Vox Publica

I just got an e-mail from United at an e-mail address I haven't used for at least 5 years telling me they're going to start sending me their spams. I don't know where they got the e-mail address, though I guess I may have given it to them many, many years ago, but I do know I have never actually subscribed to their bulletins with that or any other address. Note that they're not asking for permission to start spamming, but just announcing they've found this address and they'll start doing it. What's specially infurating about it is that they don't let you unsubscribe easily. The unsubscribe link takes you to a page where you have to enter your milage plus number to do anything. But who knows what milage plus number I had a decade ago when I may have given them that address?

In any case, I was able to get out of the spam list by calling them at 1-800-589-5582 - but that meant I had to find the number and then spend time talking to someone.

As I see it, their spamming practices are yet another reason to avoid United.

A couple of days ago I finally made it to the San Leandro Library to get some fiction books. I'm a little tired of depressing non-fiction, what I usually read. But, as I realized when I got there, I had no idea what to get - so I figured I'd go to the internet, log into my account, and check out what Salon.com had to say. That was not to be. The library was blocking access to the book review section of Salon.com. As you can imagine, I was very indignant. For a library to block access to a book review website is the most absurd thing in the world.

Mike, however, explained that it wasn't their fault. Federal law mandates that they install blocking services firewalls that stop users from accessing pornography sites. Of course, it's up to the blocking services, such as Sonicwall, to evaluate what constitutes pornography - and apparently the book section of salon.com did. I'm sure they review a few razy books, but pornography? Give me a break.

As if that wasn't enough, they rated one of my own websites, torturers.net, as pornography as well. This was a project I undertook - and then abandoned - a couple of years ago, to publicize Americans guilty of or complicit in torture. No pornography here, though perhaps there is an Abu Ghraib picture somewhere, but I think I left those at my usawatch.org website.

Meanwhile, I wrote to Salon, letting them know what was going on (haven't heard back from them). I also wrote to sonicwall asking that they change the classification of the books review section of salon to "News and Media" (and of torturers.net to something like "politics"), and I did hear back about salon. They've decided to classify it at "Adult/Mature Content" instead. Well, that's not ideal - as I expect some if not most libraries still block this - but at least it's a matter that can easily be taken up with the library.

For the time being I did a California Public Records Act request to the library, to have them send me a list of all the websites they block. And of course, I requested that they stopped blocking salon.com and my own site, torturers.net.

We'll see what happens - I'll keep you informed.

Take care,

Marga

Walmart is known in the US for its inhumane practices against its workers: they paid them next to nothing, stop them from organizing and lock them up at night in closed stores. In Argentina, they have recently been accused of firing workers (or rather, "associates", nobody is actually an employee at Walmart) who talked about organizing. But they may be getting some outside help on techniques on how to treat workers. Their head of security is Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean hijo, nephew of General Iberico Saint Jean, the appointed governor of the province of Buenos Aires during the military dictatorship, famous for saying: "First we'll kill all the subversives. Then we'll kill the collaborators. Then the sympathizers. Then the undecided. finally, we'll kill the indifferent" . Saint Jean Hijo's father was minister of interior during the dictatorship and was indicted on 32 charges of crimes against humanity before his death.

Sain Jean Hijo is himself a retired military man, and while he has not been charged with any crimes against humanity, he worked under the orders of the notorious repressor Bussi in 1975, during Operation Independence, a "rehearsal" for the dirty war that took place in the small province of Tucuman. He also worked in Bahía Blanca, the hob of Navy Activity, during the dirty war. Now he works for Walmart.