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Crusader

Best of the Web: English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout

Sue Gardner
Wikimedia Foundation
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:29 UTC
To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate - that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it's a decision that wasn't lightly made. Here's how it's been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community's discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:
It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

Comment: To see a list of those expressing concern with SOPA and PIPA, compiled by the Center for Democracy & Technology, go here.

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Dollar

One U.S. family is responsible for half of Netanyahu's donations

Ophir Bar-Zohar
Haaretz
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:32 UTC
Benjamin Netanyahu at a an event with member of the Likud party in 2007
© Dudu BacharBenjamin Netanyahu at a an event with member of the Likud party in 2007
Owners of Duty Free America, a large chain of duty-free shops that operates in 13 airports, pledged half of NIS 330,000 Netanyahu raised.

Members of a single American family have donated half of the NIS 330,000 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised for his Likud party primary campaign in the past few weeks. Four members of the Falic family from Florida are responsible for contributing some NIS 165,000.

Of the nine donors that appear on the political contributions page on the state comptroller's website, seven gave over NIS 41,000 - very close to the maximum of NIS 43,280 that individuals are allowed to donate. Several of the donors have been mentioned in Channel 10's "Bibitours" investigative reports, according to which the prime minister may have allowed donors to finance his trips abroad, and allegedly billed a trip to two different sources.
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Attention

Who's Killing Iranian Nuclear Scientists?

Josh Levs
CNN
Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:31 UTC
Image
Nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a blast in Tehran on Wednesday, the state-run IRNA news agency said.
It's a question many people inside Iran -- and those who watch the country closely around the world -- were asking Wednesday: Who is killing nuclear scientists in Iran?

An explosion on Wednesday killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a top official at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Iranian officials said.

He is the third man identified as a nuclear scientist to be killed in Iran in a mysterious explosion in the past two years. A fourth survived an assassination attempt.

In each case, someone placed a bomb under the scientist's car.

Iranian officials, on state-run media, blame Israel and the United States.
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Megaphone

Vatican Official Condemns GMOs as 'New Form of Slavery'

Anthony Gucciardi
readersupportednews.org
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:52 UTC
Image
© LaStampaGhanian-born Cardinal and top Vatican official Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson.
In an interview with the magazine L'Osservatore Romano on January 5, a prominent member of the Vatican spoke out against genetically modified crops. Cardinal Peter Turkson said that genetically modified crops are a "new form of slavery," and went on to discuss the impact that they have on both the environment and the economy. Regardless of religious association, anyone speaking out against genetically modified should be listened to. As a prominent leader of the Catholic people, Cardinal Turkson has the ability to inform millions worldwide regarding the negative effects of genetically modified food.

Even farmers have risen up against Monsanto and genetically modified seeds, with Monsanto forcing thousands of farmers into debt worldwide. In India, Monsanto has ruined the lives of so many farmers that the prevalence of their suicide has led to a large farming area to be titled the 'suicide belt of India'. Some have even blamed Monsanto for the recent bird and fish deaths, claiming that the poison coming from their factories may have poisoned animals worldwide. Monsanto's destruction isn't limited to the environment, however.
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Star of David

Israel Requests Delay in US-Israel Missile Defense Exercise

Laura Rozen
The Envoy
Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
A major U.S.-Israeli missile defense exercise that had been planned to take place in the spring has been postponed due to a request by the Israeli Defense Ministry, American and Israeli officials told Yahoo News Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a request to the Pentagon last month that the planned joint exercise be postponed, a U.S. official told Yahoo News Sunday.

"It was Barak," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency's Ron Kampeas reported earlier Sunday that the exercise was being postponed, ostensibly because of "Israeli budget cuts."

But American officials are privately concerned that the Israeli request for a postponement of the exercise could be one potential warning sign that Israel is trying to leave its options open for conducting a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in the spring. In that case, it would not wish American forces to then be on the ground, the thinking goes.
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Vader

US: Perry Defends Marines Accused of Urinating on Corpses


Reuters
Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Rick Perry
© unknownRick Perry
Texas Governor Rick Perry, scrambling to keep his U.S. presidential bid alive, accused the Obama administration on Sunday of over-reacting to a videotape that shows four Marines appearing to urinate on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

"These kids made a mistake. There's not any doubt about it. They shouldn't have done it. It's bad," Perry told CNN's State of the Union program.

"But to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top," said Perry, who faces a possible make-or-break performance in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Saturday.

The U.S. Marine Corps named an investigative officer last week to decide what, if any, charges to bring against the four Marines shown in the widely circulated videotape.
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Display

Victory for Internet Freedom: Obama Announces Opposition to SOPA, Congress Shelves Bill

Steve Benen
AlterNet
Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:45 UTC
Stop SOPA graphic
© n/a
The Protect IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act have generated intense opposition because of their crackdown on Internet freedom--and that opposition just won big.

Misguided efforts to combat online privacy have been threatening to stifle innovation, suppress free speech, and even, in some cases, undermine national security. As of yesterday, though, there's a lot less to worry about.

At issue are two related bills: the Senate's Protect IP Act and the even more offensive Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, both of which are generated intense opposition from tech giants and First Amendment advocates. The first sign that the bills' prospects were dwindling came Friday, when SOPA sponsors agreed to drop a key provision that would have required service providers to block access to international sites accused of piracy.

The legislation ran into an even more significant problem yesterday when the White House announced its opposition to the bills. Though the administration's chief technology officials officials acknowledged the problem of online privacy, the White House statement presented a fairly detailed critique of the measures and concluded, "We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." It added that any proposed legislation "must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet."
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Grey Alien

Mitt Romney: Alien or Psychopath?

Kevin Barrett
Veterans Today
Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:00 UTC
Romney
© n/a
When history professor David Jacobs told me last week that the weight of the evidence suggests that human-alien hybrids are among us, my first thought was: That explains Mitt Romney.

Like serial killer Ted Bundy, the all-time quintessential Republican, Mitt Romney is smooth, suave, handsome - like he was cast in plastic, rather than nurtured in a human uterus. There's something inhuman in his voice and facial expressions and the way he moves and handles himself. He reminds me of the androids in Disney World's Hall of Presidents.

If I were asked to distinguish between Romney and a walking, talking android simulacrum of Romney, I would pick the one with more gravitas. That would definitely be the android.

Is Romney a plastic shell, operated in real time by a gray alien equivalent of Karl Rove? Possibly. But it seems far more likely that he is, like Bundy, an inhuman human: one of the 2% of males who are clinical psychopaths.

Comment: See also: Harrison Koehli's "Ponerology 101: The Psychopath's Mask of Sanity"

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Chess

Why US Congress Will be Immune from NDAA Arrest and Imprisonment -- With Exceptions

Brennan Browne
Activist Post
Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:50 UTC
NDAA graphic
© WB7
Recently, Naomi Wolf penned a commentary entitled: "How Congress is Signing Its Own Arrest Warrants in the NDAA Citizen Arrests Bill".

Her argument is that those responsible for passing the National Defense Authorization Act will inevitably end up its victims. She states, "Parliamentary leaders are the first to face pressure, threats, arrest and even violence when the military obtains to [sic] power to make civilian arrests and hold civilians in military facilities without due process. There is no exception to this rule."

The problem with her rationale is not that it isn't correct. It's that it fails to recognize that a fascist coup has already taken place in this country.

The catalyst was the false-flag event of Sept. 11, 2001, and was solidified by the enactment of the PATRIOT Act. It was quickly followed by the massive purging of all individuals not pledging allegiance to the rabid, neocon, ideologies of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.

The Bush administration had 8 years to systematically rid the Dept. of Justice and its umbrella agencies of all political dissenters. With each successive appointment within the military, law enforcement and the courts, any hint of "liberalism" was quashed. This trend not only took hold on a national level, but state and local political appointee positions were purged of all progressives as well.
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Star of David

Terrorism: Western Intelligence Sources Confirm Mossad Murdered Iranian Scientists

Karl Vick and Aaron J. Klein
Time
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Iranian scientist murdered
© Sajad Safari/IIPA/ReutersA policeman walks by the car that belonged to Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, who was assassinated in Tehran on Jan. 11, 2012
Like three previous Iranian scientists ambushed on their morning commute, the latest nuclear expert to die on his way to work was a victim of Israel's Mossad, Western intelligence sources tell TIME. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an expert on a phase of uranium enrichment, perished on a Tehran street on Wednesday after an assassin in a passing motorcycle attached a magnetized explosive to the side of his Peugeot 405. "Yeah, one more," a senior Israeli official said with a smile. "I don't feel sad for him."

Wednesday's attack followed the pattern of previous operations planned by Mossad and carried out over the past two years by Iranians trained and paid by Israel's spy agency, according to intelligence sources. The targets were chosen from the ranks of scientists seen as crucial to Iran's nuclear effort - the country's top physicist, Majid Shahriari, was killed by a magnetized bomb in October 2010 - then shadowed for weeks to determine their routines and points of vulnerability.

A year ago, Iranian television broadcast the confession of one alleged agent who described studying a scale model of the home of the scientist he helped assassinate by hiding a bomb on a motorcycle outside the front door. "It was the exact copy of the real one, even the size, material, its color, the tree next to it, its asphalt, the street curb, the bridge," said Majid Jamali Fashi on the air. He said he viewed the model in Mossad's headquarters in Tel Aviv, which he described in detail. Intelligence sources confirmed Fashi's involvement in a Mossad cell that the sources claim was revealed to Iran by a third country.
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