Today, at about 5PM I was asked to have my effects searched by a man in a dark blue uniform who was armed and perceived dangerous.

But like last time I screwed up. My plans have been to say no, ask or say innocently something regarding the yellow line station across the street and go from there. In the least I want to take down the thug’s identification information, snap a few photos and hand out fliers I have printed out from FlexYourRights.org. Maybe walk up to the next 1 station and take it downtown over and over till he threatens to arrest me or actually does.

Sounds easy until you are actually standing there with 3 blue light gangsters staring at you with their hands on their belts… awfully close to pepper spray, a telescoping beating club and a handgun. While at the same time you have dozens upon dozens of people streaming into the station behind you.

This was the first time I’ve seen them setup behind the turnstiles. Normally the are just around the corner, just to the left side or across from them near the help booth and side entrance. So if it wasn’t for the fact that I have an unlimited rides card I would have been out $2.50. Perhaps I need to add that to my script. Asking for my money back.

So in any case all I accomplished was saying no, obviously annoying the thug and having him, after a few seconds of silent contemplation, telling me I had to leave. I said “fine” or maybe nothing at all and proceeded toward the yellow line station across the street. I doubled back in order to take some photos but I couldn’t get a shot through the windows because of the glare and I was not sure I wanted to push it by walking back in and snapping some pics. So I went to the yellow line. Hopped onto the W and went home. The suspected terrorist got away.

It takes most people a reasonable amount of mental perpareness to do what I’m trying to do. Hopefully next time I will be calmer and able to focus on what I need to do.

These are from June 19th, 22nd and July 7th. I see this on a regular basis. At least once every two weeks.

http://www.nytimes.com/…

In years to come, when the oil-and-gas billionaire David H. Koch attends a gala performance of New York City Ballet or City Opera at Lincoln Center, the building he enters in black tie will bear his name.

Mr. Koch, recently called the wealthiest resident of New York City, has agreed to contribute $100 million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater, which is home to the two companies. His gift will be the largest private capital donation in Lincoln Center’s history and a triumph in a period of growing economic uncertainty.

“They seem to like me there, and I like them, so I think we’ve got a deal,” Mr. Koch, 68, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from Boston, where he was traveling. “Its obvious that this theater needs modernization.”

“I’ve been going to the New York State Theater for 40 years,” he said. “I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless I was absolutely convinced that the quality of the work was world class.”

Mr. Koch, a major contributor to the Republican Party and supporter of conservative causes, was the vice presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. In 2003 he helped establish the nonprofit Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which supports free-market policies and promotes government spending limits. It split off from an earlier Koch-backed enterprise, now called FreedomWorks, which promotes similar goals.

He’s on the board of directors for both the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation.

There is just something wrong about all this…

The things that the libertarian movement could do with that kind of money. Assuming McCain/Feingold didn’t exist think of what the Ron Paul or Bob Barr campaigns could do with half that? Or what the Free State Project could do with 1% of it?

It’s one thing for a “libertarian” not to give money to the cause. It’s another to voluntarily give money to the State. Why not buy this theatre? Why not build your own? It’s not like he doesn’t have the money to cover the extra cost.

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Whether you love it, hate it, or have never thought about it, chances are some politician wants to ban it. “Welcome to the Nanny State Nation,” says reason.tv host Drew Carey. “Where the government minds your own business.”

Saggy pants, fire places, plastic bags, light bulbs, poker—it’s all been banned somewhere. Same with owning swine or fowl, feeding pigeons, owning pit bulls, and chomping on trans fats, a naughty little substance that makes food taste better.

Of course, smoking’s been banned in all sorts of places—indoors, outdoors, near doors, beaches, casinos, even private homes. America’s smoking ban craze began in California. So many bans start there.

“But is New York City the new California?” asks Carey? Smoking, trans fat, aluminum baseball bats, straddling a bike, wearing in-line skates or drinking coffee on a subway—the Big Apple bans them all.

Even if we don’t particularly like something we should be wary of banning it because every ban is backed up by the force of law. Plus, would you want to live in a nation that bans everything that offends someone?

Carey wonders when so many of us turned into “ban-happy busybodies,” and compliments the British on their more civilized approach to bans.

http://blog.wired.com/…

A group of high-profile progressive bloggers and libertarian Republicans are rolling out a new political action committee called Accountability Now to channel widespread anger over pending legislation that would legalize much of the president’s warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans, and grant retroactive legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the spying when it was still illegal.

Progressive author and lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who writes for Salon, and blogger Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake are spearheading the effort. They’ve hired the political media consultants behind a historic Ron Paul online fundraising drive to organize a similar “moneybomb,” set to go off on August 8.

“That is the day Richard Nixon resigned, and the idea is that 35 years ago when you did this kind of stuff, you were forced out of office, and now congress drops everything to make your crimes legal,” says Hamsher in an interview.

The campaign marks a milestone in the evolution of online grassroots organizing. The PAC is cherry-picking the tactics and tools that proved most successful in the presidential primary campaigns, and is using them to corral online support for the single issue of domestic spying. The PAC’s money pay for advertisements in the districts of the House Democrats who voted for the spy bill — potentially causing problems for those capitulating on the Bush wiretapping program.

Key to the new effort are consultants Trevor Lyman and Rick Williams, whose successful online money-raising effort for Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman, broke records last year. The pair masterminded a “moneybomb” drive called “This November 5th.” that brought in an unprecedented $4.2 million in contributions in a single day. A repeat effort in December raised another $6 million for Paul.

Now the pair have built a web page for Accountability Now where opponents of the spy bill can commit in advance to donating money to the PAC. Similar to the Ron Paul drives, netizens can grab Accountability Now badges to place on their blogs, which link back to the fundraising pledge page.

The moneybomb is only one out of several techniques, both online and off, that Hamsher’s Firedoglake is experimenting with to make offending members of congress feel the anger of their constituents.

Firedoglake has already hired Advomatic Designs in New York City and Advomatic Laboratories in Anchorage, Alaska to create an online VOIP widget that lets voters call their senators ask them what their stance is on the spy legislation, and to urge them to vote for an amendment that would remove the telecom immunity provision.

Using money its already raised, the group ran a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post Tuesday with bullet points explaining what’s wrong with the pending legislation.

The Senate is expected to follow the House in approving the new spy legislation Wednesday.

You can go to DownsizeDC.org to easily send the following message to your congress critters.

Please do everything you can to defeat the Senate version of HR 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Please use your power to filibuster.

You can also send Barak Obama a message asking him to lead the fight in fighting this.

Update:

Arstechnica has a brief article on the Bingaman amendment which is causing some stir.

Instead of immediately granting retroactive immunity to telecoms being sued for their role in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program—or, what amounts to the same thing, instructing a federal court to grant such immunity—Bingaman would stay the suits until 90 after the delivery of a report by the Inspector General’s on the president’s secret surveillance programs. Immunity would still follow automatically at this point, but the provision might provide an incentive for the administration not to drag its feet in complying with the investigation, and it would give Congress the opportunity to reconsider once it actually knows what behavior it is immunizing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and prominent immunity opponent Glenn Greenwald have both endorsed the amendment.

Perhaps tellingly, even this stay-and-delay provision is apparently unacceptable to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) write:

Any amendment that would delay implementation of the liability protections in this matter is unacceptable. Providing prompt liability protection is critical to the national security. Accordingly, we, as well as the President’s other senior advisers, will recommend that the President veto any bill that includes such an amendment.