Wednesday 18 January 2012
Blackout Strike: Anonymous Calls for Street Protests; Lawmakers Drop Support of SOPA and PIPA
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The decentralized hacktivist network Anonymous has issued a press release calling for physical street protest against the [Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA)] bills, recommending that protesters converge at freeways, malls, libraries and schools. 'IF YOUR GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN THE INTERNET ... SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT,' the release declares.... The Internet has not crumbled as a result of the blackout strike, but support for both bills in Congress has."
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State Department Delays Oil Pipeline, Officials Say
John M. Broder and Dan Frosch, The New York Times News Service: "The [Obama] administration has until February 21 to decide the fate of the 1,700-mile [Keystone XL] pipeline ... Officials are expected to announce that they cannot meet that deadline and that they are looking for ways to complete a thorough environmental review before making a final decision on the project. The action for now means the permit for the pipeline is rejected although the pipeline company will be allowed to submit a new proposal with an altered route."
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One Million Petition for the Recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Mary Bottari, PRWatch: "The petition drive to recall and remove Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has surpassed all expectations, collecting over one million signatures in just 60 days. Petitioners were only required to collect 540,000 by law. They far exceeded this number, making a successful legal challenge of the recall highly unlikely. This is the largest recall in U.S. history."
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What Is SOPA? Here Are Five Things You Need to Know
Jorge Rivas, ColorLines: "Media justice advocates say the [Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)] bill is anathema to basic functioning of the Internet ... SOPA would work as the online world's stingy gatekeeper, giving government the power to shutdown websites altogether. Today, hundreds of websites are joining in a day of action to SOPA's threat to freedom of expression on the Internet ... joining in what's been called an 'Internet strike,' by closing their websites from 8 am to 8 pm eastern time."
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Emanuel's Protest-Squashing "Sit Down and Shut Up" Ordinance Passes in Chicago
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "The 'sit down and shut up' ordinance, as it has been called, seeks to chill protest in Chicago through measures including mandatory $1 million liability insurance for protests, a heightened police presence and more difficulty getting a permit.... When the ordinance was first introduced, it was said to be only a measure for the NATO/G8 conference to be held in Chicago in May, but it was later revealed that the ordinance change is expected to be permanent."
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The Movement to Overturn Citizens United Takes Form
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "A national movement to challenge the corporate influence on American democracy could be coming to a courthouse, city hall or ballot box near you. The action begins this weekend. About 150 protests and occupations are planned across the country on Friday and Saturday to mark the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission that unleashed a flood of corporate spending in recent elections."
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Internet Blackout Today: The Fight for a Free and Open Web
Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign for America's Future: "Because our fight for a people-powered democracy ... depends on a free and open Internet ... many websites ... are protesting two bills pending in Congress that are direct and profound threats to that freedom. Many of these websites ... have decided to 'go dark' today to symbolize what could happen if the draconian measures in these bills are put into effect."
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Michigan Democrats Unveil Plan to Finance Free College Tuition by Eliminating Corporate Tax Credits
Tanya Somanader, ThinkProgress: "Under the Michigan 2020 Plan, Michigan's high school graduates will be eligible for free tuition at one of Michigan's community colleges or universities, where the median tuition level is currently around $9,575 per year. The program will be funded entirely by eliminating $3.5 billion in tax credits and loopholes and putting that money towards students."
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Torture, Review of Legal Mail at Issue During Guantanamo Military Commission Hearing
Kari Panaccione, Truthout: "Much of Tuesday's pretrial hearing [for Guantanamo detainee Abd Al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri] revolved around issues pertaining to legal mail and a recent order ... that authorizes a so-called 'privilege review team' to first read the mail his attorneys send him. The matter has become so heated, with al-Nashiri's legal team decrying Woods' order as an outrageous and unethical violation of the attorney-client privilege, that it threatens to derail the military commission."
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America Wakes Up to the Reality: Inequality Matters
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship: "So, no, Mitt Romney, when we say that Americans are waking up to the reality that inequality matters, we're not guilty of 'envy' or 'class warfare' ... We're talking what it takes to live a decent life. If you get sick without health coverage, inequality matters. If you're the only breadwinner and out of work, inequality matters.... If the financial system collapses and knocks the props from beneath your pension, inequality matters."
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Why Do Soldiers Rape?
H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout: "Scholars and investigators who have studied military culture and attitudes toward women have found that hostility toward women pervades military training - often out of deep antipathy for the presence of women in traditionally male space, sometimes stemming from competition, always linking manliness with sexual dominance - and that it functions like a glue to solidify male bonding over women's status as sex objects."
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Occupy DC: Empowering the 99 Percent
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "Mysteriously, the Tea Party appears never to have taken up the cause of the capital's citizens, despite the fact that the original Boston Tea Party was in protest of the taxation without representation that besets Washingtonians. Who has taken up that cause? Occupy DC.... But the effort has to be national.... The group has even gotten arch-conservative New Hampshire State Rep. Al Baldasaro to show an open mind about DC statehood."
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Climate Change Skepticism Seeps Into Science Classrooms
Neela Banerjee, McClatchy Newspapers: "Although scientific evidence increasingly shows that fossil fuel consumption has caused the climate to change rapidly, the issue has grown so politicized that skepticism of the broad scientific consensus has seeped into classrooms. Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change. Tennessee and Oklahoma also have introduced legislation to give climate change skeptics a place in the classroom."
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Pressure Israel, Not Iran
Marjorie Cohn, MarjorieCohn.com: "There is evidence that Israel ... has orchestrated the assassinations of at least five Iranian nuclear scientists ... These acts of aggression are designed to provoke Iran to retaliate ... which will spark a war that could spread to the entire Middle East. The same voices who brought us the illegal, tragic, and ill-advised war with Iraq will continue to try to dominate the national conversation with battle cries against Iran."
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The Problem With Citizens United Is Not Corporate Personhood
Rob Hager and James Marc Leas, Truthout: "Many may be surprised to learn that no federal campaign finance law has ever been struck down by the Supreme Court on grounds of 'corporate personhood' or any kind of corporate rights. The court has consistently hinged its decisions on the First Amendment rights of the listener to hear all sources of the free and open debate and of society to enjoy an abstract 'freedom of speech' disconnected from the identity of the speaker."
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
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All you need to know about SOPA and PIPA are that they are intentionally harmless-sounding acronyms that would further encroach on the informational freedom of the Internet.
Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout wrote a commentary on the growing transfer of our constitutional rights to the executive branch and the military. One of the last bastions against such a consolidation of power is the openness of ideas, reporting and networking on the Internet.
It is easy to argue, as do some supporters in Congress, that SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (the Protection IP Act) are necessary to protect copyright. Like the erosion of our civil liberties, however, SOPA and PIPA are also more menacing steps in "policing the Internet."
As "CBS News" describes the bills:
There are already laws that protect copyrighted material, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But while the DMCA focuses on removing specific, unauthorized content from the Internet, SOPA and PIPA instead target the platform - that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content.
The bills would give the Justice Department the power to go after foreign web sites willfully committing or facilitating intellectual property theft - "rogue" sites like The Pirate Bay. The government would be able to force US-based companies, like Internet service providers, credit card companies and online advertisers, to cut off ties with those sites.
What we are seeing is a cumulative legal assault to consolidate the Internet under the control of corporations by empowering the government to intervene in the web without due process. An article from "ColorLines" reposted on Truthout states it more bluntly:
If you create or consume content on the Internet, under SOPA the government would have the power to pull the plug on your website. If you're a casual consumer, your favorite websites could be penalized and shut down if they seem to be illegally supporting copyrighted material.
This is especially important for human rights groups and advocates in communities of color, who could faced increased censorship if the bill is passed. The language of the bill makes it easy for the US Attorney General to go after web sites it simply sees as a threat.
The Internet has become virtually the sole source of uncensored information and opinion that reaches the entire world - and a technological worldwide network of people, who can instantly communicate with each other about personal and political issues. As such, it poses more than a copyright threat to the status quo.
SOPA and PIPA are stalking horses for silencing the powerful voice of democracy that is just a click away.
Mark Karlin,
Editor BuzzFlash at Truthout
Bill McKibben on Keystone XL Announcement
Read the Article at 350.org
Glenn Greenwald: Chris Dodd's Paid SOPA Crusading
Read the Article at Salon
The Rise of the Authoritarian State in the US: Constitutional Rights Transferred to the Whims of People in Power
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Supreme Court Holds the Fate of Medicaid
Read the Article at Politico
The Republicans' Dark-Money-Moving Machine
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Time to Consider Mass Mortgage Refinancings
Read the Article at The Washington Post
Newt Plays to South Carolina's Racist GOP
Read the Article at The New York Times
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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