Tag Archives: Censorship
PEN/Faulkner gala is a politics-free zone this year
It’s very dangerous for the government to supervise literature (through Universities).
Ron Paul Speaks at Catholic Event despite Neo-Con Smears
Lew Rockwell:
The neocons ran their usual smear campaign against Ron Paul when they discovered he would be speaking at a big Catholic gathering on peace. But it was a belly flop for the warmongers. Of course, he kept his word, gave a magnificent speech, and the libelers fell flat on their faces, as always, as he was cheered again and again.
One of the highpoints for Ron was his talk with the Catholic archbishop of Antioch, who had been a priest in the US for 20 years, and who is a genuine expert on the horrific, neocon-promoted events in Syria. Ron also noted what a sweet, gentle, and loving crowd it was, the opposite of what the neocons claimed. But then, they are virtually always opposite to the truth.
Ron had noted that it not easy to take part in a gathering where the other speakers advocate evil, but nevertheless he had decided to participate in the Republican presidential debates.
Barrett Brown Can’t Talk About Why the Government Wants to Jail Him for a Century
In the US government’s campaign against journalists (FAIR Blog, 8/27/13), Barrett Brown is one of the lesser-known victims. And now even less will be forthcoming about his story, as the Texas-based writer, satirist and Internet activist is under a federal court gag order, forbidden to talk about his case or the charges that could land him in prison for more than 100 years.
Brown was arrested in Dallas a year ago, hit with a dozen charges of identity theft for pasting a link to the chat room of ProjectPM, a wiki research forum he founded in 2009. The link led to a huge cache of hacked documents posted to WikiLeaks that had been purloined from the intelligence contractor Stratfor Global Intelligence. Among some 5 million documents, some politically embarrassing to the firm and its clients, were some files containing credit card information. Brown’s linking to the huge trove containing a relatively small amount of personal financial information is the basis for the identity theft charge. 
(Read more)
Judge Napolitano– How to get fired from Fox Business in under 5 mins
Eleven people across UK arrested for making ‘racist or anti-religious’ comments on Facebook and Twitter about British soldier’s death
Twitter sued £32m for refusing to reveal anti-semites
In January, a French court ruled that Twitter must hand over the details of people who had tweeted racist and anti-semitic remarks, and set up a system that would alert the police to any further such posts as they happen. Twitter has ignored that ruling, and now the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) is suing it for €38.5m (£32.8m) for its failure.
The case revolves around a hashtag — #unbonjuif (“a good Jew”) — which became the third-most popular on the site in October 2012. The UEJF took Twitter to court, demanding that those who had tweeted anti-semitic remarks using the hashtag be named by Twitter so the police could prosecute them for hate speech. (Read more)
Deadly Bangladesh clashes over ‘atheist bloggers’
Protesting FOR the execution of atheist bloggers…
Bangladesh police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Friday in fierce clashes with conservatists demanding the execution of bloggers they accused of blasphemy, killing one person and injuring around 100.
Parts of central Dhaka turned into a battlefield as protesters attacked police with bricks and sticks in front of the national mosque.
The security forces responded with hundreds of rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells, according to witnesses.
The country’s 12 religious parties called the protests after the Friday prayers in nearly half a million mosques nationwide, demanding the execution of bloggers they say were behind blasphemous writings against Islam and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). (Read more)
White House Warns: Don’t Photoshop Obama Gun Pic
A picture has been released of the Dear Leader shooting skeet at Camp David. In an article released on Breitbart.com entitled White House Warns: Don’t Photoshop Obama Gun Pic there is a stern warning:
“This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.” (Read more)
I Won’t Stand For Free Speech – RAMZPAUL
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Government Squeezes Egan-Jones after US Debt Downgrade
In July 2011, Egan-Jones Ratings Co. became the first nationally recognized statistical rating organization to downgrade the U.S. below AAA. In April 2012, Egan-Jones cut the U.S. government’s credit rating an additional notch to AA from AA+.
Later that month, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division accused Egan-Jones of securities-law violations related to errors in the company’s 2008 application to expand its license as a nationally recognized rater. Last September, Egan-Jones downgraded the nation again, this time to AA-.
Then today, the SEC said it reached a settlement with Egan-Jones, under which the company “agreed to be barred for at least 18 months from rating asset-backed and government securities issuers as an NRSRO.” The deal doesn’t affect Egan-Jones’s license to rate corporate debt.
Maybe downgrading the U.S. had nothing to do with the SEC’s decision to target Egan-Jones, which neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s claims. Regardless, the chronology looks chilling. In essence, Egan-Jones was accused of “filling out forms wrong,” (Read more)
In India, police shoot dead journalist covering protest
New York, December 24, 2012–Indian authorities must immediately investigate the death of a cameraman who was fatally shot by police on Sunday while covering protests against the sexual assault of women. The Associated Press identified the journalist as Bwizamani Singh, a reporter for the news division of the satellite-distributed Prime News channel that covers northeast India. Other reports have provided different spellings of Singh’s name.
Singh was covering a rally in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, when he was shot by police firing on protesters. Local news accounts reported that police said Singh was shot by accident while they were trying to disperse protesters with live ammunition. Five police officers have been suspended, the reports said. (Read more)
Obama Pardons Turkey, Tortures Bradley Manning
Back to the Business of Government: Get Bradley Manning
The legendary court system has done its work on Bradley Manning, the whistleblower who dared to stand up to the global empire and its expose terrible war crimes by giving evidence to WikiLeaks. Bradley, who is only 24-years old, will plead guilty in a bargained attempt to avoid life in prison.
He didn’t cheat. He didn’t make anything up. He didn’t even hurt anyone. All he did was reveal what is true. (The best background on the case comes from Wikipedia.) The result was explosive in showing the world what goes on behind the scenes in the wars for democracy. He showed innocents being slaughtered, people taking pleasure in bombings and killings, a gigantic catalog of deceptions and tricky, and much more. It wasn’t hard to find this material. He only had to download it and upload it.
Any true American would have done the same — or should have. It takes guts to stand up for what is right. He has languished in prison for two and a half years, for the Orwellian crime of revealing the truth. Julian Assange is exactly right that he is a hero. (Read more)
WikiLeaks Bypasses Financial Blockade With Bitcoin
eople shouldn’t fear their government; government should fear its people. Publishers and journalists will not be intimidated nor silenced. Now entering day 626 of the financial blockade against WikiLeaks, Julian Assange sits in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London awaiting safe passage.
Following a massive release of secret U.S. diplomatic cables in November 2010, donations to WikiLeaks were blocked by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union on December 7th, 2010. Although private companies certainly have a right to select which transactions to process or not, the political environment produced less than a fair and objective decision. It was coordinated pressure exerted in a politicized climate by the U.S. government and it won’t be the last time that we see this type of pressure.
Fortunately, there is way around this and other financial blockades with a global payment method immune to political pressure and monetary censorship.
On its public bitcoin address, Wikileaks has taken in over $32,000 equivalent in more than 1,100 separate bitcoin donations throughout the blockade (1BTC = $10.00). But these amounts may be significantly higher, because it does not even include the individually-generated bitcoin addresses that WikiLeaks provides for donors upon request. (Read more)