PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to ... (more)
The newly introduced ‘rogue websites’ bill that has attracted bi-partisan support in the House will force Internet Service Providers to create a list of banned websites and prevent their users from accessing the sites, creating a Chinese-style ‘ban list’ that could easily be abused to silence free speech.
“US lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give US authorities more tools to crack down on websites accused of piracy of movies, telev... (more)
Ten years ago today, President Bush signed the Patriot Act into law. It passed with the support of all but 66 members of the House of Representatives and one Senator.
We were told at the time that it was an absolutely necessary law to give federal intelligence and law enforcement authorities the tools they needed to fight terror. This sweeping legislation generally beefed up federal “anti-terrorist” police powers, dramatically skewed surveillance procedures in the dire... (more)
Defense giant Lockheed Martin had a totally sweet quarter, raking in $700 million and looking forward to the same this time next year. So it raises eyebrows when Lockheed’s anointed mouthpieces predict mass economic disaster if Congress touches the defense budget.
On Tuesday, the aerospace industry put out a report saying that chopping the defense budget would put over a million Americans out of work. Cuts that could total up t... (more)
Last week, Reason.tv followed investment guru, radio show host, and unflappable defender of capitalism Peter Schiff as he spent three hours among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.
An unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent," Schiff argued with all comers for the better part of an afternoon.
Jean Keller earned $269,810 last year working as a nurse at a men’s prison on California’s central coast by tripling her regular pay with overtime hours.
Keller got more overtime in 2010 than any other state employee. In all, California’s public workers collected $1.7 billion of extra pay last year, more than half of it in overtime, state payroll data show. The rest was for unused vacation and union-negotiated benefits such as uniform allowances, physical-fitness... (more)
Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, stood calmly in front of a police line as tear gas canisters officers shot into the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night whizzed past his head.
"He was standing perfectly still, provoking no one," said Raleigh Latham, an Oakland filmmaker shooting footage of the confrontation between police and hundreds of protesters at 14th Street and Broadway. "If something didn't hit him directly in the face, then it went o... (more)
[...]"They didn’t hurt this guy. They’re not dumping him, they’re taking care of him," the source said.
A lawyer for one of the women, 24-year-old Kaylee Dedrick, said Bologna had assaulted her and he should be arrested.
"The crux of Deputy Inspector Bologna’s offense is not that he mishandled pepper spray or shot off mist in a careless fashion; the crux of Bologna’s conduct is he engaged in a deliberate assault against five innocent pe... (more)
Footage from the Occupy Oakland protest, October 25th, 2011. After protesters ran to the aid of a badly-injured person, Oakland Police deliberately lobbed a flash grenade into the crowd. Whatever you think of the Occupy movement, police behavior of this kind is criminal and should be prosecuted.
Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen was wounded by a less-lethal round fired by either San Francisco Sheriffs deputies or Palo Alto Police on October 25, 2011 at 14th Street and Broadway in Downtown Oakland
Oakland Mayor contact details:http://jeanquan.org/contact-mayor-quan/
Pictures of injured vet: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011... (more)
On the night of October 20, 2010, Angel Escobar and Jorge Sarmiento were in bed in their small, two-bedroom apartment in the Clairmont complex in Nashville. The doors and windows were all shut and locked. Suddenly there was a loud banging at the door and voices shouting "Police!" and "Policia!" When no one answered, the agents tried to force the door open. Scared, Jesus hid in a closet. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began hitting objects against the bedroom windows, trying to ... (more)
PRINCETON, NJ -- A record-low 26% of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people. When Gallup first asked Americans this question in 1959, 60% favored banning handguns. But since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed such a measure, with opposition around 70% in recent years.
The results are based on Gallup's annual Crime poll, conducted Oct. 6... (more)
I do think there should be a law banning the use of guns -- but it should only apply to police! - Chris
As a P.T. (often referred to as perpetual traveler, permanent tourist or prior taxpayer), I have traveled to nearly 100 countries. During those travels there has always been one defining moment, upon entry into a country, which shows that the country is what is generally thought of as a "third world country".
It is the moment when, upon arrival, you are charged a fee to enter the country. The reason generally being that the government of the country has so destroyed the economy ... (more)
New street lights that include “Homeland Security” applications including speaker systems, motion sensors and video surveillance are now being rolled out with the aid of government funding.
The Intellistreets system comprises of a wireless digital infrastructure that allows street lights to be controlled remotely by means of a ubiquitous wi-fi link and a miniature computer housed inside each street light, allowing for “security, energy management, data harvesting... (more)
Trials of invasive full body scanning machines in Australia have revealed that the technology has a huge error rate of up to 40%, yet government officials want to roll out the technology in airports anyway.
The Australian Office of Transport Security announced this week that of 23,500 scans carried ... (more)
It was maybe third grade when the schoolyard was abuzz with a terrible thing. It was called the "permanent record." If you did something bad enough, it would go on the permanent record. And then a one-day slip up would turn into a deep scar, a mortal sin that would last forever and permanently reduce your chances to make it in life.
We imagined some suited committee reaching deep into the file and discovering that we had loosened someone's fingers as they tried to climb the monkey... (more)
Then you must read this story about a New York coffee shop, and how it is an impossible proposition to try to run something like this. The story doesn’t even go into taxes and employment mandates. It’s a wonder that any business exists at all. And so what do we do toward the entrepreneurial class? We hate them, blame them for all the world’s problems, attack them as parasites and vultu... (more)
Google refuses to take down videos of police brutality despite "multiple requests from law enforcement agencies," ArsTechnica reports.
For the last two years, Google has released comprehensive reports twice a year on the frequency of takedown requests and government data requests received in countries around the world. The latest data, releas
As 50% of Americans now support marijuana legalization, the prohibitionists are coming out in full force with hysterical propaganda to once again terrorize voters about cannabis. We intended to scour multiple sources to compile the five most common scare tactics they use, but Joseph Summerill, director of the Summerill Group LLC,... (more)
