Hoarse Speak

So at least they admit that they are really deep admirers of Josef Stalin and his methods:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects — including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

He said a small number of detainees have been kept in CIA custody including people responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in addition to the 2001 attacks.

'It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held secretly, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts,' Bush said in a White House speech. Families of some people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made up part of the audience.
…
Bush would not detail interrogation techniques used through the program, saying only that they are tough but do not constitute torture. He did use language that suggested its nature, saying the CIA turned to an "alternative set of procedures" that were successful after Zubaydah and others had stopped providing information.

I believe the proper term for "environment" is (and Robo could corroborate this for me) Gulags and the proper term for "alternative set of procedures" is Torture. People have been seized and without any respect for due process moved to gulags and tortured. Ok, at least they've finally admitted it. "Due process" is a key principle of legal "equality." Our system's presumption of innocence and the according of certain protections to the accused to prevent incarceration at the whim of the state is an example of a part of that principle in action. The Bush Administration has dispensed with this pesky notion and now has the audacity to say it did so in the "interests of the people."

Another principle of equality under the state is the notion of justice. It seems that accordingly, an injustice done to one member of the society is an injustice to all since it violates the notion that we will all be treated equally and under certain rules by the State. Apparently being accused of terrorism removes you from those protections, and since the government gets to determine who is a suspected terrorist based on undisclosed (i.e. secret) evidence, why wouldn't it be easier to accuse a shoplifter of terrorism and send them to a gulag then to go through the expense and inconvenience of a trial? Why not torture them while you are at it, I'm sure they'll know where UBL is. Shit, the Soviets figured out that people will tell you anything under duress.

link to AP story at NYTimes

Ok, this should appear on my "work" blog, but since no one reads that I'll put it here. This is the latest from the "parking coordinator" at my job at a major state university:

*Also new this year, there is a Mandatory Bicycle Registration Program. Permits are free and bicycles parked on campus will be required to register and display a permit. Applications for bicycle permits can be obtained by completing a brief application in person at DPS, mail-in, or online at www.dps.unc.edu. I can also do this when I do the car registrations. I will need the following:*

1. Your PID number
2. Bike Manufacturer
3. Bike Model
4. Bike Color
5. Serial Number
6. Frame size

A four-week warning period will be in effect at the start of each semester to allow ample time for bicycle registration. Citations will be issued to unregistered bicycles after that time.

1st Offense - Warning ticket
2nd Offense - $5.00 citation
3rd and subsequent offenses - $10.00 citation
Repeated citations may result in impoundment of bicycle.
————————————-

So apparently, there are too many bikes on campus? NOT. It will be interesting since I can say:
1. Your PID number : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2. Bike Manufacturer: Colson Cycle Works
3. Bike Model: Dunno, but it's a 1938 model of some kind
4. Bike Color: Metal
5. Serial Number: none
6. Frame size: Big

I wonder how that will fit in their Frickin' database. I really want to know why this is going on. I've never heard of a bike registration being manditory on a campus. Sounds like another moneygrubbing scheme by the Department of Parking Fascists to get tickets.

Looks like the city of Lyon has implemented a free (to the city) very cheap (to the user) scheme of bicycle shareing. Basically they've put about 2000 bikes in around the city and by using your credit card, you can "check out" a bike. It's free for the first 1/2 hour then less than 1 euro per hour after that. Pretty cool for an urban area and maybe the fact that you have to check the bike out on a credit card will cut down on the plagues of theft from other "free" bike schemes such as the orange bike disaster in Amsterdam.

Anyways, this comes via Velorution (2000 free bicycles for Lyon citizens) and the full story appeared in Le Monde but of course they have annoying subscriber access and bugmenot doesn't seem to work. Someone has reproduced the original article with some more of the background politics behind it here at Tous à vélo!. I can't read French very well, so it will probably take me a week to understand 30% of it.

Due to ongoing nonsense at work, we are now required to submit weekly progress reports to management. In response, I created my own workblog at http://www.unc.edu/~zito/worklog/ as I am an employee of the State of North Carolina, all the work I do at UNC belongs to the public, so here you go, the Public may now see what I do as I log it. btw, I did the artsy fancy stuff for it "off clock".

To preserve some modicum of anonymity this will appear on the left side under "other blogs" and named "transparency"