lattitude zine - issue 9 - august/sept 2008

8/14/2019 Lattitude Zine - Issue 9 - August/Sept 2008

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August/September2008


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Contents

03 Secret Email Searches JaikumarVijayan

07 Gina Rannali - Mother Puncher MickeyZ.

09 I Own a Van DavidBrooks

12 Anarchy in Your Head DaleEverett

13 Sun, Sea, Sand... and Terrorism ThePleb

16 Triztoons BillTrzcinski

As this issue was coming to completion my grandmothers life was as well. Its strange, butbeing that she had been in the hospital for more than a week, and most of that in a hospicestyle situation, once I was told she had actually died the news didnt have that shock factoryou usually experience with the death of those closest to you.

I continue to think back of the panicked ride to the hospital I had the afternoon before forsome reason. Her blood pressure was insanely high and with this news and the uncertaintywe had been experiencing for days I was in a hurry to get there to say the least. Once there,it was just depressing to see her in such a state. I hadnt seen her awake for days and themore time I spent in the hospital the angrier I got. Not at the fact that she was dieing, butthe way in which it was happening.

The first Saturday she was in the hospital I walk in and with my own way of dealing withthings made the smart ass comment that shes causing too much trouble. She respondedlaughingly, telling me that she was ready to go. Ready to see my grandfather and uncleagain. That was the best thing I could have hoped for. Although I had come to expect thisfor some time, hearing her say that she was ready made it that much easier to deal with.She had a long, seemingly happy life. As upsetting as it has been to lose her, it is mostcomforting to have known and seen the love and happiness we have all shared with her.Of course she will be missed, but happily remembered.

Feel free to share your own opinions about anything youd like - someones [email protected]

Something you may have noticed is that nine has been combined into anAugust/September conglomerate. This will allow us to get back on track and bring youa better and more timely October issue 10.

Thanks for reading,jimmy

Lattitude Zine is published 12X a year, monthly give or take, in Louisville, KY. Lattitude is

collectively written and designed with subjects and style that will vary from one issue to

the next. The reader base is the staff essentially. There is no formal organization at work.

Visit us at LattitudeZine.com for more information.

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Contributions and correspondence to: [email protected]

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Contribute...This could be your space, or take any other page youlike. Write, draw or take a photo. We are alwayslooking for any and all contributions regardless ofwhich side of the proverbial fence you may be on.Dont be scared, were all friends here right?

Contributions to: [email protected]


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LattitudeZine.com August/September 2008 LATT!TUDE

03 04

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last

week dismissed on procedural grounds

a case involving the constitutionality of

warrantless no-notice searches of e-mail

messages stored by an Internet serviceprovider.

In doing so, the court left unanswered the

question of whether the Fourth Amend-

ment requires the U.S. government to

obtain warrants based on reasonable cause

before it can compel e-mail service provid-

ers to secretly turn over a persons email

records.

The case involves an Ohio man, Steven

Warshak, who in February was convicted

by a jury on 93 counts of mail and wire

fraud, money laundering, and other

federal offenses. Warshak ran a Cincinnati-

based company called Berkeley Premium

Nutraceuticals Inc., which marketed, dis-

tributed and sold herbal supplements. The

conviction followed an FBI probe that be-

gan in 2005, when Warshaks company was

suspected of making false and misleading

advertising claims, misrepresentation and

various other fraudulent practices.

As part of the probe into the companys

activities, the FBI compelled NuVox Com-

munications Inc. and Yahoo Inc. -- War-

shaks Internet service providers -- to turn

over all of the contents, log files and back-

up data related to his e-mails -- including

those that had been stored for more than

181 days. The statute allowing the govern-

ment to see Warshaks e-mails -- and the

rationale provided by the government --required investigators to inform Warshak

about the action within 90 days.

But the government didnt notify War-

shak about its behind-the-scenes efforts

for nearly a year after it first sought the

e-mail information.

Warshak filed suit in June 2006, seeking

declaratory and injunctive relief, claiming

that the forced disclosure of his e-mails

violated his Fourth Amendment rights. He

also argued that the governments failure

to tell him what it was doing violated the

Stored Communications Act, the stat-

ute used to obtain his records. When his

lawyers failed to get an assurance from

the government that it wouldnt continue

such searches in future, Warshak asked for

a preliminary injunction prohibiting the

practice.

An Ohio District Court granted the pre-

liminary injunction, noting that e-mails

held by an Internet service provider were

roughly analogous to sealed letters, in

which the sender maintains an expectation

of privacy. That court also agreed to en-

join additional seizures of e-mails from the

Court dismisses case challengingwarrantless, secret e-mail searches

But the underlying issue of Fourth Amendment protections was not addressed

Jaikumar Vijayanfrom Computerworld 17/07/2008

Internet accounts of any resident of the

Southern District of Ohio without notice to

the account holder.

When prosecutors appealed the decision,

a three-judge panel at the Sixth Circuit

Court initially upheld the preliminary

injunction, saying it was needed to protect

the Fourth Amendment rights of Warshak

and others who might be in his position.

But the full Sixth Circuit court overturned

that decision last week, formally lifting

the preliminary injunction that had been

in place since June 2006. The most recent

decision, however, did not touch upon the

issue of the governments right to conduct

warrantless, secret email searches.

Writing for the majority, Judge Jeffrey

Sutton said the case was not fit for judicial

review because the court has no idea

whether the government plans to conduct

warrantless searches of Warshaks e-mail

in future. He said Warshaks complaint

was based on contingent future events

that might not occur. Answering difficult

legal questions before they arise and be-

fore the courts know how they will arise is

not the way we typically handle constitu-

tional litigation, he wrote.

Circuit Judge Martin Boyce, who wrote

for the five dissenting judges in the case,

said that the governments failure to tell

Warshak about the searches after the 90-

day period expired was a clear violation

of the Stored Communication Act that


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05

the majority on the court had overlooked.

The ruling gives unwarranted deferential

treatment to the government, Boyce said.

It is but another step in the ongoing deg-

radation of civil rights in the courts of this

country, he noted in his dissent.

The ruling was greeted with dismay by

the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),

one of several civil rights groups that had

filed a friend-of-the-court brief supportingWarshak. In a post on its Web site, Kevin

Bankston -- who drafted the groups brief

-- said the courts refusal to address the

Fourth Amendment issue was a shame.

Without clear legal rulings on such is-

sues, we face continued uncertainty about

how the Constitution protects our private

Internet communications, uncertainty that

the government will continue to exploit,

Bankston wrote.

The EFF in its brief had earlier argued that

e-mail is used in myriad ways to commu-

nicate everything from family photos and

personal thoughts to health information

and corporate data. The varied uses dem-

onstrate societys expectations that e-mail

sent and received over the Internet is as

private as a sealed letter, a telephone call

or even papers that are kept in the home.

As such, secret, warrantless searches of e-

mail violates the Fourth Amendment, the

organization said.

It is an important decision because it

vacates a case that had established strong

Fourth Amendment protections for

e-mails, said Gregory Nojeim, director of

freedom, security and technology at the

Center for Democracy and Technology

(CDT), a Washington-based rights group

that participated with EFF in the friend-of-

the-court brief.

Fourth Amendment protections related

to stored e-mail generally require the

government to notify an individual of an

e-mail search -- unless a probably cause

warrant for the search was granted. With

its ruling last week, the court did not saythat e-mail isnt protected by the Fourth

Amendment, Nojeim said. It just said the

case was not yet ready for court review.

The ruling means Internet users need to

pay attention to the terms of service they

agree to when signing up with an e-mail

provider, he said. The degree to which a

person allows information to be shared

with law enforcement officials can have a

legal impact later.

Nojeim pointed to several examples of the

differences in terms of service offered by

various providers that were cited in the

Sixth Circuits majority opinion. For ex-

ample, some agreements might say that a

service provider will not read or disclose a

subscribers e-mail to anyone except autho-

rized users; another might say that it will

not intentionally disclose e-mail except as

required by law; and a third might say that

the provider will not intentionally monitor

private e-mail messages, while reserving

the right to do so.

Jaikumar Vijayan, currently senior editor of

ComputerWorld, is k

nown as one of the

senior-most South Asian technology journalists.

continued from page 4


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GR: Ed really wasnt a hard character to

come up with. We all know people like him.

And I do think that at his core, hes an okay

guy, in a bizarre kind of way. He thinks,

probably rightly so, that there are hundreds

of other guys that would take his job in

a heartbeat, simply because theyd enjoy

popping a woman in the face and knowing

that there would be no repercussions for

those actions. Hell, they would be paid to

do it. He considers his job unsavory, but

necessary. He doesnt enjoy having to do it

but realizes that these people are better off

in his hands, so to speak, instead of in the

hands of a militant misogynist, for exam-ple. So, in his mind, hes actually protecting

them.

MZ: Ah yes, lesser evilism. A very amiliar

concept in an election year. I imagine you

will take some heat or the title Mother

Puncher and the act that its literal. Do

you think its easier or a woman to create

such a concept? What I mean is that you

wont have to deal with the accusations o

sexism and can ocus more on the social

realities you touch on in the book (e.g.

class, patriarchy, reproductive rights,

etc.)?

GR: Yeah, I figured Id take heat for the ti-

tle and the book itself. I havent heard any-

thing too bad yet, but I wont be surprised

when/if it happens. It might be easier for

a woman to get away with it. But maybe

not. It could just as easily go the other

way and in fact I just assumed it would be

feminists and women in general whod be

calling for my head on a stick. But, who

knows. I recently wrote a short story told

from the perspective of a child molester

and the editor told me that a bunch of his

initial readers were not only unsure of

whether to publish it, but also went as far

as to say, If this had been written by a

man, wed never touch it. So, I think the

whole issue of gender is a roll of the dice

when it comes to what readers will accept.

Or maybe they dont care at all. Well just

have to wait and see.

MZ: Gender issues notwithstanding, your

writing is usually described as Bizarro.

Can you explain?

GR: Sure thing. Bizarro is, for lack of a

better term, the genre of fiction that I cur-

rently write in. Its weird, its surreal, its

bizarre. Its distorted, absurd and twisted.Its David Lynch on paper. There are no

boundaries, really. For a better, more com-

plete definition of exactly what bizarro

is, I would highly recommend checking

out the website BizarroCentral.com. It

answers every question anyone could have

about the genre, in addition to a catalog

of bizarro books, articles, author bios and

an active forum where you can chat with

the authors and other fans. Its the best

jumping off spot for anyone interested in

checking out bizarro as a whole.

MZ: Where can you be ound on the Web?

A: I can be found on the web in several

places. I have a MySpace page (www.

myspace.com/ginaranalli), an online jour-

nal, and of course anyone can check me

out and chat with me at BizarroCentral.

com. I always love meeting readers, other

vegans/vegetarians, and kindred spirits.

Mickey Z. is the author of the recently released

novel, CPR for Dummies, and can be found on

the web at MickeyZ.net as well as YouTube.com

07 08

Mother Puncher

Mickey Z.

Uponfrstcontact with Gina Ranalli, it

was instantly clear that we were kindred

spirits. Gina is a prolific writer with a punk

rockers soul and an activists heart. Shes

a vegan, a feminist, and a wiseass rebel

who has written books known as Bizarro,

sold over 100 paintings, raised hell in punk

bands, and just loves her 1977 Fender Strat.

Ginas latest novella is Mother Puncher and

the lead character, well, punches mothers.

Specifically, he punches mothers just after

they give birth ostensibly to teach them

a lesson. Ranallis brilliant dystopian vision

never strays too far from what passes for

reality todayand thats where Mother

Puncher delivers the knockout blow (sorry,

couldnt resist). She holds up a mirror to a

clueless culture on a collision course with

oblivion.

Hereismye-mailconversationwithGina

Ranalli:

Mickey Z: Noam Chomsky once said: It is

quite possibleoverwhelmingly probable,

one might guessthat we will always

learn more about human lie and hu-

man personality rom novels than rom

scientifc psychology. What can Mother

Puncher teach us about human lie and

human personality?

Gina Ranalli: I think Mother Puncher

draws a very clear portrait and points out,

very blatantly, how as a species we tend to

look to our leaders and just blindly swallow

whatever it is they happen to be feeding

us that day. Human beings are very mon-

key see, monkey do regardless of how

preposterous something might be. People

are taught from a very early age not to

think for themselves. Were told what to

buy, what to eat, who to vote for, who to

hate, who to love, which God we need to

believe in. Its never ending and its both

sad and scary that so few people pause and

say, Hold up a second. I think FILL IN

THE BLANK is untrue or unfair or thats

not what I believe. The book takes all that

blind following to the next level. But it

also shows the rebels in the society, who

disregard the laws, but they do so basically

at the expense of the rest of the world.

There just are no easy answers.

MZ: Your protagonist, Ed Means, is aMother Puncher and he spends an

awul lot o time trying to justiy and

rationalize how he makes a living, where

he lives, and how he lives. For me, his

banality echoed Hannah Arendts writ-

ings on Adolph Eichmann. She discussed

a new type o criminal, who commits

his crimes under circumstances that

make it well-nigh impossible or him to

know or to eel that he is doing wrong.

How did the character o Ed Means come

to be?


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09

Most Van Clubs host a Truck-In orVan run or eVant every year. It justso happened that the club I was joining(Bluegrass Vanners) were hosting theirrun a month after I joined. This meant Iwas to be voted in at the van run. At yourfirst truck-in youre considered to be aPuppy Trucker and this usually involves

some sort of one time public humiliation.I carried a rock around (about the size ofa football) for about 3 hours. The stipula-tion of this rock was that I put it downand someone saw me, they could give mea bigger rock to carry. It became a verypopular and sought after item for a fewhours.

After being voted in I was allowed to wearmy club jacket which featured the Clublogo on the back. At every truck in youcan buy a patch for the event and thenyou put that on your jacket. Some vannershave long white butchers coats that are

completely covered in patches. This takesabout 30 years to do.

I have since been to3 more truck-ins,

one including the36th Van Nation-als. Vanning isnot what it oncewas. As far asattendance, Vanevents have

always beenprivate, van only

events, as opposed

to car shows, that areopen to the public. The

3rd Van nationals in Bowl-ing Green, Kentucky had nearly

7000 vans in attendance. This yearsVan Nationals or The Nats as they are

called, only had 500 vans in attendance.

What to expect at a van run?Van runs are usually three days long. Theyare hosted at camp grounds, and you set upa tent or sleep in your van. Friday is usuallythe first night of a run and its generallya good party. Saturday around noon, kidsgames begin, followed by horse shoes,cornhole, and any-thing else the hostclub comes up with.

Around 3 p.m. or sothe Show and Shinebegins where all theguys with show vanspark their vans in a

field and are judged by categories basedupon make, year, and how custom the vanis. Friday and Saturday nights there is livemusic, usually beer pong, and some kindof shooter bar. Van runs are the kind of

place where you can expect to make newfriends quickly and party your ass off.

So youre probably saying to yourself arethere still a bunch of wicked ass murals?Yes. Ive seen lots of murals, Amazonwomen, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Bill,Harley Davidson. The list goes on and on.

Vanners in a nutshell are a big familywho know how to party. You dont have tohave a custom van to be a Vanner you justhave to own a van. If you want to find avan club near you I suggest you check outVannin.com. If youre from Louisville and

you have a van oryou want to getone and join our

club please visitBluegrassvanners.com. We meetevery first Sundayof the month.

I Own a VanDavid Brooks

I own a van. Its notfull of ice cream orpluming tools. Its gotblue shag fur on theinside, a CB radio,and a functioning

tape deck. I boughtit this past Decemberbecause Im in a bandwe needed a biggervehicle to haul our stuffaround in on trips for comfort.I knew that when I bought the vanthat I was going to customize the insideto separate where our equipment went andwhere we would sit. What really ended uphappening is that I was introduced to a newlifestyle:Vanning.

I started looking for Van web sites on theinternet and I found Vannin.com which iswhere almost the entire online vanningcommunity presides. Through that site Ifound bluegrass vanners and asked to join.

The rules for joining were as follows:1. Attend 3 club meetings2. Attend one club social function3. Bring a bottle of whiskey to your fourth

meeting when you will be voted on.

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LattitudeZine.com August/September 2008 LATT!TUDE 12

Anarchy in Your Head

Dale Everett

I Aim to Misbehave

Lauren Canario is an early mover of the Free State Project (FSP) and one of my personalheroes. The first official Anarchy In Your Head comic strip was about her. Shes knownfor non-cooperation with authority figures. She abhors violence and her acts of remain-ing passive in the face of aggression are meant to demonstrate to the world whereviolence really originates. Ive been known to say that Id much rather have 20 moreLaurens participating in the FSP than 20,000 more political activists, keeping in mindthat I do not place myself in the same category. I dont have her courage yet.

check www.anarchyinyourhead.com for additional lighthearted chaos


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ShouldLuisgototrialonthechargeo

blowingupanairliner???

Well the UN Charter forbids providing

safe haven to a terrorist, and the Montreal

Convention on Aviation states that in such

a case he must either be extradited for trial

or tried in the U.S. So far both options havebeen disregarded. Cuba and Venezuela

have demanded he be extradited.

So how did Posada end up in Miami?

Well after a little 1997 bombing spree of

hotels (he told a journalist he was in-

volved), he turned up in Panama in 2000.

Now going to a University is usually a

good thing, to study and learn, but Posada

was up to his old tricks. Luckily, before

Posada could blow the building (and their

target Fidel Castro) sky-high, he was ar-

rested and the car full of explosives seized.

After serving a whopping 4 months of his

sentence, Colin Powell negotiated his early

release with an outgoing Panamanian

President. Posada surfaced in Miami, and

after some legal shenanigans is now living

freely. Id like to pose a question:

JustwhatwouldLuisPosadaCarrileshavetodoinordertoqualiyasaTerrorist,andstand

trialaccordingly?

Visit www.theplebsite.com for cartoons, poetry

and other random creativity.

13

Justwhatconstitutesa

terroristthesedays?

Sometimes it seems

that the term gets

thrown around at any-

thing someone takes a

disliking to, or as in

Joseph Hellers Catch

22 itll get used as the

trump card in any argu-

ment, like National

Security! or Were

fighting Communism!.

On October 6th 1976 a Cubana airliner, with

73 passengers and crew aboard exploded

in midair, there were no survivors. The FBI

files state that a man by the name of Luis

Posada Carriles was up to his eyes in

planning the operation, so where do youthink a man like Posada would be today?

A) in prison.

B) a free man.

C) that guy walking past me in the street.

If you answered A, brace yourself I have

something to tell you about Santa Claus!

If you answered B, well done, you are cor-

rect. If you answered C, if youre in Miami,

that may also be correct.

Heresthenastylittlehistory:

A CIA file (dated 18/10/76) quotes Luis

Posada as saying We are going to hit a

Cuban airliner. But what would the CIA

know about Luis? Trained in explosives,

and a trainee of the infamous Fort Benning,

in 1966 Luis was being paid $300 a month

by the CIA, previously hed helped recruitpeople for what became known as the Bay

of Pigs. If you want to know about his Re-

lationship to the U.S. in 1976then sorry,

the document is still massively censored.

In 1985 Luis was actually in the process of

being tried for the airliner bombing in a

Venezuelan Court (Hernan Ricardo Lozano

who put the bomb on the plane was an

employee of Posada). After escaping from

prison, he went off to help with CIA gun

running operations to the Contras.

Sun, Sea, Sand and Terrorism

The Pleb

Cuban billboard demanding justice for the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in October, 1976.


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lattitude zine - issue 9 - august/sept 2008

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