest, pillage, and slaughter.
Deputy Chief Counsel Charles M. LaFollette
Link to the transcripts: http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/03/NMT03-T0027.htm
People like the loathsome Yoo and Alstoetter, are and were; necessary cogs in the machinery of totalitarianism.
* Alstoetter got 5 years, including time served.
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The Comments Section at McArdles Blog is Quite Interesting
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you read them, it's pretty clear that most people there are not buying her line either. The breezy unaffected tone of her response is completely disheartening. Glenn is talking about the facilitation, institutionalization and legalization of torture, and she is worried about her soulless ego.
I wonder if any of it will manage to irritate the small particle of brains still tenuously present in her hardened skull? Nah.
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/reading_is_fundamental.php
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Hey Aych
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was reading "newest first" and had to scroll for a long long time to get to your sig, but I knew it was yours at the "Yeah right.". Good stuff, the long list actually added to the effect.
It's like they say, the level of civilization (compassion) in a country may be measured by how they treat their prisoners. And I would add, how many of them they have.
Canada, even under the auspices of it's own neocon/corporate lackey, and Dear Leader, Steven Harper, only has about 14,000 Federal (over 2 years) inmates. Even multiplying by 10 to account for population differences -- Canada would "only" have 140,000 gefangen, vs the 1.3 million in the USA.
In Canada the number of federal prisoners in sentenced custody on any given day declined over the past decade (since 1995/96) by 13%, from 14,100 to 12,300.
The number of prisoners in provincial/territorial sentenced custody has declined by 31% over the past decade, from 14,200 to 9,800.
If locking people up made the streets safe, America would be the safest country in the world. Canada seems to manage, and you all know how mean the streets are in Montreal or Quebec city... or g_d forbid, Halifax.
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Hey Aych
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was reading "newest first" and had to scroll for a long long time to get to your sig, but I knew it was yours at the "Yeah right.". Good stuff, the long list actually added to the effect.
It's like they say, the level of civilization (compassion) in a country may be measured by how they treat their prisoners. And I would add, how many of them they have.
Canada, even under the auspices of it's own Dear Leader, Steven Harper, only has about 14,000 Federal (over 2 years) inmates. Even multiplying by 10 to account for population differences Canada would "only" have 140,000 gefangen, vs the 1.3 million in the USA.
In Canada the number of federal prisoners in sentenced custody on any given day declined over the past decade (since 1995/96) by 13%, from 14,100 to 12,300.
The number of prisoners in provincial/territorial sentenced custody has declined by 31% over the past decade, from 14,200 to 9,800.
And you all know how mean the streets are in Montreal or Quebec city... or g_d forbid, Halifax.
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whoops sorry bout the double post
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry.