Kill Your Day Job: Links to and in my blog
A funny thing happened on Twitter yesterday. Someone on the Internet was wrong. A Twitter account associated with hacktivist collective Anonymous accused Netflix of supporting CISPA, a cyber-security bill recently introduced in the House, and declared "Operation Boycott Netflix." It's not clear why @YourAnonNews thought Netflix's newly established political action committee (PAC) was pro-CISPA (Cyber-Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) and pro-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Perhaps it had something to do with Politico's claim that Netflix would use the PAC to press forward a "pro-intellectual property, anti-video piracy agenda."
Netflix Isn't Pro-CISPA, Facebook Is
TSA Precheck: $100 application fee to skip the song and dance
The TSA has announced a new program rolling out at a few airports that allows selected customers to skip the security lines by checking in at a kiosk and going through a nominal screening, but only after they've paid a $100 application fee and been approved through a background check. The Wall Street Journal reports: The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out expedited screening at big airports called "Precheck." It has special lanes for background-checked travelers, who can keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and walk through a metal detector rather than a full-body scan. The process, now at two airlines and nine airports, is much like how screenings worked before the Sept. 11 attacks. To qualify, frequent fliers must meet undisclosed TSA criteria and get invited in by the airlines.This summer, health insurance companies may have to pay more than a billion dollars back to their own customers. The rebate requirements were introduced as part of the 2010 health-care reform law and are meant to benefit consumers. But now an insurer-supported Senate bill aims to roll back the rebate requirements.
Senate Bill Could Roll Back Consumers’ Health Insurance Savings
Washington's high-powered terrorist supporters - Glenn Greenwald
We now have an extraordinary situation that reveals the impunity with which political elites commit the most egregious crimes, as well as the special privileges to which they explicitly believe they — and they alone — are entitled. That a large bipartisan cast of Washington officials got caught being paid substantial sums of money by an Iranian dissident group that is legally designated by the U.S. Government as a Terrorist organization, and then meeting with and advocating on behalf of that Terrorist group, is very significant for several reasons.
The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement
As readers may know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik. Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets ( New York Times , Financial Times , Wall Street Journal ) have details, with Dave Dayen’s overview at Firedoglake the best thus far. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they’ll clip the banks for some of the very last (and dreckiest) deals they shoved out the door before the subprime market gave up the ghost.
Fritz Attaway, executive vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America, (left) and Cary Sherman of the Recording Industry Association of America, discussed copyright and antipiracy today in New York. (Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET) NEW YORK--The country's largest Internet service providers haven't given up on the idea of becoming copyright cops.
RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12 | Media Maverick
N.Y. Passes DNA Requirement For Convicted Criminals
A forensic scientist processes DNA samples at the New York State Police lab in Albany. Mike Groll / AP Early on Thursday, lawmakers in New York approved a bill that will make the state the first to require DNA samples from almost all convicted criminals — and make its DNA database one of the largest in the nation.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg has a solution for the tense police-protester relationship at Occupy Wall Street: barricades. At a press conference this morning, the mayor, responding to reporters' repeated questions about the arrests of more than 70 occupiers over the weekend , said that the New York Police Department was simply controlling a rowdy crowd, legally using barricades to stop them from camping out in Zuccotti Park, and protecting the protesters' rights to demonstrate. "Just trying to cause chaos doesn't do anything to advance anybody's cause.
Mayor Bloomberg: Zuccotti Barricades Are Legal, Protesters 'Just Trying to Cause Chaos'
NYPD Violence Reinvigorates Occupy Wall Street (Again)
Five officers wrestle Occupy protester to the ground (photo: Andrew Katz) (update below) For two nights, it appears a dozen or so people have occupied Union Square in New York City. This morning there are people still in the park who slept there overnight.
Supreme Court Likely to Endorse Obama's War on Whistleblowers | Truthout
Totalitarian systems disempower an unsuspecting population by gradually making legal what was once illegal. They incrementally corrupt and distort law to exclusively serve the goals of the inner sanctums of power and strip protection from the citizen. Law soon becomes the primary tool to advance the crimes of the elite and punish those who tell the truth. The state saturates the airwaves with official propaganda to replace news.Style Weekly - Richmond, VA local news, arts, and events. | Articles & Archives | Vernal Coleman
Showing: articles by Vernal Coleman Vernal Coleman News & Features , Cover Story , May 15, 2012 The Antagonist King Salim Khalfani has railed against social injustice for more than 25 years.Protester's Lawyer Challenges Twitter Subpoena
Mr. Harris Updated, 2:35 p.m. | Toward the end of January there was an unusual development in one of the 700 court cases emanating from the Oct. 1 Occupy Wall Street protest march across the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge and the arrests it generated.Beyond that, however, little is clear about the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17. As criticism of the police investigation mounts, so too do the calls for swift action in a case with heavy racial overtones. Protests grow larger each week, and lawyers for the family are now asking the Department of Justice to intervene. The case also brings into sharp focus Florida’s self-defense laws, which give people who feel threatened greater latitude in defending themselves than most states. The police in of Sanford, where the shooting took place, are not revealing details of the investigation.
Justice Department Investigation Is Sought in Florida Teenager’s Shooting Death
NDAA Lawsuit Gains Steam, But All Americans Still At Risk
The lawsuit to block the NDAA's imprisonment without trial of American citizens is gaining steam, it appears. (Watch the full video report below.) Via StopNDAA.org , the lawsuit's official web site: "In a nation where the definition of 'terrorist' appears to be ever-expanding, and where a series of laws passed since 9/11 have severely undermined Constitutional protections, the NDAA has gone too far. Key provisions in this law contain language that is so broad and vague, we believe it leaves many people, including journalists, war corespondents, out-spoken activists, Occupy supporters, Tea Party members and others in imminent danger of harm as of March 1." <p style="text-align:right;color:#A8A8A8"></p>Don't Spy On Me! The NYCLU's Spy Files Campaign
Don't Spy On Me! The NYCLU's Spy Files Campaign The NYPD is watching us. Here is your chance to watch them. Find out if you are under government surveillance for your political or religious activities. File a Freedom of Information request today.KONY 2012
I don't think I understand what you're saying. I may possibly be missing the context of your comment. by Mar 15