to directly in contact with everybody you've heard on the show and guys I you
know gentlemen John DeCamp ex-state senator 16 years defense attorney
Nebraska thank you so much and and Ted Gunderson 27-year veteran FBI agent
thank you and Barbara Hartwell thank you for just thank you for just being who
you are you terrific person I don't know and ladies and gentlemen before I go
again I'm gonna just announce that I've received a lot of inquiries across the
country from people who want me to examine their arrest cases involving
informants and drugs etc and I've decided to take on just a few cases on
a very selective basis not giving you legal expertise but my expertise as an
insider and a court qualified expert witness for 35 years I do have attorneys
that I recommend so if you want to reach me you can call 2 1 2 2 0 9 29 70 and
once again the fact-based novel triangle of death he studies bonilla don't they
get it's available for everybody a Stella Proxima mi gente mi gente
favorita
and it's eight o'clock you're listening to radio station WBA I in New York time
now for off the hook
Oh
I'm invisibler
Why don't you call me? I'd be a fly flying into it
Why don't you call me? I feel like flyin' into
I'm invisible, I'm invisible, I'm invisible
Always good to go straight to the source.
Welcome to SprintPCS. If you are an existing SprintPCS
customer, please press 1. If you are calling to activate your phone, please
your phone please press two. Here's the thing if I press one they're gonna ask
for my number and all these other things they'll know I have a touch-tone phone.
If I don't press anything I usually get a person.
Oh yeah I said usually didn't I?
All of our advocates are currently assisting other customers. Advocates huh?
Please hold and your call will be answered in the order it was received. To
ensure the highest level of quality service your call may be monitored. Isn't
this always so frustrating when you get put on hold you don't know how long you
have to wait? Especially when you're doing a radio show you know it's kind of
kind of annoying. I'll give it about 30 seconds. All of our advocates are currently assisting other
customers. Please hold and your call will be answered in the order it was received.
I'll give it about 30 seconds more and then we'll move on to something else.
Unfortunately this is the way most services are these days. Whether it be
Bell Atlantic, AT&T, Sprint, DirecTV. You just have to wait forever. Yes okay. All of our
advocates are currently assisting other customers. Maybe somebody can call for us
and find out. If you listen to some of the older shows back in the 80s early
90s whenever we call one of these places you instantly get people. Instantly.
What's happened? Are there that many more of us or are there that many fewer of
them? I think we have a lot more voice processing systems, a lot more computers,
but a lot fewer employees. Dear Off The Hook, yesterday I was walking home from
my friend's house when an elderly lady pulled over to ask for directions. I saw
a free Kevin sticker on her bumper so after giving the directions I asked if
she knew about it. She said yes and asked if I knew about it. I replied yes
and told her I've been following it for about two years. Anyway she opened up her
trunk and gave me and my two other friends bumper stickers. Then she told us
that she is Kevin's grandma and loves when people know who he is. She says that
elderly people don't care about it and this stuff. Then she left. I found out
that Kevin and his grandmother and his mother and grandmother live here in
Vegas. The most amazing part was that she gave me her phone number asked me to
call her said that they might have a party in January when he gets home and
said she'll invite us and introduce us to Kevin. Turned a crappy first day of
school into one of the best days of my life. Signed Monkey. It's amazing how many
people have actually met Kevin's grandmother in Las Vegas and really
learned a thing or two about justice, about family, about the importance of
sticking by somebody. So it's good to hear that. Let's hope it's a lot sooner
than January 2. Now another thing that we've noticed, we've been noticing for years
actually, the inflated cost involved with phone calls from prison. One
thing that is starting to happen is that there is more outrage at these high
costs. For instance, where Kevin is calling from now, it cost something like $5 for the
first minute and I think 75 cents or a dollar for each minute after that. And
what's crazy is it comes through those same companies, the exact same companies
that are advertising 10 cents a minute and really cheap costs. It's real hypocrisy.
Two California senators are trying to stop the state from collecting
commissions and collect calls made by state prison inmates, saying the practice
gouges the friends and families of prisoners. State Senators John Vasconcelos,
Democrat San Jose, Richard Polanco, Democrat Los Angeles, have asked the
Department of Corrections and the Department of General Services to end
the practice, which they say forces people who talk to prisoners to pay just
about the highest phone rates in the nation. The senators were responding to
complaints from inmates' families and a recent chronicle investigation that
revealed the state earns as much as 44 cents per dollar on each collect call
made from a state prison. Last year California collected 16 million dollars
from prison phone calls, which went to the state's general fund. The state is a
public service and not in the business to make profits off the people, Vasconcelos
said. For the state to make money off the people who can least afford to pay these
rates is reprehensible. The senators said they plan to talk with the Corrections
and General Services departments again this week, and if the agencies do not
agree to end the commissions they will ask Governor Gray Davis to intervene. If
Davis does not halt the process, Vasconcelos said, he will propose
legislation to stop the commissions. The senator's actions come at the same time
that MCI, which operates most prison pay funds, admitted it overcharged for some
calls made by California prisoners. The admission came last week in response to
a complaint filed against MCI by a consumer group, which said MCI was
systematically overcharging people who accept collect calls from prisoners. MCI
said its billing mistakes were isolated and denied widespread overcharging. In
California, state inmates can only make collect calls and they can only use MCI
or GTE, whichever has the exclusive pay phone contract in their prison. MCI
provides long-distance service at 33 California state prisons and GTE
provides pay phone services at four. It's funny because when Kevin calls it's
either AT&T or Sprint, so I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate. For each dollar
it collects on prison calls, MCI pays the state 44 cents, GTE pays 33 cents. Critics
say this process encourages the state to award prison phone contracts to the
company that pays it the biggest commission, not the one that charges the
lowest rates. Right now, long-distance collect calls from pay phones and
state-run prisons cost about 50 cents per minute, on top of the $3 surcharge
per call. That rate far exceeds rates charged to most other customers, except
for those making operator-assisted calls from places such as airports and hotel
rooms during peak weekday hours. Even on local calls, the prison rate is higher. A
15-minute collect call from San Quentin Prison to Oakland cost about $5. The same
call made from a pay phone right outside the prison cost about $2.55, and we all
know pay phones are exorbitantly expensive. If you make the same call from
a home phone to another phone, it probably cost about 10 cents. Prisoner advocates say
the high cost caused some families to cut off contact with inmates, which could
hurt society. Studies have shown that inmates who keep in touch with family
members are less likely to commit another crime once released. MCI and GTE say some
of the money it collects from prison calls pays for mandatory operator
assistance, added security features, and commissions to the state. Christina Polly,
Deputy Director of the Telecommunications Division, said vendors
must recoup costs for installing expensive equipment, and said companies
also run the risk of not being paid for many of the calls they process. There is
a much higher risk of uncollectible invoices for those calls. If the vendors
can't make a profit off these calls, she said, the state runs the risk of losing a
phone provider altogether. State officials say the Commission's California
collects pay for cost associated with monitoring inmates who use the phones. The state
will not disclose what it spends on such activities, but consumer
advocates, including Gerald Norlander, Deputy Director of the Public Utility
Project in Albany, New York, says the state's commissions far exceed its costs.
The state is currently re-bidding the pay phone contracts, which expire this
month, and had been expected to select a vendor before the end of August. However,
the process has been delayed because the governor has asked state officials to
delay any project that's not mission-critical until after February 2000
to avoid any Y2K problems. Polly said the General Services Department hopes to
award the contract in November, with implementation scheduled for sometime
after February 2000. She added that commissions for the state are likely to
be included in the new contract. If the state were to say no commissions, that
would not in and of itself change what the inmates pay, she said. The vendors
would simply take all the money instead of sharing it with the state. It would
not benefit inmates' families. It would benefit vendors, she said. I don't know. I
don't know if you can see through that kind of a statement. Many other states
also collect commissions on prisoner phone calls, but most of them, including
New York, Florida, and Ohio, send commissions to inmate welfare funds to
pay for books, prison education programs, and other inmate-related expenses. Only a
handful of states, such as Hawaii and Virginia, send commissions to their
general funds. On top of high rates, the Chronicle investigation also revealed
that customers are often overcharged for prison calls. Several customers provided
the Chronicle with bills showing rates that exceeded MCI's published rates.
Responding to a complaint filed in June by the Utility Consumers Action Network,
MCI told the State Public Utilities Commission it improperly charged a
higher rate on calls made by some prisoners. The Utility Consumers Action
Network submitted bills showing that MCI charged some customers higher-priced day
rates for prison calls that were made during cheaper night or evening hours.
Other bills showed customers being charged intrastate rates higher than
what MCI is supposed to charge, according to tariffs filed with the PUC. In its
filing, MCI admitted that it charged day rates on some night and evening calls
and said the intrastate rates it charged some customers do not exist. However, the
customer denied that it systematically overcharged customers. That comes from
the San Francisco Chronicle, and it's pretty much indicative of the way things
are nationwide. When Kevin calls and you ask for the rates, it's just
staggering. It's unbelievable. It's nearly $5 for the first minute and 75 cents
around there for each additional. Someone's making a killing off of this.
And what does it do? It makes people who can't afford to pay that much more
reluctant to talk to people who are in prison. And what does that do when people
in prison can't talk to the people at home who matter to them? It sure doesn't
make rehabilitation happen a whole lot sooner, I'll say that. All right, our phone
number is 212-209-2900. We're going to take some phone calls. Got some other
things to talk about as well. If you have anything on your mind, please give us a
call as well. Good evening, you're on the air. Yes, hello. Go ahead. Hey, you guys no
longer play the sort of cool ambient tunes in the background that you used to
do? I thought that was neat when you... Oh, we do sometimes. Oh, okay. We have to be in
an ambient kind of a mood. Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay, well, keep up the good work. Okay,
thanks for calling. Ambient music, yeah. Good evening, you're on the air. Hello. Go
ahead. How you doing tonight? What's up? A couple of comments and questions. Sprint,
Sprint, sorry, long-distance phone, cellular phone, Comcast, also goes under
another name. You know how you get so many free minutes per month on all your
phone programs? Uh-huh. Okay, I don't know if anybody else is doing this. You guys
would know better, but they give you, say, 300 minutes free. Under a new plan, they
have a family plan where you can have up to four lines per account, four phones
per account that are having four different separate accounts in a family.
Okay. They bill you for all the minutes you use, then they credit you for all the
minutes up to your allowable allotment, say, 300 minutes. However, they tax you,
state and federal, for all the minutes that you use. They tax you, even though
they credit you back for the minutes, they don't credit you back for the tax.
Really? They tax you as if you use the minutes? Right, even though you get 300
minutes for your plan, for your monthly service, they tax you for it, and they
credit you the minutes back, and when you call customer service, they go, but you,
they're crediting you for the minutes, you're not paying for them. I go, yeah, but
you're charging me tax for something that's part of my basic plan, and they,
the concept just doesn't sink into the customer service people. Well, first of
all, how are you able to figure this out? Is it clearly spelled out on the bill?
Yeah, well, if you just, if you just backtrack and look at the tax for the
total bill, you see that it's way higher when you have higher usage of minutes, and
then you just multiply, I think it's 6% for New Jersey, and I think it's
one and a half percent, or 3% for federal. Okay. And when you multiply it out, it
comes out that they tax you for the minutes that are free as part of your
plan. Now, they don't do it on their single plan, but for this family plan,
they, they do it in the, even the people in the, in the stores that sell this
service don't, don't understand it because they, this is something new. Well, it
sounds like someone slipped up with the programming, because obviously, if they're
not doing it on all their accounts, then that tells you right there they don't
know what they're doing. Yeah, well, and it just, it doesn't look right, and I'm,
I'm up to my third bill so far, and I'm looking to see if they credit me for
previous months paid, but even just to pay the tax and then wait for a credit
is ridiculous. Yeah, that's true. The company is Comcast? Comcast, and it goes
under Cellular One, who I think just got bought out by Southwest Bell. Okay, well,
maybe people out there listening who subscribe to that service should look at
their bills, see if that applies to them. If enough people call up, hopefully it'll
reach somebody. What I suggest to you, though, the next time you call, just
insist on speaking to a supervisor, somebody, you know, in the upper echelons
that might have a clue as to what you're talking about. Yeah, I did that
already, and that was like a, that was like getting a runaround. What I've been
doing is just deducting the tax that's, that appropriates to that, those charges,
and I've just been not paying that tax. Yeah, but you see, that's not going to do
anything, because they'll simply come up with, you know, a balance, and they'll put
interest and penalties on that, and you're not really gonna get anywhere.
Well, that's why I was hoping to get, to at least get the voice out there, maybe
somebody hears this. Yeah. Because the other thing is, too, if they charge you for
that, and the minute's a part of your plan, are they, in turn, turning around and
paying that tax to the state and federal, or are they pocketing that? Probably not. I
mean, I would, because there's no service. What are they paying for? What are you
paying for? You know, it's, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. One other comment was,
just, I heard this, and I've read it in a, you know, regular mainstream
magazine. I'm not sure if it's exactly true, but they're talking about all the
power companies testing for their Y2K, which happens to be a date they picked
arbitrarily, September 9th, 99. Coincidentally, you think that has
anything to do with 9999? I don't know. Maybe it does. Maybe they want to kill
two birds with one stone. Like, they could just bypass that day like it doesn't
exist, and just call it December 31st, and then when that, when the clock rolls
around, it's, uh, they have any problems? It's certainly not because of the four
nines, which I think under some programming is a, is a system shutdown,
right? It, it, it can be almost anything, depending on the programming, obviously,
but, uh. Okay. Well, something to look forward to. Yeah, it is. It's also something to look forward to.
All right. Thanks. Thanks for calling. Gotta look at these things with a sense of
adventure. Not foreboding. All right. Speaking of adventure, and for some,
foreboding, we do have information on H2K, the Hacker 2000 conference. Of course,
this is all assuming that we make it through Y2K okay, and that the country is
still here in another year. We'll, uh, we'll have that announcement in just a couple of
minutes, as far as when, where, that kind of thing. So stay tuned. Let's take a
phone call. 212-209-2900. Good evening. You're on the air. Hi, Emanuel. How you doing? I'd just like to mention that last week you had a person that said that this country's going to hell. I think it is in the following way. Well, we said it was going to hell on a bus. Right. Well, my way it's going to hell is because, I mean, you have payphones that charge you, like,
Colcats that charge you after you call an 800 number at a certain amount of time. I've seen people actually cursing at payphones. They're like, you mother f***ing payphone, you f***ing payphone, you f***ing disgusting. Okay, well, I'm very impressed with your, your, uh, your language control there. But, uh, yeah, people, people have been known to completely lose it. And also, I mean, do you know that if you want a discount on certain, like, busses, like, if you go on Greyhound, they make, I had a student, uh,
card. I have my student card still, my ID card. It doesn't have my age, it doesn't have anything, it just has a picture of me and everything. They say, oh, well... Is that PS23 or something? No, no, it's, the, the thing is, is that you have to, the, the, the bus line says, well, you have to have a student advantage card that you have to pay $20 a year for. I mean, why did you have to pay to get a discount? That's my logic. Yeah, yeah, well, that's, uh, that, that, that, that is logical, right? And that kind of frightens me coming from you. But, uh, thanks for calling. Go back to cursing at a payphone.
And, uh, we'll talk to you in the future. Isaac, welcome. Hi. What happened to you? It looks like you've been through this stringer. I have. Yeah. It, it's, as much as I love trains, they really just weren't on my side today. I was in a heated subway train before. It was great. You know, everybody kept walking to the next car thinking that... It was any cooler. And it wasn't. It was like, you know, this herd of people walking through one version of hell to another, all looking really sad, you know? It's like that scene from Dante's Inferno. That's what I was thinking. I was actually thinking of Dante's Inferno.
And they, they had to look, as they went from car to car. And some trains, you can't even go from car to car, so... Oh, yeah, some of the, uh, the, the N train, for instance, usually, uh, they have those weird... I don't know what the point. Yeah, they, they lock the doors. I don't know. How's the one-legged guy supposed to get from one car to another? Really, you know? Yeah. Anyway, so, uh, anything, anything new in your world? Oh, no, I, I'm just trying to collect people's problem reports from GPS. Uh-huh. Turn your damn phone off. Every time you come in here, some moron calls you.
I'm sorry. And, and, and, goes out over the airwaves. The, the, the last thing I was really expecting was a, a telephone call right now. It kind of slipped my mind to turn off the ringer as I was running into the studio. So, um... Anyway, yeah, the GPS rollover. Did you mention that, or...? No, actually, but if I'm going to mention that, then I got to bring up the theme. Uh-oh. For, uh... Well, because it's, it's, it's a Y2K issue. Uh, okay. And since we are on the countdown here, it's, it's practically the end of August. I mean, can you believe it? It's practically the end of August, so we're almost there.
The, the fuse is getting shorter. I was telling people that, uh, we're going to announce information about H2K in just a couple of minutes, but it's all contingent on us surviving.
Yeah, that, that could be a minor glitch in the plans. If we do not survive, then there will be no H2K because of the Y2K.
Oh, come on. Well, there can't be. Don't we have a, don't we have a rain-like venue or something? Do we have a rain planet? I don't think so.
Well, we'll need another locale of some sort to, to go to. Uh, but again, the, the plans will be a bit awry if, if, if, if Y2K doesn't quite work out to our liking.
True enough.
With that, we plunge into the, uh, the feature, which we sort of wish we didn't have to do, but we do because it's scary, it's frightening, it's just around the corner.
It gets bigger and bigger with every day that passes by. Of course, we're talking about Y2K.
Countdown to doom.
We don't have time for the whole theme, obviously, because we're running short, but basically, um...
That's okay, we'll get like 1,400 emails about who that was anyway.
Yeah, yeah. Here's what I have. Maybe you can tell me if this is close to what you have.
Shoot.
From the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center. GPS system time will roll over at midnight, August 21st and 22nd. Keep in mind this date has passed.
21-22, August 1999. 132 days before the year 2000.
On August 22nd, unless repaired, many GPS receivers will claim that it is January 6th, 1980.
January, uh, 7th will be, of course, August 23rd, and so on.
Accuracy of navigation may also be severely affected, although it appears that GPS broadcasts do contain sufficient data to ensure that navigation need not be affected by rollover in 1999.
It is not proven that the firmware in all receivers will handle the rollover in stride.
Some receivers may claim wrong locations in addition to incorrect dates.
Well, did we survive, or did we not survive?
Well, that's what's trying to be ascertained, um, on 21 August at 2359.
Well, this is what, 20...
This is 24 August.
This is 24 August?
Yeah.
Okay, so we have 21 August, 22, 23.
Right.
We've had three days now to realize...
Well, it was 13 seconds before midnight of August 22nd, uh, Greenwich Mean Time, that the Air Force uploaded that new week's, uh, set of instructions to the, uh, happy little GPS satellites spinning around our globe.
And what happened was, uh, that we only have 1,023 weeks to deal with, numbered zero through 1023.
It's a happy little, you know, register, and it rolled over to zero.
So, uh, some of you who, like, bought GPS receivers way back for, like, $800 probably, uh, got your commercial unit without, uh, with the manufacturer not thinking about this minor glitch.
So they're lost somewhere at sea?
Well, that's what the Coast Guard was worried about.
Uh-huh.
But, uh, as it turns out, some of the reports that I've heard were either just absolutely accurate, and the dates were screwed up on the display, and, uh, for downloading actual, uh, location data, or they were, like, on the other side of the planet.
Uh-huh.
Which is really kind of cool.
So, you know, nobody was off by a few yards.
You were either, you know, normal accuracy or way off.
So...
But I'm interested in more reports.
Yeah, I'd like to know, too.
Maybe we'll start finding these people in the weeks ahead, but, uh...
Help me!
Yeah, it seems like we survived this little step.
Sure enough.
The next one is September 9th, 1999.
All nines.
9-9-99.
Yeah.
It's the end of file code for some very early mainframe systems, which ought to be cute.
And then it's on...
To the big one.
To the big one.
As we march ahead, slowly, ploddingly...
What else can we possibly do?
We have to just walk right into this thing.
Like those brave people I saw before walking into the smoldering hot subway car.
We just have to keep going, thinking that maybe the next car will have air conditioning.
Who's to say?
So far, we've got the bus to hell and the train to Y2K.
Yeah.
We've got this whole mass transit Armageddon thing running, don't we?
We sure do.
Well, in the New York subway system, you can come up with all kinds of analogies and metaphors and things like that.
So we're down to four months.
Four months until the actual doom or whatever happens.
You ready?
Well, you know, I never thought that anything was going to happen to start with, and I still say that.
I still say that this is the most tremendously overblown thing in mankind.
A lot of people making money.
A lot of people making money and really taking advantage of other people.
But you're still planning on being what?
I'm vacationing in the Southwest.
Guam or something?
No, no, no.
The great American Southwest.
Oh, yeah, that'll be a fun place to be, in the desert.
Yeah.
Well, it's my vacation.
I just happen to have the whole South.
Well, I'm going to head North.
Okay.
Yeah.
Keep in mind this is going to be winter.
I know, but I don't think it's going to make that much of a difference.
All right.
I'm going about 40 blocks uptown, and I'll be at the Times Square celebration.
Oh, you're going to be there.
Because that's where everybody tells me I shouldn't be.
Okay.
And I've always been wanting to go where I'm not supposed to go.
Are you going to take pictures?
If it's allowed, I'll take pictures.
Cool.
Yeah.
I don't want to break the rules.
I don't know if you heard about this latest thing involving the Clinton administration's
latest bout of paranoia?
Oh, yes, I have.
Have you heard about this one?
This is incredible.
This is unbelievable.
I don't know what it is with this administration, but the Justice Department wants to make it
easier for law enforcement authorities to obtain search warrants to secretly enter suspects'
homes or offices and disable security on personal computers as a prelude to a wiretap or further
search.
That's according to documents and interviews of Clinton administration officials.
And basically, it sounds like what they want to do is just be able to go in there and covertly
enter your computer and...
I don't know.
I think they believe it's really easy.
Like, they can just go in there and install some magic device that will just decrypt whatever
is there.
You know, it's not like planting a bug.
You know, you got to figure a lot of things out.
But it just sounds like they're buying into this whole hacker myth that, you know, there's
good hacking and there's bad hacking.
And hacking on the side of Uncle Sam is good hacking.
And, yeah, you know, you can do whatever you have to do just to get the information.
Because you got all this child pornography and drug dealing going on on the Internet
there.
Anything is okay.
Well, I find the implications of this much more interesting so far as somebody getting
a warrant that, well, you're supposed to be served a warrant, at which point you say,
okay, I guess you have to enter my private property and do X, Y, and Z as designated
by the judge.
But this is supposed to be a secret warrant where they go to the judge, they get the warrant,
then they break into your home, fiddle with your stuff, and then leave.
This is basically a, you know, a green flag on all the black bag jobs that the FBI and
the NSA have been doing for years and years and years.
Yeah, except who have they been doing the black bag jobs against over these years?
Good question.
Yeah.
Because you don't hear about them because usually the evidence isn't directly admissible
in court because you can't break into somebody's house and steal stuff.
But, you know, espionage and international intrigue and things like that is one thing.
But this is different.
They're focusing on individual people in the United States now.
Yes, which is why it's scary.
That's extremely scary.
I mean, every week we come up with something even scarier than last week.
Last week I was shutting down a magazine because a company didn't like what they said.
Now, all of a sudden, you know, the government can go into your house and, you know, play
with your computer while you're not there and not tell you about it.
It's really frightening.
It's really frightening.
If you look way back in English law, the one thing that a king couldn't do was to enter
your castle.
That was your happy little, you know, cordoned off area of land where even he had very little
power.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, known as CCIA, denounced the Justice Department
plan to authorize secret searches and surveillance of private homes and offices.
The draft legislation revealed, in addition to the Washington Post, would allow federal
agents to obtain court authorization to break into private premises to obtain information
needed to monitor private communications or collect data or to alter computer equipment
to enable such surveillance.
Not since the Nixon administration have we seen such a desire to debase the privacy of
individuals in the Fourth Amendment, said CCIA President and CEO Ed Black.
I am dumbfounded that an administration that has experienced the overzealousness of the
government's investigative powers would sanction this attack on our civil liberties.
This is one big step towards the surveillance of society.
What was the plant evidence to add into your little list?
I just, you know, they come up with these really incredibly stupid ideas.
And then they wonder why people react so venomously against them.
You know, it's...
They're waiting for somebody not to speak so that they can just start passing this stuff
off without any kind of...
Well, they haven't yet figured out a way to pass bills without people knowing about that.
You know, secret bills.
Have they invented that yet?
I don't know.
I don't know what they're thinking when they do these things.
Then on the other side of the coin, we got this other situation here regarding political websites.
Have you heard about this one at all?
No.
Before the American Revolution, King George III ordered that all printing presses in the
colonies be registered with the government.
Today, the newly crowned King George II, George W. Bush, is trying to use his rapidly growing
power to force political websites to register with the government.
Presidential candidate George W. Bush has filed a complaint with the FEC against a website
that criticizes and satirizes him.
On August 19th, which already passed, the FEC will have their first hearing on regulating
political content on the internet.
If they rule in Bush's favor, the operators of political websites would be required to
either register with the government by forming a political action committee or face fines.
Registering with the FEC as a PAC is a complex process that would prevent many individuals
from publishing their views on personal websites.
When asked at a press conference whether the plug should be pulled on a website that discussed
drug use in his past, Bush said in front of several television cameras, yes, and added
there ought to be limits to freedom.
It's just like nobody gets it.
Nobody understands individual rights, individual freedom of speech, that kind of thing.
Nobody gets it.
Nobody understands the importance of that.
Or maybe they do.
Maybe they realize the danger of it.
Maybe that's what it is.
Well, freedom of speech is the most defended amendment.
I mean, you look at the Second Amendment, everybody seems to be, you know, falling over
themselves trying to propose legislation to register handguns and everything else.
I mean, you got ten of them, folks.
Just not the one.
I know the first seems really important, but there are some other ones there.
Well, I mean, the First Amendment is pretty damn clear.
Well, yeah.
The Second Amendment is like, you know, London Fog.
Not really.
Don't get me started on that.
All right.
Another time, then.
I mean, okay.
I'll just say this.
All right.
I should have nuclear weapons because I am not going to overthrow the government with
a pistol, all right?
And that's what the Second Amendment supposedly is for, for the American people to be able
to rise up against the dictatorial powers of the regime.
You're not going to do that with a bunch of people walking around with, you know, with
shotguns, rifles, and maybe the occasional Uzi.
You're not going to do that.
The Vietnamese may not do it.
The Vietnamese overthrow our government?
No, but they certainly kicked our butts.
Well, yeah.
You could go into all kinds of reasons why that happened.
Point is, you're not going to see any overthrow of the government in this country anytime
soon because we don't have tanks.
We don't have nuclear weapons.
We don't have chemical weapons, even though they're technically illegal.
We still manufacture them.
But we have the numbers.
But the thing is, the Second Amendment, nowhere in the Second Amendment are you going to find
where it says that I cannot have nuclear weapons.
That's in the U.S.C.
I have a constitutionally protected right.
Actually, is it in the U.S.C.?
Well, I have a constitutionally protected right to have nuclear weapons, and I will
protect my right to do that.
Power to you.
All right.
Who's with me?
Just email me.
We'll get a little group started.
I still cringe at the direct association with the Second Amendment and overthrowing the
United States government.
But that's what everybody, whenever I ask, you know, what do you need all these guns
for, they say, well, that's in the Constitution.
It's in case the government gets out of hand, we have to do something about it.
Well, in the Constitution, we're not supposed to have a standing army for more than two
years.
The only military force that's supposed to be active is the United States Navy.
United States Navy?
All right.
Well, this is a constitutional thing we've got to get into.
Another time.
We only have seven minutes left, so let's take some phone calls.
212-209-2900.
Let's go over here.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up, please.
Hello.
Yes, go ahead.
Yes, hi.
I was calling in reference to your earlier conversation regarding the prison rates.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Is this the person who was speaking?
Yes.
You're on the air now.
I'm on the air.
Okay.
I wanted to let you know that I have a brother who's in prison, and he is in New Hampshire
State Prison, and he's a bit of an advocate on behalf of the prisoners there.
And what he had done was he actually instituted a lawsuit against the prison because they
were charging those very ludicrous rates, and that was with a carrier called LDS.
And he actually was very successful in getting the utilities commissioner up there to take
a look at the contract and actually review the contract once again, because what was
happening was the prisoners' families were getting these really exorbitant bills for
these prices.
I think it was about $3.75 for a setup, and then it was, I think it was $0.55 a minute,
not as drastic as the rates in California, but just all the same, very high rates.
Right.
No, definitely.
Considering most of it's done by computer anyway, the idea of a setup charge is rather
ludicrous.
It's really, really just a stigma.
The stigma, unfortunately, extends to the, really to the families of prisoners who are
law-abiding and free citizens, and therefore really shouldn't be subjected to these kinds
of rates.
I called up the phone company.
I just couldn't believe how rude they were when they said to me, well, don't you realize
these calls are coming from a prison?
And I said, well, of course I do.
I said, but don't you realize that because a person is in prison doesn't necessarily
mean that there's a courtesy stigma that's just associated with their family?
I mean, yes, they're in prison for a reason, but at the same time, is it right for the
prison system to exploit free citizens who are on the outside and who are working and
who are paying taxes and just happen to have a loved one who's in prison?
Yeah, and in many cases are not amongst the wealthy of the society.
That is true.
In many cases, they are not, and it is a rehabilitative measure for them to have some type of contact
to loved ones on the outside, and that's both for male and female prisoners.
How successful was your brother?
What did he manage to get done?
He was very successful.
They did open the case.
They actually did not go to court.
They actually stayed the case and said, if we take a look at it, will you stop your legal proceedings?
And he said, yes, if it's basically something that is, I would imagine, something that was
more feasible for families to pay.
Yeah, something a lot closer to regular rates would be nice.
Absolutely, rates that they usually would pay if they were getting a call from someone else.
Or making a call, for that matter.
And what wound up happening was the telephone company, LDS, I spoke to their regional manager,
and he said they had reviewed it.
The governor of New Hampshire was going to sign this new bill, new contract, into effect,
and they were going to lower the setup from $3.50 to, I think, $1.50, and it went from
$0.75 a minute to, I think, $0.15 a minute.
Well, that's much better.
Yes.
I just hope it's true.
I hope that really does happen.
So do I.
These are supposed to take effect on August 1st.
But I would receive, I'm in New York, he's in New Hampshire, I would receive maybe four
calls to five calls a month from him.
And my phone bills, just for the long distance portion, would be anywhere from $100 to $140.
Oh, yeah.
And this causes all kinds of problems with Kevin's family as well.
Their phone bills are in the mega-hundreds per month.
Yeah.
It's horrible.
It really makes things very stressful.
It does.
And also, you know, it's the courtesy stigma.
They're extorting the families, number one.
And number two, you know, they're there for rehabilitative purposes.
They don't really give them much in rehabilitative purposes except for basic, you know, antidepressants
and anti-anxiety medications, so chemical management.
Right.
And the only outreach they really have or social support is through the phone systems.
Mm-hmm.
And now my brother's in New Hampshire, I'm in New York, I have to take a trip there tomorrow.
My trip takes five hours each way.
Right.
Imagine if they charge you double the gas price for driving to a prison.
Exactly.
It's the same basic thing, you know.
Exactly.
Or double the hotel price.
No, I'm going to the 7-Eleven down the street.
Really?
Yeah.
To stay overnight.
So I really appreciated your piece, and I really wanted to call in and just tell you
what my brother had gone through, and he basically turned around and said, no, this is wrong.
Well, that takes a lot of courage, especially being in a prison and challenging the system
like that.
Oh, yeah.
He usually does.
He's one of those so-called jailhouse lawyers.
I don't know if you've ever heard the word.
Yes, yes.
On the street.
But that's what they call them.
And he really challenges them, not only on that, but other types of things, too, that
he finds that are out of the ordinary or, you know, just related to prisoners.
Well, that's great.
As long as there's people like that, there's a chance that things will work out.
Listen, we're out of time.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
Give them our best and keep us updated.
I sure will.
All right.
The address to write to Kevin Mitnick again is in his new location, which hopefully he
won't be there too long.
He's being refused proper diet.
It's really shocking.
Kevin Mitnick.
Remember this number.
Very important.
990-830-0580.
Central Detention Center, 630 East Rialto Avenue.
That's spelled R-I-A-L-T-O.
San Bernardino, California, 92408.
And you can send letters.
You can send, I think, newspaper clippings, things like that.
And you can send money orders made out to that name and number.
And I think that's really needed at this point because when he was forced to leave the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Los Angeles, he didn't get any of the money that was supposed to
go with him.
So it makes things a lot more difficult.
And, oh, yes, we have to talk about the H2K, what we, in the last remaining 30 seconds.
Whoops.
Okay.
We have no time.
So basically, we'll just say very quickly, as we play our theme music, that H2K will
take place on July 14th, 15th, and 16th, 1999, in New York City.
And we will announce the location on the 2600 website this Friday.
That's www.2600.com.
So spread the word.
This Friday, the location will be announced.
Until next week, it's Manuel Goldstein for Off The Hook.
Good night.