Slashdot Mirror

Also check out this video interview with one of the organizers.

Not only does FreeGeek help with similar things, they were involved in this specific project too.

If you want to argue that an FBI agent looking for al Qaeda members should not be able to go to Google and type in `al Qaeda' (the situation before USA PATRIOT and the attendant executive orders), go ahead, but I can't see any grounds for considering allowing him to do so a diminishment of anyone's rights.

"FBI and CIA can now go from phone to phone, computer to computer without demonstrating that each is even being used by a suspect or target of an order. The government may now serve a single wiretap, FISA wiretap or pen/trap order on any person or entity nationwide, regardless of whether that person or entity is named in the order. The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal investigation. In the pen/trap or FISA situations, they do not even have to report where they served the order or what information they received." -- Sec 1.B

Quashing of protest: try this for size peaceful Anti-Bush demonstrators in Portland getting the shit kicked out of them by riot police.

Next point? OK: the supreme court which gave the job to Bush is ruled republican appointees. And I note you dodge the issue about striking black, poor democratic voters from the rolls by classifying them as felons from Texas....

And the fact that a complete recount, of all votes, gave the job to Gore.

Bottom line: being able to take an American off the street, class them as an enemy combatant on *NO* public evidence, lock them up without access to a lawyer for as long as the President likes, is the current state of the game.

It is against everything this country has ever stood for and must be changed.

You simply make an economic, rational descision. South America, or whereever it is we as an industrial nation plan to steal water from, is probably too far away, as are the politicians in Washington (both geographically and in state of mind).

Pick the things that need to be addressed right before your nose - I do not know the reason for smog in Vermont, but the least thing you can do is contact your local activists and organize to pressure local politicians to change the things that go wrong.
A good place to start may be the indymedia site to find local groups.
Stop whining, keep you head down and DO something.

Believe me, watching CNN only makes you depressive. Cheer up. As Ghandi once said:"Whatever you do is insignificant, but it's very important that you do it."

Cheers
Ahaldra

PS: You may like the film Cube ;)

Check Indymedia video page with material from 90 grassroots indie groups worldwide and my new project, a video portal using a hacked version of Scoop.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Siva Vaidhyanathan, which appeared on this very site. And I just posted the full, uncut version over here. It's a few pages longer than what was posted here.

Good luck at NYU, Siva!

-- haaz

ps - haaz.net is temporarily down.

would that really work that well?

In recent weeks I have written six articles for madison.indymedia.org, the local chapter of the Independent Media Center. IMC is "a collective of media activists involved in radio, television, publishing, and much more." As someone on here pointed out, they have a strong left/radical "bias," which is the direct opposite of what's on CNN/Faux News. (And rapidly the rest of the mainstream media. [insert rant here])

The biggest difference is not the "spin" of many of its reports, but the fact that it is run and written by people who want to become the media, be the media. It's a really freaking cool thing, if you ask me. It's got old school punk music's DIY attitude, and unlike so much mainstream media, it will actually tell you what's going on. (Compare the coverage of the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors here in Madison if you need proof.)

Yes, some people within it have the "obligatory" anti-corporate attitude, but really, this is real news made by real people. It's good. Check it out!

In recent weeks I have written six articles for madison.indymedia.org, the local chapter of the Independent Media Center. IMC is "a collective of media activists involved in radio, television, publishing, and much more." As someone on here pointed out, they have a strong left/radical "bias," which is the direct opposite of what's on CNN/Faux News. (And rapidly the rest of the mainstream media. [insert rant here])

The biggest difference is not the "spin" of many of its reports, but the fact that it is run and written by people who want to become the media, be the media. It's a really freaking cool thing, if you ask me. It's got old school punk music's DIY attitude, and unlike so much mainstream media, it will actually tell you what's going on. (Compare the coverage of the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors here in Madison if you need proof.)

Yes, some people within it have the "obligatory" anti-corporate attitude, but really, this is real news made by real people. It's good. Check it out!

The RCMP may be more interested in blocking activist microradio broadcasts, and possibly community radio stations providing a forum for activists, than "stopping potential terrorists".

This bunch of leftist idiots fulfills every last stereotype about leftists, including anti-Semitism and support for terrorism.

Check out this site, for example. Supposedly a "Palestine IMC", it's full of anti-Jewish ranting and Palestinian propaganda. Hell, they still act like Jenin was a massacre, instead of a hard-fought battle against guerilla fighters in an urban setting. Blowing up 60 innocent people on a bus, that's a massacre. Blowing up 60 innocent people during a religious ceremony, that's a massacre.

The idiots who run and contribute to the site regularly post crap from the anti-Jewish, racist National Alliance, old "blood libel" posts, and openly use anti-Jewish slurs. They even lie through their teeth, claiming "provocateurs" post their anti-Jewish, hateful statements.

Indymedia deserves no respect or support, because they serve no useful purpose. All Indymedias should be shut down.

The artist, Latuff, who made the thing linked in your sig supports terrorism. Look at this thing.

Many of the things written (with bad grammar) in that drawings are true, unfortunately, but the reasons for all those are not mentioned. The reasons houses get destroyed and people gets killed is that the PA encourages the terrorists organizations. The PA is powered by hatred, and the children are educated to hate Israel and Jewish people, even in times of peace.

Btw: Are you a girl?

Yep. Nothing to see here, folks. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along.

There is a network of locally based media groups, called Independent Media Centers, that maintain sites of locally oriented news content contributed by users. Content is not limited to just text stories, users are able to contribute any kind of multimedia file. There is a network of approximately 100 such sites located on 6 continents and in over a dozen languages. The network is decentralized with each local group completely autonomous.

The origins of Indymedia are through the anti-corporate globalization movement and that tends to the kind of content on most sites. The audience has been widening gradually so there's more content on a wider range of issues.

There's an umbrella site at www.indymedia.org that pulls content from the local sites.

I should say the Indymedia network is much more than just a bunch of websites. With each site there is a group of people that do media tranings, film showings, public access tv shows, newspapers. Some maintain offices that act as community centers.

We're always looking for people to contribute content and to volunteer, especially geeks. Check out an IMC near you.

There is a network of locally based media groups, called Independent Media Centers, that maintain sites of locally oriented news content contributed by users. Content is not limited to just text stories, users are able to contribute any kind of multimedia file. There is a network of approximately 100 such sites located on 6 continents and in over a dozen languages. The network is decentralized with each local group completely autonomous.

The origins of Indymedia are through the anti-corporate globalization movement and that tends to the kind of content on most sites. The audience has been widening gradually so there's more content on a wider range of issues.

There's an umbrella site at www.indymedia.org that pulls content from the local sites.

I should say the Indymedia network is much more than just a bunch of websites. With each site there is a group of people that do media tranings, film showings, public access tv shows, newspapers. Some maintain offices that act as community centers.

We're always looking for people to contribute content and to volunteer, especially geeks. Check out an IMC near you.

...and it's been there since the Seattle WTO protests. www.indymedia.org.

How about some historical examples to bolster Michael's claim.

What many of the hard-core groups such as the ACLU and the EFF fear is a return to the days of COINTELPRO when the FBI (with the cooperation of the CIA) used it's vast powers to spy on Americans. And to discredit any political group outside of the mainstream. One noteable target was Dr. Martin Luther King. To quote from the Church Commission's report:

"The FBI collected information about Dr. King's plans and activities through an extensive surveillance program, employing nearly every intelligence-gathering technique at the Bureau's disposal. Wiretaps, which were initially approved by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were maintained on Dr. King's home telephone from October 1963 until mid-1965; the SCLC headquarter's telephones were covered by wiretaps for an even longer period. Phones in the homes and offices of some of Dr. King's close advisers were also wiretapped. The FBI has acknowledged 16 occasions on which microphones were hidden in Dr. King's hotel and motel rooms in an "attempt" to obtain information about the "private activities of King and his advisers" for use to "completely discredit" them. " [My Emphasis]

The FBI sought to influence universities to withhold honorary degrees from Dr. King. Attempts were made to prevent the publication of articles favorable to Dr. King and to find "friendly" news sources that would print unfavorable articles. The FBI offered to play for reporters tape recordings allegedly made from microphone surveillance of Dr. King's hotel rooms.

The above quotes are from the final report of the Church Committee (see also Here), a congressional committee set up to investigate the FBI's abuses of power. Out of this investigation arose many of the restrictions that Bush, Ashcroft, and Co. are overturning. These changes and the arguments for them have received opposition from longtime FBI members:

"I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now, been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mis-characterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons..."

"Several prominent FBI alumni also blasted Ashcroft's cast-a-wide-net approach to the terrorism investigation, which led to the detention of some 1,200 people, only a dozen of them suspected of having any links with Al Qaeda. The mass arrests were part of a fundamental shift in the bureau's strategy. In the past, the FBI would identify suspected terrorists, move to forestall any immediate threat of violence, then watch the suspects in hopes of cracking an entire cell. Ashcroft's approach, the critics noted, might jeopardize the kinds of investigations that had prevented previous attacks. "We used good investigative techniques and lawful techniques," warned Reagan-era FBI director William Webster, "and we did it without all the suggestion that we are going to jump all over people's private lives."..."

This is what people (quite rightly) fear and what we should be striving against. This is what Prompted Emmanuel Goldstein (editor of 2600) to devote his editorial in the most recent issue to a call to arms against such governance. This is a serious issue and the note that Michael Struck was just right. The FBI stated that carnivore will never collect the wrong information Yet we have admissions of the opposite (see here). In the light of all of this, can you really say that he is wrong?

As always you can contact the ACLU for more.

For some fun side-reading see:

• Amnesty International's 2002 report on the U.S.A.
• NYC Indymedia
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• And, The Register

...

(Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs! Don't forget the http://!)

Most if not all of the sources you list are ultra conservative, pro-Israel, right-wing biased news -- a far cry from "balanced" reporting. Drudge is one of the worst.

If you're talking about independent media, where's Indymedia, for instance? Oh, I get it. It's not balanced if it is not conservative and right-wing...

• World Trade Center death toll about 2,800; Pentagon 125
  
• At least 3,600 civilian deaths in Afghanistan
  

A good history of the May 1st Labor Day and why it takes place in September for those of us in the states is here. I hope this day of silence brings attention to the CARP bill and copyright stupidity in general.

We aren't missing a damn thing. If your other writing is as bad as the stuff you post to Slashdot, it's no wonder your books don't sell. And no, I'm not normally this mean about it, but your article was nothing except a long-winded advertisement for your book. The few tidbits you chucked in about "bottoms-up" marketing on the net have nothing to do with "open source" anything, and everything to do with changes in the face of telecommunications and media, especially as linked to demographic niches.

If you want to write an insightful article on the impact of the 'net, why not focus on something interesting like the 2001 election of RT Rybak to the office of Mayor in Minneapolis. His campaign grew out of his participation in a Minneapolis-issues politics mailing list and continues to use the list to communicate with constituents.

The list itself is notable for trumping some other forms of communication and media sources when it comes to "being in touch" with politics and news in Minneapolis. As an example, a recent Critical Mass bike ride in downtown Minneapolis was subject to a fairly brutal police crackdown, and while the main papers and (apparently) evening news slid right over the story, the list was a primary source of communication on the incident (the other great source being IndyMedia's web site).

I realize you've written many articles over the time I've read Slashdot focused on how the web/net democratize society and the economy as well, but this particular article is just plain shoddy. Especially since you throw in a lot of jargon, but don't really connect the dots between a dog book and net marketing. You haven't shown the rest of us how this really works (a key piece of what "open source" is all about), and you haven't shown how it has really helped you. Did you do a cost-benefit analysis detailing how much time you spent hyping your book in various online forums versus the revenue those presumably additional sales produced? Did you check to see if your online efforts were truly the source of the increase by using appropriate statistical sampling methods? Have you provided any part of the book online, or just a lame link to Amazon which any right-thinking moral netizen is boycotting?

As has been shown throughout the history of computing, competition is bad for the industry. In the world of Windows, where there is no competition, everyone is making money hand over fist on an OS that despite its limitations is the best personal computer operating system in existence.

OTOH, the sector that has true competition - the Open/Free software sector - is mired in backwardness and incompatibility, not to mention its complete lack of capitalistic viability.

Why is this? It's standards! It's why I can write applications left and right that work well in a Windows enviorment (even if I have to bend over backwards sometimes) Windows is damn good standard, in terms of market coverage. Hell, look at the linux "standards."

The desktops (GNOME and KDE) are so different it's not even funny. I'd rather write an application to work on both Win3.11 and XP than one that's supposed to look good on both GNOME and KDE. All you web designers expierance a similar problem, to a smaller degree, working between all the wacky Open Source browsers.

The C Standard is crippled by lack of everything but Security-Damaging-String-Functions (TM). POSIX is a joke. You can't write a simple multi-threaded webserver without bending over backwards to support obscure flavors, just as IRIX, HP/UX, OpenBSD, etc. Hell, us Linux Assembaly programmers have to practiacally fellatiate the Kernel Keepers to find out the INT 50 information, so that we can do our job. And don't say we can just fork the kernel, cause we're writing code for a living, and can't have every one install kernel-2.4.12-sane-int-50.

But even further: Just look at the whole vi/emacs war. All the vi people simply refuse to bend to emacs (LOL, obviously they don't know lisp!) and the emacs people generally ignore the vi people (which isn't all together unwarrented - just rude). This isn't helping anyone. All the vi people should start putting work into Emacs, maybe making a compatibility mode, so we could have one large, perfect piece of software, instead of two half-assed implementations.

Oh, I'm not flaming GPL advo-zealots, in the same manner I don't flame pinko's for their beliefs. If you keep it to yourself, I can live with you having a dirtly little secret. I myself collect nazi memorbillia.

But the point is, that all this pro-competition stuff (which i don't really understand coming from gpl-ites, who tend to lean as far to the left as Indy Media, but thats not the point) actually harm's the computer industry as a whole. We need standards, or we can't build upon each other's shoulders.

"If I looked further than other men, it's only because I stood on the shoulders of giant's" - Jack Kerouac

The only problem with mainstream versus independant media sources is that the majority of US citizens tend to believe that anything that hasn't been reported by a major media outlet isn't verfiable. It's kind of funny actually, considering mainstream media rarely reports anything other than common knowledge and murders in Hollywood(check out CNN's front page)...it's also a little sad, because this seems to be all society wants to hear.

Little do they know that those of us who are anti-big-corporations already hang out on IRC. www.indymedia.org

Fuck. The last thing this place needs is another sniveling teenager who's read Manufacturing Consent. Go here.

as i was one of the "hung around with girls at that age and ignored the immature underdeveloped males" types...(although they[immature males] got sex and i did not...not that it really matters). it is discussion of sex...not the humour of sex which would have made this post good...i do not see how you are expecting it TO be a humorous post...and still expecting it to be clean of sexist, immature comments.

If slashdot is to be a major player in the world mabye it would be better off for us all if they shook up the old-white-male dominance and authoritative style of news coverage (With the cute vuluptious bimbo reading things she does not understand)... you know why they sit behind a desk right? because they want to look like they have authority. if we had any reason to believe that mabye the people at MSNBC may not know everything there is to know about important news issues such as the variuous open source movements, consumer privacy and new scientific findings, then in their idea they would not be seen as important and people from indymedia would become more widespread, and they would lose their job. but what is more important, having one person keep a job or to have the entire world know what's going on in the world?

screw reuters, burn AP, destroy MSNBC...slashdot and other alternative news sources are all thats keeping us from living completely in an americanized media / propeganda driven world state.

There was supposed to be a protest in Washington this weekend. It's not specifically anti-SSSCA/CTDPA/AYBABTU, but most of the people there would probably be on our side once we got the message out.

More from indymedia:

A renegade iceberg - nine times the size of singapore - has defected from the antarctic republic. The iceberg, believed to hold communist sympathies, is heading directly for washington D.C at a speed of 0.1 knots. Although the motives of the iceberg are not clear, it may be seeking retaliation for President GW Bush's dismissal of the Kyoto agreement. Other sources believe the Iceberg may have recieved funding from Iraq and may be in association with Al Queida. Reports that Ossama bin Laden - having escaped Afghanistan - is Captaining the Iceberg have proved unfounded.
Although no public statement has been offered by the Whitehouse, inside sources believe that Bush is preparing a full readying of America's nuclear resources in preparation for the incident.

ALthought the consequences of the Iceberg reaching Washington are difficult to predict, it is thought that it could lead to a major destabalisation of the global Ice Cream market, eventually resulting in huge economic turmoil for Ben & jerry's ice cream.

As the summary here shows there are still a few kinks in the system.

While I have to agree with some people that this isn't in-depth reporting I do think that it is pretty interesting AI. When it comes down to it the problem is not that a computer might be summarizing our news. The problem is twofold.

Firstly people are not always inclined to look beyond summaries. When faced with typical time constraints people prefer to look at summaries because they do not have time to search across a dozen sources and articles. This is why USA today became big in the first place. Nothing there is more than 1 column long. (Incidentally did anybody else find it hilarious that this system "summarizes" USA today who themselves summarize other news sources?)

Secondly much of the news is the same. News is big business and most major news media tell the stories that sell. Because they are all targeting the same markets they tell the same stories and in the same ways. Therefore there is little difference between CNN, the NY Times, etc in terms of tone and "facts". Especially since much of "their news" comes from the same wire services such as Reuters. Fox News is different but that is because they have abandoned the mantle of impartiality and become all conservative all the time.

In essence this system is perfect for the internet news style. Breif summaries of facts followed by more "in-depth" leads that we may peruse as we wish. The real question is, when will this begin drawing on sites like Indymedia, The Register and /.

i would be referring to the sanctions that got the US kicked off of the UN human rights committee. in iraq, an enormous amount of children die everyday (something like 4,000) from malnutrition and various curable diseases as a direct result of US-sponsored sanctions that prevent food and medecine from being imported into iraq.

i'd suggest you get your news from somewhere other than cnn..

The Independent Media Center

Okay, I can see your point, there are quite a few angry pissed off retards who just want to break things. But were you at the Seattle riots? Most people WERE non-violent, and still got beat to hell by the cops.

I'm guessing he knows this because it happens all the time. All over the world police brutality is a serious problem, saying that it isn't because you don't see it on TV doesn't it mean it doesn't happen. Indymedia might have a more realistic story seeing as they've already forced CNN to change their story on the Seattle because they proved them wrong with video tapes CNN had already seen, and ignored.

To illustrate what many anti-WTO people are about i'll cite some examples. A company has gone to south america, patented the genome of a plant, and then sent in the army to shoot any indigenious people who have used it for centuries, because it's now "their" plant, and backed by US legislature. The "fair" trade treaties that let companies in mexico obliterate the dolphin safe net laws where you're required to at least label it if you use big gill nets, by saying it's unfair to make them say that.

There are a lot of stupid nihilist kids, but there are also a lot of non-violent anarchists just because the term has been slandered so heavily that people think destruction and chaos when they hear "anarchy", doesn't mean that it's true, and doesn't mean that letting them break their bones and hurting themselves because they can't do anything about it is right. Saying that anyone who steps in the goo wants to do so is waaay to general. There's always going to be lots and lots of exceptions, and the all the good things the goo might help, doesn't justify all the innocents that might get hurt. We'll see what happens the first time they actually use it, but my guess is if they do, it's not going to be pretty.

They don't want to say this because it's not dramatic enough, but when you have someone or an organization (such as the WTO) that is getting used to the fact that it is in charge of certain things, and wants to assert and maintain that authority, having service denied -- by having protestors block delegates entering and exiting a convention center -- is a huge concern. In fact, during Seattle, some reputable news sources reported that third world delegates who were bullied into accepting the WTO's plans spoke out because the protestors provided a critical mass of opposition. None of the relatively small-time window breaking, the looting, the smashing stuff up really helped this -- but the denial of service was key.

Weapons like this help ensure that corporate america always gets served.

Look, I discussed these things directly with the Black Block at Indymedia, shortly after Gothemburg. It was quite definitely not a case of ringers, not with the kind of passionate discussion that you get among those people to justify what they do. They have very strong principles and loads of political arguments. It is a political worldview. They believe it's Anarchism. It certainly isn't real Anarchism. Discussing with them was quite nightmarish because of their stong anti-democratic views.

They love referring to real heroes like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, admirable people who made real sacrifices, immensely significant sacrifices. But they themselves don't even dare show their faces and stand for their cause while demonstrating in democratic countries.

Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.

You mean like stealing royalties for works that did not originate in their studios?
Maybe when Disney starts respecting intellectual property rights, we will. Oh Bother.

Sadly it's not that difficult at all. Take, for example the case of China where the government Allows international Access but still manages to filter out most (but not all) 'offensive' materials. Other governments such as France have chosen to use Legal actions or simple thuggery (see here and here

I agree with you about the Megacorps. AOL has caved in in the past and even smaller non-gvernmental groups can have a Big Effect. This ruling will only make that easier for them.

Much as I like some of JonKatz's prose, and much as I support the efforts of the File Room I think he overlooks just how weak the net potentially is. It's not just about my ability to put up a server (for all its abstractness the net depends upon physical objects), its about other people's ability to get to that same server. If I get sued out of business or simply attacked by thugs the server goes down. If a government or large media company chooses to deny their people/customers access to my server it might as well be. Either way I have been effectively silenced.

Sadly it's not that difficult at all. Take, for example the case of China where the government Allows international Access but still manages to filter out most (but not all) 'offensive' materials. Other governments such as France have chosen to use Legal actions or simple thuggery (see here and here

I agree with you about the Megacorps. AOL has caved in in the past and even smaller non-gvernmental groups can have a Big Effect. This ruling will only make that easier for them.

Much as I like some of JonKatz's prose, and much as I support the efforts of the File Room I think he overlooks just how weak the net potentially is. It's not just about my ability to put up a server (for all its abstractness the net depends upon physical objects), its about other people's ability to get to that same server. If I get sued out of business or simply attacked by thugs the server goes down. If a government or large media company chooses to deny their people/customers access to my server it might as well be. Either way I have been effectively silenced.

Sadly it's not that difficult at all. Take, for example the case of China where the government Allows international Access but still manages to filter out most (but not all) 'offensive' materials. Other governments such as France have chosen to use Legal actions or simple thuggery (see here and here

I agree with you about the Megacorps. AOL has caved in in the past and even smaller non-gvernmental groups can have a Big Effect. This ruling will only make that easier for them.

Much as I like some of JonKatz's prose, and much as I support the efforts of the File Room I think he overlooks just how weak the net potentially is. It's not just about my ability to put up a server (for all its abstractness the net depends upon physical objects), its about other people's ability to get to that same server. If I get sued out of business or simply attacked by thugs the server goes down. If a government or large media company chooses to deny their people/customers access to my server it might as well be. Either way I have been effectively silenced.

www.indymedia.org for non /. independent media.

China could learn a lot about effective censorship from the U.S.! America has its own form of censorship that operates without threats or legal constraints, yet is very powerful, I think.

For the last half-century at least, American press and public have remained free to air "mainstream" views all they wish.

Mainstream views also include direct disagreement with mainstream views, which allows for an apparent "freedom" to disagree.

But many other views exist, which may step back from the whole argument and try to see a larger pattern. No I'm not espousing any particular one of these. They often include conspiracy theories, right-wing militant anti-govt. theories, etc., and I'm not a nutcase.

But I think there's an interesting tacit agreement in place among the mainstream press not to give any airtime to anything flaky or paranoid, even if it seems like it might be right. If they do mention these ideas, it's always a single incident, quickly forgotten among the sensationalist news that nobody disagrees on. Misdirection and distraction.

You're looking for an example, right? Ok, but you won't like it. That's part of the process.

If, in the future, hypothetically, the president of the U.S. were to, say, have someone killed to protect his own reputation, and the circumstances surrounding that death were suspicious, what would happen?

Assuming that there was no obvious evidence connecting the president to the victim, the press would, I assume, all report the official story and forget about it.

Anyone using a public forum like the internet to suggest that the official story seemed fishy would be humored but considered paranoid, and ignored. The "independent press" might print something, the "mainstream press" would not, and people would be grateful for not having to think.

That's how Americans censor themselves. Just ask Ex-Enron exec Clifford Baxter.

I'm not saying this is true, but it's a nice example of self-censorship that nobody else has read articles like this... If it has even a 10% chance of being true, a truly free press would, I think, be pursuing it. But they won't.

Steve

the internet no longer has independent self-motivated content producers as its major players: instead big business has come in and trampled all over the commons. Things are heading down a similar path everywhere in the so-called "democratic" countries: it turns out that the RaiseTheFist FBI raid that everyone was so concerned about was completely bogus. Bogus, in the sense that the government had no evidence against Sherman for the supposed "hacking" crimes, and the "fertilizer" that was supposed to be in his possession turned out to be potting soil. LOL! Check out the updates on this story of attempted perversion of the First Amendment.

Yeah ! I agree with you. Mod the moron down
and someone mod this guy up.

Well put.

---
Go to www.indymedia.org for more info.

ohh, the irony...:-)

what the heck where they thinking???

photo of orwell plaza surveillance

1. Cencorship v's Moderation
2. What news organisations fail to report Indymedia
3. Why an illetrerat (sub)population can be easally lead by emotion
4. why my spelling is so bad :)
5. And if you can tie in 1984, Why the distruction of words is a bad idea.

well, Slashdot is trying to rival this shit, if you didn't already know. both sites have in common that they they never check their sources and only serve to reinforce their audience's distorted silly world view.

I had to laugh when I saw this on indymedia: Bill White who is a constant neo-Nazi troll on indymedia has (he claims) reached a deal with Sherman to host raisethefist on his own server www.overthrow.com

I have no confirmation of this story but here is the link to his unpleasant website www.overthrow.com which focuses around anti-Zionism as an explanation for everything.

Seriously, c'mon. First, activists are not terrorists, and that kid's no activist. My brother-in-law is an activist {PETA} and his arguments are intelligent, well researched, more than reasonable, and effective. I haven't given up meat yet, but I've cut down on milk. Thus, someone is listening to him and he's effecting change. That is what activists do.

So, you construct a definition of "activist" designed to exclude someone that hasn't convinced his kid brother not to drink milk and that means everyone else is a terrorist? Seriously, c'mon!

Advocating the violent overthrow of the state should not be illegal. To be sure raisethefist did that, but what all the quotes from the FBI spokespersons *say* he is being nabbed for is for publishing info on bomb-making. That is definitely NOT illegal. I've also seen reports that Sherman "anti" was engaged in cracking or site-defacement or something. If so then why haven't they charged him with that? This is nothing more nore less than an attempt to intimidate a VERY active Black Bloc anarchist scene in Los Angeles. I've given more specific information here and you can see some more here and here

Seriously, c'mon. First, activists are not terrorists, and that kid's no activist. My brother-in-law is an activist {PETA} and his arguments are intelligent, well researched, more than reasonable, and effective. I haven't given up meat yet, but I've cut down on milk. Thus, someone is listening to him and he's effecting change. That is what activists do.

So, you construct a definition of "activist" designed to exclude someone that hasn't convinced his kid brother not to drink milk and that means everyone else is a terrorist? Seriously, c'mon!

Advocating the violent overthrow of the state should not be illegal. To be sure raisethefist did that, but what all the quotes from the FBI spokespersons *say* he is being nabbed for is for publishing info on bomb-making. That is definitely NOT illegal. I've also seen reports that Sherman "anti" was engaged in cracking or site-defacement or something. If so then why haven't they charged him with that? This is nothing more nore less than an attempt to intimidate a VERY active Black Bloc anarchist scene in Los Angeles. I've given more specific information here and you can see some more here and here

First, off I totally support "anti" (now revealed as Sherman), but there *were* bomb-making instructions on the site. It has been cached by an incensed Carnegie-Mellon professor who thinks that there is nothing illegal in this information I think if you look at it you will see that there is *much* more comprehensive information on making bombs available all over the place. (The Monkeywrencher's Guide) comes to mind.

Raise the fist has had a lot of effectiveness in serving as a focal point for Black Bloc anarchists in SoCal. There was a large presence at the Democratic National Convention where they were attacked by rubber bullet firing police (along with a lot of other folk). This was followed up with a peaceful MayDay demonstration which was *really* beaten up by the LongBeach PD (about 120 kids out of 150 arrested). One of the guys that defended himself Rob "Ruckus" Middaugh is now doing 2-3 because he had a parole violation, he was closely associated with the site which was trying to raise support for his cause.

They also kept a database of pictures of undercover feds from demonstrations and logs of IP addresses of government agencies that were monitoring the site. Basically they were looking for an excuse to take the site down and it seems that Sherman may have given it to them by the alleged cracking that he engaged in (this is something that puzzles me: why focus on the bombs if the cracking is all the evidence that they have?)

These are all young kids doing what they believe in. They are involved in all sorts of DIY community projects and are sincere and active. My heart goes out to them.