BIG BROTHER in the age of INTERNET # (Ongoing - Links, Articles & Videos)

Empire and the Lies of the Corporate Media: Are we Living in a Fool's Paradise?
by William Bowles / williambowles.info
December 21, 2011

Well 2011 has been nothing if not eventful but frankly, in spite of all the #Occupy this and #Occupy that, it's not been a good year for us progresssives or the planet. The Empire acts with increasing, not decreasing impunity, desperate now to try and keep ahead of events lest events take control of it.

Are we living in a fool's paradise?
A question keeps nagging at me: Are all of us, including the left, reacting to an entirely engineered reality, fed to us via an all-embracing media? We get blown this way and that, all of it being determined by whatever 'event' the globalized media decides to feed us with. Then, just as 'mysteriously', the 'event' disappears to be replaced by yet another 'event'.

The old Anarchist cry of 'Do not adjust your mind, there's a fault in reality' takes on an entirely new kind of import given the power of the media to determine what's 'real' for us.

What this means is that the media effectively acts as an agent provocateur for the state and big business as it decides for us what is actually going on in the world. In turn, progressives make decisions based not on what needs to be done, but as a reaction to the 'news' in a weird political version of the Heisenberg Effect.

Press coverage of the Summer Riots is a perfect example of this process in action whereby the media, by focusing solely on the violence and destruction, not only transformed it into a 'riot without a cause' but in doing so actually incited even more violence and destruction, just as ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) are worn as 'badges of honour' by alienated youth who actually go out of their way to get one (or two).

Aside from anything else it demonstrates just how out-of-touch the political elite is with the reality of life as it is really lived by a goodly chunk of the population; the so-called underclass.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

Victory! Boycott forces GoDaddy to drop its support for SOPA
By Timothy B. Lee
24-12-2011

Under intense pressure from an Internet-wide boycott, domain registrar GoDaddy has given the open Internet an early Christmas present: it's dropping its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. The change was announced in a statement sent to Ars Technica:

Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" currently working its way through U.S. Congress.

"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation—but we can clearly do better," Warren Adelman, Go Daddy's newly appointed CEO, said. "It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

Continue: [link to arstechnica.com]

A Fool's Paradise Revisited News, Social Media, Television and the "Anti-Mirror"
by William Bowles
December 28, 2011
williambowles.info

My last piece clearly touched a nerve at least judging by the readership it's gotten so I thought it worth exploring the issue a little further, especially in light of the comments I've read.

Generally speaking the response has been favourable though one Website that carried it prefaced it by saying that it 'overstated the argument'. Elsewhere comments ranged from 'why the hell do you watch television anyway?' to 'you're stating the obvious', but if so, why so many readers?

'The threats [against Iran] are a shameless and brazen violation of international law' - Stephen M. Walt, Harvard professor of international affairs

Could it be because, trapped in a system of information control so complete, most of us suffer a kind of reverse sensory deprivation, overloaded with data but starved of contact with the real world?

How else to explain the almost total disconnect between our governments' actions and the public's response (or lack of one) to the barbarism of 'civilized' world? This is spite of the fact that we donate millions to 'charities' for the starving 'them'.

How else to explain the hypocrisy of a government that slaughters in our name with total impunity and the public's apparent indifference?

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

SOPA Is The End Of Us, Say Bloggers
By TIM MAK
12/27/11

The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.

“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group.

Read more: [link to www.politico.com]

Homeland Security's Covert Surveillance of Facebook and Twitter - Electronic Privacy Information (EPIC) files lawsuit against DHS
by EPIC
December 29, 2011
epic.org


EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency's social network monitoring program.

Continue: [link to globalresearch.ca]

Who Says What on the Internet: Homeland Security Collects "Personal Identifiable Information" on Users of Social Media
January 9, 2012

Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what.

Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms.

Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.” Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency.

Also included in the roster of those subjected to the spying are government officials, domestic or not, who make public statements, private sector employees that do the same and “persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland Security interest,” which to itself opens up the possibilities even wider.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

SAY NO TO SOPA AND PIPA. What’s Happening With the Web Censorship Bills?
by Washington's Blog
January 19, 2012
Washiington's Blog

In the face of massive Internet protest today, key senate and house backers of the SOPA and PIPA web censorship bills – including Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, John Boozman and Jim DeMint, and Representatives Ben Quayle and Lee Terry – have dropped their support. So have a number of other senators.

At least 17,000 websites allegedly joined in the protest.

Indeed, even several congresspeople joined in the protest. Here’s what Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s homepage looks like right now:

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

Escalating Cyber War Spells Trouble for Internet Freedom
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Eric Blair
Activist Post

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
– Gandhi

The cyber war escalated to a whole new level yesterday. The U.S. government shut down the popular website MegaUpload at the behest of corporate interests. The Feds accused MegaUpload of stealing $500 million in potential lost revenue from copyright holders.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

"Media Restrictions" in Support of "Democracy"; Taking Press TV Off the Air. Open Letter to UK Communications Regulator OFCOM
OFCOM is the Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK Communications Industry
by Felicity Arbuthnot
January 21, 2012

Mr Graham Howell,
Director, Secretary,
Ofcom.

21 January 2012

Dear Mr Howell,

Re: UK:Taking Press TV of Air.

So now we enjoin those the British government cites as "repressive states", such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Afghanistan's restrictions under the Taliban, and currently Iran and China, North Korea, derided by the UK government as repressive for control over what their citizens can watch.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

The US Air Force wants to monitor, track and analyze everything done on the Internet around the globe
Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Activist Post

Dr. Mark Maybury, the United States Air Force Chief Scientist, is stepping outside of the typical areas in which an Air Force Chief Scientist operates and into the digital realm.

Maybury seeks to develop something he has dubbed “Social Radar” which would monitor information coming from just about every source imaginable: television, all Internet communications, radio, official reports, and more, in order to look into the hearts and minds of target populations and perhaps even predict future events.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Thanks for all the updates, RoXY

Should start a list of suggestions on how to send them on a wild goose chase by posting ridculous stuff. Maybe create accounts using HS employee names and post to hearts content. Time to F with these nosy SOB's a bit.

Quite some years ago I found a list, somewhere on the net, with 'all' Echelon 'trigger-words'...

Life In The Fast Lane...

These are the cars the arrested Megaupload director Kim Dot IL owned...

2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe, kenteken “GOD”
2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, kenteken “GOOD”
2004 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG 5.5L Kompressor, kenteken “EVIL”
2010 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG L, kenteken “CEO”
2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, kenteken “STONED”
2010 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, kenteken “GUILTY”
2007 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG, kenteken “KIMCOM”
2009 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, kenteken “MAFIA”
2011 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG, kenteken “POLICE”
2010 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG, kenteken “HACKER”
2005 Mercedes-Benz A170, kenteken “FUR252”
2005 Mercedes-Benz ML500
2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM
2010 Maserati GranCabrio

Klassieke auto's:

1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible
1957 Cadillac El Dorado
1989 Lamborghini LM002

Motoren:

Harley Davidson Motorcycle
Von Dutch Kustom Motor Bike

[link to www.crimesite.nl]

This is the response I got back.

Thank you for contacting my office regarding online piracy. I appreciate the time you took to write to me concerning this issue and I welcome the opportunity to respond.



The Internet has become a critical tool in our 21st century economy and is an extremely important engine for economic growth, innovation, and communication. Inventors and innovators, large corporations, and small business owners all use the Internet to make their ideas public – ideas that have revolutionized the way we communicate with one another, get information, and do business. Unfortunately, the Internet has also been used to steal these ideas, hurting the ability for businesses to compete in the global market place.



I understand your concerns regarding Internet security, free speech, and innovation. The Constitution guarantees that innovators have the exclusive right to their properties for a limited time in order to receive benefits from their investments. While the Internet has become a complex system that is already a difficult forum to monitor unlawful activities, we must ensure that intellectual property rights are protected, however, freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution must not be infringed.



H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, would allow the Attorney General to take legal action against individuals associated with an internet site committing or facilitating online piracy, including criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels, goods, or services. It would also facilitate legal proceedings taken by the Attorney General and the Department of Justice against foreign nationals that are associated with delinquent domain names that harm American Internet users.



H.R. 3261 was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, where hearings and a Mark-Up session were held. Congress needs to pursue a course that maintains a balance between the free flow of information across the Internet and protects individuals that publicize their intellectual property. Please be assured that I will keep your concerns in mind when this legislation comes before the full House of Representatives for consideration.



Hearing from constituents I serve has always been vital to addressing the needs of the 38th District. I urge you to contact me or my staff again if you need assistance in any way. You can reach my office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 225-5256 or my office in Santa Fe Springs at (562) 801-2134. Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts, and I trust you will continue to keep me informed on issues of concern to you.



Please visit my website at www.Napolitano.House.Gov to stay informed of my work, or become a fan on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RepGraceNapolitano), Twitter (www.twitter.com/gracenpolitano), or YouTube (www.youtube.com/RepGraceNapolitano).

Department of Justice Misdirection on Cloud Computing and Privacy
Cindy Cohn & Katitza Rodriguez
Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Does using cloud computing services based in the United States create a risk of US law enforcement access to people's data? The US Department of Justice (DOJ) seems to be trying to placate international concern by saying one thing in international fora; but it says something quite different quite in the US courts.

On January 18, a senior Justice Department official tried to reassure companies and people around the world that hosting their data in the United States creates no increased privacy risk for them from the US government. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz noted: "Cloud computing has important advantages to consumers (but) doesn't present any issues that have not always been present. Certainly not regarding Internet service issues, but even before that."

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Anonymous is launching its own file sharing

January 23, 2012

[link to www.rawstory.com]

Anonyupload - [link to www.anonyupload.com]

ACTA: global treaty to be signed today worse than SOPA/PIPA

Today in Tokyo, the 26 EU countries should join the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), officiating and applying the measure, which does not deal exclusively with the Internet, but also physical assets allegedly falsified. United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zalândia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Morocco had signed the agreement in October. In total there are 39 signatory countries. Other countries wishing to enter the agreement has until May 2013 to sign it.

[link to translate.google.com.br]