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They Know Who You Are

Bearing in mind the ‘law’ that the Chimperor signed into effect today, which allows him to dissappear and torture people with impunity, US citizen or not, this teenage girl is lucky she’s not being waterboarded and raped for the entertainment of of government contractors in some CIA hell-hole somewhere.

Teen questioned for online Bush threats

Posted 10/16/2006 8:59 AM ET

By Rich Pedroncelli, AP

Julia Wilson, a student at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento, Calif., was pulled out of class and questioned by Secret Service agents after posting a message threatening President Bush on MySpace.com.

By Don Thompson, The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO ? Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations with President Bush last spring on her Web page on MySpace.com. She posted a picture of the president, scrawled “Kill Bush” across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social-networking site after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

It was too late.

Federal authorities had found the page and placed Wilson on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class. The 14-year-old freshman was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents. The incident has upset her parents, who said the agents should have included them when they questioned their daughter.

On Friday, the teenager said the agents’ questioning led her to tears.

“I wasn’t dangerous. I mean, look at what’s (stenciled) on my backpack ? it’s a heart. I’m a very peace-loving person,” said Wilson, an honor student who describes herself as politically passionate

“I’m against the war in Iraq. I’m not going to kill the president.”

[…]

Personally I think it’s only a matter of time before an antiwar activist is disappeared like that,and I doubt there’ll be any concessions made to youth or anything else when it happens.

CentCom has its minions out combing the web for anything negative being said about the USA and the president and is sending out emails that, while not constituting an open threat, are certainly putting bloggers in notice that they’re being watched and the government knows who and where they are.

No-one who opposes Bushco, not even a sweet young 14 year old in California, is safe now.

Read more: US politics, Torture, Sedition

Pissed As A Pol

Add this guy to the list of (in)famous Belgians. Via the Register:

Belgian politico Michel Daerden has become an overnight net celeb after YouTubers flocked to enjoy footage of him either completely rat-arsed or suffering the effects of “a psychomotor disorder” during an interview with French-language broadcaster RTBF.

French-speaking socialist party member Daerden hit the small screen last Sunday following his local election victory in the Li?ge suburb of Ans. He’s a very happy man, as you can see here, leading to the unkind suggestion that his post-poll celebration may have been a little too robust.

So? We Euroweenie socialists have always known how to have a good time and who can blame him with all those lovely Belgian beers available? Not to mention the local fruit brandies. We brought back a delicious pear brandy from La Roche, near Liege, that’s 25 % alcohol.

I’m not at all surprised he got so pissed.

Read more: Europe, Belgium, Politics, Elections, Socialist Party, Pissed Politicians

There’s a Surprise.

According to BBC radio news George Bush has let it be known that he won’t be following the recommendations of his father’s former secretary of state James Baker’s ‘blue-riband’ panel on the future of Iraq.

Well, poke out my eyes and and call me Oedipus.

Read more: Iraq War, US politics, George Bush, James Baker

3D Geology Tours, Birthdays and Blegs

I was noodling about looking for pictures of an abyss full of gin, as one does, and I got sidetracked into reading about canyons generally when I found this page of 3D image tours of notable US geological features, from the US Geological Survey, a US government institution the wingnuts have yet to ruin. (Though there’s still time.)

Here’s a sample:

The trouble is you need 3D glasses. I did have a couple of battered pairs stashed away somewhere when the kids were small, as they’re one of those things they give away free on the front of comics, but heaven alone knows where they are now after so many moves and upheavals. So I shall to find another pair somewhere.

That’s another thing to add to the search list for Waterlooplein flea market, along with a replacement Playstation copy of Tomb Raider I, which you’d think’d be easy to find, but no. (I could order it from Amazon, but the postage costs more than the game). As it’s my birthday on Friday and I deserve a day out after being so poorly so that’s where I’ll go.

I’m very ambivalent about birthdays and I need something like a fleamarket trip to take my mind off them. Waterlooplein, being very close to the Rembrandt House, is a bit of a tourist trap but you can still find some excellent bargains if you pay attention. It can be very sad too; there are increasing numbers of Central African refugees who are obviously selling anything they can and some of the items laid out for perusal can be heartwrenchingly pathetic. But it’s then it’s that mixture of pathos and hard-nosed Dutch hucksterism that makes Waterlooplein what it is.

Having had such dire medical prognostications as ‘You’ll be lucky to live to fify” then every birthday – this year I’m 47 – can be seen either as a big fuck you to the doctors or a step nearer to death, depending on my disposition at the time. If you add to that a big dollop of empty-nest syndrome now my sons are adults, plus the naturally mixed feelings of any woman growing visibly older in a youth-obessed society, you can see that birthdays, at least for me, are a very mixed blessing.

It’s much more calm-inducing to go to a fleamarket and look at old stuff or to contemplate the vastness of geological time, putting my existential panic into perspective by reminding myself just how inconsequential we actually are as a species.

Hey, it works for me.

Nevertheless I never say no to birthday presents – I’m not so ambivalent as to eschew self-interest – so if anyone’s got a spare pair of 3D glasses handy or Tombraider I for the Playstation I’d be very much obliged. Email is above.

Read more: Internet Gizmos, Geology, Photography, 3D, Amsterdam, Waterlooplein

Comment Of The Day

Norbizness gets off a zinger at Lawyers, Guns & Money‘s excellent post re the drink-sodden puff-adder of political punditry that is Christopher Hitchens:

If you stare into the abyss long enough, sometimes you discover it’s full of sweet, nourishing gin.

norbizness Homepage 10.16.06 – 9:08 pm #

I’d like to think that made Hitchens wince but I’m inclined to think he’s probably too pissed to care. Somebody sober the bugger up so we can insult him to more effect.

Read more: Blogs , Comments. Comment of the day