Found on Digg:
3 convicted of jamming phones to a Democratic get out the vote campaign in New Hampshire. Turns out there had been more than 2 dozen calls between these guys and the White House, all within 3 days of election day 2004. Recently the republican party had paid millions in legal bills to defend these people.
See the full story on CNN.com.
It’s watergate all over again…
Yesterday Harry Taylor rose at one of those “Bush town hall” forums in North Carolina to tell President Bush that he’s never felt more ashamed of the leadership of his country. He said Bush has asserted his right to tap phone calls without a warrant, to arrest people and hold them without charges and to revoke a woman’s right to an abortion, among other things. After President Bush, was told by Harry that he should be ashamed of his policies, Bush defended the government’s secret eavesdropping program Thursday and said he would not apologize for listening in on the phone and e-mail conversations of Americans talking to people with suspected al-Qaida links.
On the same day Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee that he believes President Bush has the authority to warrantlessly monitor all internal phone (and other electronic communications) within the US–purely domestic contacts. This position is contrary to Article 4 of the US Constitution which states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
If you’d like to thank Harry Taylor for his timely and brilliant use of his First Amendment rights, use the first link below.
If you’d like to participate in a public action thanking Harry Taylor click the second link to learn how to do so.
I have watched in great sadness as well as some very real fear for my profession as I’ve seen software - and worse: process - patents gain hold in this country driven by forces of great wealth and power aimed at maintaining their wealth and power at the cost of innovation. I was in the software labs of the late ’70s when things like object oriented programming, bitmapped displays, email, and modern operating system theory were being developed and nothing was even copyrighted. There was great excitement as people built on each other’s work, creating new concepts - like inter-process communication (IPC as it was known) that are now mainstays of every computer and network in existence (even your cell phone has IPC in it, but it’s so taken for granted these days that few even know about the great efforts that went into the creation of shared memory and socket-based communication systems).
In ‘79 the military got wind of some fantastic new machines - Lisp Machines - that were capable of processing feats way beyond traditional processors. They paid the primary inventors $11 million (if memory serves me correctly) to copyright every piece of software they could that went into those machines. This was born Symbolics, known to some as “Slimebolics,” and the great openness of the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, that until that time had no locks on any doors and no passwords on any computers, began to come to an end as a direct result of the desire to hoard this new resource known as “software.”
In the mid-1980’s software patents began to appear. I was doing some time at Oracle and was brought into a meeting with the Oracle lawyers who explained to us that if we were working on anything patentable, that we should bring it to their attention as a candidate for a possible software patent. I was outraged and, though Larry wouldn’t listen, Oracle’s vice president and original architect of the Oracle RDBMS, Bob Miner understood the implications and became an outspoken critic of software patents, even testifying against them to the U.S. Congress. One reason he gave was that Oracle, the second largest software company in the world, would not exist if the IBM RDB code had been patented, as Bob used that as a blueprint for the first Oracle database software. Oracle finally set a policy in place that they would continue to acquire software patents, but not use them against any one who was not itself using them against others. This innovative “no first strike” was overturned by Larry Ellison a few months after Mr. Miner’s untimely death.
So now we not only have patents on software and business models, but also on medical processes that can prevent a doctor from helping their patients for fear of being sued for patent violations. Finally, the Supreme Court is starting to take notice; yesterday they heard arguments on a patented blood test that could save lives if freely available. This is a landmark case and could potentially have far reaching consequences. I can only hope that it marks the beginning of a return to some measure of sanity, though there is so much money/power/momentum behind the current broken system that it will at best take years for things to straighten out.
The bottom line is that software patents, as they are currently structured, severely hamper innovation growth in the state of the art (unless you are well funded enough to routinely run $20,000 patent searches on any new ideas that you have, and if something comes up, have a deep enough patent portfolio to enable mutual patent licensing to prevent possible litigation.
Well, that’s a little bit about how I feel about the subject. For more, see these articles:
The U.S. Government is suing Google for non-compliance after the DOJ requested Google users’ search records. AOL, MSN and Yahoo all complied with the DOJ requests, which were couched in terms of the fight against child porn. This is being reported by ZDnet, Bloomberg and other sources.
What is not getting much press is that this is a thinly disguised attempt to set precedent for future USA PATRIOT Act searches of everything we search for online. Combatting child pornography, like the fight against drugs and the struggle against terrorism, is nearly impossible to disagree with. The ACLU has stepped in - as they did with the DOJ initially attempted to regulate the Internet due to the fear of rampant child porn - stating that it is impossible to comply with COPA (the Child Online Protection Act) without infringing on the rights of free, legal speech mandated by the Constitution.
It’s a shame that AOL, MSN and Yahoo complied so readily, happily divulging information that is highly personal without so much as a notice to their users. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is attempting to paint Google as a friend to child pornographers when in fact they are fighting for your right to a little bit of privacy. Giving in now will make it that much easier for the Government to install a pipeline from these centers of communication straight to Homeland Security as they have already done with the phone lines.
If, though, you feel that it’s unpatriotic to withhold any of your search information to the government, please consider using the new PATRIOT Search engine - be sure to check out the seach syntax!
At least it’s still legal to laugh…
I regularly read SlashDot, which is a geek news site that gives paragraph intros to a linked full story and then people can comment on it. One section of their site, called Your Rights Online recently published this article reporting about a Dartmouth student being visited by the SS after requesting a book that contains information contrary to the state.
Seems to follow along with this little reported news item regarding Bush and his (lack of) concern for people’s Constitutional rights.
Finally, while Bush has reversed himself and has now said that he’s against torture (more specifically, against any forms of interrogation that are not in the Army Handbook), we learn now about a new, classified addendum to the Army Handbook.
While we enjoy this holiday season, let’s remember that we have a lot of work to do!
I work with CivicActions, and one of the best things about this gig is the lifestyle that it allows me to enjoy. CivicActions is a small but growing band of technology revolutionaries writing free and open source code for progressive organizations and political campaigns. We’re pulling in more work than we can handle, so I am pretty constantly overwhelmed (we could use good developers and project managers) but though I often don’t get enough sleep, I love what we’re doing and firmly believe that we’re headed down a good path.
We’re a 100% virtual company, which allows me to work from home any ten hours a day I want. 
This is great as I also get to spend time in close proximity to my family, especially important to me as my four-year-old son is growing and changing daily - I would hate to miss something special because I’m at “the office.” Even though my colleagues and I are physically separate, we connect every weekday morning on a 20-minute “scrum” call where we also get to share some “watercooler” talk about what’s up in our lives. Most importantly, everyone in the company is encouraged to put their lives - and lifestyle - first, though we’re generally workaholics and do whatever it takes to move the projects we’re working on forward.
I think a major reason for the dedication I see at Civic Actions is that we are doing Good Work - stuff that is making the world a better place (one vote at a time, one might say). This is particularly important for me, as I want my son to have clean air, drinkable water, quality health care, and a safe and peaceful world in which he is guaranteed the freedoms that this troubled country’s forefathers fought and died for. I don’t know how so many corporate workers can look at their kids in the face and believe that they are creating a better world for them, other than perhaps purely financially, while they are mortgaging the planet’s future. I am heartened by the fact that I am doing work that already makes my son very proud.
There’s no doubt that I could earn nearly twice what I make now in a corporate environment, but I wouldn’t have near the lifestyle and peace of mind I currently enjoy. And, with my continued work - and that of my dedicated compatriots - I may be able to pull in something akin to corporate dollars in the future so that I can create for my family those things we want and deserve, such as a house with a backyard (though probably not in the Bay Area!). In fact, all of us at CivicActions agree that acheiving such personal dreams are a key part of the measure of our group’s success.
I’m still reeling from the un-reality of it all.
I think my sister summed it up well when she said:
i think they’ll get a few surprises pretty fast : the economy will tank, the taxes will go up, their jobs will go to calcutta and their kids will be drafted to iraq. but of course, hetero marriage has been protected so maybe they’ll figure it’s a fair trade
Not to dwell to long on what’s happened, but part of me wonders if her absentee ballot even got counted, given that it was mailed from France and was for Kerry…
But we can’t get stuck in our outrage or disappointment. Let us not forget that, despite Bush now proclaiming that he has a “strong mandate” from the people, Kerry got more votes (55.5 million) than any other president in history — the previous leader being Reagan in ‘84 with 54 million.
As usual, Joshua Marshall sees both the bad:
Before today, the course that America had charted in the world over the last three years could be seen as the result of a traumatic event (9/11) and the choice of a president who was actually put in office by a minority of the electorate. This was a referendum on what’s happened in the last three years. And it’s been validated.
with the good:
[An article by Simon Rosenberg, the head of the New Dem Network] was about create a Democratic-leaning counter-establishment along the lines of what Republicans did two generations ago — with an alternative media, activist groups, organized political giving, in short a political infrastructure.
…
Leave today for disappointment. Tomorrow, think over which of these various groups and organizations you think has made the best start toward what I’ve described above, go to their website, and give money or volunteer. … Tomorrow’s the day to start.
I’m done licking my wounds. I’m re-doubling my efforts to create trusted identities as they are the basis for trusted communities — just one of many efforts needed to foster a better informed and more compassionate world.
I’m trying to get work done (ok, I am getting work done) but I’m also nervous as all get out regarding the results of the election. Who are these people who can vote for Bush when it’s been proven that he’s lied to the American public about WMDs, the link between Iraq and al Quaeda not to mention his domestic promises for better health care, schools and jobs?
If Bush wins again, I think that any slack that the rest of the world has given U.S. citizens will dry up, as we can be fooled once, but if we vote for the guy a second time we’re obviously just not aware of what’s really going on. And since our media is corporate controlled, the sad thing is that most of the American public is not aware of what’s going on.
To that end, here’s a plug for Joshua Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog - one of the better sources of information I have found. A pointer from his site led me to these bios on the two judges who brought back the poll challengers in Ohio among other things.
Well, I sit here, work and - though I am not one for religion, especiallly these days as W tells us he can “feel your prayers” - pray that sanity will come from this election. And once Kerry wins, I expect I’ll continue to be mad as the changes that need to be made - such as corporate accountability, environmental protection, campaign finance reform, and a safe and sane foreign policy - will not be implemented fast enough and in a comprehensive enough manner that is needed by the U.S. - and the world - today.
From: http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk/ :
Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts, images, audio, and video.
On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace, at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities.
The seizure of the hard drives in London shut down an Indymedia radio station and around 20 different Indymedia websites including those serving Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen, Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, and parts of Germany Indymedia.
Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. One week after the seizures there is still an almost total information blackout from the authorities in the UK, US, Switzerland and Italy. Indymedia still has no confirmation of who ordered the seizures, who took the hard drives, why the seizures took place, or whether it will happen again.
We fought for freedom and we live with laws to help protect that freedom. If those that enforce the laws are not bound by them, an unacceptable police state ensues.
This has been traveling around the net the last few days. Farnaz Fassihi, a Wall Street Journal reporter sent this frank and bleak look at “the situation” in Iraq in an e-mail to friends:
Farnaz’ story has been backed by a WSJ editor and others (see
Pulling Back the Curtain: What a Top Reporter in Baghdad Really Thinks About the War).
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