To ensure the Internet is open to all on an equal basis we must act now to prevent mega-corporations from destroying Internet Freedom.

It is time for escalating actions against the FCC before their vote on May 15th to end net neutrality.

What Should Be Done?

John Nichols writes in the Nation:

“A free and open Internet is essential to modern democracy. But that freedom and openness will be maintained only if Americans use their great democratic voice to demand it.”

It is up to us to prevent the further corporatization of the Internet and to keep it free, equal and open to all. It will take more than our voices, it will taking our bodies stopping the machine of corporatocracy. What are our demands?
Reject the proposal. This is the Obama FCC. Obama appointed three Democrats and two Republicans to the Commission, as required by law. The political apparatus of the Democratic Party needs to demand this proposal be rejected.

Reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service that can be regulated in the public interest. Under President Bush the Internet was redefined as an “information service” limiting the FCC’s ability to regulate in the public interest. This decision needs to be reversed so the FCC can properly regulate the Internet.Wheeler opposes this but said in response to opposition to his proposal that reclassification is on the table.
Put in place net neutrality regulations. The Commission should act consistently with President Obama’s campaign position – net neutrality. Acting opposite of what the people voted for undermines the democratic legitimacy of government on the critical issue Internet freedom.

Read more

Petitions:

http://www.popularresistance.org/internet-for-the-wealthy/

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/verizon_netneutrality?akid=10524.7284604.mFMHOz&rd=1&t=2

http://other98.com/we-want-net-neutrality-not-corporate-takeover/

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/785

http://act.sumofus.org/go/4400?t=2&akid=5203.2777050.OJJfIW

NSA has a 50-page catalog of exploits for software, hardware, and firmware

Cory Doctorow, boingboing

A Snowden leak accompanying today's story on the NSA's Tailored Access Operations group (TAO) details the NSA's toolbox of exploits, developed by an NSA group called ANT (Advanced or Access Network Technology).
The ANT division doesn't just manufacture surveillance hardware. It also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software located on a computer's motherboard that is the first thing to load when a computer is turned on.

ANT's catalog runs to 50 pages, and lists electronic break-in tools, wiretaps, and other spook toys. For example, the catalog offers FEEDTROUGH, an exploit kit for Juniper Networks' firewalls; gimmicked monitor cables that leak video-signals; BIOS-based malware that compromises the computer even before the operating system is loaded; and compromised firmware for hard drives from Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung.
Many of the exploited products are made by American companies, and hundreds of millions of everyday people are at risk from the unpatched vulnerabilities that the NSA has discovered in their products.

This has a number of valuable advantages: an infected PC or server appears to be functioning normally, so the infection remains invisible to virus protection and other security programs. And even if the hard drive of an infected computer has been completely erased and a new operating system is installed, the ANT malware can continue to function and ensures that new spyware can once again be loaded onto what is presumed to be a clean computer. The ANT developers call this "Persistence" and believe this approach has provided them with the possibility of permanent access.
Another program attacks the firmware in hard drives manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung, all of which, with the exception of latter, are American companies. Here, too, it appears the US intelligence agency is compromising the technology and products of American companies.

Basically, don't buy American (or Samsung) if you want your privacy. It's what Snowden's revelation has been saying for months, if you recall my previous journal on it.

I'll conclude with some tools for encryption. What you do with this information is up to you.

First, install HTTPS Everywhere to your browser. For the moment, they are only available for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.

“Encryption Works" a guide written by former EFF Staff Technologist Micah Lee for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (an EFF client)

CyanogenMod adopted TextSecure to protect the text messages of its ten million users against mass surveillance

crypto parties teaches people about adopting encryption tools

In which Jacob Applebaum discusses US dragnet surveillance, including the revelation of NSA's intent to implant surveillance firmware to US electronic products.

Language and Education

We're at the border of losing our language. If less than 20% are fluent speakers, you're going to lose your language. We're even less than that now. And once you lose the language, you lose the connection because it's a different way of thinking. What people don't know and what linguists have ascertained is that the indigenous languages of the western hemisphere are the most expressive languages in the world. And the languages become less expressive as you move west. And everyone knows, anyone that knows languages, knows that English is the last language. So if English is the last language and it's the least expressive—which it is—ascertained by linguists of the world, then anything you translate in English is a half truth, at best. At best!

—Russell Means (November 10, 1939-October 22, 2012)

Watch the interview hosted by Gabriel of Urantia. 

What he also said about education brainwashing our children is true. RSA can explain it better than I could, though. So here it is.

Why reverse racism doesn't work

-“I got bullied in school for being white. You can’t tell me that’s not racist!”

No, this is called you being picked on by a mean child.

-“Someone called me cracker!”

This is someone calling you by your privilege.

-“People can be racist against white people too.”

No, they cannot. There is an inherent logical fallacy in your argument that will never make it true. However, white people can be discriminated against. Discrimination is different from racism.

Let’s start from the beginning. Your first step is to accept that “a hatred or intolerance of another race” is not the definition of racism. The dictionary is wrong. Get over it.

Racism is when intolerance in government laws, attitudes and ideals of a society are ingrained in a culture to the point where patterns of discrimination towards a certain race are institutionalized as normal. If you keep this in mind, you’ll understand that reverse racism doesn’t- and can’t- exist.

There is another saying “Racism (or sexism) = prejudice + power. POC (people of color) can be prejudiced against white people. But they can never have power, i.e. a whole system of structured support that backs them. White people often don’t understand how much power they have. Just ONE white person has more power to do actual harm to a black person than one hundred black people do to that white person. A white person can KILL a black person without any consequences, while if the situation was reversed you can bet the killer wouldn’t see the outside of a prison cell for a long, long time.

When white people complain about reverse racism, they are not complaining about losing their RIGHTS. What they are complaining about is losing their PRIVILEGE.

White people can never call someone else racist against them because that ‘someone else’ does not have the power to OPPRESS them. The person has the power to be mean. To hurt feelings. But not to OPPRESS.

THAT is the key difference. When a POC is mean to you, they are JUST being mean to you. Their entire society is not ACTIVELY discriminating against and oppressing you.

Calling Out Bigotry

Kerry's transcript and Declassfied information

If you missed Kerry's statement on Syria, here is the transcript.

If you're looking for the declassified information Kerry's speaking of, here it is (linked from Business Insider). You can also download it if you like.

Source

Stop SOPA

SOPA is back. Sign this while you're at it.

First of all, it's an attack on secondary liability. A site that is posting embeds of content hosted elsewhere shouldn't be held criminally liable for that content -- especially when that content may change over time and they have no direct control over it. If the original content is infringing, go after whoever uploaded/hosted the original content. Not the sites that merely have an embed. Furthermore, because the lines between reproducing, distributing and public performance can get blurry at times, it's very likely that any increased criminality for public performance will be stretched and abused to cover things that people think should be perfectly legal. As Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain explained in detail last year, the streaming provisions could clearly apply to something as simple as posting videos of yourself performing a cover of a popular song you don't have a license to... If you "transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work" for the purpose of having it performed or displayed at a place open to the public, you may be involved in a public performance. It's not hard to see how that might be used to include people posting videos on YouTube.

And, really, this whole idea is misguided. It comes from the entertainment industry's ridiculous belief that if they just keep playing Whac-a-mole with whomever they've decided is the "enemy" this week, it will eventually bring back old business models. Sites that embed streams from elsewhere aren't the enemy. Trying their operators into felons is fraught with all sorts of dangerous unintended consequences.

—TechDirt

Collateral Murder — Bradley Manning — Human Rights

Collateral Murder

Pfc. Bradley Manning leaked this July 2007 footage to Wikileaks. It was revealed to the public on April 5, 2010.

The footage shows an Apache helicopter opening fire on civilians, mistaking them for insurgents. When a civilian minivan arrives to transport the wounded, the helicopter opens fire on it as well. Two children were inside. When the soldiers realized that children were in the van, one said dismissively, "Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle." The children miraculously survived.


Two Reuters journalists were killed during the engagement. When Reuters asked to see the footage, the U.S. government flat-out lied and said it could not be found. Pfc. Manning knew this was a lie because he was watching the footage.

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions requires that the wounded be collected and cared for. Article 17 of the First Protocol states that the civilian population "shall be permitted, even on their own initiative, to collect and care for the wounded." That article also says, "No one shall be harmed … for such humanitarian acts."

This footage clearly shows the United States military deliberately firing on civilian rescuers, constituting a war crime.

Pfc. Bradley Manning never killed anyone. He never tortured anyone. He never revealed troops movements or names that put any person's life in danger. He will spend half his life in a cell for saying what is true.


Restore the United States' human rights record and grant clemency to Pvt. Bradley Manning. Sign this We the People petition put forth by Amnesty International.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus calls Obama "the king of golf and vacations"

RNC Chairman @reince calls Obama "the king of golf and vacations"
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHambyCNN) August 14, 2013

You would think after the endless vacations that George W. Bush took as president that Republicans would not make a big deal about Obama’s vacations.

You would be wrong.

At this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had taken 367 vacation days, whereas Obama has only taken 92. That’s according to PolitiFact, who is drawing on the official numbers from CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller. Now of course George W. Bush did meet with people on his vacation sometimes at his ranch, but it’s not like Obama has is unreachable and not being briefed every day either. But 367 to 92.

367 to 92.

Today Obama began another vacation, while Congress is off for 5 weeks, he’s taking an 8 day vacation.

Source

Decolonization is not the same as Occupation

Referring to members of indigenous communities as occupants, in order to discredit them when they choose to build blockades that stop e.g. mining companies from colonising their ancestral lands is not only factually wrong, but it feeds into a long history of dismissing and silencing the legitimate complaints of indigenous peoples in order to justify the ongoing theft of their lands.

—SelchieProductions

Undocumented Immigrants

Here are the links used in the image, in order, if you wanna check my sources:

• http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/opinion/garcia-illegal-immigrants
• http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/240108_citizenship_quiz/
• http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/About-The-Test-For-Us-Citizenship.htm

Source

Western Black Rhino Officially Extinct

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Africa’s western black rhino is now officially extinct. After being a victim of increasingly devastating poaching and seeing little to no conservation efforts, the species is now gone, and others – including the northern white rhino and Asia’s Javan rhino – are expected to swiftly follow...a recent crackdown on poaching in Vietnam, including the sales and trading of the ill-begotten horns, of which both Vietnam and China are large consumers. Two rhino horns were recently seized by customs officials; the substance had most likely come from South Africa, and was worth an estimated $365,000.

Source
by Blake Deppe / People’s World

Two Hours After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, Texas AG Suppresses Minority Voters

Just two hours after the Supreme Court reasoned that discrimination is not rampant enough in Southern states to warrant restrictions under the Voting Rights Act, Texas is already advancing a voter ID law and a redistricting map blocked last year for discriminating against black and Latino residents. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a statement declaring that both measures may go into effect immediately, now that there is no law stopping them from discriminating against minorities.

In 2012, the Justice Department blocked these measures under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Federal courts agreed that both the strict voter ID law and the redistricting map would disproportionately target the state’s fast-growing minority communities. Still, Texas filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court over the Voting Rights Act case complaining that the DOJ had used “abusive and heavy-handed tactics” to thwart the state’s attempts at voter suppression.

In the case of the new electoral map, a panel of federal judges found that “substantial surgery” was done to predominantly black districts, cutting off representatives’ offices from their strongest fundraising bases. Meanwhile, white Congress members’ districts were either preserved or “redrawn to include particular country clubs and, in one case, the school belonging to the incumbent’s grandchildren.” The new map was also drawn in secret by white Republican representatives, without notifying their black and Latino peers. After the court blocked the map, the legislature approved small changes to appease Democratic lawmakers last week. Now that they are free to use the old maps, however, Gov. Rick Perry (R) could simply veto the new plan and use the more discriminatory maps.

The strict photo ID requirement blocked by the DOJ and a federal court would require Texans to show one of a very narrow list of acceptable photo IDs. Expired gun licenses from other states are considered valid, but Social Security cards and student IDs are not. If voters do not have an ID — as many minorities, seniors, and poor people do not — they must travel at their own expense, produce their birth certificate, and in many cases pay a fee to get an ID. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the DOJ no longer has any power to block these laws, even with the backing of federal judges who found blatant discrimination.

By Aviva Shen on Jun 25, 2013 at 3:30 pm
ThinkProgress

North Carolina and Mississippi also plan to pass strict voter ID laws

The Supreme Court Just Took Away Your Right to Remain Silent

Once a person is arrested and the police start an interrogation, the Miranda warnings are given. “You have the right to remain silent, right to a lawyer if you cannot afford one and anything you say can be used against you in court, etc” The Supreme Court has also held, properly, that if anyone declines to take the witness stand during the trial, the prosecutor can’t attack that choice to the jury with comments like, “He could have taken the stand to tell us his side of the story, but he didn’t. That tells us quite a bit, doesn’t it?” The rationale against allowing that sort of “evidence” is that if one really has a right against self-incrimination, the government should not be permitted to attack it. The prosecutor must use other evidence to persuade the jury of guilt.

In Salinas v. Texas, 570 U.S. ­­­___ (2013) (Slip. Op. available here), the Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination does not protect a witness's silence in the face of a voluntary, noncustodial police interview. Rather, a person who is not under arrest (or otherwise in custody) and voluntarily speaks to the police must  affirmatively and timely invoke the privilege  to benefit from its protections. The Court stated that there was no "ritualistic formula" necessary to assert the privilege, but that a witness could not do so "by simply standing mute."  Id. at 3 (citation omitted). If an individual fails to invoke, and is later charged with a crime, the prosecution may use his silence at trial as evidence of his guilt.

Petitioner Genovevo Salinas was a possible witness to a double murder. The police went to his home to question him, and he agreed to hand over his shotgun for ballistics testing. He further agreed to go to the police station for more questioning. Notably, because Salinas was not "in custody," police were under no obligation to read him Miranda warnings, and he was free to leave the station at any time.  During most of his hour-long interview, Salinas answered questions. At one point, the police asked Salinas if shells recovered from the crime scene would match the shotgun he had handed over. Salinas did not answer, but sat in silence for a few moments before the police moved on to other questions that Salinas answered. Eventually, Salinas was charged with, and tried for, the double murder. In its case-in-chief at trial, prosecutors introduced evidence of Salinas's silence in response to the police question about the shell casings, and argued that his silence was evidence of his guilt. The jury convicted Salinas, and two Texas Courts of Appeals affirmed the conviction.  Id. at 2-3.

 —The National Law Review

As the Salinas dissent points out, because of its focus, the plurality’s ruling seems to open up future dispute regarding whether the individual’s words or actions are clear enough to invoke the privilege.  Decisions in this area suggest that if a witness mentions the word “lawyer” in declining to speak to investigators, courts are more likely to view that as an invocation that cannot be commented upon. The court’s ruling in Salinas is all the more troubling because during such informal, undocumented, and unregulated questioning, there are special dangers that police may, intentionally or not, coax false confessions from innocent suspects. But in many cases, as in this one, there are no eyewitnesses and not much other evidence of guilt: That is why the police may desperately need a confession. Future decisions might also limit Salinas’s rule to cases where the witness was silent on only one question or a limited number of questions in the midst of an interview, viewing an express refusal to answer any further questions as clear enough notice that the witness is invoking the Constitutional privilege.

Related:
On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Texas passes anti-abortion laws at 4 AM

While the rest of Texas sleeps, HB60 was passed.

That’s also when a Texas legislator, Rep. Jody Laubenberg, claimed rape kits are a form of abortion.

“In the emergency room they have what’s called rape kits where a woman can get cleaned out,” she said, comparing the procedure to an abortion. “The woman had five months to make that decision, at this point we are looking at a baby that is very far along in its development.”

In fact, rape kits are used to collect DNA evidence from the bodies of rape victims; after a victim enters a hospital, staff collect bodily fluid, residue under the victim’s nails, and any blood or hair samples that could be relevant for an investigation. They are in no way equivalent to an abortion. 

Update:  

At 12:01 AM, CT, I predict Wendy Davis will give us the best mic drop the World has ever seen. #StandWithWendy
— Dr. Jill Biden (@JillBidenVeep) June 26, 2013

The order is sustained. The crowd is screaming in the gallery! The third point of order. Filibuster can be ended. #YAL #SB5
— YourAnonLive (@YourAnonLive) June 26, 2013

When Kickstarter Funds A Rape Manual

Before you begin reading, know this: the deal has been done. The Kickstarter has been funded. Unless massive pressure is used to force the company into reversing their current stand, this rape manual is going to be published.

So what can we do as a community?

Some options are:
Sign the petition
Report the Kickstarter (at the bottom of the page)
Tell them on facebook
Blog about it
Find and use other crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo and tell Kickstarter that they no longer have your dollars
Let your friends and community know that you do not support the techniques promoted in this book

Jeff Kunzler has his own suggestions for effective change on his tumblr post here

An excerpt from the proposed novel:

Pull out your c**k and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your d**k.

Update 6/21/13:

We did it!

 From the Kickstarter blog.

Journalist Michael Hastings was under FBI investigation before his death

The document-leaking organization WikiLeaks says journalist Michael Hastings called the organization’s attorney hours before his death Tuesday in a fiery one-car crash in Los Angeles.

In a tweet, WikiLeaks announced: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.”

Hastings, 33, was known as a hard-charging reporter who caused Gen. Stanley McChrystal to lose his job as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan with an explosive 2010 story in Rolling Stone, in which he quoted McChrystal offering unsavory commentary about the Obama administration.

In his final article, published June 7 by BuzzFeed, Hastings wrote of revelations that the National Security Agency was harvesting large quantities of phone and Internet information. “Perhaps more information will soon be forthcoming,” the article said.

The FBI declined to say if Hastings was under investigation.

 Source

Pirate Bay co-founder sentenced to 2 years in prison

The co-founder of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been sentenced to two years in prison for hacking into the computers of a firm that administers data for Swedish authorities, and for making illegal online money transfers.

While the hacker who helped cops catch the rapists in Steubenville, Ohio could potentially get 10 years. Far more than for the crimes the rapists committed.  America, your rape culture is showing again. And it disgusts me.

Deric Lostutter / KY Anonymous Defense Fund

LAUSD Votes to Close LA Indigenous High School

LAUSD Votes to Close LA Indigenous High School

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted to close the Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School on Tuesday. Trustee Mónica García was the only board member who voted to renew the Indigenous-themed school’s 5-year charter.

“We have had more than 500 years of resistance. This is nothing new,” Marco Aguilar, the schools’ co-founder and executive director, told crying students and supporters after the meeting.

Anahuacalmecac can still appeal to stay open to the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Stay tuned for more information.

Visit: Semillas Community Schools

Photo Credit: Bob Chamberlin, LA Times

Stay Connected: Twitter | Facebook

Here is a reader's reaction to this news:

They will never, ever, ever let us fucking run our own business. We need to do it WITHOUT them and IN SPITE of them. Always. They are not our friends. They do not have our best interests in mind. They want us to disappear. This is what the coloniser has always wanted.

Edward Snowden Q&A Highlights

Why did you choose Hong Kong to go to and then tell them about US hacking on their research facilities and universities?
—GlennGreenwald, 17 June 2013 2:11pm

First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That’s not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it.

Can analysts listen to content of domestic calls without a warrant?
— Anthony De Rosa, 17 June 2013 2:18pm

If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time - and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.

Edward, there is rampant speculation, outpacing facts, that you have or will provide classified US information to the Chinese or other governments in exchange for asylum. Have/will you? 
—Spencer Ackerman, 17 June 2013 4:16pm

This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk “RED CHINA!” reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct. Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

US officials say terrorists already altering TTPs because of your leaks, & calling you traitor. —Kimberly Dozier

US officials say this every time there’s a public discussion that could limit their authority. US officials also provide misleading or directly false assertions about the value of these programs…

Journalists should ask a specific question: since these programs began operation shortly after September 11th, how many terrorist attacks were prevented SOLELY by information derived from this suspicionless surveillance that could not be gained via any other source? Then ask how many individual communications were ingested to acheive that, and ask yourself if it was worth it.

Do you believe that the treatment of Binney, Drake and others influenced your path? Do you feel the “system works” so to speak? —Jacob Appelbaum

Binney, Drake, Kiriakou, and Manning are all examples of how overly-harsh responses to public-interest whistle-blowing only escalate the scale, scope, and skill involved in future disclosures. Citizens with a conscience are not going to ignore wrong-doing simply because they’ll be destroyed for it: the conscience forbids it. Instead, these draconian responses simply build better whistleblowers.

My question: given the enormity of what you are facing now in terms of repercussions, can you describe the exact moment when you knew you absolutely were going to do this, no matter the fallout, and what it now feels like to be living in a post-revelation world? Or was it a series of moments that culminated in action? —AhBrightWings, 17 June 2013 2:12pm

I imagine everyone's experience is different, but for me, there was no single moment. It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress - and therefore the American people - and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act. Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper - the Director of National Intelligence - baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

Final words from Snowden:

Thanks to everyone for their support, and remember that just because you are not the target of a surveillance program does not make it okay. The US Person / foreigner distinction is not a reasonable substitute for individualized suspicion, and is only applied to improve support for the program. This is the precise reason that NSA provides Congress with a special immunity to its surveillance.

My personal favorite lines:

Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it’s only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.

The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

And:

Further, it’s important to bear in mind I’m being called a traitor by men like former Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead. Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

Oh, my... —George Takei