Amy Goodman (of Democracy NOW!) comments on her arrest
Topic: Politics and Law
3:07 pm EDT, Sep 2, 2008
So, more fodder for "exactly how are the police behaving according to law in MSP"? This is a short interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW! shortly following her release from jail after having been illegally arrested yesterday.
Note that immediately after her arrest, the Secret Service pulled her credentials and clearance for being allowed in the convention center.
More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans
Topic: Activism
1:06 am EDT, Sep 1, 2008
As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.
Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.
More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans
Topic: Activism
1:05 am EDT, Sep 1, 2008
As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.
Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.
More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans
Topic: Activism
12:28 am EDT, Sep 1, 2008
As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.
Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.
Who will be posted to the position of Massachusetts Handicapper General?
Topic: Science
9:17 pm EDT, Aug 12, 2008
For those who missed it on Slashdot, Massachusetts (the people terrified of LEDs) has stuck another victory blow for Luddites everywhere.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette are reporting that a Mr. Victor Deeb, retired chemist has had his home raided by the Department of Environmental Protection because someone at the Fire Department got into a freaky panic fit after having come to deal with an accidental (and harmless) air-conditioner catching fire on the second floor of their home. Mr. Deeb's basement (which is where his lab is) spent three days entertaining DEP reps while they confiscated all of Mr. Deeb's lab equipment and supplies. The DEP says they found nothing any more dangerous than typical household cleaning products. The DEP says that basically, Mr. Deeb isn't getting any of this stuff back, either.
So, we've got this nice Fourth Amendment thing which protects us against unwarranted search and seizure and this is an excellent example of why you should make damn sure it's adhered to. Had Mr. Deeb objected, because the police and DEP did not have a search warrant, if said authorities had been brought before a judge, he might have gotten a fair shake and simply been asked to have someone from the DEP visit to have a look around to see that he's not say, pouring a bunch of lethal stuff down the sink unneutralized. Since he didn't stop them at the door, they were allowed to run amok in unthinking panic and basically empty his basement lab, which is probably going to set Mr. Deeb back a pretty penny indeed. (Aside: I would so sue them.)
Take look in the comments on the article. Someone signing off as "vmdeeb" has a pretty heavy-duty explanation of what Mr. Deeb was doing in his basement. While it's entirely possible it's just someone with a screw loose who posted that, it's also entirely plausible that Mr. Deeb himself was posting, explaining that he was doing research on ways to eliminate carcinogens from the environment. (Generally this would not involve germs, explosives, or anything even remotely toxic, especially considering you could buy these things containing these carcinogens in the toys section of your local Wal Mart.)
Here's the thing I find most horrifying about the article:
Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro’s code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws.
Apparently in Massachusetts, science has no place in the home. It confuses authorities and causes them to panic when confronted with anything more complex than screwing in a light bulb.
Ms. Wilderman goes on further to say even more horrifying things like:
"This is Mr. Deeb’s hobby. He’s still got bunches of ideas. I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary hom... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]
Who will be posted to the position of Massachusetts Handicapper General?
Topic: Science
9:16 pm EDT, Aug 12, 2008
For those who missed it on Slashdot, Massachusetts (the people terrified of LEDs) has stuck another victory blow for Luddites everywhere.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette are reporting that a Mr. Victor Deeb, retired chemist has had his home raided by the Department of Environmental Protection because someone at the Fire Department got into a freaky panic fit after having come to deal with an accidental (and harmless) air-conditioner catching fire on the second floor of their home. Mr. Deeb's basement (which is where his lab is) spent three days entertaining DEP reps while they confiscated all of Mr. Dees' lab equipment and supplies. The DEP says they found nothing any more dangerous than typical household cleaning products. The DEP says that basically, Mr. Deeb isn't getting any of this stuff back, either.
So, we've got this nice Fourth Amendment thing which protects us against unwarranted search and seizure and this is an excellent example of why you should make damn sure it's adhered to. Had Mr. Deeb objected, because the police and DEP did not have a search warrant, if said authorities had been brought before a judge, he might have gotten a fair shake and simply been asked to have someone from the DEP visit to have a look around to see that he's not say, pouring a bunch of lethal stuff down the sink unneutralized. Since he didn't stop them at the door, they were allowed to run amok in unthinking panic and basically empty his basement lab, which is probably going to set Mr. Deeb back a pretty penny indeed. (Aside: I would so sue them.)
Take look in the comments on the article. Someone signing off as "vmdeeb" has a pretty heavy-duty explanation of what Mr. Deeb was doing in his basement. While it's entirely possible it's just someone with a screw loose who posted that, it's also entirely plausible that Mr. Deeb himself was posting, explaining that he was doing research on ways to eliminate carcinogens from the environment. (Generally this would not involve germs, explosives, or anything even remotely toxic, especially considering you could buy these things containing these carcinogens in the toys section of your local Wal Mart.)
Here's the thing I find most horrifying about the article:
Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro’s code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws.
Apparently in Massachusetts, science has no place in the home. It confuses authorities and causes them to panic when confronted with anything more complex than screwing in a light bulb.
Ms. Wilderman goes on further to say even more horrifying things like:
"This is Mr. Deeb’s hobby. He’s still got bunches of ideas. I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]
Well, here's quite a "bomb" to drop in the news, invasions of Georgia notwithstanding. Apparently a new book out by Ron Suskind alleges that the CIA, under direction from the White House forged the letter that was used to link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
...and the laughs don't stop there! The administration also apparently suppressed information that they was very sure that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Our people were telling us this, their people were telling us this. It literally was only Bush and Cheney saying there were WMDs there. No damn wonder we didn't find any.
For those who want to dig further, there's also this Politico article with more details: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html
The magic words for Google at the moment are "Cheney" and "Habbush".
...and just to spell it out in boldface for those who haven't caught on yet, these things would be impeachment material if anyone in Congress had the balls to stand up and do something about it. Of course, that's not going to happen, because this is far from the first thing that's broken that could cause such a process to begin.
I'm just gonna go ahead and say it... Impeachment is not a dirty word. It's not "bad for America" by any means. What's bad for America is sticking your head in the sand and pretending everything is okay in order to "present a strong face to the world". Personally, I would like for denial to go back to being a river in Egypt, as opposed to being America's 51st state.
This is something it takes a special kind of person to really appreciate.
You must know a bit about MySQL. You must know a bit about TCP. You must be able to recognize what causes flaming computers to fall from the sky when the year rolls over.
This bug report, and the people adding to it, are truly special individuals.
