The "leader of the free world" creates his own mini-police state everywhere he goes

And so it seems we Ann Arborites must endure another Obama visit this coming Friday. Look for DTX to be closed to take offs/landing whilst the Imperial Barge Air Force One is on the runway. Look for major highways like I-94 between Detroit and Ann Arbor to be closed to traffic and for police/feds/unidentified black uniformed goons to be posted at all the bridges, on/off ramps and on the tops of every tall building along the way. Furthermore, the immediate area around the pres will become a civil liberties free zone  and from which you can/will be barred from regardless of your business for being there. The Big Ø will zip into town in a fast moving multi-SUV motorcade, speak, and then zoom back out to DTX but even so downtown will be on lock-down for 24 hours probably starting around Thursday until the Big Ø leaves.

As you may surmise I've experienced quite a number of presidential/presidential candidate/First Lady/VIP visits to my town over the years and so I know the drill by now.

I guess we're all supposed to feel honored that he and his entourage have deigned to grace us with his presence yet again. Myself, I was hoping that with advent of the modern police state we'd only need to endure the Dear Leader's digital presence on a jumbo-tron screen rather than in person. Less disruptive.

SF Bay Area Transit authority kills wireless service in stations to stave off potencial flash mobs

Very clever of BART. The protest/flash-mob/demonstration/riot that was feared and anticipated (in reaction to a BART cop's shooting incident)  never materialized. Hmmmm. Chicken or egg  conundrum here. Did the protest fail to materialize because cell phones were not working (cuz BART had wireless service shut off) or was the whole threat overblown in the first place? Who can say at this point? But still I'd look for this sort of reaction by authorities to continue. Because whatever the reason for it that's what they did and it appears to have worked.

Weblog

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Obama administration wants to cut funding for lamprey control programs for Great Lakes (Detroit Free Press)
The feds caused this problem in the first damn place. Now they wanna cut back on fixing it?

Hutaree Militia case from 2010 will not go to trial until 2012 at the earliest (Ann Arbor.com)
No trial = no justice. Those defendants have been rotting in prison for going on two years now. If the evidence the government has is so overwhelming why not go to trial right away? I understand there is usually some pretrial jostling around by both the state and the defense lawyers but two fucking years?

Only 17% say U.S. government has consent of the governed (Rasmussen)
 No surprise to me.

Keep both eyes open when you shoot (The High Road)
Takes some practice if you're not used to doing so but it works better IMHO.

weblog

Kokomo, Indiana was the epicenter of an earthquake that was supposedly felt as far away as Ann Arbor last night. 3.8 on the Richter scale too says the blurb. I didn't feel a thing myself. - AA.com

Happy New Year Motherfucker! "Detroit city leaders ... are urging people to refrain from kicking off the new year with celebratory gunfire." - Det Freep 

"No refusal" DUI checkpoints the latest trend in public safety - WTSP TV (Tampa, FL)You can't refuse to blow into the meter because there is a judge on scene with the cops that will issue an order for an immediate blood test. Even East Germany didn't go this far.
The 48217: Detroit's far southwest highlights difficulties of reworking the city-DetMetTimes
More urban renewal schemes from city government. Why not? They've worked so well in the past.

weblog

If they legalized marijuana WTF would all these drug enforcement teams do?
The true tale of a lawful Kalamazoo pot grower and the drug warriors who'd be out of a job without the war on drugs.

Sign of the Times...

Feds use fear of militias, Islamist terror groups for political advantage and as a means of control - Detroit News (George Hunter)

The story includes the usual quotes from the Southern Poverty Law Center, academics, police and the usual federal alphabet soup of law enforcers who all claim that Michigan is awash in "homegrown terror groups" saying there are 47 of them out there in total. So watch your neighbors, strangers, co-workers, and immigrants folks and be sure to report them to the authorities just in case they're terrorists.

And just to make the whole government approved formulaic news story complete newsman Hunter rehashes the books, DVDs and other reputed terrorist paraphernalia`just for good measure. Hunter makes sure to include that "evidence" seized included "...DVDs titled 'Waco' at the home of alleged Hutaree leader David Stone Sr., along with copies of the novel 'The Turner Diaries' and a book of Adolf Hitler's speeches at the Indiana home of defendant Thomas Piatek, according to court records made public last week." Hey, thanks for that intel George, go get your nugs from Janet Napolitano.

Do we look through the book shelves of everyone the government arrests? Maybe we should from now on. The Detroit News should now include that info in every crime story they publish. Seems fair to me.

weblog

Sci-fi writer Peter Watts kinda reveals himself ... -Bloggingheads.tv (video)

Io9's Analee Newitz interviews sci-fi writer Peter Watts about his U.S Border Patrol agent assault arrest and trial last year as well as his novels and other topics.

While I hold no brief for overly aggressive Border Patrol agents (or authority figures in general) Watts strikes me as an asshole who just won't play the game and then bitches when things go bad. Why? Border crossings are a tricky environment and you really need to be cool when crossing them. Because if you aren't you end up like Watts; a convicted felon, (who will likely) be barred from entering the US for a while, (Watts is Canadian), possibly jailed, fined and with legal bills. They truly are and always have been Fourth Amendment free zones as far as what the BP agents can search. Just like airports only nastier.

Lest you think I'm blowing smoke here I went through roughly the same treatment Watts got at the hands of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's department when I objected to the whole x-ray scan, pat-down, frisk routine when I tried to enter the county courthouse building in Ann Arbor back in '08. You just have to grit your teeth and put up with it or don't go. The feds don't care about your Hugo nominations or your Ph.D. They don't have to.

weblog

The Ego And Its Own - Max Stirner
From the Anarchist Library. A classic. Maybe the classic work of individualistic anarchism. Or not.


The future of science journalism. - Bloggingheads (video)
Epic Fail in Congress: USA PATRIOT Act Renewed Without Any New Civil Liberties Protections - EFF blog (Kevin Blankston)
The boat Kevin Costner should have had in Waterworld. - Io9
Female combat robot pilots crave sex! A very hot sci-fi pod cast. - NSFW - Nobilis Erotica
Defending against drones. - Newsweek
Just like with nukes after World War II the US monopoly on drone aircraft attack capability won't last. And for the first time since the Cold War ended the US needs to reconsider it's air defense.
The steady, perfectly managed decline of Yahoo, Inc. - TechCrunch (Michael Arrington)
Scathing critique of the Yahoo's business practices.