Free speech supporters rally for ‘poetic justice’
More than 400 supporters of New Mexico teacher and Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins packed the prestigious KiMo Theater in Albuquerque on September 14 for a program of poetry and song titled, “Poetic Justice: Committing Poetry in Times of War”.
More than $1000 was raised to offset Nevins’ legal expenses in his fight against censorship and illegal job retaliation. Nevins was suspended on Mar. 17, and subsequently fired from his teaching job at Rio Rancho Public High School (RRHS) in New Mexico.
In a lawsuit filed Sept. 15 in New Mexico court, Nevins’ attorney, Eric Sirotkin, claimed that Nevins was victimized by the Rio Rancho school administration because one of Nevins’s poetry students read over the school’s public address system a poem, “Revolution X,” which contained witty and barbed criticism of the Bush administration and its war and education policies. Nevins asserts that he was fired in retaliation for complaining publicly when the administration subsequently banned student poetry readings and forced the poetry team to disband.
At the KiMo Theater benefit concert, more than 30 regional and national poets and songwriters performed strong words of encouragement and resistance. (Green Left Weekly)

JetBlue Airways gave Defense Dept. itineraries of 5 million customers
Violating its own privacy policy, JetBlue Airways gave five million passenger itineraries to a Defense Department contractor that used the information as part of a study seeking ways to identify “high risk” airline customers.
The study, produced by Torch Concepts of Huntsville, Ala., was intended to be a proof-of-concept analysis for a project on military base security.
New York-based JetBlue said it has taken steps so the situation will not happen again. “This was a mistake on our part,” JetBlue chief executive David Neeleman said in an apologetic e-mail sent to angry customers.
Silicon Valley privacy activist Bill Scannell, who first posted details of the study and JetBlue’s involvement on his Web site, Don’t Spy On Us, said Sept. 19 that the privacy of anyone who flew JetBlue from its inception until September 2002 was compromised.
“Torch Concepts went and ran basically a ‘total information awareness’ on [travel records from 5 million customers]. They got Social Security numbers, and from that were able to pull out the driver’s records ... purchasing patterns, where they’ve lived,” Scannell said.
“Had I been a JetBlue passenger, I would be getting a new Social Security number. I would assume my identity has been stolen.”
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said that by violating its privacy policy, JetBlue could be sued for “deceptive trade practices.”
Rotenberg said his organization was contemplating filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. (Oakland Tribune)

Rutgers University Officials cancel Palestine conference
Representatives of student Palestine advocacy organization, New Jersey Solidarity, learned Sept. 12 that the Rutgers University administration has deemed that “logistics” forbid students to proceed with a national Palestine solidarity conference scheduled for October 10-12, 2003. The student organization is determined to continue, saying they will hold the conference regardless of the decision.
Dean Logue, of the Department of Student Affairs, stated at a hastily called meeting Sept. 11 that “deadlines” prevented the conference from occurring, even though students had raised over $6,000 to be deposited in their account, and had met with Dean Johnston of Rutgers College on Sept. 5 — the day of the allegedly missed deadlines. Organizers accused the university of political repression, and say the university is attempting to abuse bureaucracy in order to silence student voices.
“We refuse to be silenced. We will hold our conference. The Palestinian people have continued to resist despite incredible and overwhelming force displayed against them - and we owe them nothing less than to refuse to be silenced... To do otherwise is to support apartheid. This is an official action on the part of Rutgers University in support of apartheid,” said Charlotte Kates, a second-year student at Rutgers School of Law in Newark.
The decision came the day University President Robert McCormick appeared at a dinner sponsored by Rutgers Hillel, a Zionist group on campus. Rutgers Hillel is sponsoring “Israel Inspires,” a counter-conference that will take place the same weekend as the student Palestine solidarity conference. “This appearance indicates the overt bias and discrimination displayed by Rutgers University administration,” said Cecilia Joulain, a Douglass College senior and Treasurer of New Jersey Solidarity. “Bureaucracy is not an excuse. This is an attempt to silence student organizing at the University.” (Rutgers University Palestine Solidarity Movement)

What the $87 billion speech cost Bush
George W. Bush has often used major speeches to bolster his standing with the public, but pollsters and political analysts have concluded that his recent prime-time address on Iraq may have had the opposite effect — crystallizing doubts about his postwar plans and fueling worries about the cost.
A parade of polls taken since the Sept. 7 speech has found notable erosion in public approval for Bush’s handling of Iraq, with a minority of Americans supporting the $87 billion budget for reconstruction and the war on terrorism that he unveiled.
Since the speech from the Cabinet Room, headlines on poll after poll have proved unnerving for many Republicans and encouraging for Democrats. “Bush Iraq Rating at New Low,” said a CBS News poll taken Sept. 15 and Sept. 16. “Americans Split on Bush Request for $87 Billion,” said a Fox News poll taken Sept. 9 and Sept. 10. A Gallup poll taken Sept 8 to 10 pointed to “increasingly negative perceptions about the situation in Iraq” and found the balance between Bush’s approval and disapproval ratings to be “the most negative of the administration.”
A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken from Sept. 10 to Sept. 13 found that 55 percent of those surveyed said the Bush administration does not have a clear plan for the situation in Iraq, and 85 percent said they were concerned the United States will get bogged down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission. (Washington Post)

Trooper diverts traffic camera to ogle women
Images from a traffic camera that was used instead to monitor passersby near the University of Alabama led to the arrests of three people allegedly misbehaving on the street, police said.
Meanwhile, officials said they were still investigating who had diverted the focus of the camera from traffic — where it normally is used to monitor vehicles — to pedestrians, particularly young women.
The remote-control camera, located at an intersection near a row of nightclubs, usually shows traffic. But officials said someone in a state trooper office diverted the camera to focus on pedestrians in the pre-dawn hours last Friday. Footage broadcast citywide on a cable TV channel showed several people, and the camera zoomed in on the breasts and buttocks of several young women walking past.
A 22-year-old woman was charged with public lewdness about 4:10 a.m. after baring her breasts in front of the camera, said Capt. David Hartin, and a 25-year-old man was charged with disorderly conduct moments later after allegedly grabbing his crotch as cars went by. A 28-year-old man was accused of public intoxication and resisting arrest after dancing in the street along a row of bars called “the strip,” said Hartin.
Hartin said the three were arrested after an officer on dinner break saw images from the camera on TV and notified headquarters, which sent officers to the area.
A spokesman for the police department said no disciplinary action was planned. (NBC13, AP)

Ashecroft mocks librarians, other opponents of PATRIOT Act
Attorney General John Ashcroft on Sept. 15 accused the country’s biggest library association and other critics of fueling “baseless hysteria” about the government’s ability to pry into the public’s reading habits.
In an unusually pointed attack as part of his latest speech in defense of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism initiatives, Ashcroft mocked and condemned the American Library Association and other Justice Department critics for believing that the FBI wants to know “how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.”
The association, which has argued for months that the government’s new antiterrorism powers risk encroaching on the privacy of library users, took some satisfaction from the broadside.
“If he’s coming after us so specifically, we must be having an impact,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the library association’s Washington office.
Ashcroft’s speech was his 17th in the last month in defense of the sweeping counterterrorism act passed after the Sept. 11 attacks and under increasing criticism for those who contend that it gives the government too much power.
That issue has helped galvanize opposition to the act from libraries nationwide and from some 160 communities that have protested the law as too far-reaching. (NYT)