Jim Bell photos: http://www.mccullagh.org/cgi-bin/photosearch.cgi?name=jim+bell Day-by-day articles on Jim Bell's trial: http://www.cluebot.com/search.pl?topic=ap-politics --- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48779,00.html One of the Internet's most famous essayists is now in the same prison that once housed the most famous hacker. Jim Bell, the author of Assassination Politics, has been moved to the Lompoc ("lahm-poke"), California federal prison. It's the same place that convicted cracker Kevin Mitnick once called home. "I'm assigned out in the rec yard, the recreation yard, but there's really not much work to be done, occasionally picking up a cigarette butt or two," says Bell, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year for allegedly stalking federal agents. Bell says he was trying to investigate government wrongdoing. Bell describes Lompoc, located between Los Angeles and San Francisco, as "old and decrepit, and the place is corrupt and the guards are lazy." Previously, Bell was being held at the SeaTac prison near Tacoma, Washington, where his trial took place. Since he's got some time to kill, Bell has busied himself by filing civil lawsuits against people he alleges were involved in an orchestrated plot to deny him a fair trial and an unbiased, court-appointed defense counsel. So far he's targeted two judges, at least two prosecutors, and his former probation officers and defense attorneys. Bell says he hasn't had any response yet -- and is going to try to obtain a default judgment against the defendants. "I continue to remain astonished that I haven't received any answer out of my lawsuit yet. It doesn't bother me as long as I collect the money. I think I've hit a nerve." He's looking forward to "garnishment and putting liens on various people's property. If they wanted to write me a check, I'd take a check, I guess. But if they want me to go through the usual methods to collect it, I'll do that too."