Unconcern about all the privacy scandals often wraps around "yeah, but it doesn't really affect you, theoretically these things could happen but in real life..."

I made one of those comments out with a friend on 9/10 2001, something about the wisdom of the American people pulling back from too much hysteria.

So here's Texas jailing a teen for violent-sounding (but fairly obvious joking) Facebook comments - now in his 5th month in jail awaiting trial, bail at $500K, charges up to 8 years in jail. Even if he's found innocent, he's served 5 months for a joke.

Still rare, right? What me worry? It's about intimidation. Like giving old nuns 30 years for disrupting national security with a bit of tape and spraypaint and singing.

Every time these folks are embarrassed from their mistakes & incompetence, they up their tough-guy response. Soldiers in intelligence will not only see Bradley Manning's verdict - they'll see 3 years waiting for trial being stripped naked in a cold cell being woken up every few minutes, the feds even now trying to convict him of trumped up aiding-the-enemy charges.* Potential Muslim terrorists or sympathizers will see eternal detention & force-feeding at Gitmo as their fate. All reporters will be a lot more careful after tapping of 100 AP reporters phones (that scandal went away quick, no?) Hacker sympathizers will see a life at a minimum detained hours at customs with all their belongings confiscated & searched - worse acts will see living in an embassy or airport limbo for years if lucky - or sitting in an anonymous cell or harassed to suicide. We play "shoot the messenger" - we don't actually fix the problems, and it's often more effective & doable to intimidate as to actually charge someone with enough evidence to convict.

And I realized today it has similarities to a black or Hispanic going to a polling place where they're checking IDs. Most blacks haven't done anything wrong - no need to worry, right? But it's those mistakes, the mistaken identity that can find someone down on the ground tasered or with a gun pointed at his head or dragged to a jail cell. Or if there's an issue about alimony payment or something else... Or just the opportunity for someone with a little piece of power to fuck with you - because interfering with a poll operator's probably a federal crime, so if you weren't guilty of something, by the time they finish giving you an unfair going over, you will be.

Only happens in Texas, right? (not that I want to slur all Texans). Federal agents are more in control, right? Well, it's not like there aren't any of these same Texans in federal government, including the last president. There's plenty of representation of all of these people we dislike at all levels of government, in all regions, like Sheriff Joe Arpaio out in Arizona running his roughshod county, or stop-and-search in New York.

And just to prove they've got no shame, they're busy now in the 2 weeks post-VRA annulment running around passing a bunch of new voter ID laws, based on a non-existent problem but a sure way to keep at least 1 consistently Democratic ethnic group away from the polls.

I used to say that you give up your rights when you step in a car, even as a passenger. These day you do it going to vote, being within 50 miles of a border, going through an airport (especially customs), and now apparently blogging on Facebook.

*PS- one of the scary things about Manning's trial is that the government claims he's guilty for any material that inadvertently ended up in Al Qaeda's hands, or other enemy, even though tracing Manning's history showed no interest in these groups. It's a huge scary loophole to use for an organization using civil airplanes & IEDs in a never ending war on terror. I can only guess how they'd like to test civilian speech or writings for helping the eternal enemy via talking to Wikileaks, Glenn Greenwald, a Congressperson, the Washington Post or your priest.

PPS - really nice version below - not just Sonic Youth - all-star cast including Marilyn Manson on keys it looks like?