Florida to lead fascist bandwagon
With former drug smuggler Hank Asher out of the picture, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Monday it will sign a contract with a South Florida company that is setting up a multistate information network on terrorism.
Daryl McLaughlin, interim director at FDLE, notified Gov. Jeb Bush late Monday that the agency will enter into a $1.6-million contract with Seisint, a Boca Raton company founded by Asher.
Several other companies submitted proposals to operate the pilot program after the St. Petersburg Times disclosed plans to award the contract without bids.
This is starting to look like a trend: hearing on parental notification TODAY in Tampa
The first of a series of public hearings on a proposed constitutional amendment to require parental notification before minors can get an abortion will be this week in Tampa.
The hearings by the House Judiciary Committee are intended to give Floridians a chance to address lawmakers on the issue. The first hearing is from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Stabile Research Building Auditorium at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa. Sign-up cards for speakers will be available about 1:30 p.m.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, who supports the amendment, plans to be at the hearing, his spokeswoman said Monday. The House Judiciary Committee is chaired by Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, a Cape Coral Republican.
Jeb does his part to strip women of rights
A judge on Monday accused Gov. Jeb Bush's administration and welfare officials of exploiting the case of a disabled rape victim to build a national debate on fetal rights and abortion.
Circuit Judge Lawrence Kirkwood said in a judicial order that actions by the Department of Children and Families have been averse to the interests of the 23-year-old retarded woman, known in court papers as J.D.S. The woman became pregnant in a state-licensed group home.
The judge accused DCF and "the executive branch" of exploiting J.D.S.
Bush, who opposes abortion rights, supported efforts to have a guardian appointed for J.D.S.' fetus.
Nasty Republicans push ban on safe medical procedure
The first federal law that would restrict a woman's right to abortion moved a step closer to President Bush's signature today when the Senate, which had refused to send the bill to conference with the House, agreed unanimously to do so.
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The move to ban the late-term procedure has been a centerpiece of the anti-abortion movement for eight years. If President Bush signs the measure, advocates for abortion rights say, it will be the first time that Congress has banned a safe medical procedure.
JetBlue sucks
IF this is true, then JetBlue should be run out of business. (another Atrios link)
In September of 2002, JetBlue Airways secretly gave the Transportation Security Administration the full travel records of 5 million JetBlue customers. This sensitive travel data was then turned-over to a private security contractor for analysis, the results of which were presented at a security conference earlier this year and then posted on the Internet.
Anyone who flew JetBlue on or before September of 2002 should assume that all information given by them to JetBlue, including credit card numbers, is in the possession of both the TSA and Torch Concepts. Furthermore, Torch Concepts (now doing business as Torch Technologies obtained the Social Security number, date of birth, and associated credit histories of many of the 5 million passengers in the JetBlue database. Some of this information, including SSNs, was posted by Torch Concepts to the Internet. The document was freely available for download on the Internet for over six months and was taken down on the 17th of September, 2003. The full document is available for download here.
The 5 million JetBlue records handed over to TSA appear to have been used to test off-the-shelf technologies to improve aviation security. These tests occurred prior to the formal announcement of CAPPS II, but it is obvious from the Torch Concepts presentation that a CAPPS II-like system was the goal.
Mainstream editorial blasts Cheney’s TV lies
Via Atrios, a look at an editorial that ran today in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Dick Cheney is not a public relations man for the Bush administration, not a spinmeister nor a political operative. He's the vice president of the United States, and when he speaks in public, which he rarely does, he owes the American public the truth.
In his appearance on "Meet the Press" Sunday, Cheney fell woefully short of truth. On the subject of Iraq, the same can be said for President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. But Cheney is the latest example of administration mendacity, and therefore a good place to start in holding the administration accountable.
The piece goes on to list numerous falsehoods that Cheney did utter on Sunday. It’s a great start. Hopefully, more mainstream type outlets will start to pick up on this stuff.
Today on MorningWood
4am to 6am 88.5fm, Tampa, or live at wmnf.org
Today on MorningWood:
Playlist Hour 1
Playlist Hour 2
Live Playlist
Adam Engel: Ninth Circle of Shell
After decades of Killing Hope all over the world, you would think the American people would have watched the last helicopters lifting reporters and refugees out of Saigon and stopped to think long and hard. Then again, time is relative. About fifteen minutes, half hour tops, of hard thinking is way more than Boobus Americanus can handle before lunging for the remote.
Bullshit $87 Billion to "rebuild" a country we had no right to destroy in the first place!
GWB cutups and samples from DIYMedia.net:
WMNF Breaks Ground
On Saturday, after nearly four years of planning and pleading for financial support, WMNF broke ground on a $2.1-million building that's already more than halfway paid for with listeners' pledges.
Some 300 WMNF fans from across the Tampa Bay area gathered in the heat to celebrate the station's 24th birthday, and the new 12,100-square-foot home that is scheduled for completion by this time next year.
Tasteful remembrances
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This is so outrageous that I'm surprised it didn't happen here:
OPELOUSAS
A 16-ton armored personnel carrier accidentally rolled into a police car here on Thursday, during a simulated terrorist attack that included a captured and handcuffed “terrorist” portrayed by a police officer wearing a Middle Eastern-style headdress.
The scenario played out during a ceremony to commemorate the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
Opelousas Police Chief Larry Caillier said the exercise, which included an exploding flash bomb, was to show the city of nearly 23,000 residents what it would be like to live through a terrorist attack.
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Caillier said he wanted the scenario to be realistic, complete with the terrorist saying his final prayers just before the bomb went off.
“A terrorist that has a bomb on him, they’ll start hearing the final prayer. Or maybe they won’t hear it, but their lips will be moving. I wanted regular citizens to see how hellacious a terrorist attack can be. It even scared me; I wasn’t expecting it.”
Caillier said he didn’t think the enactment offended anyone there.
However, when told of the display, Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he thought it was in poor taste.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” Cook said. “Right now, we need government officials to promote tolerance. It’s inappropriate, and it encourages hatred of people based on their nationality.”
Caillier said the demonstration was not a reflection on any particular culture or race.
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“Today you have seen what could happen if there was a terrorist attack in Opelousas,” St. Landry Parish Police Jury President Ronald Buschel said.
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“Our unit is trained to keep the public safe,” Caillier said. “Where do you come to the conclusion that only New York City could be attacked?”