Police and Protesters clash at Zuccotti Park

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Police and Occupy Wall Street protesters clash at New York park where movement began six months ago 

  • Protesters gathered at Zuccotti Park on six-month anniversary of movement
  • Dozens of people handcuffed and led out of park
  • Movement looks to mirror ‘Arab Spring’ movement, though it has been largely dormant in winter months

By BETH STEBNER

PUBLISHED: 05:49 EST, 18 March 2012 | UPDATED: 10:19 EST, 18 March 2012

On the six-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, protesters swarmed its birthplace –Zuccotti Park – again sparking the cat-and-mouse clashes between New York City police officers and demonstrators.

The sweep of the park by police just before midnight capped a day of demonstrations and marching in lower Manhattan. There was no official word on the number of arrests but dozens of people were handcuffed and led out of the park.

Earlier in the day, 15 people were arrested and three officers suffered injuries, police said.

An unused public transit bus was brought in to cart away about a dozen demonstrators in plastic handcuffs.

Anniversary: NYPD officers clash with members of the Occupy Wall St movement at Zuccotti park in New York last night

Anniversary: NYPD officers clash with members of the Occupy Wall St movement at Zuccotti park in New York last night

Several arrests: A bus was brought in to remove the arrested protesters

Several arrests: A bus was brought in to remove the arrested protesters

One female under arrest apparently suffered a seizure and had difficulty breathing. She was taken away in an ambulance to be treated.

For hours, the demonstrators had been chanting and holding impromptu meetings in the park to celebrate the anniversary of the movement that has brought attention to economic inequality, as police mainly kept their distance.

But New York Police Det. Brian Sessa said the tipping point came when the protesters started breaking the park rules.

More…

‘They set up tents. They had sleeping bags,’ he told the Associated Press. Electrical boxes also were tampered with and there was evidence of graffiti.

Det. Sessa said Brookfield Properties, the park owner, sent in security to advise the protesters to stop pitching tents and to leave the park.

The protesters, in turn, became agitated with them. The company then asked the police to help them clear out the park, the detective said.

Many protesters shouted and officers took out their batons after a demonstrator threw a glass bottle at the bus that police were using to detain protesters.

Members of the Occupy Wall St movement are arrested by NYPD officers

Taken down: One protester missing his right shoe is pinned to the ground by an NYPD officer

The clash: An NYPD officer runs after a woman in green as those around her are being arrested

The clash: An NYPD officer runs after a woman in green as those around her are being arrested

Sandra Nurse, a member of Occupy’s direct action working group, said police treated demonstrators roughly and made arbitrary arrests. She disputed the police assertion that demonstrators had broken park rules by putting up tents or getting out sleeping bags.

‘I didn’t see any sleeping bags,’ she said. ‘There was a banner hung between two trees and a tarp thrown over it … It wasn’t a tent. It was an erect thing, if that’s what you want to call it.’

She said they had reports of about 25 demonstrators arrested in the police sweep.

Protesters reconvened at the park following afternoon marches through New York’s financial district. By 11pm, roughly 300 had gathered there.

‘This is our spring offensive,’ Michael Premo, 30, of New York told Reuters. He identified himself as a spokesman for the movement.

‘People think the Occupy movement has gone away. It’s important for people to see we’re back.’

Inspired by the pro-democracy Arab Spring, the Wall Street protesters targeted U.S. financial policies they blamed for the yawning income gap between rich and poor in the country, between what they called the one per cent and the 99 per cent.

The demonstrators set up camp in Zuccotti Park on September 17 and sparked a wave of protests across the United States.

Michael Moore

Famous face: Activist and outspoken filmmaker Michael Moore joined protesters and spoke briefly at the rally, calling it ‘the beginning’

Waiting: More than a dozen arrested protesters sit on the ground outside of Zuccotti Park

American Spring: More than a dozen arrested protesters sit on the ground outside of Zuccotti Park; protesters are likening the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring

Events got under way near midday on Saturday, with street theatre troupes performing and guitar players leading sing-alongs. Some boisterous protesters marched through the streets of the financial district, chanting ‘bankers are gangsters’ and cursing at police.

As they have in past marches, protesters led police on a series of cat-and-mouse chases. Marchers at the front of the crowd would suddenly turn down narrow side streets, startling tourists and forcing police to send officers on motor scooters to contain the crowd.

‘People are concerned that they have no control over their own democracy. They have no control over their own lives. This is the beginning. This park is sacred ground for millions across the country.’

-Filmmaker Michael Moore

The movement has made headlines for its clashes with police after campsites were set up for months in cities from New York to California. The camps were eventually shut down by authorities citing zoning regulations and public health concerns.

In New York, the Occupy movement lost significant momentum in November when a pre-dawn sweep broke up the encampment at Zuccotti, although Occupy protests in Oakland, California, in January led to police firing tear gas into crowds of protesters and more than 200 were arrested.

Protester Paul Sylvester, 24, of Massachusetts said he was ‘thrilled’ to be back at the park but said he hoped the movement would begin to crystallize around specific goals.

‘We need to be more concrete and specific,’ he said.

Critics say the Occupy movement lacks direction and clear demands.

It continues to draw celebrities, however. On Saturday night, independent filmmaker Michael Moore strode through the park before the police incursion.

Civil disobedience: Protesters that have been arrested sit on the ground in plastic hand cuffs

Civil disobedience: Protesters that have been arrested sit on the ground in plastic hand cuffs

Hovering: Police stand over a detained protester; one NYPD officer holds another set of plastic hand cuffs

Hovering: Police stand over a detained protester; one NYPD officer holds another set of plastic hand cuffs

‘I think it’s great that this movement continues to grow,’ Mr Moore said. ‘I think the goals are clear. People are concerned that they have no control over their own democracy. They have no control over their own lives.

‘This is the beginning. This park is sacred ground for millions across the country.’

As always, the protesters focused on a variety of concerns, but for Tom Hagan, his sights were on the giants of finance.

‘Wall Street did some terrible things, especially Goldman Sachs, but all of them. Everyone from the banks to the rating agencies, they all knew they were doing wrong. … But they did it anyway. Because the money was too big,’ he said.

Dressed in an outfit that might have been more appropriate for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the 61-year-old salesman wore a green shamrock cap and carried a sign asking for saintly intervention: ‘St. Patrick: Drive the snakes out of Wall Street.’

Chalkupy Wall Street: Earlier in the day, protesters chalked OW-inspired phrases in Zuccotti Park

Chalkupy Wall Street: Earlier in the day, protesters chalked OW-inspired phrases in Zuccotti Park

Stacy Hessler held up a cardboard sign that read, ‘Spring is coming,’ a reference, she said, both to the Arab Spring and to the warm weather that is returning to New York City.

She said she believes the nicer weather will bring the crowds back to Occupy protests, where numbers have dwindled in recent months since the group’s encampment was ousted from Zuccotti Park by authorities in November.

But now, ‘more and more people are coming out,’ said the 39-year-old, who left her home in Florida in October to join the Manhattan protesters and stayed through much of the winter.

‘The next couple of months, things are going to start to grow, like the flowers.’

Some have questioned whether the group can regain its momentum. This month, the finance accounting group in New York City reported that just about $119,000 remained in Occupy’s bank account – the equivalent of about two weeks’ worth of expenses.

But Ms Hessler said the group has remained strong, and she pronounced herself satisfied with what the Occupy protesters have accomplished over the last half year.

‘It’s changed the language,’ she said. ‘It’s brought out a lot of issues that people are talking about.

And that’s the start of change.’

Occupy Oakland: Arrests may top 400; City Hall vandalized

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January 29, 2012 |  4:39 pm

Photo: Protesters burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall on Saturday. Credit: Beck Diefenbach / Associated Press

Officials said Sunday that arrests from the Occupy Oakland protests the day before could reach 400 and vowed to seek restitution from those who vandalized City Hall.

Mayor Jean Quan said the city would seek monetary damages from protesters. In addition, the mayor said she would pursue “restorative justice” by asking that those deemed guilty be put to work picking up garbage and removing graffiti in East Oakland — a crime-ridden pocket where Quan has singled out 100 blocks for concentrated resources

Quan  condemned the local movement’s tactics as “a constant provocation of the police with a lot of violence toward them” and said the demonstrations were draining scarce resources from an already strapped city. Damage to the City Hall plaza alone has cost $2 million since October, she said, about as much as police overtime and mutual aid.

Police had their hands full dealing with protesters, some of whom smashed display cases, cut electrical wires and burned an American flag at City Hall.

Oakland has logged five homicides since Friday, added Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Johnna Watson. “If we have to take our law enforcement officers to pay attention to Occupy Oakland, then we are not serving the city residents who need us most,” Watson said.

News reports said 200 calls for police service had not been promptly answered Saturday night while officers were engaged in a cat-and-mouse chase with demonstrators.
Saturday’s Occupy action was publicized by the group as a planned takeover of a vacant building that would be “repurposed” as a “social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement.” In an open letter to Quan on Wednesday, the group warned that if police attempted to thwart the takeover, “indefinite occupation” of Oakland’s airport, port and City Hall could follow.
The takeover effort was unsuccessful.

Police prevented an afternoon attempt by protesters to enter the city’s idled Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. Demonstrators then headed to the nearby Oakland Museum of California, where arrests occurred after an order to disperse was ignored. One officer suffered a cut to his face when a demonstrator threw a bicycle at him, another suffered a cut hand and a third was bruised, Watson said. At least one demonstrator was injured.
Later in the night, marchers entered the downtown Oakland YMCA, where hundreds of arrests took place. The City Hall break-in occurred about the same time, officials said.
Throughout the action, some demonstrators threw bottles and other objects at officers. In a tactic that officials said they had not previously confronted, protesters also moved in on the police line carrying elaborate shields. One such shield, on display at City Hall on Sunday, was about 6 by 4 feet and built of corrugated metal on wood panels, complete with multiple handles. “Commune Move In” was painted on the front of the shield.
“The shields are becoming stronger, larger and more mobile,” Watson said. “We’re in a dangerous area for law enforcement…. We are being assaulted, and when we react to those assaults, we can’t penetrate shields like this.”
Occupy Oakland’s media committee issued a statement condemning the police actions, saying officers did not give demonstrators enough time to disperse before moving in to make mass arrests. Several journalists were detained along with protesters.
“Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart,” the group said in a news release. “These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD, who have already cost Oakland $58 million in lawsuits over the past 10 years.
“With all the problems in our city, should preventing activists from putting a vacant building to better use be their highest priority?” the group asked. “Was it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent?”

In a morning tour of the damaged City Hall, Quan pointed out that a room with a smashed door and toppled soda machine is used for classes for low-income, first-time homeowners.
City Council agendas and other trash littered the floor in the building’s grand lobby. Although some graffiti had already been removed, evidence of the previous night’s mayhem was visible in broken display cases. A student art exhibit had been damaged and wires severed in the building’s electrical box. Quan said video showed that the crowd gained entry after a man forced a crowbar between the front doors of the historic building and depressed the emergency release bar on the inside.
Near the door, a more than century-old architectural model of the regal structure was toppled in its case. Oakland’s City Hall was built after the1906 earthquake and “lovingly restored” after the 1989 Loma Prieta temblor.
“It’s really a symbol of how resilient Oakland is,” Quan said of the building. “And we’ll survive this too.”

Occupy Oakland: Police Teargas Protestors, Use Flash Grenades

 

Occupy Oakland Tear Gas

01/28/12 08:58 PM ET AP

OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland police used tear gas and “flash” grenades Saturday to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.

Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said in a release. No details on the officers’ injuries were released.

Police said the group started assembling at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and “destroying construction equipment” shortly before 3 p.m., the release said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, the release said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be “bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity.”

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was the mayor, who said she wasn’t briefed on the department’s plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included “serious concerns” about the department’s handling of the Occupy protests.

#OpMegaupload links by Anonymous trick users into attacking US Govt

 

20.01.2012

#OpMegaupload links by Anonymous trick users into attacking US Govt

#OpMegaupload links by Anonymous trick users into attacking US Govt

The latest Anonymous attack, dubbed #OpMegaupload and spread via Twitter, tricks internet users into clicking on an Anonymous link that instantly launches a denial of service (DDOS) attack on US government websites or any site of the hacker group’s choosing.

Distributed denial of service attacks effectively flood the targeted websites with large volumes of traffic.

According to Sophos, Anonymous has claimed it’s attacking numerous websites in this way, including those belonging to the FBI, US Department of Justice, RIAA, MPAA and Universal.

The attack seems to be inspired by theFBI’s shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload and the arrest of its founders.

The hacker group announced: “We Anonymous are launching our largest attack ever on government and music industry sites. Lulz. The FBI didn’t think they would get away with this did they? They should have expected us.”

These attacks follow this week’s internet blackout, where thousands of sites protested proposed US anti-piracy legislation.

“In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a programme called LOIC, which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Join Anonymous’ zombie army, go to jail

“This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army.

“Don’t forget, denial-of-service-attacks are illegal,” Cluley continued.

“If you participate in such an attack, you could find yourself receiving a lengthy jail sentence. I’m not sure if participants in this instance would get away with claiming that they innocently clicked on links by mistake, so make sure you always trust the links you click on, even if they’re shared by a friend on social networking sites.”

Occupy the Courts takes aim at Citizens United and Super Pacs

 

Controversial supreme court ruling allowing corporations such as Super Pacs to spend unlimited money in elections to be protested in rallies nationwide on Friday

US Supreme Court in Washington DC

The US Supreme Court building in Washington DC. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Hundreds of protests and rallies calling to overturn the controversial Citizens United ruling will be held at courts across America on Friday, including at the supreme court in Washington, where the 5-4 decision took place two years ago.

As a direct result of the ruling, critics say, voters in key election states have seen their living rooms turned into warzones in recent weeks. Attack ads funded by Super Pacs have flooded the airwaves in these battleground states, baffling viewers with their lack of transparency, and sparking complaints from whichever candidate for the Republican nomination they happen to target.

Friday’s Occupy the Courts protesters and their sympathisers say the supreme court decision allowed these organisations unlimited spending power. But, with nearly a year before election day, the negative campaigning from murky backers is only the tip of the iceberg, say critics of the decision, which was delivered two years ago on Saturday.

They say that the decision in Citizens United vs the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC), which turned rules governing election campaign finance on their head, has ushered in an era of “dark money”, undisclosed donors, secretive organisations and unprecedented political money, most of it from the super-wealthy. The 2010 midterms, critics of the law point out, were the costliest and least transparent in recent history.

The majority of voters who are aware of the ruling believe it is having a negative impact on the race, according to a poll by Pew Reseach Centerreleased on Tuesday.

“The supreme court has hijacked our democracy from us and used the court to legalise the theft,” said David Cobb, of Move To Amend, a grassroots organisation behind more than 100 Occupy The Courts rallies at federal district courts. “Corporate contributions to elections are not just contributions they are investments. They are literally buying and selling legislation.”

The supreme court’s decision struck down rules that prevented corporations from broadcasting “electioneering communications”. It held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited under the first amendment. Critics, including President Barack Obama, predicted at the time that the decision would open the floodgates for special interest groups to bankroll elections.

“In 2010, $300m was given to outside organisations to try to influence elections. That’s more than what has gone into independent organisations in the last 20 years combined. This is money from super-rich people, half of it from people that have never been disclosed,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizens. “The Citizens United decision was a message from the supreme court that Wild West rules were going to apply for campaign in election spending.”

Weissman predicted that, in the coming year, the spending by corporations would become “an order of magnitude bigger” and that “the spending of the Super Pacs is a hint of what is to come.”

In a televised Republican debate in South Carolina Monday, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich spoke out against the Super Pacs, despite each benefiting from ads run by groups supporting them. Gingrich, whose campaign faltered in Iowa after a series of attack ads funded by the pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future, described the Super Pac supporting the former Massachusetts governor as “totally secret and totally irresponsible.”

But according to the Center for Responsive Politics, pro-Gingrich Super Pac Winning Our Future has spent $4.5m boosting the former speaker and attacking his opponents while Restore Our Future has spent $11m.

Pro-Rick Perry group, Make Us Great again, spent $3.9m before he bowed out of the race on Thursday.

“These independent organisations and Super Pacs are funded by a very small number of super wealthy individuals and organisations” said Weissman. “That is a very concentrated set of donors who are able to exert a dramatic influence on the election outcome. These are not candidates, they are not held accountable.”

The relationship between the candidates and the Super Pacs behind them has been harshly pilloried by comedians Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart, with Colbert establishing his own Super Pac, The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC, under Stewart’s leadership.

As of January 20, Super Pacs, organisations ostensibly not directly affiliated with political parties, have spent $33m, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, much of it by Super Pacs.

But, according to reports, the two biggest conservative forces in outside spending in the US, the Koch brothers and Karl Rove, with his American Crossroads Pac and Crossroads GPS Super Pac, plan to steer $240m and $200m respectively into the election over the course of the coming year.

“There are probably fewer than 100 people who are fueling 90% of this outside money right now,” said David Donnelly, campaigns director at the Public Campaign Action Fund, an advocacy group seeking to limit political spending. “We are seeing more organsiations many whom won’t disclose their donors. But we know that their money will come from a very small slice of the electorate. It is people with millions of dollars who are fuelling the candidates.”

While voters may have had difficulty discerning who is behind Super Pac-funded negative ads, the FEC rules require them to disclose their donors by the end of this month.

But the Citizens United decision also paved the way for other outside organisations to spend money without disclosing who their donors are. In the 2010 election, 46% of outside spending, that is spending by organisations not affiliated with political parties, came from undisclosed donors such as not-for-profit 501(c)3s.

Lisa Graves, of the Center for Media and Democracy, described these sources as “dark money”. She said: “At least the Super Pacs are regulated by the FEC. They have to disclose who is making the donations and how they are spending them. That’s how we know that the Super Pac Restore Our Future is run by Romney’s buddies. But the ones that are not Pacs, the issues ads run by 501 organisations or charities, they don’t have to disclose their spending. It’s really dark money because there’s no public disclosure of who is paying.”

Still, Weissman said campaigners face an uphill battle if they hope to overturn the decision, which would require a constitutional amendment.

“Winning an amendment is very, very difficult. But the issue is so serious and the decision is so disastrous that we don’t have an adequate alternative.”

Weissman and Cobb believe the campaign against the decision is gaining momentum.

Occupy the Courts has been endorsed by many Occupy groups, including Occupy Wall Street, which plans to rally in New York despite the fact that they have been denied permission by the city.

Fifty city councils, including New York and Los Angeles, have endorsed resolutions to have the constitution amended. The New York resolution, made earlier this month, sought an amendment so that “the expenditure of corporate money to influence the electoral process is no longer a form of constitutionally protected speech,” and called on Congress to begin the process of amending the constitution.

A group of senators and congressmen, led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Ted Deutch, are calling for the constitution to be amended to overturn Citizens United, and related court cases that have altered rules over campaign funding.

Cobb said: “For hundreds of years in this country it was culturally accepted that the local, state and the national government had the absolute right to enact campaign financial laws in order to regulate elections, to outlaw bribery or the appearance of corruption and to prevent fraud. There’s an acuteness of the Citizens United decision that shocked most Americans.”

Oppose 968 and H.R. 3261

about > SOPA

Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits — without prior judicial oversight or due process  — in the name of combating “online piracy.” 

PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they’d only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose “Big Brother” controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.

<RANT>Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.</RANT>

Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 “Protect IP Act” (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA):

Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)

PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely

Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass – they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet — recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora’s jar of “chilling effects” and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.

Don’t believe it? Monster Cable has labeled craigslist a “rogue site,” earmarked for blacklisting and full-takedown under PIPA — resale of stereo cables by CL users reduces Monster ‘s new cable sales. (reddit).

There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised — they must be killed altogether.

Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.

Tim O’Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills. 

    Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:

    Six U.S. Lawmakers Abandon Anti-Piracy Bill Support as Google Protests

    By Eric Engleman and Derek Wallbank – Jan 18, 2012 1:29 PM ET

    Six U.S. lawmakers dropped their support for Hollywood-backed anti-piracy legislation as Google Inc. (GOOG), Wikipedia and other websites protest the measures.

    Co-sponsors who say they can no longer support their own legislation include Senators Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat. Republican Representatives Ben Quayle of Arizona, Lee Terry ofNebraska, and Dennis Ross of Florida also said they would withdraw their backing of the House bill.

    The Senate bill and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House are backed by the movie and music industries as a means to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods by non-U.S. websites. Hollywood studios want lawmakers to ensure that Internet companies such as Google share responsibility for curbing the distribution of pirated films and television shows.

    Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, covered the “Google” icon on its home page today with a black box and linked to a website that says the bills may spur censorship and slow U.S. economic growth. Visitors to that website are urged to sign an online petition asking Congress to reject the legislation.

    Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia run by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation Inc., shut the English version of its website for 24 hours in protest against the bills. The home page of the English website gives visitors information about how to call their elected representatives.

    Craiglist Action

    Craigslist Inc., operator of the online classified ad website, steered users to a page with a black background and a message in white letters asking visitors to “imagine a world without craigslist, Google, Wikipedia.” The San Jose, California-based company provided visitors with a link to a page with online tools for contacting lawmakers to voice opposition to the Hollywood-backed legislation.

    Rubio said he switched his position on the Senate measure, the Protect IP Act, after examining opponents’ contention that it would present a “potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government’s power to impact the Internet,” according to a posting today on Facebook. Blunt said in a statement today he is withdrawing as a co-sponsor of the Senate bill.

    Ross said he was withdrawing support for the House legislation in a Twitter post today. Spokesmen for Quayle and Terry said the lawmakers would no longer back the House measure. Cardin said he couldn’t vote for the Senate bill in its current form, according to a statement Friday.

    The Senate bill is S. 968 and the House bill is H.R. 3261.

    Occupy DC Passes Corporate Personhood Resolution

     

    Occupy Dc

    The Huffington Post Arin Greenwood Posted: 1/15/12 02:04 PM ET

    WASHINGTON — Occupy DC’s General Assembly passed a “corporate personhood resolution” on Saturday calling for a constitutional amendment ending the “judicial fiction of corporate Constitutional rights.”

    The resolution calls on Congress to “enact” the amendment (though it should be noted that Congress can’t actually enact a Constitutional amendment on its own — once two-thirds of both houses vote for the amendment, then the states also have to ratify it).

    The proposed amendment would also require “Congress to regulate campaign finance” and would mandate “public financing of public elections.” The resolution contains other “non-amendment solutions” for untangling money and politics as well:

    In 2010, the United States Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that independent spending on elections by corporations and other groups could not be limited by government regulations. This decision is only the latest in a long line of judicial rulings that have invented the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, affording corporations the same constitutional rights as people. The corrupting influence of money in politics, exacerbated by corporate personhood, subverts democracy. The Supreme Court has enshrined corporate personhood and interpreted the First Amendment to prohibit Congress from regulating money in politics. The only way to reverse these rulings is an amendment to the Constitution.

    We support an amendment that does the following:

    Ends the judicial fiction of corporate Constitutional rights.
    Requires Congress to regulate campaign finance.
    Mandates public financing of public elections.
    We also support these non-amendment solutions:

    Ending the revolving door between lobbyists and the executive and legislative branches of the government.
    Restructuring the Federal Election Commission to give it prosecutorial power and neutral, non-political commissioners.Requiring the disclosure and complete transparency of all independent political expenditures.
    Banning lobbyists from acting as either fundraisers or bundlers.
    We implore the DC city council, the Maryland legislature, the Virginia legislature and all legislative bodies to pass resolutions calling on Congress to enact an amendment and other solutions.

    We call on all people to exercise their civic duty by taking action, where possible, against corporate personhood and the corrupting influence of money in politics without waiting for the government to fix itself.

    Occupy DC reserves the right to oppose an amendment or other solution even if it adheres to the provisions above.

    Consent to this proposal does not require that an individual be completely in line with every piece of the proposed solution.

    This concern is one of many that Occupy DC will address. More solutions are forthcoming.

    Occupy DC is planning to participate in “Occupy the Courts,” a one-day protest taking place on Friday at the Supreme Court, as well as at other federal courts around the country. Citizens Unitedwas decided on Jan. 21, 2010.

    Occupy DC also plans to ask the District of Columbia Council to pass an anti-corporate personhood resolution, similar to the resolutions passed by the New York City Council and the Los Angeles City Council.

    Historical sidenote: The last amendment to become part of the U.S. Constitution is the 27th Amendment. This amendment says that if Congress votes to give itself a pay raise, the raise doesn’t take effect until the following Congress (in other words, if the 112th Congress votes for a pay raise, the 113th Congress gets the raise). The amendment was first introduced in 1789. It became fully ratified in 1992.

    Flickr photo by takomabibelot, used under a Creative Commons license.

    RELATED VIDEO: The trailer for “Hillary: The Movie” — the film at the center of the Citizens United lawsuit.

    Help Stop SOPA/PIPA

    You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it.

    Normally I shy away from telling you what to do with your elected representatives — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally and God only knows, we do…a lot. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know about and understand, because it affects us all.

    You are reading this on a  WordPress blog/static site and our goals are, to publish, to communicate things online that once upon a time would have been relegated to an unread private journal (or simply remained unspoken, uncreated, unshared) which makes you a part of one of the biggest changes in modern history: the democratization of publishing and the independent web. Because of our lower costs of operation we are not dependent on advertisers. We want them, yes, but not bad enough to sugar coat the real news.  Every time we click Publish, you are a part of that change, whether you are reading canny political insight or a watching a cat that makes you LOL. How would you feel if the web stopped being so free and independent? I’m concerned freaked right the heck out about the bills that threaten to do this, and as a participant in one of the biggest changes in modern history, you should be, too.

    PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

    You may have heard people talking/blogging/twittering about SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act. The recent SOPA-related boycott of GoDaddy was all over the news, with many people expressing their outrage over the possibilities of SOPA, but when I ask people about SOPA and its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA (Protect IP Act), many don’t really know what the bills propose, or what we stand to lose. If you are not freaked out by SOPA/PIPA, please: for the next four minutes, instead of checking Facebook statuses, seeing who mentioned you on Twitter, or watching the latest episode of Sherlock*, or Downton Abbey or even the 6:30 National News, watch this video (by Fight for the Future).

    Some thoughts:

    • In the U.S. our legal system maintains that the burden of proof is on the accuser, and that people are innocent until proven guilty. This tenet seems to be on the chopping block when it comes to the web if these bills pass, as companies could shut down sites based on accusation alone.
    • Laws are not like lines of internet code; they are not easily reverted if someone wakes up and realizes there is a better way to do things. We should not be so quick to codify something this far-reaching.
    • The people writing these laws are not the people writing the independent web, and they are not out to protect it. We have to stand up for it ourselves.

    Blogging the news and scraping the web for more news, is a form of activism. We are agents of change and you can support us and even join us. Some people will tell you that taking action is useless, that online petitions, phone calls to representatives, and other actions won’t change a single mind, especially one that’s been convinced of something by lobbyist dollars. To those people, I repeat the words of Margaret Mead:

    Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

    We are not a small group. More than 60 million people use the WordPress  blogging program— it’s said to power about 15% of the web. We can make an impact, and you can be an agent of change. Go to Stop American Censorship for more information and a bunch of ways you can take action quickly, easily, and painlessly. The Senate votes in two weeks, and we need to help at least 41 more senators see reason before then. Please. Make your voice heard.

    *Yes, the latest episode of Sherlock and Downton Abbey is THAT good. Stephen Moffatt + Russell Tovey = always good. Lets keep them available for our Childrens, children and for that matter lets keep PBS, broadcasting.

    On SOPA, Obama walks a thin line

    The White House is pictured. | AP Photo

    The administration did not take a definitive position on SOPA or PIPA on Saturday. | AP Photo

    Close

    By JENNIFER MARTINEZ and MIKE ZAPLER | 1/14/12 12:35 PM EST

    The White House waded into the red-hot online piracy debate with a statement Saturday that won’t satisfy either side.

    In a blog post penned by three administration officials, the White House said it opposes any bill that would make it easier for government to censor the Web or make the Internet less secure, but it stopped short of saying whether that includes two bills that have sent the tech industry into a panic.

    If that sounds like a careful effort to walk a thin line, it is: Some of the president’s biggest supporters in Hollywood and Silicon Valley and beyond are sharply divided over the bills, and the White House needs a way to keep both sides happy.

    The Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and Protect IP Act in the Senate are an attempt by business interests led by Hollywood to crack down on people pirating movies and music and stop the sale of knockoff goods.

    But Web companies and Internet freedom activists have cried foul, saying the bills would put restrictions on the Web in a way that could destroy the fundamental openness of the Internet and prevent the next generation of Facebooks or eBays from getting off the ground.

    And where President Barack Obama comes down has been closely watched — because of his image as a technology guy, someone who harnessed the Web and young Internet users to win the presidency.

    The administration did not take a definitive position on SOPA or PIPA on Saturday. But it was clear that the White House — while calling pirated movies and knockoff pharmaceuticals on the Web “a real problem” in need of a legislative solution — isn’t enamored of either bill.

    “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” the administration officials said. “Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. ”

    The authors — Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, OMB Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel and Howard Schmidt, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator for  National Security Staff — called on the bills’ opponents to do more than just fight the bills and to work on private solutions to piracy problems.

    “This is not just a matter for legislation. We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy,” they wrote. “So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the administration. ”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71445.html#ixzz1jSQryrlU

    Articles on Occupy Wall Street Sat. Jan 14, 2012

     

    1. Walkergate Expands, Top Aide Given Immunity… 
    Read @:  Crooks and Liars
    2. Bush’s Dishonorable Culture Of War Led To Marines Urinating On The Dead…  Read @:  Politicususa
    3. Open knowledge saves lives. Oppose H.R. 3699!… 
    Read @:  E-Patients
    4. On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America…  Read @:  Democracy Now
    5. Occupy third grade? A song that uses protest rhetoric creates furor in Virginia…  Read @:  Washington Post

    Homeland Security monitors journalists

    US Dept. of Homeland Security.

    US Dept. of Homeland Security.

    Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what.

    Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms.

    Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”

    According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.” Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency.

    Also included in the roster of those subjected to the spying are government officials, domestic or not, who make public statements, private sector employees that do the same and “persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland Security interest,” which to itself opens up the possibilities even wider.

    The department says that they will only scour publically-made info available while retaining data, but it doesn’t help but raise suspicion as to why the government is going out of their way to spend time, money and resources on watching over those that helped bring news to the masses.

    The development out of the DHS comes at the same time that U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady denied pleas from supporters of WikiLeaks who had tried to prevent account information pertaining to their Twitter accounts from being provided to federal prosecutors. Jacob Applebaum and others advocates of Julian Assange’s whistleblower site were fighting to keep the government from subpoenaing information on their personal accounts that were collected from Twitter.

    Last month the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk Massachusetts District Attorney subpoenaed Twitter over details pertaining to recent tweets involving the Occupy Boston protests.

    The website Fast Company reports that the intel collected by the Department of Homeland Security under the NOC Monitoring Initiative has been happening since as early as 2010 and the data is being shared with both private sector businesses and international third parties.

    Seniors close Bank of America branch. OWS Protest

    SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – It was a slow-moving Occupy Wall Street protest, but it was an effective one. A dozen senior citizens calling themselves “the wild old women” succeeded in closing a Bank of America branch in Bernal Heights Thursday.

    The women, aged 69 to 82, who live at the senior home up Mission street from the Bernal Heights Bank of America branch, decided to hold their own protest by doing what they called a “run on the bank.”

    Tita Caldwell, 80, who led the charge of women with walkers and wheelchairs, said that they’re demanding the bank lower fees, pay higher taxes, and stop foreclosing on, and evicting, homeowners.

    KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:

    ‘Wild Old Women’ Close San Francisco Bernal Heights Bank

    ”We’re upset about what the banks are doing, particularly in our neighborhood and neighboring areas, in evicting people and foreclosing on their homes,” said Caldwell. “We’re upset because the banks are raising their rates because it really affects seniors who are on a fixed income.”

    As they arrived, Bank of America closed and locked its doors, to the surprise and delight of the elderly protestors, who said that they had no intention of storming the bank.

    The women waved signs, but didn’t march or chant, with one woman on supplemental oxygen adding that the group was too old for that

    OCCUPY: Why It Started. Who’s Behind It. What’s Next.

     

    Ebook Ows Cover

    First Posted: 1/5/12 10:04 AM ET Updated: 1/5/12 10:13 AM ET

    OCCUPY. The movement started in early September in a small urban patch on Wall St. and soon the protests spread to other cities — Los Angeles, Sacramento, Boston, Chicago. It’s changed the national conversation, as reflected in the discourse of politics and media. It is perhaps the story of the year.

    This e-book chronicles that movement so far. It reflects dozens of original pieces and hundred of liveblogs by The Huffington Post staff. It offers fresh and compelling analysis from Arianna Huffington,Timothy L. O’Brien, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Calderone.

    We start with a look at the the roots of the movement, examining the larger issues, such as the financial meltdown and foreclosure crisis, which helped set the stage for OWS. We introduce you to some of the individuals behind the movement and others — from hitchhikers to college professors — who joined in. We track the protests geographically and politically. And we conclude by trying to place the movement in a larger context — and offer some reflections on where it’s going next.

    It’s clear we are only at the beginning, or as Arianna Huffington said in her introduction, “When future histories of Occupy are written, this will be just the first chapter.”

    Zuccotti Park Is Closed, But the Wall Street Bull Is Free

    On New Year’s Eve, demonstrators briefly removed the police barricades surrounding Zuccotti Park, but since the cops re-assumed control of the space it’s been completely closed to the public. The rambunctious demonstration on Saturday night wasn’t really an attempt to retake the park, one organizer said on Monday. But if protesters wanted to show just how frustrated they were with the city controlling their movements and meetings, the police response to their weekend action has resulted in a lot more of that same control.

    “I don’t think anybody really thought we were going to have our park back again, but I think it was just expressing our discontent at our civil liberties being taken away,” said Jason Ahmadi, a 27-year-old organizer with the Press working group. During the chaotic Saturday night demonstration, protesters took down the barricades surrounding the park and threw them in a pile. Police arrested 68 people and had aswear-laden confrontation with actress Ellen Barkin, who happened to be passing by. Sometime around 1:30 or 2 a.m., after officers patrolling the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square became free, the cops’ numbers swelled and the protesters’ ranks decreased to the point where police outnumbered protesters and were able to force them out of the park once more, Ahmadi said. The park remains closed, according to reports from the scene. Newyorkist shared this photo of the heavily policed, closed park via Twitter:

    With the park closed, the protesters had to seek out another location for their general assembly on Sunday. As the group’s General Assembly Twitter account reported on Sunday and Ahmadi corroborated on Monday, they got booted from a privately owned public space at 100 Williams St. and then a second alternate location at Maiden Lane before finally finding a space to hold their meeting. @DiceyTroop, an anonymous account that frequently tweets details of Occupy actions and meetings, tweeted on Sunday: “This is getting just beyond ridiculous. There’s nowhere where 50 people can stand in public in New York City having an orderly convo?” 

    But as the occupiers decried what they said was a crackdown on their freedom to assemble, one set of barricades that has been up nearly as long as the occupation itself came down on Monday: Police finally took down the barricades that had surrounded the iconic bull on Wall Street itself. And as this other photo from Newyorkist shows, you could probably get about 50 people on that little traffic island:

    Join #OpBlackout and fight SOPA + Internet Censorship Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA) is a bill that would create America’s first Internet censorship system.

    In a nutshell, its similar like the censorship in China, Iran, etc. For more info look at
    americancensorship.org

          


    January 3rd at 12:00PM EST BEGIN THE MESSAGING!

    Tell your friends, family, colleague, neighbours and everybody you know about the internet censorship. Go to Youtube, forums, blogs, etc.

    Take These Steps To Fight SOPA

    1. Petition

    This is a list of online petitions opposing to SOPA.
    Please sign up all petitions.
    This is the most important Petition. Follow these instructions
    1. Visit whitehouse.gov
    2. Click “create an account”
    3. After registration you get an activation Mail. Click the activation link in the E-Mail
    4. If you already have an account, just sign in (you can skip step nr. 2 and 3)
    5. Sign the petition “VETO the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information”

    Visit these sites and sign the petitions:

    Link 1,Link 2,Link 3,Link 4,Link 5,Link 6,Link 7

    2. Find your Representative and contact him or her.

    house.gov/representatives/find

    3. Call, Fax and Boycott these(Link 1/Link2) companies for supporting SOPA

    Find the companies Fax number and fax them this image.

    List of Senators and Companies that support, written, and advocate for SOPA: pastebay.com/147821

    Follow OccupyAllSt for Fax Storms. Download Tor and and spam the companies using myfax.com and this image.

    Use mailinator.com to create an email.

    4. Print flyers and protest.

    5. Download and spread this Flyer.

    6. Change your avatar picture on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook to one of these images.

    7. Share your ideas with us.

    We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. To the United States government, You should’ve expected us.

    What is SOPA and how does it work? The Stop Online Piracy Act explained

     

    By Nilay Patel on December 22, 2011 04:27 pm

    sopa bootleg stand

    I walk by a pretty good bootleg DVD stand a few times a month — the proprietor sets up at irregular intervals in Union Square just a few blocks away from The Verge offices in New York. Instead of just offering up ripped DVDs with handwritten titles in paper sleeves, he sells meticulous copies of the entire package from sleeve to disc label, and there are a few legitimate used DVDs thrown in for flavor. If not for the suspiciously low prices and the occasional printing error, you might not ever know the entire operation was operating in brazen defiance of the law.

    Stands like these are an important touchpoint when you read or hear about the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and its sister bill in the Senate, the Protect IP Act, or PIPA. Both bills attempt to deal with online sites that traffic in illegally copied content, but at extreme cost of remaking the architecture of the internet itself. That’s a high price to pay, especially since neither bill will actually curb real piracy: SOPA and PIPA are the effective equivalent of blowing up every road, bridge, and tunnel in New York to keep people from getting to one bootleg stand in Union Square — but leaving the stand itself alone.

    Let’s dig in.


    What SOPA and PIPA do

    Here’s what the government can do to foreign websites under even the most narrow reading of SOPA section 102 and PIPA section 3:

    1. Order internet service providers to alter their DNS servers from resolving the domain names of websites in foreign countries that host illegal copies of videos, songs, and photos.
    2. Order search engines like Google to modify search results to exclude foreign websites that host illegally copied material.
    3. Order payment providers like PayPal to shut down the payment accounts of foreign websites that host illegally copied material.
    4. Order ad services like Google’s AdSense to refuse any ads or payment from foreign sites that host illegally copied content.

    (These rules don’t apply to domains that end in .com, .net, and .org, which fall under US law — the government has been seizing US domains used for piracy since 2010, and just seized 150 domains last month.)

    That’s just the first part. SOPA section 103 and PIPA section 4 require payment processors and ad networks to shut down accounts if they receive the right kind of letter from a copyright owner — a system modeled on the heavily criticized notice-and-takedown provisions of the current Digital Millenium Copyright Act that requires a service like YouTube to pull down infringing content after the copyright owner complains. That system has been abused on occasion, but it ultimately works because it allows YouTube to avoid direct responsibility for the actions of its users —  it would have been otherwise sued out of existence.

    There’s no such balance of interests for the payment processors or ad networks under SOPA or PIPA: they simply have to block their accounts within five days of getting a letter, unless their accused customer writes back with a letter promising to come to a US court. A site like YouTube would remain protected under copyright law, but become extremely vulnerable to having its finances choked off by overzealous copyright owners under SOPA —  imposing a huge additional cost on new startups that host user content and effectively undoing the flawed but effective protections for those services currently in copyright law.

    SOPA IS A LAW BORNE OF THE BLIND LOGIC OF REVENGE: THE MOVIE STUDIOS CAN’T PUNISH FOREIGN PIRATES, SO THEY ARE ATTACKING THE INTERNET INSTEAD

    Oh, but it gets worse. Much worse. SOPA section 104 offers legal immunity to ISPs that independently block websites that host illegally copied material without any prompting from the government. That’s a major conflict of interest for a huge ISP like Comcast, which also owns NBC — there would be nothing stopping Comcast from blocking a foreign video service that competes with NBC if it could claim it had a “reasonable belief” it was “dedicated to the theft of US property.” And indeed, Comcast is among the companies that support SOPA.

    Now, you may have noticed that while all these rules are totally insane, they’re all at least theoretically restricted to foreign sites — defined by SOPA as sites with servers located outside the US. That’s important to know: at its simplest level, SOPA is a kneejerk reaction to the fundamental nature of the internet, which was explicitly designed to ignore outmoded and inconvenient concepts like the continuing existence of the United States. Because US copyright holders generally can’t drag a foreign web site into US courts to get them to stop stealing and distributing their work, SOPA allows them to go after the ISPs, ad networks, and payment processors that are in the United States. It is a law borne of the blind logic of revenge: the movie studios can’t punish the real pirates, so they are attacking the network instead.

    SOPA’s proponents argue that the bill will protect US citizens and corporations from the ongoing theft of property outside our borders; that the law is narrowly tailored to only punish those who profit from illegal content. Indeed, it’s possible the notice-and-takedown system for payment providers could potentially resist abuse: unlike YouTube’s reflexive takedowns, it’s hard to see a credit card processor turning off a paying account just because it gets an angry letter in the mail. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle, and the deep concerns about tinkering with the DNS system have never been adequately addressed by any of SOPA’s sponsors or supporters.


    Where SOPA is now

    Vrg_5926-1

    Last week saw a flurry of activity around SOPA as the House Judiciary Committee opened “markup” hearings, during which amendments are debated and the committee votes whether to bring the bill to the full House of Representatives. For a moment, it appeared as though SOPA co-sponsor (and Judiciary Committee chairman) Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) would breeze through the markup process and hold an easy vote, but SOPA opponents demanded that the committee first bring in technical experts to testify about the impact of the law on the internet —  the committee has only heard from content industry representatives until now. The hearings lasted for nearly 12 hours on Thursday and for several more on Friday until they were abruptly adjourned, with Smith promising that they would re-open as soon as possible.

    That now looks like it’ll happen in early January, but don’t expect the controversy to die down in the meantime — SOPA has been deeply criticized by nearly every company that does serious business online, but I’d expect the content industry to push back just as hard as we get closer to the second set of hearings. At the same time, outspoken SOPA opponents like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) will be taking the opportunity to promote the rival OPEN Act, which does away with the DNS redirect provisions of SOPA but still attempts to cut off payments to foreign infringing sites after hearings at the US International Trade Commission. And we’ll go through all of this again when PIPA comes up for debate in the full Senate after being unanimously approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee. This battle is far from over.

    Citizens of the United States, We are Anonymous.

     

    This is an urgent emergency alert to all people of the United States. The day we’ve all been waiting for has unfortunately arrived. The United States is censoring the internet. Our blatant response is that we will not sit while our rights are taken away by the government we trusted them to preserve. This is not a call to arms, but a call to recognition and action!

    The United States government has mastered this corrupt way of giving us a false sense of freedom. We think we are free and can do what we want, but in reality we are very limited and restricted as to what we can do, how we can think, and even how our education is obtained. We have been so distracted by this mirage of freedom, that we have just become what we were trying to escape from.

    For too long, we have been idle as our brothers and sisters were arrested. During this time, the government has been scheming, plotting ways to increase censorship through means of I S P block aides, D N S blockings, search engine censorship, website censorship, and a variety of other methods that directly oppose the values and ideas of both Anonymous as well as the founding fathers of this country, who believed in free speech and press!

    The United States has often been used as an example of the ideal free country. When the one nation that is known for its freedom and rights start to abuse its own people, this is when you must fight back, because others are soon to follow. Do not think that just because you are not a United States citizen, that this does not apply to you. You cannot wait for your country to decide to do the same. You must stop it before it grows, before it becomes acceptable. You must destroy its foundation before it becomes too powerful.

    Has the U.S. government not learned from the past? Has it not seen the 2011 revolutions? Has it not seen that we oppose this wherever we find it and that we will continue to oppose it? Obviously the United States Government thinks they are exempt. This is not only an Anonymous collective call to action. What will a Distributed Denial of Service attack do? What’s a website de face ment against the corrupted powers of the government? No. This is a call for a worldwide internet and physical protest against the powers that be. Spread this message everywhere. We will not stand for this! Tell your parents, your neighbors, your fellow workers, your school teachers, and anyone else you come in contact with. This affects anyone that desires the freedom to browse anonymously, speak freely without fear of retribution, or protest without fear of arrest.

    Go to every I R C network, every social network, every online community, and tell them of the atrocity that is about to be committed. If protest is not enough, the United States government shall see that we are truly legion and we shall come together as one force opposing this attempt to censor the internet once again, and in the process discourage any other government from continuing or trying.

    We are Anonymous.

    We are Legion.

    We do not forgive censorship.

    We do not forget the denial of our free rights as human beings.

    To the United States government, you should’ve expected us.

    75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy …a note from Michael Moore

    Friday, December 30th, 2011
    Friends,
    On this day, December 30th, in 1936 — 75 years ago today — hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them.

    The workers couldn’t take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime — it was do as you’re told or get tossed onto the curb.

    So on the day before New Year’s Eve, emboldened by the recent re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, they sat down on the job and refused to leave. 

    They began their Occupation in the dead of winter. GM cut off the heat and water to the buildings. The police tried to raid the factories several times, to no avail. Even the National Guard was called in. 

    But the workers held their ground, and after 44 days, the corporation gave in and recognized the UAW as the representative of the workers. It was a monumental historical moment as no other major company had ever been brought to its knees by their employees. Workers were given a raise to a dollar an hour — and successful strikes and occupations spread like wildfire across the country. Finally, the working class would be able to do things like own their own homes, send their children to college, have time off and see a doctor without having to worry about paying. In Flint, Michigan, on this day in 1936, the middle class was born.

    But 75 years later, the owners and elites have regained all power and control. I can think of no better way for us to honor the original Occupiers than by all of us participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in whatever form that takes in each of our towns. We need direct action all winter long if we are to prevail. You can start your own Occupy group in your neighborhood or school or with just your friends. Speak out against economic injustice at every chance you get. Stop the bank from evicting the family down the block. Move your checking and credit card to a community bank or credit union. Place a sign in your yard — and get your neighbors to do it also — that says, “WE ARE THE 99%.” (You can download signshere and here.)

    Do something, anything, but don’t remain silent. Not now. This is the moment. It won’t come again. 

    75 years ago today, in Flint, Michigan, the people said they’d had enough and occupied the factories until they won. What is stopping us now? The rich have one plan: bleed everyone dry. Can anyone, in good conscience, be a bystander to this?

    My uncle wasn’t, and because of what he and others did, I got to grow up without having to worry about a roof over my heads or medical bills or a decent life. And all that was provided by my dad who built spark plugs on a GM assembly line.

    Let’s each of us double our efforts to raise a ruckus, Occupy Everywhere, and get creative as we throw a major nonviolent wrench into this system of Greed. Let’s make the politicians running for office in 2012 quake in their boots if they refuse to tax the rich, regulate Wall Street and do whatever we the people tell them to do. 

    Happy 75th!

    Yours,
    Michael Moore

    Occupy Iowa: We aren’t trying to disrupt caucuses

     

     

    Occupy activists enter the Occupy the Caucus headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa.

    (Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

    DES MOINES, Iowa — The headquarters for the Occupy Iowa Caucuses movement is a spacious, coffee-shop like warehouse on one of the main streets of downtown Des Moines, where laid-back protesters mingle amid signs reading “Mitt – get bank $ out of elections” and “Give us liberty from corporate greed!”

    On Thursday night – after protesters lined up for free food provided with donations to the movement – occupiers gathered for a performance and civil rights panel that attracted perhaps 70 occupiers. (A small occupy tent city has been set up a few blocks away, though protesters spent $1,000 to rent the indoor space for the week.) About five hours earlier, 12 occupiers had been arrested at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters after they refused to move out from in front of the front door of the building, including a 14-year-old who was released into the custody of her father.

    The occupiers don’t see much distinction between the Democratic and Republican partiers, though the fact that President Obama is effectively unopposed for reelection gives them little in the way of targets on the Democratic side. Emily Allison of Des Moines, who was among those arrested Thursday, said she felt “betrayed” by Mr. Obama for his unwillingness to veto the National Defense Authorization Act and for not closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.

    “I thought he would stand up for the people,” she said. Allison, who was charged with criminal trespassing. She described Democrats as the “lesser of two evils” – but added that “after seeing all the money that Obama has accepted from the corporations and the bankers it’s difficult to distinguish the parties as two different things.”

    That’s a popular perspective among the occupy protesters here.

    “The main goal is to draw that connection between the corrupt culture on Wall Street and the corrupt political culture in Washington DC,” says Ed Fallon, a radio host and former Iowa Assemblyman who has emerged as one of the leaders of the movement in Iowa.

    Fallon says Iowa Republicans have falsely cast the occupiers as agitators who plan to disrupt the protests in an effort to “mislead the country.”

    Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn criticized the movement in an interview with CBS News earlier this week.

    “There’s really no more grassroots process in American politics than the Iowa caucuses,” he said. “So it’s a little puzzling why they’d choose to disrupt that process.” The Iowa GOP said this week it was moving the caucus vote counting process to an “undisclosed location” due to expected occupy disruptions, and is coordinating with local law enforcement to ensure the integrity of the caucuses.

    Fallon dismissed Strawn’s concerns, saying, “We have made it emphatically clear over and over again that we have no plans to disrupt the process on January 3.” Indeed, many occupiers say they plan to participate in the caucuses – but vote “uncommitted” as a protest against what they see as a corrupt political system.

    That isn’t to say they aren’t trying to disrupt the candidate events going on around the state this week. On Wednesday, five aggressively interrupted a Ron Paul appearance, including a 16-year-old girl who forcefully ripped down the Paul signs that the Texas congressman’s supporters put up to block her. (In response, Paul, who has offered qualified support to the occupy movement, commented on how “wonderful” he finds freedom of speech.) Seven occupy protesters were arrested at Mitt Romney’s Des Moines headquarters the same day, where they were protesting the candidate’s ties to nearby Wells Fargo bank, and five were arrested Thursday at Paul’s campaign headquarters, where they were protesting Paul’s proposal to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

    Right up until the Jan. 3 caucuses, the occupiers are vowing to “chase the candidates and their Wall Street cronies around the state of Iowa, dogging their heels at all their black-tie dinners and staged media events, drowning out their empty rhetoric with the strong, clear message of the 99%,” according to the Occupy Iowa Caucuses website.

    Fallon said the movement simply wants to “call them out” – both Republicans and Democrats – for ignoring the needs of the many to favor the wealthy few.

    “The opposition is trying to characterize the movement as a bunch of disgruntled renegades who are unwashed and uninformed,” he said. “It’s a game they’re playing to hype up opposition to what the movement is all about.”

    Ron Paul Praises Occupy Wall Street

     

    Des Moines
    While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. “In many ways, I identify with both groups,” Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and “the two-party-system,” Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines.

    Ron Paul 2007

    Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of support from people who aren’t Republicans. His comments that members of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are unhappy with the “two-party system” could fuel speculation that Paul will make a third-party bid of his own–something he has not ruled out.

    Although “some people like to paint Occupy left and the Tea Party people right,” Paul said, “I think it makes my point. There’s a lot of people unhappy, and they’re not so happy with the two-party system because we have had people go in and out of office, congress changes, the presidency changes, they run on one thing, they do something else. Nothing ever changes.”

    “The Tea Party and Occupy people are just tired of it all,” he said. “And they would like to see changes.”

    Paul praised the Occupy movement for focusing attention on the “very rich” who became wealthy because of government bailouts or contracts, but said that wealthy people who make an honest living “have to be protected. We shouldn’t be jealous or envious of those people.”

    Here’s a transcript of Paul’s full remarks on Occupy Wall Street

    That in a way is a challenging question, because along with that question, I get a lot of times asked about the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party movement started here, gets big, a lot of different people come in. I think the same thing has happened with Occupy. I put them together—I put both groups together. Because I think both groups are unhappy about what’s happening in Washington, and around the country, and the economic conditions. But their complaints are somewhat different.

    The Tea Party people basically say the debt is too big and we should shrink the size of government. Occupation seems to be more addressing the subject of the very rich, and I think that can be a mixed blessing in the sense that in my talk already I’ve criticized many people on Wall Street and the people who get rich because they get special benefits from the government, whether they get contracts or whether they benefit from the devaluation of the currencies, or whether they get their bailouts, yes, we should address that. I think the Occupy people are.

    But people who are wealthy in a free market who give an honest service or an honest product and they are rewarded by the consumer, they’re quite different. They have to be protected. We shouldn’t be jealous or envious of those people. So you can’t put them all together. So in many ways, I identify with both groups. There are some things the groups have changed a little bit. The first time the tea party movement was noted was December 16th four years ago when there was a spontaneous fundraising rally for our campaign. But it’s changed a lot. A lot of people come in. But I think it’s healthy.

    I think if some people like to paint Occupy left and the Tea Party people right, but I think it makes my point. There’s a lot of people unhappy, and they’re not so happy with the two party system because we have had people go in and out of office, congress changes, the presidency changes, they run on one thing, they do something else. Nothing ever changes. And I sort of like it because I make the point that if you’re a Republican or Democrat the foreign policy doesn’t really change, even though there’s a strong Republican tradition of the foreign policy I’ve been talking about where we don’t get involved in policing the world. Does the monetary policy change? Do they really care about reining in the Fed? Would the Fed bail out all these countries around the world? More and more people know that now. But monetary policy doesn’t change

    Do we ever cut back? No. There’s no pretense to cutting back. They’re not even talking about cutting back. They’re talking about a token cut to proposed increases. All that talk about cutting a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, they don’t even want to start until 2013, and then they want to string it out. And it’s just cutting what’s automatically built into the budget.

    But the Tea Party and Occupy people are just tired of it all. And they would like to see changes. And if the conditions get much worse, the demonstrations on the streets could get much worse, too. And that’s what we have to be aware of. But fortunately we still live in a free enough society where they can speak out. If they violate property rights, if anybody violates property rights, they do it at risk. Because that means they’re practicing civil disobedience and they might have to suffer the consequences.  But there are sometimes people believe civil disobedience in order to make a point on what’s wrong with our laws that’s, they have to understand, that’s the risk they take. But basically I think it’s healthy on both sides, both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy movement.

    Occupy Iowa

    John Nichols, The Nation Magazine joins Thom Hartmann. Republicans are making their final push toward Iowa. And with the caucus just one week away – there’s a three way tie for the lead. But there’s a chance none of them could walk away with a victory. I’ll explain what the 99% Movement is up to in Iowa, to derail the first contest in the 2012 race for the White House

    Police beef up security for Occupy Rose Parade protests

    Facing a protest by Occupy demonstrators, Pasadena police will bolster their already robust presence at this year’s Rose Parade.

    Pasadena police and Tournament of Roses officials have been negotiating with Occupy forces for several weeks on a plan that they hope will prevent any disruptions to the Jan. 2 parade. Pasadena officials are allowing the Occupy group to march on the parade route after all the official floats have passed.

    Protesters intend to march with large banners that decry wealth inequality in the United States and to unveil a few colorful “floats” of their own, including a giant people-powered octopus, said Pete Thottam, an Occupy spokesman. The octopus — to be made out of recycled bags and stretch 40 feet from tentacle to tentacle — is designed to represent the stranglehold that Wall Street has on the political process, he said.

    Planned speakers include Cindy Sheehan, an antiwar activist who lost her son in the Iraq war, local Occupy activists and possibly leftist documentarian Michael Moore.
    Pasadena Police Lt. Phlunte Riddle declined to say how many of the city’s 235 sworn officers will work on Jan. 2, when the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game are expected to attract as many as 800,000 people to Pasadena. But the array of local police, county sheriffs and state and federal law enforcement agents will be larger than usual, she said.

    “We have brought on some additional resources since learning that Occupy intends to demonstrate,” Riddle told the Pasadena Sun. “We use federal, state and local partners to make sure we have the appropriate resources on hand.”
    Riddle declined to say which agencies would assist the city. In the past the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have had a presence, as have the National Guard and the California Highway Patrol. Every year the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department enters into an agreement with Pasadena to provide support. Riddle said plain-clothes and uniform officers will be on hand.

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