What kind of a libertarian are you, Don?

You'll recall that, at the board's January meeting, Trustee Don Wagner led the board in its action of removing the American Library Association from the list of institutional memberships. Why? Because the ALA is a group of "liberal busybodies," is why.

How so?

Wagner empasized the ALA's opposition to "porno" filters placed on Library computers by the Feds. (The ALA says they filter out some non-porno.) But another example--of the ALA's busyboddery--that he offered is the organization's opposition to aspects of the Patriot Act.

You can hear Don's actual remarks by clicking below:

(about 4 minutes)

OK, so here's the thing. Looks like the Librarians were way right to question aspects of the Patriot Act and the government's powers and actions as they concern library patrons' records. To see what I mean, check out yesterday's article in the New York Times (Four Librarians Finally Break Silence in Records Case).

Essentially, the Times story is this: after offering assurances that it would not seek patron records, the feds (aka government busybodies) did seek those records from librarians; and when they sought them, they informed librarians that they must keep mum in perpetuity. Good grief!

Some excerpts:

Four Connecticut librarians who had been barred from revealing that they had received a request for patrons' records from the federal government spoke out yesterday, expressing frustration about the sweeping powers given to law enforcement authorities by the USA Patriot Act.

The librarians took turns at the microphone at their lawyers' office and publicly identified themselves as the collective John Doe who had sued the United States attorney general after their organization received a confidential demand for patron records in a secret counterterrorism case. They had been ordered, under the threat of prosecution, not to talk about the request with anyone. The librarians, who all have leadership roles at a small consortium called Library Connection in Windsor, Conn., said they opposed allowing the government unchecked power to demand library records and were particularly incensed at having been subject to the open-ended nondisclosure order.

"I'm John Doe, and if I had told you before today that the F.B.I. was requesting library records, I could have gone to jail," said one of the four, Peter Chase, a librarian from Plainville who is on the executive committee of Library Connection's board.
…..
George Christian, Library Connection's executive director, said he was the first one to receive the confidential request from the F.B.I., something long suspected by careful readers of the court record. Before Congress revised the law in March, such requests, known as national security letters, were typically accompanied by a notification that the recipient was barred in perpetuity from revealing "to any person" that the request had been made. National security letters have become a popular law enforcement tool since the 9/11 attacks because they do not require judicial review.
…..
"The fact that the government can and is eavesdropping on patrons in libraries has a chilling effect, because they really don't know if Big Brother is looking over their shoulder," he added.
.....
Mr. Christian said that he and the other leaders of library consortiums in Connecticut had discussed hiring a lawyer to lobby against provisions of the Patriot Act but had accepted government assurances that there was little risk of federal investigators seeking library records. "We trusted them but apparently we shouldn't have," Mr. Chase said, noting that his organization would continue to resist other aspects of the government's demand. [My emphasis.]

Trustee Don seems to view himself as some sort of libertarian--you know, the kind of guy who prizes liberty and who seeks to keep government powers to a minimum in order to protect our liberties. Do Libertarians trust the government? Not so much.

You'd think a libertarian would join the librarians in "busying" themselves to defeat such absurd buttinskular powers as are revealed here to be a part of the Patriot Act.

I mean, think about it. Suppose you're a librarian, and the feds show up and tell you to hand over patron records. "Yeah, but these people trust me. They're members of my community."

"Tough shit, Library Boy! Now hand it over! --And don't even think about telling anybody about this, cuz, if you do, you're headed up the river! You got that!?"

I think this stinks. (The new and improved version of the PA is less objectionable in that it makes clear that these Junior G-Men librarians at least get to hire a lawyer, but, according to the ACLU, the relevant sections of the Patriot Act remain seriously flawed. See the NYT article.)

--I know, I know. I'm forgetting that we can and should trust the government. If the Feds tell you that information they need is important, then you can be damn sure that it is! Right Don?

At this point, only an idiot would say that and believe it.

(See Wagner contra "liberal busybodies")

And we think WE have problems!

This morning’s LA Times (Westminster School Board) presents the latest installment of the ridiculous and disconcerting Westminster School District (WSD) saga—a saga that, in many ways, parallels our own ludicrous epic.

For reasons that remain unknown at least to the Times, two members of the WSD board (James Reed and Judy Ahrens) opted to change their votes a week after voting to offer KimOanh Nguyen-Lam the district superintendent gig.

There’s talk of a lawsuit. (For what purports to be an eyewitness account of the board meeting, go to Orange Juice, May 31. Be sure to read the comments, too.)

The Times hints at a possible motivation for the vote change:

In a city whose population is predominantly Latino and Asian but whose power structure is largely white, the vote to rescind the job offer split along ethnic lines: The two board members who remained backers of Nguyen-Lam are Latino, and the three who voted to withdraw the offer are white.

That doesn’t look good.

The Times rightly characterizes the WSD as in “disarray”:

Four of its top five administrators have quit in the last year, including the superintendent, Sheri Loewenstein, who announced her resignation after only 16 months. Teachers have been working without a union contract since September.

Two years ago, the tiny district, which serves about 10,000 students in Westminster and parts of Huntington Beach, Garden Grove and Midway City, narrowly averted the loss of millions in federal funding after dropping a fight with the state over extending protections to transsexuals and others in its antidiscrimination policy.

Back in November (Fuentes World), we noted that the WSD is one of three county districts that have been burdened by an incompetent right-wing majority:

Perhaps you know—and perhaps you don’t—that there are three notorious right-wing “Board Majorities”[BMs] among OC school districts. [Tom] Fuentes, being the sort of guy he is, has hovered in the background, and sometimes the foreground, of all three. They are: (1) the Orange Unified School District “Board Majority” (which was offensive enough to be successfully recalled in June of 2001), (2) our own SOCCCD “Board Majority” (which was much dissipated by the inclusion of Bill Jay and the awakening of Nancy Padberg), and (3) the notorious Westminster School District “Board Majority,” which has taken aim at laws requiring fair treatment for gays. (Re Fuentes and the OUSD Board Majority, see OC Weekly, 12/28/01)

Mark Bucher was the Orange Unified BM’s attorney—yes, he quit his contractor's business in favor of the law in 2000—but he was quickly fired after the BM was replaced. Later, he became the Westminster School Districts BM attorney.

These guys sure do get around!

Bucher was among the founders of Education Alliance, the Christian right organization that, along with the then-corrupt Faculty Association, brought us Wagner and Padberg back in 1998. (EA's seed money came from Howard Ahmanson, a Fuentes crony.) These days, Bucher is the treasurer for the OC GOP.

—You know, the group that Fuentes chaired for 20 years.

(One of Bucher's two partners in Education Alliance was Frank Ury, who is now Mayor pro-tem of Mission Viejo. Check out his blog: Frank Ury's Mission Viejo Blog. Evidently, Ury's an Ayn Rand fan!)