Freedom of Choice

Far too many people in our society do not want to be bothered to pay attention to issues and vote. Many of the anti-recall arguments I have heard boil down to "I don't want to be bothered with this more than once every four years." I cherish my right to decide things for myself and my opportunity to cast my vote. I prefer freedom of choice to freedom from choice. It's ironic that so many of the "let's get rid of the recall statute" people keep using words like "freedom" and "patriotism" -- I don't think those words mean what they think they do. Now, since it's a beautiful Saturday morning, I want chocolate donuts for breakfast.

Happy Ben Masel Day

For my out-of-town readers, Ben Masel was a well-known local Madison activist, known for his NORML advocacy, his primary challenges to establishment politicians, and his lawsuits defending civil liberties against illegal actions by law enforcement. He took part in the Capitol protests last year even while struggling with lung cancer. He passed away on April 30, 2011, and shortly afterward the Madison City Council passed a resolution naming April 20 (4/20) as Ben Masel Day.

I did not know Ben Masel personally, but I always had a great deal of respect for his calm demeanor and his willingness to put himself in harm's way to stand up for a cause.  I wrote his name in on ballots for local elections from time to time if I really didn't like any of the choices, because I knew it would not be a disaster even if a bunch of voters did likewise and Ben accidentally won.  He was a competent and responsible adult who used his skills to advance causes that are frequently associated with young hotheads (and potheads). He has been missed.

Good Thing Lambeau Field Banned Firearms

Patriots Partisan Pulls a Plaxico in Parking Lot.

Republican Rep. Scott Suder says the Legislature's intent was to leave it up to applicants to determine how many hours of training they needed.

Because idiots are so good at recognizing their need for training.

Don't Be That Guy*

Wisconsin's new concealed carry law takes effect on Tuesday. It will take slightly longer for the first permits to be issued, as the rules for training courses were just completed.

Keep in mind the axiom that Bad Facts Make Bad Law.  It will only take a handful of screw-ups by permit-holders to make voters pressure the State Legislature to reconsider.  It won't matter that the same kinds of screw-ups have been committed by non-permit-holders for years; everything will be viewed differently when people are carrying legally. The proponents of concealed carry have long claimed that everyone will be safer when law-abiding citizens are allowed to arm themselves, that it will be a deterrent to crime, and that no one but a violent criminal has anything to fear from legally-armed citizens.

So, in order to fulfill that promise and keep Wisconsinites from turning against legal concealed carry, here is some advice to those who obtain permits:

1. Keep your gun safely stowed in a proper holster or compartment in your bag rather than loose at the bottom of your purse or stuffed in your waistband.

2. Don't assume your gun isn't loaded.

3. Don't count on a self-defense plea if the circumstances are shady.

4. Do not use your gun to settle a domestic dispute.

Really, this should all be common sense. Unfortunately, I have noticed over the years that the people with the least amount of common sense often feel the need to be armed.

And to the opponents of concealed carry out there, relax.  Your odds of being shot by an idiot or a stalker really haven't increased significantly.

Finally, I find it highly ironic that the same Republican office-holders who tried to argue several months ago that the State Capitol must be closed to the public for security reasons because a handful of bullets were found on the grounds now think it's OK for the public to bring guns into the Capitol.

* I am using "guy" in the colloquial Midwestern, gender-neutral sense (as in "you guys"). Wisconsin has plenty of armed idiots who are female.

Letterman's Ratings Just Got a Boost

A jihadist blogger has issued a death threat against David Letterman for joking about the death of Al Qaeda figure Ilyas Kashmiri. While the FBI is taking it seriously, as is its job, this Boston Herald entertainment writer gives it the respect it probably deserves.

When David Letterman returns from vacation, I suspect his television audience will grow, as everyone will want to hear his own jokes about the death threat. Perhaps he'll joke about his "conversion" to Judaism.

In the News

The Butcher of Srebrenica has been captured. I wonder who the anonymous tipster was. I'm not usually a supporter of capital punishment, but I would gladly serve on a firing squad to execute that monster.

Congress is growing a spine over Libya.  I'm glad to see both parties stand up for the War Powers Act. I usually trust President Obama's judgement, but I don't like any Commander in Chief to have dictatorial, unconstitutional powers. He had his 60 days. It's time to get Congressional approval for the action in Libya or end it in 30 days.

John Edwards will face criminal charges for misusing campaign funds to cover up an affair.  John Ensign should be very nervous.

Concealed carry advocates want no training or permits required.  For everyone's safety, I think we should start mandatory firearms safety classes in public schools. Imagine if we let everyone drive a car with no training or testing required.

It's Time to Get Out of Afghanistan

I have spent the month of April thinking about this. When we invaded in 2001, it was a war of necessity, in my opinion. The ruling Taliban had given safe haven to Osama bin Laden and his followers, who used their Afghan base to plan the 9-11 attacks on the U.S.

Unfortunately, the administration's ambitions to forcibly spread democracy through the Middle East led it to fight the Afghan war on the cheap and to severely underfund post-war security and nation-building, just as we did in the 1980s after the CIA helped Afghanistan expel the Soviets. Rather than repeating the Marshall Plan, we repeated Charlie Wilson's War.

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama argued for the need to wind down the Iraq occupation and instead devote more boots on the ground in Afghanistan and, if necessary, Pakistan. He has followed that policy. However, it seems like the window of opportunity to achieve our goals in Afghanistan closed in 2002.

Two events in April have underscored the futility of our continued occupation. At the beginning of the month, a UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif was stormed by a group of ordinary Afghans without Taliban ties, and eight people were killed. The crowd was outraged by the burning of a Koran by a pile of human feces who claims to be a clergyman in Florida. It is notable that the Koran-burning did not provoke attacks on Westerners in more modern Islamic nations like Turkey and Indonesia, nor even in Saudi Arabia, the heartland of extreme fundamentalist Islam. The Koran-burning was a trigger and an excuse, but I believe the real reason for the attack in Mazar-i-Sharif was a deep hatred of western occupiers.

A few days ago, a member of the Afghan military, following a dispute of some kind with his U.S. allies, opened fire, killing eight U.S. troops and an American contractor before he was shot dead himself. He had no known ties to the Taliban nor Al Quaeda.

If the very people who are being served by UN workers in a relatively secure city hate them enough to riot and kill them, and the Afghan military whom we are supposedly training to take over the nation's security hates our troops enough to turn on them with little provocation, what can our continued occupation possibly accomplish? We are not just fighting the Taliban and Al Quaeda over there. We are fighting ordinary people who are frustrated by the corrupt kleptocracy we put in place there. Hamid Karzai rigged the last election, yet we supported him. How is that encouraging democracy? In Libya, we are dropping bombs to keep Quaddafi from killing the civilians who rose up against him, yet in Afghanistan, we are protecting Karzai from a similar uprising.

We need to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Now.

A Chance for Greater Understanding

"Yes, they have the right to do that. But that doesn't mean they SHOULD."

Do you agree with the above statement?  Does your (dis)agreement depend upon whether it refers to (A) the proposed Islamic community center a couple blocks from Ground Zero or (B) the five men who wore holstered guns into Culver's?

If your opinion is not consistent, you have the opportunity to put yourself in the shoes of the other side and try to understand the visceral emotions that cause Americans to disregard the Constitution in order to impose their preferences on the mainstream.

For the record, I disagree with that statement in each case, as well as in the case of the idiot Nazis who march in Skokie, Illinois.  In the Illinois Nazis' case, it would be accurate to say "They have the right to do that, but I would prefer that they didn't."

However, I do not get to impose my preferences on everyone else. Living in a free society means putting up with crap you don't like at some point, to ensure that everyone has the same freedoms that you do. Deciding that the preferences of a local majority should trump the rights of minorities subverts our Constitution.

Beware the tyranny of the thin-skinned.  You may agree with them on one particular issue, but sooner or later, they'll take offense to something you want to do.

Tea-Baggers Aren't the Only Ones with Guns

Talking Points Memo has a slide show from yesterday's 2nd Annual 9/12 Rally in Washington, D.C. (h/t Greenlee Gazette)

Notice signs in the first couple pictures. Slogans include "Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to God" (a quote from Thomas Jefferson) and "By Ballot or Bullet Restoration Is Coming."

I don't for a minute think that these sign-holders have any real intention of taking up arms if they don't like the election results in November.  The rhetoric is meant to intimidate, because they assume that only right-leaning folks believe in exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, and that liberals are all anti-gunners.

I do know a lot of people on the left who have a visceral hatred and fear of guns. They seem to believe that keeping a gun in the house is inherently evil and dangerous.  However, that feeling is far from universal, even among my lefty friends. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz are both known to be deer hunters (which means they each own at least one rifle and know how to use it). I grew up in a house full of guns and was taught early on to respect them and never treat them as toys (or assume one is unloaded).

I believe that liberals would all be better off if we would make more of an effort to make everyone comfortable and responsible around guns. Abstinence-only firearms education does not work, in my opinion.  It certainly won't protect your children from guns in their friends' houses.

I've honestly lost count of the number of guns in our house right now (they are mostly my husband's). I know I am not the only left-leaning Madisonian who has guns and knows how to use them.  The Tea-bagger fringe (a tiny minority of those at the rallies, but the most colorful for the media to photograph) who hold up signs with vaguely-threatening firearms metaphors are unlikely to actually take up arms against their democratically-elected government. But if they do, I'll be exercising my own 2nd Amendment rights in defense of my home and homeland and in support of our lawful government. And I doubt I'll be alone.

Some Religions Are More Equal Than Others

If this had happened at the FLDS compound in Texas, do you think the suspect would still be awaiting arrest?  When Texas authorities received an anonymous tip about a (fictitious, as it turned out) child bride who had been married against her will and abused by her husband, they swept in and removed 439 children from their families and warehoused them until the courts ordered them returned to their parents.

Sadly, the Grant County case is not a freak occurrence in the Amish community. It's not even the only one in the Midwest this year. Amish children are especially vulnerable, since the faithful are taught to shun the outside world and avoid the secular authorities. They also believe in forgiveness rather than prosecution.

But, by and large, Americans hold the Amish in high esteem, so we give them the benefit of the doubt.  Just as faithful Catholics give their church the benefit of the doubt when bishops protect abusers rather than their victims. Have any Catholic schools been shut down in the wake of those abuse scandals?  I haven't heard of any.

But if a religious group is not only in the minority, but also widely despised, a whole different set of rules apply.

Jackson & Juneau County DAs Exhibit Posse Comitatus Philosophy

The term posse comitatus is Latin for "power of the county."  It originally referred to the legal authority of a County Sheriff to conscript civilians into an ad hoc militia for law enforcement purposes.

When capitalized, Posse Comitatus also refers to a far-right militia movement that believes that the County Sheriff is the ultimate law of the land. Posse groups sprang up all over the country after the Watergate era.  Wisconsin's own merry band of outlaws had their Sherwood Forest in Shawano County, around the community of Tigerton.  While there was some variation in Posse groups around the country, most were Christian Identity activists.

While the Posse Comitatus largely disappeared from public awareness after most of its leaders were imprisoned in the '80s, their underlying legal philosophy -- that County-level law enforcement trumps State and Federal laws -- is making a political comeback.

A few months ago, Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth sent a letter to several school districts warning them not to comply with the new State law requiring that public schools with sex education programs teach students about contraceptives. 

This week, Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox is pretending to be a constitutional scholar, claiming that the Supreme Court's recent decision in McDonald v. Chicago "immediately renders some of Wisconsin's current laws unconstitutional".  Apparently, there is no need for the courts to decide which regulations are reasonable; Gerald Fox has already declared the following to be unenforceable:
Section 167.31, prohibiting uncased or loaded firearms in vehicles;
Section 941.23, prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons, including firearms;
Section 941.235, prohibiting the possession of firearms in public buildings;
Section 941.237, prohibiting the possession of firearms in establishments where alcohol may be sold or served; and,
Section 941.24, prohibiting the possession of knives that open with a button, or by gravity, or thrust, or movement.

So, Wisconsin's gun nuts need only move to Jackson County, where they can throw their uncased, loaded gun in their vehicle before driving over bumpy back roads, then carry a concealed gun or switchblade into a courthouse or bar.  While Black River Falls police chief Don Gilberg says he will still enforce state and local laws, J. B. Van Hollen calls such decisions "a matter of prosecutorial discretion."

Confused By the Internets, CRG Jumps the Shark

Citizens for Responsible Government, Southeast Wisconsin's leading group of angry white folks (who converted outrage into action several years before the Tea Parties), have fallen victim to the law of diminishing returns.

Flush with success after their recall victories in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties several years ago, they had ambitions of taking on Jim Doyle and influencing statewide government in 2006.  In a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article which is no longer online, but which was quoted in this Dailykos post, CRG co-head Chris Kliesmet explained the group's goals:

"Chris Kliesmet, the CRG Network's Milwaukee-based executive administrator, says the group aims to have ‘boots on the ground’ in all 72 counties and raise a war chest of $1 million from a membership base of 10,000 people. That's a long way to go from the current loose confederation of local operations, mostly in the Milwaukee area, operating with about $5,000 in the bank, according to a campaign finance report," Epstein and Johnson write. "To become the force Kliesmet and his partner, Orville Seymer, envision, they'll need to figure out how to transform people angry over very local issues like lake management districts and the removal of a high school football coach to a united, statewide political machine."

How's that working out for CRG?  Well, they seem to have scaled back their ambitions.  A spin-off group, Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership, was charged with campaign finance violations and had to disband in 2008.

They still hope to get their chosen candidate, Scott Walker, into the Governor's mansion, but their efforts have met with limited success.  Last fall, they held a rally to encourage Walker to veto spending in the Milwaukee County budget that had been added by the County Board.  Check out this slideshow and notice how many of the attendees (presumably CRG's core constituency) are elderly.  That may have some bearing on their recent actions.

CRG's other co-head, Orville Seymer, has proven himself to be a hypocritical attention whore. After making snarky comments that got him ejected from a County Board meeting in 2006, Seymer sued Milwaukee County for $1 million, claiming he had been subjected to public humiliation and that his free speech rights were violated.

This same champion of free speech has now filed charges with the County District Attorney claiming that County employee Chris Liebenthal must be blogging on County time.  Seymer's evidence?  A bunch of blog posts on dates that turned out to be furlough days or Liebenthal's scheduled vacation days.  It was pointed out by none other than Owen Robinson, the warden of Wisconsin's asylum for the nuttiest of right-wingnuts, Boots and Sabers, that blog time stamps are meaningless anyway. But Robinson still thinks this is sufficient evidence to warrant an official investigation, costing the County time and money as Liebenthal's work computer is seized and examined.

As conservative (but not wingnut) blogger Jeremy Shown said on his thoughtful blog:

The fact of the matter is that if you have to resort to having the civil magistrate confiscate the computer of your rhetorical opponents, you have already lost. Can't the Walker camp come up with some smart folks to simply counter the pronouncements that Capper makes on his blog? Just read it for a while and it shouldn't be all that hard. Even I could, and I couldn't figure out that Capper and Chris Liebenthal were the same guy.

The old white guys seem to feel that Liebenthal can't possibly write so many blog posts during his free time.  Here is where the generation gap becomes apparent.  Baby boomers (and Gen-Xers, for that matter) do not fully comprehend just how much of their free time younger adults spend online.  Rather than reading newspapers and watching television, younger adults blog, tweet and post Facebook updates.

Also, men who began their careers in the IBM Selectric era tend to be hunt-and-peck typists (since typing used to be a skill reserved for secretaries).  They overestimate the time it takes to compose blog posts when you are primarily writing about stuff you know really well (limiting the need for background research).

Oh, and CRG also misspelled the link on their website that is supposed to point to their Num6ers Game blog, where their version of this principled stand on behalf of the taxpayers is chronicled.  Instead, it points to a "Mega site of Bible studies and information."  I guess the word "blogspot" is strange and exotic to the elderly scribes who are designing the CRG's site.  Or maybe Moses is volunteering his time.

Is there anyone under the age of 50 who can possibly take Citizens for Responsible Government seriously?  No wonder their more recent recall efforts have been less successful than their initial round several years ago.  Their constituency is literally dying off.

The "Don't Be Evil" Empire Strikes Back

It seems that Google wants to patent the Wi-Fi snooping technology that "accidentally" collected data from users around the world.

The patent application casts doubt on Google's claim that the collection of data was due to a programming error:

"As disclosed in the '776 Application, the more types and greater the quantity of Wi-Fi data obtained, decoded, and analyzed by Google from any particular user, the higher its 'confidence level' in the calculated location of that user's wireless AP," the changed lawsuit stated. "Collection, decoding, and analysis of a user's payload data would, therefore, serve to increase the accuracy, value, usability, and marketability of Google's new method."

And to think that U.S. cities are vying to become the pilot for Google's high-speed network.  Google may as well change its name to Skynet.

Pennsylvania's Own Caucus Scandal Spawns Twitter Anonymity Concerns

The State of Pennsylvania has recently concluded its own version of the caucus scandal that rocked Wisconsin politics several years ago (and hit the news again recently with the ruling that Scooter Jensen can move his retrial to Waukesha County, where the DA seems to have no enthusiasm for taking it up).

Shortly after the Democrats took control of Pennsylvania's state house (in November of 2006), Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett began investigating the practice of taxpayer-compensated legislative aides working on political campaigns.  However, it was mainly Democrats who were prosecuted.  Three (one Rep. and two staffers) were convicted in March.  The first sentence, against legislative aide Brett Cott, was just handed down this week (21 to 60 months in prison).

If Cott's name sounds familiar to Wisconsin political junkies, it may be because he is the former executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party who then went on to work for Chuck Chvala during the time of Wisconsin's caucus scandal.

In September of 2008, an anonymous blog called CasablancaPA began posting criticisms of Corbett's investigation and prosecutory choices. Corbett asserted that he investigated both Democrats and Republicans.  The blog pointed out that, during the second half of 2007, Republican legislative offices (both in Harrisburg and in the District) replaced all of their computers.

Before Brett Cott's sentencing hearing, Attorney General Corbett subpoenaed Twitter, in an attempt to prove that CasablancaPA is authored by Cott (h/t Capper).  The subpoena raised a hue and cry around the country, with accusations that Corbett is trying to chill critical speech and also accusations that he is abusing the grand jury process to obtain evidence to use in a sentencing hearing rather than to investigate a crime.  After the sentencing hearing, Corbett dropped the Twitter subpoena.  However, the ACLU has not dropped the issue.

Cott plans to appeal the sentence.  His attorney, Bryan Walk, said his client already has suffered greatly by being convicted of three crimes and will find it difficult to get a job. Maybe he should move to Wisconsin after he completes his sentence and ask Chuck Chvala for another job, in one of Chvala's private-sector businesses.

Google Trumps Facebook with Latest Big Brother Move

For the last few years, Google has reigned supreme as the real-world's nearest thing to George Orwell's Big Brother character from 1984.

In the past month, it looked as though upstart Facebook might surpass the former master. First, FB rolled out some creepy new features that shared public profile information with third-party websites. Then, a couple weeks ago, a bug allowed FB users to view their friends' private chat sessions. Translating for the older generation, it was like having your private landline suddenly switched by the phone company to a party line without your knowledge, allowing all of your neighbors to listen in on your conversations.

But this week, Google demonstrated that Facebook is still an amateur when it comes to secretly mining personal data without permission. Google recently admitted that, due to a "programming error," the company "accidentally" gathered -- and stored -- snippets of data from any unsecured WiFi networks in the vicinity while Google operatives were taking "street view" pictures for Google Maps.

Just how much data did the Chinese government mine when it hacked into Google's servers?  Also, why did it take three years for Google to notice that it had all that data?

Congress is investigating, so we can look forward to hearings in which computer-illiterate Senators attempt to question the "Don't Be Evil" Empire.

You May Need Those Rights Someday

The recent failed car-bombing attempt in Times Square by a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan has inspired two new proposals to roll back due process rights for terrorism suspects. Attorney General Eric Holder is proposing a limit on Miranda rights for terror suspects.  Even more chilling is the U.S. Expatriation Act, a bill sponsored by Senators Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman.  The bill would strip citizenship from terror suspects. That's right, not just convicted terrorists, but terror suspects.

Anyone who thinks this will only affect bad guys who have trained in Pakistan is forgetting the stories of Steven Hatfill and Richard Jewell.  Hatfill, you may recall, was the scientist whom the FBI assumed was behind the anthrax-laced letters sent in 2001.  In a recent interview with Matt Lauer, Hatfill said:

“I love my country,” Hatfill, 56, told Lauer. But, he added, “I learned a couple things. The government can do to you whatever they want. They can break the laws, federal laws, as they see fit … You can’t turn laws on and off as you deem fit. And the Privacy Act laws were put in place specifically to stop what happened to me. Whether we’re at war or have been attacked, the foundation of society is that you hold to the laws in place. I used to be somebody that trusted the government. Now I really don't trust anything.”

Richard Jewell was also falsely accused by the FBI of a terrorist act, the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. He was just an ordinary guy doing his job, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If the Brown-Lieberman legislation had been in place, both Hatfill and Jewell may have been shipped to Guantanamo Bay and subjected to "enhanced interrogation" until they confessed (we know that waterboarding can elicit false confessions -- it's what it was originally developed to do).  And Bruce Ivins and Eric Rudolph might still be at large, killing people.

Scenes We'll Be Seeing in Arizona This Summer

It's deja vu all over again.

Headline Fail

When I read this article in the dead-tree version of the Wisconsin State Journal today, the headline was something like "Fireworks off thanks to host's opinion" (I read the paper at work, so I don't have it handy to check now).  That infuriated me, because if you read the article, it seems that a far more appropriate headline would have been "Fireworks off thanks to sponsor's thin skin."

I'm not thrilled that Woodman's dropped their mental health coverage. However, that was a business decision motivated by a fear of rising costs due to the State's new mental health parity mandate, and it is a matter that is between Woodman's and their employees. Many employers never provided mental health coverage in the first place.

Now, however, the Woodman family is trying to dictate public discourse about their company by greenmailing Mid-West Family Broadcasting.

"I'm not going to work with a company that is going to slander our business," [company vice president Clint] Woodman said. "The whole point is that they allowed Sly to talk badly about someone they do business with."

It is ironic that Woodman's has turned what was a nice PR move by the company -- their traditional sponsorship of the Elver Park fireworks -- into a potential public black eye.  I am so angry by their blatant attempt to stifle free speech that I'm ready to boycott Woodman's.

Facebook giving Google a run for its money

Facebook has recently announced some new features that will allow you to share your web-surfing habits with all of your friends.  It seems like Facebook and Google are in competition to become the most intrusive, Orwellian entity on the Internet.

As is standard operating procedure for Facebook, users were not told ahead of time about the new features, and opting out is cumbersome. 

Some of the features seem benign.  The "like" button will now appear on many other websites when you visit them while logged into Facebook. You can let your friends know that you like these sites (or recommend an article), and those results will be seen by your friends when they visit those sites while logged into Facebook.  Of course, that means that Facebook keeps track of the other websites you are visiting while logged in.

Creeped out yet?  Do you typically stay logged into Facebook while doing other web surfing?  Feel confident that your friends will only know about those websites if you click the "like" button?  That's how it works now, but what's to stop Facebook from changing that in the future?  After all, there is advertising money to be made by encouraging viewers' Facebook friends to visit that site.

And that brings me to another new FB feature, Instant Personalization, which is being offered by Yelp, Pandora and Microsoft's docs.com site.  Unless you opt out (see this article for helpful instructions on doing so), visiting those sites while logged into Facebook allows them to view your publically available profile information, as well as that of your Facebook friends.  Even if you have opted out, if your friends have not, Yelp and Pandora can still mine your profile information when your friends visit their sites, unless you go through the added step of specifically blocking each individual website offering instant personalization (currently only those three, but soon to be many more).

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I don't think it's any of my friends' business what trashy novels I've purchased from Amazon or what medical conditions I've researched.  And I would really rather not know which of my friends belong to an adult diaper support group.  While it is still easy to avoid that sort of oversharing, will that still be the case a year from now?

Competing to Sell our Souls to Big Brother

Madison is abuzz (pun intended) over Google's search for a guinea-pig city for its experimental high-speed fiber network. I find it amusing that, while someone started a Facebook page called "Bring Google Fiber to Madison Wisconsin!", apparently no one thought to demonstrate community support (one of Google's vague criteria for choosing the winning city) via Google's own shiny-new social network.

I am hesitant to be an early adopter with anything Google. I thought long and hard about opening a Gmail account. I admit I was creeped out from the start by the fact that Google's bots would monitor the content of my emails for advertising purposes. I'm of a generation that still read Orwell in high school. Americans have fought long and hard to keep our government from eroding our privacy, only to happily give it up to a private-sector corporation whose "Don't Be Evil" slogan is laughably ironic in the face of Google's Chinese ventures.

Google agreed to censor its search engine in China in exchange for the opportunity to enter the Chinese market (and gain lucrative advertising revenue thereby). Google (perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not) provided the totalitarian Chinese government with all sorts of incriminating information on democracy activists and other dissident citizens through those citizens' Gmail accounts.

Last month, Google signed up all Gmail users (not only without their permission, but even against their will) for their new Buzz social network, turning private email contacts into public followers. This was an attempt to leverage Google's market power in the web-based email world into market power in the world of social networking, all the better to sell you stuff. Does anyone doubt that Google will closely monitor all Internet traffic over their high-speed network and share the information with advertisers?

Remember how concerned civil libertarians were over the previous administration's warrantless wiretaps, and the big telecom companies' collusion (and subsequent request for immunity)? Google is on the way to having more information on Americans (law-abiding and otherwise) in its databases than the NSA, CIA and FBI combined. If the Chinese government could hack into its citizens' Gmail accounts, do you really think our government can't? Thanks to Google's search algorithms, fishing expeditions will be faster and cheaper than ever.

And why in the world is everyone assuming that Google will foot the entire $97 million construction cost for its test network? They cite both community support and resources as criteria. Don't you think they'll expect TIF money, or at least a property tax exemption? Jerry Frautschi taught Madison taxpayers that it's a good idea to look that gift horse in the mouth, since you'll be paying the dental bills.

For more information, read Erik Paulson's excellent analysis, Kristin Czubkowski's latest summary, and the Onion's typically-prescient satire.