Two Reasons to Blog Anonymously

I've never really considered myself an anonymous blogger, even though I blog under the pseudonym "Mike the Mad Biologist." I think about fifteen minutes of serious investigation would reveal my identity (nefarious as it is). It's more of a minor affectation than anything else. But two incidents in the past week illustrate why not having your name directly linked with criticism of Little Lord Pontchartrain might be a good thing.

First, via cookie jill, is this story about an anti-war activist trying to get a passport:

A local activist thinks the federal government is trying to prevent him from leaving the U.S. because of his anti-war efforts that included displaying pictures of Iraq war victims.

Thomas Hays, 38, says he applied for a passport with his birth certificate, Social Security card and Washington state identification card in February. He then received a surprise in the mail at the end of the month when the government said it needed much more documentation -- some of which is difficult to quickly obtain -- to give him a passport.

The State Department says it wanted Hays to provide "school transcripts, high school yearbook pages showing your name and photograph, religious records, medical records, (and) tax/employment records."

All the records, including a full residential record and the names, addresses and phone numbers of immediate family, had to be submitted within 30 days. Hays submitted as much information as he could, but a full employment record has to be obtained through the Social Security Administration, which can take three to six weeks and cost $52.50.

Definitely sounds like a terrorist to me. But the real threat to security? Professor Walter F. Murphy, emeritus of Princeton University and former Marine colonel who criticized El Jefe Maximo publicly:

On 1 March 07, I was scheduled to fly on American Airlines to Newark, NJ, to attend an academic conference at Princeton University, designed to focus on my latest scholarly book, Constitutional Democracy, published by Johns Hopkins University Press this past Thanksgiving.

"When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk. At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was wounded, and decorated for heroism. I remained a professional soldier for more than five years and then accepted a commission as a reserve office, serving for an additional 19 years.

I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said.

After carefully examining my credentials, the clerk asked if he could take them to TSA officials. I agreed. He returned about ten minutes later and said I could have a boarding pass, but added: "I must warn you, they=re going to ransack your luggage." On my return flight, I had no problem with obtaining a boarding pass, but my luggage was "lost." Airlines do lose a lot of luggage and this "loss" could have been a mere coincidence. In light of previous events, however, I'm a tad skeptical.

I confess to having been furious that any American citizen would be singled out for governmental harassment because he or she criticized any elected official, Democrat or Republican. That harassment is, in and of itself, a flagrant violation not only of the First Amendment but also of our entire scheme of constitutional government. This effort to punish a critic states my lecture's argument far more eloquently and forcefully than I ever could. Further, that an administration headed by two men who had "had other priorities" than to risk their own lives when their turn to fight for their country came up, should brand as a threat to the United States a person who did not run away but stood up and fought for his country and was wounded in battle, goes beyond the outrageous. Although less lethal, it is of the same evil ilk as punishing Ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticizing Bush's false claims by "outing" his wife, Valerie Plaime, thereby putting at risk her life as well as the lives of many people with whom she had had contact as an agent of the CIA. ...

I have a personal stake here, but so do all Americans who take their political system seriously. Thus I hope you and your colleagues will take some positive action to bring the Administration's conduct to the attention of a far larger, and more influential, audience than I could hope to reach.

In case you skimmed it, he's emeritus. Look, for all I know, the man has the vitality of an ox, but he's in his mid- to late-70s. Is he really going to storm the cockpit?

I must say, this all seems kinda Soviet....

More like this

Airline captain, lawyer, child on terror 'watch list': James Robinson is a retired Air National Guard brigadier general and a commercial pilot for a major airline who flies passenger planes around the country. He has even been certified by the Transportation Security Administration to carry a…
...and rank and file Democrats too. Once you get past Matt Taibbi's penchant for sexist imagery, he can actually commit some very good reporting (italics mine): Rather than use the vast power they had to end the war, Democrats devoted their energy to making sure that "anti-war activism" became…
I was on the TSA’s no-fly list up until six months back. Apparently "John Lynch" was a suspected terrorist - if so, he probably was in the Irish Republican Army in the 1980’s and thus receiving funding from a good number of patriotic Americans on the east coast during that time. It meant I could…
One of the truly valuable voices in the world on military issues belongs to David Hackworth. Hack is one of our most highly decorated military veterans, from his days as an underage merchant marine at the end of World War II through Korea, where he was the youngest captain in the Army, and Vietnam…

In case you skimmed it, he's emeritus. Look, for all I know, the man has the vitality of an ox, but he's in his mid- to late-70s. Is he really going to storm the cockpit?

Well, you know how the marine corps is chock-full of raving liberal types..

By Andrew Dodds (not verified) on 12 Apr 2007 #permalink

Oh, we're definitely not North Korea. The vast majority of us aren't forced into military service and we actually grow food for domestic consumption.

Also, there is no way Codpiece Accomplished is as psyched about Hollywood movies as Kim Jong Il.

The rest, okay, you got me there.

I have to confess, I've said some pretty nasty things about Bush on my blog (including that he was the world's biggest war criminal). I'm planning a road trip down to California this summer with my family and I started wondering a few weeks ago if anything will happen when I try to cross the border into the US.

Is there any way to find out if you're on a watchlist? I mean besides being arrested and sent to Guantanamo?

Anonymous blogging may be useful when you want to be critical of the government, especially in this political climate, but it also reduces credibility. I believe there is a time and place for anonymous blogging, i.e. this political climate, but it can also be abused as a cover for inappropriate or slanderous commentary. No offense to you, but I have more respect for bloggers who are willing to put their name and reputation behind what they are saying.

Regarding Prof. Murphy, I just want to point out this discussion on The Volokh Conspiracy that there may be more to the story than just the immediate issue.

For one thing, if he was really on the No-Fly list, he ought not to have been able to fly home without incident.

Given the methods of the Bush administration one can't be certain that this man wasn't put on the list for political reasons, but it should be noted that the method the no-fly list is based on is a 100 year old and very poor method that gives lots and lots of false positives (and works extra poorly on Middle Eastern names, BTW. It takes out the vowels and weights the remaining consonants.)

link

I thought that site was debunked, QQ. S3 put together a demo of how CAPPS might work in order to push their algorithm, TeraMatch. It doesn't use the real Watch List database (which nobody outside DHS has access to) and there's no proof that Soundex is the algorithm being used.

Now, the fact that the Watch List and the algorithm are not publicly available even through FOIA request and that there's no oversight mechanism for the Watch List or any validation by Congress or even a publicly available standards description of the matching algorithm are bad enough. We don't need to go making shit up to make CAPPS look like a horrible program, and I like to think that I'm on the reality-based team.

Anonymous blogging may be useful when you want to be critical of the government, especially in this political climate, but it also reduces credibility. I believe there is a time and place for anonymous blogging, i.e. this political climate, but it can also be abused as a cover for inappropriate or slanderous commentary. No offense to you, but I have more respect for bloggers who are willing to put their name and reputation behind what they are saying.

Personally, I'm not a blogger, and I do respect bloggers who put their names on what they write, but I think that the simple concern from many professionals is that they don't want their political blogs to be the first thing their clients or potential employers see popping out of a google search. I'm happy to state my views and stand behind them personally in a political discussion, but I wouldn't necessarily put one of my more political posts in a cover letter on my resume, even though I stand solidly behind those words.

By Troublesome Frog (not verified) on 12 Apr 2007 #permalink

Brian, I am sure you are aware that all of you need passports to go to even Canada or Mexico now.

I have one already :)

On the other hand, not only do I blog anonymously, but hardly a half dozen people I know even know I have one. A couple of well-placed court orders would likely find out everything on most of us.

im not surprised ..my phone is tapped... my son is a biochemist who teaches and he flies planes and we're african american ......a potential teerrorist, ya know

though ill admit the one that REALLY scared me is the time a helicopter started following him around when he was walking down the street (though in the back of my mind they do that to a lot of people in this neighborhood)

and No im NOT kidding

By brightmoon (not verified) on 13 Apr 2007 #permalink