You are currently browsing the archives for July, 2009
Posted on Wednesday, 29 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Democracy Now! has the exclusive skinny on military spooks infiltrating groups in my occasional stomping grounds of Olympia, WA: My pal Drew Hendricks, along with Brendan Maslauskas Dunn (of Students for a Democratic Society and the Port of Oly anti-militarization group) pieced together documents from FOIA requests to out “John Jacob” who was passing himeself off as an anti-war activist. He was really John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at the nearby Fort Lewis military base.
Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as “John Jacob” was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military’s role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States. The Fort Lewis military base denied our request for an interview. But in a statement to Democracy Now, the base’s Public Affairs office publicly acknowledged for the first time that Towery is a military operative. “This could be one of the key revelations of this era,” said Eileen Clancy, who has closely tracked government spying on activist organizations. [includes rush transcript]
— Democracy Now!
Posted on Tuesday, 28 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
This site lays out the rise of the machines.
– Mammallike Universal Robots.
Posted on Thursday, 23 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Time for some WikiWarriers to add more Wikidpedia pages to their watch lists.
Electronic Intifada reports on Camera, A pro-Israel (depending on how you define that) lobby and media pressure organization that’s “orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged.”
SNIP: “A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a “war” on Wikipedia.”
The article offers some interesting insight into neww about recent lobby efforts to propagandize comment areas of newspaper websites and popular blogs. Apparently the World’s best used encyclopedia is also in the crosshairs.
Quote:
“A veteran Wikipedia editor, known as “Zeq,” who according to the emails is colluding with CAMERA, also provided advice to CAMERA volunteers on how they could disguise their agenda. In a 20 March email often in misspelled English, Zeq writes, “You don’t want to be precived [sic] as a ‘CAMERA’ defender’ on wikipedia [sic] that is for sure.” One strategy to avoid that is to “edit articles at random, make friends not enemies — we will need them later on. This is a marathon not a sprint.”
Zeq also identifies, in a 25 March email, another Wikipedia editor, “Jayjg,” whom he views as an effective and independent pro-Israel advocate. Zeq instructs CAMERA operatives to work with and learn from Jayjg, but not to reveal the existence of their group even to him fearing “it would place him in a bind” since “[h]e is very loyal to the wikipedia [sic] system” and might object to CAMERA’s underhanded tactics.”
(Images from the Electronic Intifada post)
Read more: EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group’s plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia.
Posted on Thursday, 16 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Shovrimshtika.org has compiled 54 testimonies by Israeli combat soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead, which “reveal gaps between the reports given by the army following January’s events; the needless destruction of houses; firing phosphorous in populated areas and an atmosphere that encouraged shooting anywhere.”
Among the 54 testimonies are stories revealing the use of “accepted practices,” the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions.
via Breaking The Silence – Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories
Also See:
Posted on Wednesday, 8 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
A while back I ran this graphic, found at Norman Finkelstein’s website, at the top of this blog. Since then, more details on it have emerged on Norman’s site and on a Facebook group that’s sprung up.
Norman Finkelstein and other prominent activists are asking that people converge on Gaza on Jan. 1st, 2010 to break the siege of Gaza. Go with them, or support someone else who’s willing to go. Events to raise money to send people to Gaza are planned throughout the Fall.
I still have a number of questions about it, but like the concept. A first public meeting about it is set for New York a week from today, so imagine more should be coming out following that. the details are here:
Get some more of this post
Posted on Monday, 6 July, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Bill Maher’s take on the current state of world religion is currently online in its entirety. For how long, god only knows. That Lionsgate hasn’t taken this down yet is most interesting, considering how aggressively they chase leaked content. It would be interesting to know if they’ve decided to let this one go as a sort of apologetic petit four to the world on behalf of the DRM-backing entertainment industry, or if someone just uploaded it on a lark.
Post posting viewing: Now having seen it, I’m a bit back and forth on Bill’s methods. I’m pretty much at the place he’s getting to, though without as much of the condescending attitude or inflated ego. I think he kills a lot of his own arguments early on in the flick by going for the cheap laugh too often and too soon.
His plea for people to have “doubt” should really be more about scepticism. And he often leaves some of his own skepticism behind when he gives credit to the likes of Geert Wilders, who is himself a relgious/racist extremist.
Maher’s argument that people who openly express doubts about the afterlife show far more humility than the religious folk he takes issue with is undercut by his own attitude: Bill Maher is not a poster boy for humility. Humorous in parts, the film is more illuminating into how ridiculous the debate over the role of religion has become in the United States – and increasingly, by a creeping degree, in Uk and Europe. Worth the watch, especially for free.
Better done, though perhaps not at funny:
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