DRANT #310: ACTA-- BEND WAAAAAY OVER !

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In DRANT # 304, I wrote about ACTA-
please check it out here.

Yesterday, the G-8 countries put it officially on the table.



The right to peer inside your iPod
An agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads of government highlights conflicts between ownership and privacy









Photograph: Nick Veasey/Getty Images

The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's claimed - could let customs agents search your laptop or music player for illegally obtained content. The European Parliament is considering a law that would lead to people who illicitly download copyrighted music or video content being thrown off the internet. Virgin Media is writing to hundreds of its customers at the request of the UK record industry to warn them that their connections seem to have been used for illegal downloading. Viacom gets access to all of the usernames and IP addresses of anyone who has ever used YouTube as part of its billion-dollar lawsuit in which it claims the site has been party to "massive intentional copyright infringement".

It seems that 20th-century ideas of ownership and control - especially of intellectual property such as copyright and trademarks - are being reasserted, with added legal muscle, after a 10-year period when the internet sparked an explosion of business models and (if we're honest) casual disregard, especially of copyright, when it came to music and video.

But do those separate events mark a swing of the pendulum back against the inroads that the internet has made on intellectual property?

'A finger in the dyke'

Saul Klein, a venture capitalist with Index Ventures who has invested in the free database company MySQL, Zend (the basis of the free web-scripting language PHP) and OpenX, an open-source advertising system, is unconvinced. "In a world of abundance - which the internet is quintessentially - that drives the price of everything towards 'free'," he says. "People don't pay for any content online. Not for music, not for video. They get it, either legally or illegally."

Is that sustainable? "The model of suing your best customers and subpoenaing private information is doomed to failure," Klein observes. "It's putting a finger in the dyke. It won't change the macro trend, which is that there's an abundance of information. Copyright owners need to find new ways to generate income from their product. The fact is, the music industry is in rude health - more people than ever before are going to concerts, making it, listening to it. It's the labels that are screwed. The artists and managers are making money. The labels aren't.

"What is broken is the paid-for model for content, though it won't go away entirely. We look to invest in scarcity, where people will pay a premium for something not in abundance." He gives the example of Viagogo - a ticket-selling site that Index Ventures has invested in: "Selling tickets for Madonna or Prince capitalises on the public's interest in paying for scarcity." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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G-8 Declarations on Economy, Environment
Read the Group of Eight's declarations on the world economy and the environment and climate change.
"Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR are critical to the development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through, inter alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our authorities, as well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs Organization. We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. We will promote practical cooperation between our countries to develop tools to combat new techniques in counterfeiting and piracy and spread best practices. We reaffirm our commitment on government use of software in full compliance with the relevant international agreements and call on other countries to follow our commitment."
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Public Knowledge - Blogging, Events, and Action Alerts
G8 Endorses ACTA: Great, so what’s in it?
Sherwin Siy
Today, 05:39 PM
In its “Declaration on the World Economy”, the G-8 included an endorsement of ACTA and ongoing efforts to “standardize” IP enforcement through customs organizations. “We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year,” the statement says.

So we have a major endorsement of ACTA from the leadership of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And pressure to have this international legal agreement ready to roll at the end of the year. So what’s going to be in this critically important, possibly binding international agreement, to be completed in less than six months?

We have no idea.
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ACTA PUBLIC COMMENTS--One-Stop Shop
Ari Abramowitz
Today, 04:11 PM
We recently scanned all of the documents filed in response to the USTR’s request for public comments regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They are presented below, if sometimes angularly, as well as on our issue summary page here. The USTR’s initial “fact sheet,” request for public comment, and the leaked “discussion paper” are also included.

• USTR’s Fact Sheet (October, 2007)

• USTR’s Notice for Public Comments (February, 2008)

• The Leaked “Discussion Paper” (leaked May, 2008)
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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Webmaster
Thursday, 11:40 AM




ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated by the US, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. The stated goal of the agreement is the international enforcement of strong intellectual property rights through increased cooperation and coordination among international governmental agencies. ACTA does not yet exist, though its ongoing discussions are confirmed by all of the participating governments.
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What Does NebuAd Know About You? What Doesn't It?
Art Brodsky
Yesterday, 10:00 PM
While the full United States Senate on Wednesday (July 9) takes up the subject of wiretapping by the government, the Senate Commerce Committee will take up the subject of wiretapping by private industry. It’s a tossup which one is more scary.

The Senate votes July 9 on the bill to grant the Executive Branch almost unlimited authority to wiretap private citizens without any judicial oversight. The Commerce Committee will hear testimony from Robert Dykes, the chairman of NebuAd, a controversial company recently in the news because his group came up with a novel way of getting detailed information about Internet users. NebuAd wasn’t satisfied to get information only from a customer’s use of one Web site. Instead, they want to see everything that a Web surfer does online.
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Read more!!

DRANT #304: ACTA AND DODD: Out of Orifices

You remember when they passed the Patriot Act, in the dead of night, and no one even bothered to read it ?
Did you think it was gonna stop there ?
They learned a big lesson that night.
They learned that We were going to whine and do nothing.
Well, They are about to do it -- again, two more times, and We are about to do nothing- again.

1- The USA and its sodomize-the-planet global industrial partners in the G-8 have been working on something called ACTA: The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. They are planning to sign this on July 8 or 9, at the G-8 meetings in Hokkaido Japan.
The contents of the proposed deal were leaked by Wikileaks. Sue Schwab, the US Trade Representative, her co-perpetrators in Congress and her cohorts in the other "developed" countries -- are planning to just - do it. No debate, no public access, no sunlight to shine on this UberOrwellian Global rape of what remains of our personal privacy. See the Wikipedia entry below for details. Suffice to say, that downloading movies from BitTorrent will be punishable by prison, and that your Ipod will be subject to search, full inspection, and seizure by the TSA at every airport or border crossing, as will your very own hard drive, and the contents of your cell phone.
We are quickly running out of orifices for them to invade.
The contents of this agreement are despicable. But the method is far worse. Secret drafting, hidden negotiations, executive approval. Boom its over.
Now remember what happens with real treaties - they must be ratified (thus presumably scrutinized) by Congress, before they become- THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. Once ratified, they supersede all national laws. But- in Bushian times, this is being designed as a "Trade Agreement," executable solely by the Chief Executive of the USA, and subject to neither scrutiny nor approval by us, or Congress. And, it will become law overnight. Poof.
If you thought that the 4th amendment to what used to be known as The Constitution was roadkill already, just wait til you're in a TSA detention center because they think you have an unlicensed song or movie on your laptop. Or, most likely and insidious, because you look funny to them, and they need a justification to publicly invade your every pore. And then pray that you are not "illegal."

2- The Senate is about to pass a "Foreclosure Prevention Act" that would - ostensibly- help just us folks survive the current housing repossessacide.
Swell. But:

"Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government."

"This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

So what does this mean ? It means that every- I say every -- single transaction you make will be reported to the Government.

It means that the law will require information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions.

And - once again- the contents of this agreement are despicable, and once again the method is far worse. Once again: secret drafting, hidden negotiations, no debate. Boom its over.
So, we are either going to get our whining shoes on again, or do something.
You now know the facts. You know what They are planning.
What are ya gonna DO about it ?
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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral trade agreement that would impose strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. The agreement is being secretly negotiated by the governments of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico.[1][2] If adopted at the 34th G8 summit in July 2008, the treaty would establish an international coalition against copyright infringement, imposing a strong, top-down enforcement regime of copyright laws in developed nations. The proposed agreement would allow border officials to search laptops, MP3 players, and cellular phones for copyright-infringing content. It would also impose new cooperation requirements upon internet service providers (ISPs), including perfunctory disclosure of customer information, and restrict the use of online privacy tools. The proposal specifies a plan to encourage developing nations to accept the legal regime.
The European Commission, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and other government agencies have acknowledged participating in ACTA negotiations, but they have refused to release drafts of the treaty or to discuss specific terms under discussion in the negotiations. Public interest advocates in Canada filed an access to information request but received only a document stating the title of the agreement, with everything else blacked out.[2] On May 22, 2008, a discussion paper about the proposed agreement was uploaded to Wikileaks, and newspaper reports about the secret negotiations quickly followed.[3][4][2][5]
ACTA is part of a broader "forum shifting" strategy employed by the trade representatives of the U.S., E.C., Japan, and other supporters of rigid intellectual property enforcement: similar terms and provisions currently appear in the World Customs Organization draft SECURE treaty.[6]
Provisions

Border searches
Newspaper reports indicate that the proposed agreement would empower security officials at airports and other international borders to conduct random ex officio searches of laptops, MP3 players, and cellular phones for illegally downloaded or "ripped" music and movies. Travelers with infringing content would be subject to a fine and may have their devices confiscated or destroyed.[2][5]

ISP cooperation
The leaked document includes a provision to force internet service providers to provide information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant, making it easier for the record industry to sue music file sharers and for officials to shut down non-commercial BitTorrent websites such as The Pirate Bay.[7]

Enforcement
ACTA would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.[2][8]

Interpretation

It has been argued[9] that the main thrust of ACTA is to provide safe harbor for service providers so that they may not hesitate to provide information about infringers; this may be used, for instance, to quickly identify and stop infringers once their identities are confirmed by their providers.
Similarly, it provides for criminalization of copyright infringement, granting law enforcement the powers to perform criminal investigation, arrests and pursue criminal citations or prosecution of suspects who may have infringed on copyright.
More pressingly, being an international treaty, it allows for these provisions—usually administered through public legislation and subject to judiciary oversight—to be pushed through via closed negotiations among members of the executive bodies of the signatories, and once it is ratified, using trade incentives and the like to persuade other nations to adopt its terms without much scope for negotiation.

Confusion
In Canada, there is some confusion with proposals in ACTA and Bill C-61.

External links

Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007) posted on Wikileaks
ACTA document posted on Wikileaks
ACTA information from IP Justice
ACTA articles by Michael Geist
An ACTA Call to Arms: No more secret government posted by William Patry, formerly copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Problem With ACTA Knowledge Ecology Studies comment by Aaron Shaw.
References

^ Geiger, Andrea. "A View From Europe: The high price of counterfeiting, and getting real about enforcement", The Hill, 2008-04-30. Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
^ a b c d e Pilieci, Vito. "Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers", Vancouver Sun, 2008-05-26. Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
^ Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007). Wikileaks (May 22, 2008).
^ Jason Mick (May 23, 2008). Wikileaks Airs U.S. Plans to Kill Pirate Bay, Monitor ISPs With Multinational ACTA Proposal. DailyTech.
^ a b Weeks, Carly. "Anti-piracy strategy will help government to spy, critic says", The Globe and Mail, 2008-05-26. Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
^ SECURE Draft (Feb. 2008). World Customs Organization (WCO) (February 2008).
^ Ingram, Matthew. "Do we need copyright cops?", Ingram 2.0, Globe and Mail, 2008-05-26. Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
^ Fact Sheet: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. European Commission (2007-10-23). Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
^ Anderson, Nate (2008-06-02). The real ACTA threat (it's not iPod-scanning border guards). Ars Technica. Retrieved on 2008-06-14.
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http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/press_template.php?press_id=2571

June 19, 2008
Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce.

Washington, D.C. - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

"At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America's payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications."

From the Senate Bill Summary:

Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting. The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.



FreedomWorks
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Phone: (202) 783-3870 Fax: (202) 232-8356 Toll Free: 1-888-564-6273
www.freedomworks.org
© 1996-2004 FreedomWorks. Online Privacy Policy
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Read more!!

DRANT #285: Hang On Snoopy

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
01/14/2008 @ 9:02 am
Filed by RAW STORY
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/US_drafting_plan_to_allow_government_0114.html

“Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said ... 'We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'" A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -... greater security can only come at privacy's expense.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.

Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site.



McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.

"Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens.

“Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"

A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -- McConnell's aide believes greater security can only come at privacy's expense.

McConnell has been an advocate for computer-network defense, which has previously not been the province of any intelligence agency.

According to a 2007 conversation in the Oval Office, McConnell told President Bush, “If the 9/11 perpetrators had focused on a single US bank through cyber-attack and it had been successful, it would have an order of magnitude greater impact on the US economy.”

Bush turned to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, asking him if it was true; Paulson said that it was. Bush then asked to McConnell to come up with a network security strategy.

"One proposal of McConnell’s Cyber-Security Policy, which is still in the draft stage, is to reduce the access points between government computers and the Internet from two thousand to fifty," Wright notes. "He claimed that cyber-theft account for as much as a hundred billion dollars in annual losses to the American economy. 'The real problem is the perpetrator who doesn’t care about stealing—he just wants to destroy.'"

The infrastructure to tap into Americans' email and web search history may already be in place.

In November, a former technician at AT&T alleged that the telecom forwarded virtually all of its Internet traffic into a "secret room" to facilitate government spying.

Whistleblower Mark Klein said that a copy of all Internet traffic passing over AT&T lines was copied into a locked room at the company's San Francisco office -- to which only employees with National Security Agency clearance had access -- via a cable splitting device.

"My job was to connect circuits into the splitter device which was hard-wired to the secret room," Klein. said "And effectively, the splitter copied the entire data stream of those Internet cables into the secret room -- and we're talking about phone conversations, email web browsing, everything that goes across the Internet."

"As a technician, I had the engineering wiring documents, which told me how the splitter was wired to the secret room," Klein continued. "And so I know that whatever went across those cables was copied and the entire data stream was copied."

According to Klein, that information included Internet activity about Americans.

"We're talking about domestic traffic as well as international traffic," Klein said. Previous Bush administration claims that only international communications were being intercepted aren't accurate, he added.

"I know the physical equipment, and I know that statement is not true," he added. "It involves millions of communications, a lot of it domestic communications that they're copying wholesale."
Read more!!

DRANT #275 and #275A: UPDATE: THOUGHT CRIME ACT

PLEASE read the below and urgently contact your Senator. The RAND Corporation (the folks who brainstormed the repression of anti Vietnam dissidence among other lovely enterprises) with their stooge Jane Harmon plus many others whose death stench you can feel in your fingers, have put this one together. It targets anti war activists, animal rights and environmental activists- and is particularly strong regarding Anti Globaization activists and Internet organizing.
Of course, Pelosi is in it up to her botoxed eyebrows.


http://www.indypendent.org/2007/11/19/bringing-the-war-on-terrorism-home-congress-considers-who-to-%e2%80%98disrupt%e2%80%99-radical-movements-in-the-united-states/

Bringing the War on Terrorism Home: Congress Considers How to ‘Disrupt’ Radical Movements in the United States
From the November 26, 2007 issue of The Indypendent

homegrown2

By Jessica Lee

Under the guise of a bill that calls for the study of “homegrown terrorism,” Congress is apparently trying to broaden the definition of terrorism to encompass both First Amendment political activity and traditional forms of protest such as nonviolent civil disobedience, according to civil liberties advocates, scholars and historians.

The proposed law, The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1955), was passed by the House of Representative in a 404-6 vote Oct. 23. (The Senate is currently considering a companion bill, S. 1959.) The act would establish a “National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence” and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States” in order to develop policy for “prevention, disruption and mitigation.”

Many observers fear that the proposed law will be used against U.S.-based groups engaged in legal but unpopular political activism, ranging from political Islamists to animal-rights and environmental campaigners to radical right-wing organizations. There is concern, too, that the bill will undermine academic integrity and is the latest salvo in a decade-long government grab for power at the expense of civil liberties.

David Price, a professor of anthropology at St. Martin’s University who studies government surveillance and harassment of dissident scholars, says the bill “is a shot over the bow of environmental activists, animal-rights activists, anti-globalization activists and scholars who are working in the Middle East who have views that go against the administration.” Price says some right-wing outfits such as gun clubs are also threatened because “[they] would be looked at with suspicion under the bill.”

AND DEMOCRACY NOW
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/20/1458214


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U R G E N T -
I sent DRANT #267 (see below) out on October 25, 2007. In it I detailed the near-unanimous passage of HR 1955 by the House of Representatives, achieved by suspending the rules of Congress, and allowing no debate.
Now- the Senate is about to pass the same bill into law. (SB1959). Probably in the same way.
Everybody snoozed when HR 1955 was passed, and has been snoozing or eating or shopping ever since.
We MUST do all we can to prevent the passage of this bill.

THIS IS AN URGENT ACTION ALERT:
S 1959 "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" must be stopped at all costs.
Pick up your phone today and contact your US Senator's office to instruct them to vote "NO" on S.1959.
Click here for your Senators contact info:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Full PDF text if the bill:
http://tinyurl.com/3a3y2z

If this bill is passed, and becomes law, your words and actions could be considered terrorism. S 1959 EVISCERATES FREE SPEECH, and empowers the govt. to declare ANYTHING they deem an "extremist belief system", instantly make you a terrorist, resulting in stripping of US citizenship, torture, and/or execution, with no habeas corpus rights, no ability to challenge even in the US Supreme Court.
Contact your Senator and let them know they will be looking for another job if they vote yes on this bill, which is now introduced into the Senate as S.1959 THIS BILL **MUST NOT** BECOME LAW, PERIOD.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959

If this becomes law, your words could be considered "promoting an extremist belief system", and all they have to say is that you are using PLANNED OR THREATENED *FORCE* (DOES NOT HAVE TO BE VIOLENCE) --FORCE by exposing CORRUPTION, CRIMINALITY against "THE CIVILIAN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, *****OR ANY SEGMENT THEREOF" READ THE BILL MANY TIMES AND VERY CAREFULLY--YOU ARE THE TERRORIST (WHICH MEANS THEY CAN STRIP YOUR CITIZENSHIP, AND HAVE YOU TORTURED AND EXECUTED).

Senate is back in session today, do not hesitate, call, fax, email your Senator ASAP.

Click here for your Senators contact info:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Sent from:
Restore The Republic, 3149 Dundee Rd #176, Northbrook, Illinois 60062
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DRANT #267, OCTOBER 25, 2007:
STOP what you're doing.
Read this.
Read it ALL.
Of all the draconian totalitarian abusive laws passed by our government, this may be the scariest.
The "THOUGHT CRIME PREVENTION" ACT. --- H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
Of course, Nancy Pelosi pushed this through.
On October 23, it passed the House 404-6.
DEMOCRAT Jane Harman sponsored it, with 14 bi partisan co sponsors.
Barbara Lee voted yes. Maxine Waters voted yes. Henry Waxman and Pete Stark voted yes.

You MUST read it.(below)
And scariest of all- there has not been ONE PEEP about this anywhere-
no NY Times, no CNN.
Not even the leftie blogs, except Rogue Government and Blacklisted News.
Plus today's Counterpunch.
BUT-
the Counterpunch article blithely forecasts that this bill would get the usual, constitutional congressional due process-
referral to committee, negotiation, floor debate, scrutiny.
It got NONE of these things.
It was shoved through and passed with NO debate, no scrutiny-
It was passed under a SUSPENSION OF THE RULES-- to "cut debate short and pass the bill"
by Nancy Pelosi and her Republican co-conspirators.
Just like all the others-

The terms of this law are horrendous, unthinkable.
But the METHOD used to make it law makes manifest the true degree of the fascism under which we are now living.
And, the complete lack of any opposition, the screaming silence of the press and the People, tells us the worst of the tale.

H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes.Sponsor:
Rep. Jane Harman [D-CA]show cosponsors (14) Status: Introduced Apr 19, 2007 Scheduled for Debate Aug 1, 2007 Passed House -- Oct 23, 2007
Last Action:
Oct 23, 2007: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 404 - 6 (Roll no. 993).
Oct 23, 2007: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. The totals were 404 Ayes, 6 Nays, 22 Present/Not Voting.
The bill now goes on to be voted on in the Senate.
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House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
Published on Thursday, October 25, 2007.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4596
Read more!!

DRANT #267: URGENT! STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! THOUGHT PREVENTION ACT

STOP what you're doing.
Read this.
Read it ALL.
Of all the draconian totalitarian abusive laws passed by our government, this may be the scariest.
Of course, Nancy Pelosi pushed this through.
Today, it passed the House 404-6.
DEMOCRAT Jane Harman sponsored it, with 14 bi partisan co sponsors.
Barbara Lee voted yes. Maxine Waters voted yes. Henry Waxman and Pete Stark voted yes.

You MUST read it.
And scariest of all- there has not been ONE PEEP about this anywhere-
no NY Times, no CNN.
Not even the leftie blogs, except Rogue Government and Blacklisted News.
Plus today's Counterpunch.
BUT - the Counterpunch article blithely forecasts that this bill would get the usual, constitutional congressional due process- referral to committee, negotiation, floor debate, scrutiny.
It got NONE of these things. It was shoved through and passed with NO debate, no scrutiny-
by Nancy Pelosi and her Republican co-conspirators. Just like all the others-

The terms of this law are horrendous, unthinkable.
But the METHOD used to make it law makes manifest the true degree of the fascism under which we are now living.
And, the complete lack of any opposition, the screaming silence of the press and the People, tells us the worst of the tale.
If we let this happen, and we are, then we deserve everything that's happening to us.
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House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
Published on Thursday, October 25, 2007.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4596

Source: Rogue Government - Lee Rogers

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

First let’s take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn’t specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government. Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief system. Literally, the government according to this definition can define whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.

The definition of homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to further define thought crime. The bill includes the planned use of force or violence as homegrown terrorism which could be interpreted as thinking about using force or violence. Not only that but the definition is so vaguely defined, that petty crimes could even fall into the category of homegrown terrorism. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Section 899B of the bill goes over the findings of Congress as it pertains to homegrown terrorism. Particularly alarming is that the bill mentions the Internet as a main source for terrorist propaganda. The bill even mentions streams in obvious reference to many of the patriot and pro-constitution Internet radio networks that have been formed. It also mentions that homegrown terrorists span all ages and races indicating that the Congress is stating that everyone is a potential terrorist. Even worse is that Congress states in their findings that they should look at draconian police states like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom as models to defeat homegrown terrorists. Literally, these findings of Congress fall right in line with the growing patriot community.

The biggest joke of all is that this section also says that any measure to prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism should not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. However, the definition of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as they are defined in section 899A are themselves unconstitutional. The Constitution does not allow the government to arrest people for thought crimes, so any promises not to violate the constitutional rights of citizens is already broken by their own definitions.

`SEC. 899B. FINDINGS.

`The Congress finds the following:

`(1) The development and implementation of methods and processes that can be utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States is critical to combating domestic terrorism.

`(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence exists in the United States and poses a threat to homeland security.

`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

`(4) While the United States must continue its vigilant efforts to combat international terrorism, it must also strengthen efforts to combat the threat posed by homegrown terrorists based and operating within the United States.

`(5) Understanding the motivational factors that lead to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence is a vital step toward eradicating these threats in the United States.

`(6) The potential rise of self radicalized, unaffiliated terrorists domestically cannot be easily prevented through traditional Federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts, and requires the incorporation of State and local solutions.

`(7) Individuals prone to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence span all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs, and individuals should not be targeted based solely on race, ethnicity, or religion.

`(8) Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism in the United States should not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

`(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Section 899C calls for a commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence. The commission will consist of ten members appointed by various individuals that hold different positions in government. Essentially, this is a commission that will examine and report on how they are going to deal with violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. So basically, the commission is being formed specifically on how to deal with thought criminals in the United States. The bill requires that the commission submit their final report 18 months following the commission’s first meeting as well as submit interim reports every 6 months leading up to the final report. Below is the bill’s defined purpose of the commission. Amazingly they even define one of the purposes of the commission to determine the causes of lone wolf violent radicalization.

(b) Purpose- The purposes of the Commission are the following:

`(1) Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States, including United States connections to non-United States persons and networks, violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in prison, individual or `lone wolf' violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the phenomena of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence that the Commission considers important.

`(2) Build upon and bring together the work of other entities and avoid unnecessary duplication, by reviewing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of--

`(A) the Center of Excellence established or designated under section 899D, and other academic work, as appropriate;

`(B) Federal, State, local, or tribal studies of, reviews of, and experiences with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence; and

`(C) foreign government studies of, reviews of, and experiences with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence.

Section 899D of the bill establishes a Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States. Essentially, this will be a Department of Homeland Security affiliated institution that will study and determine how to defeat thought criminals.

Section 899E of the bill discusses how the government is going to defeat violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism through international cooperation. As stated in the findings section earlier in the legislation, they will unquestionably seek the advice of countries with draconian police states like the United Kingdom to determine how to deal with this growing threat of thought crime.

Possibly the most ridiculous section of the bill is Section 899F which states how they plan on protecting civil rights and civil liberties while preventing ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism. Here is what the section says.

`SEC. 899F. PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES WHILE PREVENTING IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM.

`(a) In General- The Department of Homeland Security's efforts to prevent ideologically-based violence and homegrown terrorism as described herein shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

`(b) Commitment to Racial Neutrality- The Secretary shall ensure that the activities and operations of the entities created by this subtitle are in compliance with the Department of Homeland Security's commitment to racial neutrality.

`(c) Auditing Mechanism- The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer of the Department of Homeland Security will develop and implement an auditing mechanism to ensure that compliance with this subtitle does not result in a disproportionate impact, without a rational basis, on any particular race, ethnicity, or religion and include the results of its audit in its annual report to Congress required under section 705.'.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of contents in section 1(b) of such Act is amended by inserting at the end of the items relating to title VIII the following:

It states in the first subsection that in general the efforts to defeat thought crime shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties of the United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. How does this protect constitutional rights if they use vague language such as in general that prefaces the statement? This means that the Department of Homeland Security does not have to abide by the Constitution in their attempts to prevent so called homegrown terrorism.

This bill is completely insane. It literally allows the government to define any and all crimes including thought crime as violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. Obviously, this legislation is unconstitutional on a number of levels and it is clear that all 404 representatives who voted in favor of this bill are traitors and should be removed from office immediately. The treason spans both political parties and it shows us all that there is no difference between them. The bill will go on to the Senate and will likely be passed and signed into the law by George W. Bush. Considering that draconian legislation like the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act have already been passed, there seems little question that this one will get passed as well. This is more proof that our country has been completely sold out by a group of traitors at all levels of government.

Copyright © 2006-2007 BlackListedNews.com
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DRANT #248: DEMOCRACY CAN BE FATAL

They are ALL in it together.
Google, ATT, Verizon, Yahoo, all of them.
One big happy family.
The very definition of Little Eichmanns.
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The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2007/08/24/washington/24nsa.html&tntemail1=y
August 24, 2007
Role of Telecom Firms in Wiretaps Is Confirmed
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 — The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a crucial role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for more than a year that any role played by them was a “state secret.”

The acknowledgment was in an unusual interview that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, gave last week to The El Paso Times in which he disclosed details on classified intelligence issues that the administration has long insisted would harm national security if discussed publicly.

Mr. McConnell made the remarks apparently in an effort to bolster support for the broadened wiretapping authority that Congress approved this month, even as Democrats are threatening to rework the legislation because they say it gives the executive branch too much power. It is vital, he said, for Congress to give retroactive legal immunity to the companies that assisted in the program to help prevent them from facing bankruptcy because of lawsuits over it.

“Under the president’s program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us, because if you’re going to get access, you’ve got to have a partner,” Mr. McConnell said in the interview, a transcript of which was posted by The El Paso Times on Wednesday.

AT&T and several other major carriers are being sued over their reported role in the program, which permitted eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of Americans suspected of terrorism ties. The administration has sought to shut down the lawsuits by invoking the state-secrets privilege, refusing even to confirm whether the companies helped conduct the wiretaps.

Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is heading up the lawsuit against AT&T, said her group might ask the appeals court to consider Mr. McConnell’s comments in deciding whether the state-secrets argument should be thrown out.

“They’ve really undermined their own case,” Ms. Cohn said.

Mr. McConnell said those suits were a driving force in the administration’s efforts to include in this month’s wiretapping legislation immunity for telecommunications partners. “If you play out the suits at the value they’re claimed,” he said, “it would bankrupt these companies.”

Congress agreed to give immunity to telecommunications partners in the measure , but refused to make it retroactive.

Mr. McConnell, who took over as the country’s top intelligence official in February, warned that the public discussion generated by the Congressional debate over the wiretapping bill threatened national security because it would alert terrorists to American surveillance methods.

“Now part of this is a classified world,” he said in the interview. “The fact we’re doing it this way means that some Americans are going to die.”.

Asked whether he was saying the news media coverage and the public debate in Congress meant that “some Americans are going to die,” he replied: “That’s what I mean. Because we have made it so public.”

Mr. McConnell, though, put new information on the public record in the interview, on Aug. 14 while in Texas for a border conference.

Mr. McConnell said, for instance, that the number of people inside the United States who were wiretapped through court-approved warrants totaled “100 or less” but on the “foreign side, it’s in the thousands.” The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves national security wiretaps, told Congress it approved 2,181 eavesdropping warrants last year. The court and the administration have not been willing to break out how many Americans were in those orders.

Mr. McConnell did not make clear the time frame for his estimate, nor was it clear whether he was referring to the security agency’s program of eavesdropping without warrants, which was brought under the oversight of the intelligence court in January. Officials in his office refused to clarify what he meant.

Mr. McConnell also offered the administration’s first public discussion about a classified series of rulings by the intelligence court that he said had restricted the agency’s ability to collect foreign intelligence.

He said one judge this year gave broad approval for the agency’s eavesdropping program. But another judge, he said, ruled in the spring that the administration would have to obtain a warrant for any “foreign to foreign” communications that passed through an American telecommunications center.

The administration obtained a stay of that ruling until May 31, he disclosed, but after that date he intelligence officials had “significantly less capability” to track foreign communications. The ruling sent the administration “in the wrong direction,” he added.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has petitioned the intelligence court to make public its secret wiretapping rulings, expressed frustration on Thursday with the timing of Mr. McConnell’s comments.

“If this ostensibly sensitive information can be released now, why could it not be released two months ago, when the public and Congress desperately needed it?” asked Jameel Jaffer, director of the group’s national security project.

Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said the interview “was quite striking because he was disclosing more detail than has appeared anywhere in the public domain.”

“If we’re to believe that Americans will die from discussing these things,” Mr. Aftergood said, “then he is complicit in that. It’s an unseemly argument. He’s basically saying that democracy is going to kill Americans.”
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DRANT #228: VICTORY IN IRAQ!!!

Today and next week signify the anniversaries of the massacres at Kent State and Jackson State (1970), barely observed in the pimp media, scarcely noted by network news, and hardly discernible in the world of Google Search. Not quite the voracious media pigout of May 2003, when the idiot George in his green USAF monkey suit, complete with regulation USAF codpiece, strod arrogantly across the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, where the huge "Mission Accomplished" banner yet waved, and declaimed to tumultuous near-unanimous cheering that the major military operations in Iraq were over, and we had won.
He was right.
Make no mistake: George Bush has WON his war. He has won his war in Iraq, and he has won his war against Us as well.
We have lost, the Iraqis have lost, the world has lost, our progeny have lost, and the planet has lost, but Bush and Cheney and the murderers they work for have WON, and won big time. THEIR mission has been accomplished.
They have basically achieved their every objective. Here is a short list: ( I know you can easily add to this)
1- They control the OIL in Iraq, and have created a chaotic mess, breaking Iraq up into warring fiefdoms, which purposefully and effectively eliminates any possibility of organized opposition.
2- They have built and will forever inhabit gargantuan armed Garrisons in Iraq, throughout the region, and around the world. The new US "Embassy" in Baghdad stands as the perfect example of endless armed occupation and military control of Iraq's resources. The co-conspirators in Congress can blather and pass bills and do the talk shows and "re-deploy" til doomsday, but the U S of A is never leaving Iraq, whether the "troops" withdraw or not.
3- They have fundamentally destroyed Individual rights and fundamental constitutional protections, and continue to do so with little or no effective opposition.
4- They have essentially neutered the other branches of Government: they have castrated Congress, eliminated Congressional Oversight, and transmogrified the Supreme Court into an ideological servant which has reversed fundamental legal precedent in the pursuit of ideology.
5- They have greatly expanded a tiny and increasingly omnipotent ruling class, whose income, possessions, and access to resources has exploded logarithmically, while concomitantly diminishing the quality of life for all the rest of us, dooming us to ever increasing financial hardship and drastically circumscribed prospects.
6- They have pursued an environmentally genocidal policy of global rape in the name of near-term profit, while the profits earned by their global bosses have likewise swollen geometrically to the largest in history.
7- They have "privatized" every possible aspect of our lives, destroying the traditional concept of The Common, and by drastically reducing funding and support for public services, profoundly changed the way we (and our children) will eat, drink and breathe.
8- They have put the United States under military command (NORTHCOMM) -- and implemented their plan for military takeover/martial law, including the construction and enforced population of widespread prison camps and "detention" centers.
9- They have greatly expanded the prison system (also "privatized") and the prison population.
10- They have created and funded (50 BILLION DOLLARS for 2008) an un-regulated and un-scrutinized Department of so-called "Homeland Security" which now has control over all domestic security in the USA, outside any ostensible Congressional or civilian oversight, employing "privatized" armies and spy networks, and creating unregulated draconian governmental gestapo like the I.C.E.
11- They have shackled us and countless future generations under onerous un-countable debt, in the pursuit of war and the abandonment of social services, and funded this debt by borrowing from those who are unquestionably our greatest rivals.
12- They have created the concept of "illegal" immigrants, and pursued a policy of racist aggression against those of us who are most defenseless, while importing virtual slave labor for their industries, thereby eliminating collective bargaining and actually reducing real wages and benefits for all workers.
13- They have created a Theocracy, violating one of the most fundamental concepts in the Constitution.
14- They have politicized and subverted historically independent and apolitical government operations, those branches of government most responsible for the protection and safeguarding of our rights, property, health and well-being, and turned them instead into instruments of private profit and public plunder, run by stooges of the very people and industries they are charged with regulating.
15- They have implemented and financed a policy of racial/ethnic cleansing in Palestine that recalls nothing less than the German Holocaust, Slavery, the mass genocide of Indigenous People in the Americas, and Apartheid in South Africa.
16- They have made imprisonment and torture basic and ubiquitous tools of domination.
17- They have created an environment where continual intrusive personal searches, ID checks, XRAY detectors, security alerts, pat downs, and baggage inspections have become an ingrained and barely perceived part of life's daily routine.
18- They have stolen two elections, and are in place to steal the next.

Now what exactly have they lost ? Name ONE goddamned thing they have lost.

They don't count dead bodies. They don't count lives destroyed, nor environments ruined. These are merely collateral damages.
They WANT Africans and the countless "Others" dead, the fewer mouths to feed.
They WANT Americans poor and uneducated, the more helpless cannon fodder for their future armies and occupiers and police. The more workers for their prison factories.
They WANT resources concentrated in the hands of a very few, and they WANT scarcity- not merely for profit, but further to dominate and control the rest of us.
They WANT us divided and angry and jealous of each other, further to enslave us.
They WANT us to have guns and ammo everywhere; they WANT crackpots killing innocent bystanders, further to inculcate an atmosphere of fear and mutual distrust, paranoia and violence.
They WANT all of this, and they have gotten it.

They have WON. Mission accomplished.

And all the while, the great majority of us live our lives as if nothing whatever is going on.
As if there is no war, as if there are no victims, no corpses, no mutilated.
As if we have lost nothing, as if we have nothing to fear, as if its all going to happen sometime down the road, in some vague future, where magically there will be enough for everyone, and everything will work itself out like it always has.
As if American Idol is crucial and Arctic Ice is not.
And ultimately- as if what happens to our children and their children is of no consequence in our rapacious pursuit of immediate instant gratification and greed.
Given all that has been done- what more could possibly be necessary to incite us to act ? Must there be a Kent State or Jackson State again before we are awakened ?
As Paul Rieckhoff said --
“The president can say we’re a country at war all he wants. We’re not.
The military is at war. And the military families are at war. Everybody else is shopping.”

They have WON. Mission accomplished.

Except - if we do something. Drastic. Urgent. Revolutionary. Now.
Don't tell me any more about marches and demonstrations and signs.
Calling Congress, writing letters, blogging.
We've tried all of that. Its very lack of effect makes it attractive to us, so we can lose, but proclaim how hard we tried.
To make us feel better, cause we did our best, but well you know....
Its time for much much more than that.
In the face of the comic parade of so-called "opposition" candidates trotted out on stage by the Democratic Party last week, we better not expect any changes from those people. Especially not from the ones most heavily supported by the DLC and the Democratic Party establishment.
Its time to take this on ourselves.

Quote of the day:

"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us." Thich Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese monk, activist and writer.
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