Politics

On September 26, 2007, I submitted a request to the Department of Homeland Security requesting copies of information relating to me in the Automated Targeting System (ATS), a system that collects information about individuals who travel internationally. Travelers are then assigned a risk score; passengers who have higher scores are subjected to a higher level of screening, despite the fact that Congress has attached restrictions to its appropriations for passenger screening stating that “None of the funds provided in this or previous appropriations Acts may be utilized to develop or test algorithms assigning risk to passengers whose names are not on government watch lists." Traveler risk scores are maintained for 40 years and individuals are not allowed to know their scores. The system has come under criticism for sometimes including information such as what books or magazines a passenger is carrying. I followed the process suggested by The Identity Project, which stated that DHS was supposed to respond within 30 days. It took a little longer than expected–I just received my travel dossier today. It’s fifteen pages of fairly cryptic documentation, with frequent short redactions. The redactions are each labeled with the section of 5 USC 552 which provides grounds for exemption from disclosure, (b)(2)(low), (b)(6), and (b)(7)(C). The first of those “exempts from disclosure records that are related to internal matters of a relatively trivial nature, such as internal administrative tracking,” and accounts for the majority of the redactions. The other two are for “personnel or medical files and similar files the release of which would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” and “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes that could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” I have a few of each of that type of redaction. The documents include most–but not all–of my international air travel, including from as far back as 1984. There appear to be reports from two systems. There are four pages labeled “TECSII - PRIMARY QUERY HISTORY” and “PASSENGER ACTIVITY.” TECS II is the Treasury Enforcement Communications System II, the primary database of IBIS, the Interagency Border Inspection System. This report lists a series of records of two lines each. The first line contains my name, date of birth, date and time of the query, the agency making a query, a result column (entirely redacted under (b)(2)), a column labeled “LNE TYP” that appears to use both of the two lines and has codes such as “API,” “AIR,” and “VEH.” Finally on the first line are a completely redacted column labeled “TERM” and single-letter codes under the headings “API” and “DIM.” The second line of each record contains airline flight numbers in some cases, and the name of the departure city in one case, a field labeled “DOC:” followed by a blank or my passport number, and, under the heading “LANE,” the characters “INSP:” followed by a blank or a redacted field, probably the name of the agent making the query. At the bottom of each page of results are three or four lines that are completely redacted, probably part of a help screen or menu–the output looks like something from an IBM 3270 display terminal. The other eleven pages of output look like IBM 3270-style output pasted into a single Word document that begins with my name and birthdate. It’s divided into several sections, each headed with a date of travel and containing what appears to be passenger name records (PNR) taken directly from SABRE. The redactions in these sections seem to be somewhat haphazard–in one place part of my corporate email address was redacted, in another a different form of my corporate email addresses was not. My American Express card number is present, as is my Hertz #1 Club Gold membership number. It includes complete itineraries for the most recent travel, including hotel booking information (including type of room and bed), airline seat assignment information, and ticket price. There’s less information for older travel, which is mostly obscure to me apart from dates and airport codes. Next I’ll have to check out my FBI file… UPDATE (September 9, 2008): DHS has responded to charges that it is illegal for them to be recording and keeping certain border-crossing records in ATS by moving them to another database, called BCI. UPDATE (December 31, 2008): DHS is in violation of its obligations to U.S. citizens under the Privacy Act, and to foreign nationals in Europe under the DHS-EU agreement on access to and use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data. DHS has not been complying with requests for data in the legally required time periods, nor with all of the relevant data. Data has also been illegally copied into other databases. Not surprisingly, the DHS’s own internal review claims, even as the evidence contradicts the claim, that it is in compliance with the law. Edward Hasbrouck has posted about the difference between American and European attitudes towards privacy and surveillance, and notes that at least one European airline, KLM, had never developed processes for complying with the law for passenger requests of records. UPDATE (July 19, 2014): An editor at Ars Technica has just discovered that his PNR contains full credit card numbers and IP addresses. Not exactly news, at this point… ...

P.Z. Myers has a post at Pharyngula about how the Democratic National Convention itself is prioritizing religious speakers who disagree with planks of the party platform over non-religious speakers who do not, which goes on to report allegations from an attorney that police from the Aurora, Colorado Police Department have been arresting peaceful protesters on bogus charges, apparently confiscating a compact flash card documenting police behavior, shooting pepper spray into the face of a protester who was obeying police instructions, and illegally not wearing badges or using means to obstruct their names and badge numbers. Cops who act illegally should be fired and prosecuted, every time. They hold a position of public trust and need to be held to a higher standard than civilians, not a lower one. UPDATE: Police claim protesters were carrying rocks. They arrested about 100 protesters. The group Recreate ‘68 says it was denied its use of a legal permit for the use of Civic Center Park, while police helped to protect and bring in Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. About a dozen abortion protesters were arrested on Tuesday, so they weren’t being given special treatment. In the Denver Post’s photos, I don’t see any cops without visible badges, though in only a few photos of cops with riot gear are the pictures close enough to see the numbers in white on the front of their uniforms.

Focus on the Family told its followers to pray for rain on Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, and as it turns out, there was some flooding. But the flooding filled the Fox skybox in the Pepsi Center with 50 to 100 gallons of water per minute for about five minutes when the fire suppression sprinkler system went off. A little bit off from the desired location in both time and space, yet somehow more appropriate. God works in mysterious ways. Obama speaks tomorrow evening at Invesco Field. California pastor Wiley Drake has been praying for rain every morning for the past two weeks, and is inviting Christians from around the country to join him tomorrow night on a two-hour conference call to pray for rain on Obama. Weather.com’s forecast for Denver tomorrow is sunny with a high of 82 degrees Fahrenheit and 0% change of precipitation, though it’s partly cloudy with 10% chance of precipitation tonight. (Hat tip to John Hummel.) UPDATE (August 30, 2008): And now it looks like Hurricane Gustav may cause the Republican National Convention to be suspended! ...

The Arizona Republic has a story up about the FFRF billboards coming to Phoenix, with quotes from a local atheist, clergy, and a legislator. The quotes from the atheist, Harold Saferstein of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, and the clergyman, Bob Mitchell, senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church, are both quite reasonable. The quote from the legislator, Sen. Linda Gray, not so much. She is quoted as writing in an email that “The FFRF fails to acknowledge history which recognized the strong Christian commitment of those who attended the Constitutional Convention.” First of all, how does she know what FFRF “fails to acknowledge” unless she is very familiar with the organization, which I doubt. Second, it’s Gray who’s talking out of her hat. While most of America’s Founding Fathers were nominally Christian, this was the same Constitutional Convention that voted against opening its meetings with prayers and produced a document that contains no references to a deity except in the year before the signatures ("Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth"). It is a document which explicitly says in Article VI that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Its primary author, James Madison, was a strong advocate of strict separation of church and state who thought that even government-paid legislative chaplains were a violation of religious liberty. Mitchell, the pastor quoted in the story, is quoted as saying “I don’t have a problem with people expressing their points of view in public. … I would prefer that there was serious tolerant dialogue that might emerge from this publicity campaign because it is much needed.” The article says he hoped that there would be no backlash against the billboards, but would not be surprised if it happened. I agree with him. (My previous posts on the FFRF billboards coming to Phoenix are here, here, and here.) UPDATE: The Arizona Republic fails to note that much of the money for these billboards was raised by the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group. Here are the specific billboard locations: The five new billboard locations are confirmed and approved by CBS Outdoor. They are on surface streets all within 1 to 3 miles of central Phoenix. Billboards are numbered and say CBS on them. #2501 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: 19th Ave & Fillmore. Located just west of the State Capital area on 19th Ave. Best viewing occurs while traveling northbound on 19th Ave just prior to Fillmore. The sign is on the west side of 19th Ave. This location is within a few blocks of the Capital Complex. #2701 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: Van Buren & 15th Ave. Located just north east of the State Capital area on Van Buren. Best viewing occurs while traveling eastbound on Van Buren just prior to 15th Ave. The sign is on the south side of Van Buren and is located within a few blocks of the State Capital complex. #2821 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: Indian School & 23rd St. Best viewing occurs while traveling westbound on Indian School Rd just after 23rd St. The sign is on the south side of Indian School Rd. #2911 Start Date: August 29 Cross streets: McDowell & 14th St. Located just northwest of the downtown area on McDowell Rd. Best viewing occurs while traveling eastbound on McDowell just after 14th St. The sign is on the north side of McDowell. The Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center is within a few blocks. #2945 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: McDowell & 3rd St. Best viewing occurs while traveling westbound on McDowell. The sign is on the southwest corner of McDowell and 3rd St.UPDATE: I was interviewed today by Brian Webb of KNXV-TV ABC 15 News and by Melissa Gonzalo of KPNX NBC 12 News about the billboards, as a local member of FFRF and the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group. Their stories should air tonight, at 5 or 6 p.m. on 15 and at 6 p.m. on 12. The NBC story should appear on their website after it airs, and both suspected that the stories would air again with footage of the actual billboards on Friday. This story has also been covered by NPR locally, and is the subject of a very poorly worded poll on Fox News 10, which seems to think that the only two possible reactions to the billboard are not be offended because it’s free speech (not because you agree with it) or to be offended because America needs religion. P.Z. Myers has pointed Pharyngulites to the poll, so at least it has a sizable majority supporting freedom of speech. UPDATE: The Channel 15 interview aired at 5 p.m. and I was happy with the result. (This video is two segments, one 0:41 segment that I’m not in, and a 1:36 segment where I appear from about 0:49 to 0:52.) Here’s the video I appear in: The Channel 12 interview aired at 6 p.m., and Melissa Gonzalo did a better job–she spent more time in the interview, and her piece came out better, in my opinion (but what’s with the “Billboard Battle” tagline? What battle?). It’s here: ...

Tom Willis, the creationist behind the “Lucy’s knee joint” claim I debunked in a Talk Origins FAQ, who in June stated that evolutionists should be “violently expelled” from the United States or denied the right to vote, now says that evolutionists should be imprisoned in labor camps. I think Mr. Willis is either a lunatic or desperate for attention. I think he should get the latter, as a poster boy for creationist rationality. I discussed Willis and the Lucy’s knee joint claim in the fourth ApostAZ podcast. (Willis is not actually in Kansas, but in Missouri, where he runs “The Berry Patch.") UPDATE: Ed Brayton has a more detailed take-down of Willis’ latest at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. ...

Jack Cafferty writes at CNN about how McCain seems to be as intellectually vacuous as George W. Bush. Hume's Ghost (2008-08-23): He has to be, doesn't he? The inmates are now running the asylum in the GOP and their presidential candidate has to run against reality to appease the base.Hence the mocking of Obama when he made the accurate statement about tire inflation and care maintenance. ...

Abraham Katsman and Kory Bardash point out several instances of Obama inflating his resumé with bogus claims about his record in The Jerusalem Post. They argue that he is doing this because despite holding multiple noteworthy positions, he really hasn’t accomplished much of anything in any of them. He’s published not a single academic paper while Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, published nothing while Harvard Law Review President, and can’t point to any significant legislation he spearheaded in the U.S. Senate or in the Illinois State Senate. UPDATE: John Lynch, in the comments, has, to my mind, refuted the concerns about publications (a Lecturer is not expected to publish, nor is the Harvard Law Review President), but my main concern was about the false statements. Two of the false statements are that he claimed to have “passed laws” that “extended healthcare for wounded troops who’d been neglected” when he didn’t vote on the bill in question, and his statement that “Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee–which is my committee–a bill to call for divestment from Iran as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon” when he’s not even on the Senate Banking Committee. On the latter point, Obama’s campaign says he meant to say “my bill” rather than “my committee,” in which case the statement becomes somewhat more accurate, as Obama did supply some of the provisions to the bill in question. But it isn’t really Obama’s bill, despite his contributions. It’s more accurately described as Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby’s bill. ...

The latest ApostAZ podcast is out: Episode 007 Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- Go to atheists.meetup.com/157 for group events! Monthly Meetup Epilogue. Debate Tactics and Rhetoric. Sweden Rules Against Prayer as Truth: http://www.guardian.co.uk/. Prayer and Aggression. Obama and Faith Based Initiatives. Pickett Church? http://www.atheistrev.com/ Aggression study: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120083092/abstract. Greydon Square’s Album ‘The Compton Effect’Funny analogy from Shannon: “Prayer is a homeless dude on your couch." Charity Navigator is another site similar to CharityWatch. Shannon incorrectly states that McCain is a creationist. He’s not. And the Creation Museum is in Kentucky, not Tennessee. Picketing churches on the basis of its beliefs and doctrines is a terrible idea that should be left to Fred Phelps and similar kooks. The picketing of the Church of Scientology has generally been based on its behavior, not its doctrines–to the extent the focus is on opposing criminal behavior, that’s reasonable.

The Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group has sent a letter (PDF) and ten questions (PDF) to John McCain, Barack Obama, and the 114 candidates for the Arizona State Senate and House of Representatives who are listed in the Citizens Clean Election Commission candidate statement booklet. Any received answers will be posted here. The ten questions are: 1) Given a legislative voting scenario that presents you with a direct conflict between your religious beliefs/values and your duties to uphold the Constitution which do you choose and how would you make that decision? 2) What is your position regarding prayer while acting in your official capacity as an elected official and what role if any do you think prayer should play in the legislative body you wish to hold? 3) What is your position on enacting law that has religious tenets and/or dogma as its main motivation and reasoning? 4) Is it acceptable for elected officials to hold back or alter scientific reports if they conflict with their own views, and how will you balance scientific information with politics and personal beliefs in your decision-making? 5) Should the modern synthesis of Creationism known as “Intelligent Design” be taught in the public school and is it acceptable for religious ideology to interfere in science? 6) Would you allow a non theistic individual (atheist, humanist, freethinker, etc) to openly serve on your staff? 7) What is your position on a constitutional amendment to define marriage and if in favor of a constitutional amendment to define marriage are your motivations religious or secular? 8) What is your position on abstinence-only sex education? 9) What is your position on government regulation and funding of stem cell research? 10) With regards specifically to the establishment of the United States as a nation, the history of the United States, and the law of the United States do you consider our country to be a “Christian Nation”?

On August 7, the Arizona Republic reported: The race for a state Senate seat in west Mesa broke out into a wide-open brawl Wednesday, with allegations that Rep. Russell Pearce attacked his wife nearly three decades ago and Pearce’s campaign firing back that the charge is false and the height of sleazy campaigning. A mailer sent to voters in west Mesa cited a divorce petition that LuAnne Pearce filed in 1980. In it, she charges that her husband had a violent temper, hit her and shoved her. The petition also says that two days before the filing, Pearce “grabbed the wife by the throat and threw her down." ...