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• That the West is supporting corrupt dictatorships when convenient
• That the West is a decadent, post-capitalist, imperialist society desirous of world domination
• That the NATO is aggressive and wants to expand to the borders of USSR (now Russia)
• That the Western radio and television are a mindless infotainment (pot/kettle here)
• That Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner, among others
• That Move bombing was an act of government-perpetrated domestic terrorism
• That the US police is armed, dangerous and may shoot first
• That black americans were an oppressed underclass until the middle of 20th century, and that racism is still alive and well among people in some states.
• That the West props up the apartheid regime in South Africa
• That the West props up Israel and pays for its wars
• That Israel is unfair to Palestinians
• That the West destabilized Afghanistan to to make it a thorn in USSR's side
• That the Vietnam war was a horrendous crime, despite what US Presidents said at the time
• That the West wants military supremacy over everyone else, and may use nuclear weapons for aggressive purposes
• That the US economy is a colossus on clay legs, supported only by mountains of green paper and by fear of global economic collapse (countries started replacing dollars with gold and euros only after 2000)
• ... and many other pure propaganda stories like that.

I would be quite impressed if you built your own - it was my understanding that getting small enough components was a pain in the ass unless you're buying in bulk. I could be wrong - if so, kudos :)

As I don't have the skills, knowledge, to do it myself I can't but a friend does. I don't know about the availability of parts though.

Senate bill would ban P2P networks

Because P2P has legitimate uses I don't see how the USSC wouldn't strike any law that outlaws them as an abridgement of freedom of speech. It'd be like outlawing printing presses or copy machines. But if they did I'd be joining those saying "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants", Thomas Jefferson. As for a broadcast flag, Court yanks down FCC's broadcast flag. On taxing of storage media the US has had that at least since cassette tapes came out. I notice the article theregister.co.uk which you find particularly bothersome, much as I do, is more than 3 years old. If I recall right the bill went down in flames.

# The inability [papersplease.org] to travel by air in the US if you're not willing to obey laws you're not even allowed to see

Yea, "Wired magazine" had an article about John Gilmore two or three years ago. To see if it was online I did the search above and see they have a bunch of others. I'll want to go through and read them, and save them on my hd along with other articles about it. I will after I post this.

trouble [wm3.org] you can get into if you behave counterculturally in redneck America

It's not like I don't know that, I've following the case of political prisoner Leonard Peltier who was falsely conficted of murdering two FBI agents and has been in prison for more than 25 years, as well as Mumia Ab Jamal another person falsely conficted of killings, in this case of police officers. Oh, and I wouldn't call it redneck America as there are many flavors of redneck, me for instance. I've been called a long haired or hippy redneck.

Actually because of my speaking out on different issues and policies of the US government I've been called a traitor or hater of the USA, or in the case of Israel an antisemite but I'm not, it's the policies and deeds I disagree with. While I hate politics I'm passionate about liberty.

As for restrictive DRM policies, in part because these policies are getting so restrictive the Creative Commons are getting stronger. And I see this as continuing.

I hadn't heard about Sarandon being involved with Peltier but I know she does a lot of political stuff so it's no surprise.

Yeap, here's a list of some of the vips who've signed petitions in support of Leonard Peltier.

When I was at Leavenworth, I worked on Peltier's Unicore furniture factory crew for a couple days. We had a discussion about Web sites (this was late '90's). He had a lot of sites discussing his case but he was interested in getting up some sort of "official" site, it seemed, and he was asking me about how to promote a Web site.

Some years have gone by since then but there is an "offical website" on Peltier's behalf, Free Peltier.org that's rather extensive. However I used to be active in a Peltier group at Yahoo!, Freedon for Leonard Peltier, and I seem to recall reading something about a fallout over the website so I'm not sure if Leonard is involved in it.

Waste of time - he's never getting out ever.

I hope he gets out but without something dramatic happening I don't see it. I'd say I thought the best chance he had of getting out was if Slick Willie, er Bill Clinton, had given him a pardon but while he gave out some to his cronies he couldn't give one to an innocent man.

Free peltier with rebate.
*informative, stupid*

I hope you can see the difference between a right and a conditional privilege. FOIA is one of the most important tools that the press has for gaining information about what the US govt is doing.

Yes I know the difference between rights and priviledges, and know all too well about FOIA requests. Leonard Peltier's legal defense team has been waiting year to get thousands of pages from FOIA requests of FBI records.

I hope you can see the difference between a right and a conditional privilege. FOIA is one of the most important tools that the press has for gaining information about what the US govt is doing.

Yes I know the difference between rights and priviledges, and know all too well about FOIA requests. Leonard Peltier's legal defense team has been waiting year to get thousands of pages from FOIA requests of FBI records.

Leonard Peltier, a citizen of the Anishinabe and Lakota Nations, is a father, a grandfather, an artist, a writer, and an Indigenous rights activist. He has spent more than twenty-seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Amnesty International considers him a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released."

This is the funniest joke I've seen on slashdot in quite a while. Of course, most /.'ers probably are not familiar with this
very controversial case.

I couldn't disagree more. Hawaii was colonized by military action in order to benefit America's sugar interests. "Indian" Reservations are administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, originally under the War Department. "Indians" were moved on to reservations, and forced to remain there by military force.

And there are many more examples of Government action on "Indian" reservations. The Pine Ridge Reservation shooting and ensuing investigation shows the willingness of the Federal Government to send an innocent man to jail for life.

As for Captial Punishment, in the US, the people think it is needed.

Certainly not all people, and likely not a majority. Most states don't have the death penalty. The Old Testament "eye for an eye" mentality may serve angst-ridden youth, but does little to improve our society and should not be adopted by our government.

That being said, I feel that our legal system is more fair than not. There are many places for improvements of course. The judicial branch is not the independent watchdog over the legislative and executive branches that it was supposed to be. But the rights of the accused laid out in the 4th and 5th amendments, Miranda v. Arizona, and other areas offer a better possibility of fair treatment.

In theory the legal system is well designed - various checks and balances, presumption of innocence, rights of the accused. But in reality it has flaws. Anybody who can not afford an attorney can attest to this.

Anyway that's my two cents.

The point is halfway there.

As for police fabricating evidence: here's an interesting story. Here's another. Here's another. And just in case you think this only happens in Canada, here's another.

Let's not even get into the number of death row prisoners cleared every year by DNA...