The Vatican re-Brands

Sometimes PBS Frontline does investigative journalism. Other times they do branding, and work as partners with their subjects.

Two Frontlines:

Hand of God
A moving, and frankly told story of a family's confrontation with the church that betrayed them, and how they survived it all with their humanity and humor intact.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/)

Secrets of the Vatican
An inside look at the scandals that rocked Benedict’s Papacy.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/)


The top one was produced by the brother of one of the estimated 10,000 children who are victims of Catholic Priest sexual abuse in the United States.

The bottom one is a narrative that seems to indicate that the Vatican and the church's 'embassies' world-wide are infected with a multitude of sin - and that the past pope, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) sacrificed himself for the church by leaking the "Vatileaks" - and then resigning; which has resulted in the beginning of a rebirth of the institution in likeness of pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Francis).

The top one is a stirring piece of journalism.

The bottom one ... I feel like I just got played. I'll only believe it if the sanction against sexual conduct is ended, and the Catholic Church allows women equal access to all positions in the church.

The business stuff, the banking, the arms dealing, and the acquiescence to fascist death squads sponsored by the CIA in Central America ... well, the most progressive form of government to date - the Republic of the United States of America - is breaking under that paradox (Military Industrial Complex), so I won't put it on the church in rome to lead that us out of that particular hell. That's on us.

Both programs are very important. I recommend watching them.

(Both are available online in Canada at the links provided.)



mh

#Ukraine - Jan 30 2014 - Democratic #Euromaidan has defeated Government - #fascists hold the street - want to overthrow the State and pivot to power

2014-02-25 - This piece was written Jan 30, 2014 - I held back this piece as the situation was unclear and very volatile. Since the weekend of Feb 19-22 the situation has some-what clarified. I'm corralling my sources and real-time documentation now, for my next piece on this unfolding situation. At this writing according to several sources in the field, the situation seems to have pivoted as I had feared it might when the article below was written. The State has collapsed as revolutionary "People's Rada" have sprung up all over the country. Around Kyiv to the proximate east and South - and especially to the West - Right Sector has lead in an apparently focused, organized and well timed  popular uprising that resulted in the decapitation of local government offices and institutions - which has resulted in the collapse of the central government and it's Constitution.


Jan 30, 2014 - The #Euromaidan movement is represented in Parliament by the United Opposition - which includes the fascist Svoboda "third position" neo-nazis.

With an understanding of the situation that flows from an historians perspective - what I see is that the fascists at this moment - in this very fluid situation - hold the keys to the next developments - and that - it appears that if western liberals remain divided and in this state of considering all the facts - the moment may be lost to effect this in a positive fashion - and at the same time, and most importantly - prevent a fascist government from coming to power in the Ukraine.

I just listened to Russian Studies expert Professor Stephen F Cohen's way-to-short debate with Anton Shekhovtsov on DemocracyNow! (Debate: Is Ukraine’s Opposition a Democratic Movement or a Force of Right-Wing Extremism? | Democracy Now!).

Professor Cohen says the fascists, through their control of the street demonstrations - have control of the #Euromaidan democratic movement - just at this moment now - .

At this time Professor Cohen is reading the situation as I see it also.

Here's how I saw the last 9 days play out:

When the government fell last week and all power resorted to Parliament, we saw the government fire all it's Ministers and dissolve the session of Parliament and promise the first new order of business would be to repeal all the anti-protest laws. (the laws that turned the peaceful protest into a week long running street battle run by the fascists, and which caused an ungovernable state of affairs --- the exact occurrence that toppled the government).

At that point the President proposed a power sharing government of national reconciliation. And the deputies of the opposition at first began to respond to that by asking the street to give up the occupations of the government buildings. That resulted in divisions on the street with one group holding the Agriculture Ministry being fired upon by the Svoboda fascists:


According to a NY Time Opinion piece from today the Agriculture Ministry is still occupied - by the fascists:

"Another problem is that the opposition is united largely in its disgust with the corruption and authoritarianism of the Yanukovych-led political elite and a vague longing for Westernization and transparency. Beyond that, the protesters are sharply divided. The differences were on display Wednesday when five people were wounded in a spat over who would control the occupied building of the Agriculture Ministry."

(NY Times Editorial - Time for a Deal in Ukraine - by The Editorial Board - JAN. 30, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/time-for-a-deal-in-ukraine.html).

After prolonged discussion in Parliament the amnesty law was passed by the majority government party - without the support of the United Opposition deputies:

Tiahnybok votes to fight on
5:48 a.m, Jan. 30 -- EuroMaidanPR report: After parliament voted to pass the amnesty laws, Svoboda Party opposition leader Oleh Tiahnybok addressed protesters from the main stage of Independence Square, saying that until all the main demands of the opposition are fulfilled, the opposition will continue fighting. Tiahnybok added that the opposition demands are aligned with those of the protestors and that the opposition will continue representing the protesters’ interests and demands. -- Brian Bonner

(EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine (Jan. 28-29-30 live updates)


It was at this point - and how it stands now - that the fascist hold the trump card in what happens next. If they won't give up the street positions the United Opposition can't negotiate with the majority.

I think it is important to understand that the Ukraine is a capitalist liberal democracy in name only - it has none of the deep institutions of a robust liberal democracy we understand here (that are very tenacious and difficult to dismantle). So the Ukrainian State is very fragile - with just a little push this Ukrainian state could fall - and a fascist government could come to power in the centre of Europe.

As the US has been funding this radical element in an attempt to destabilize and disrupt the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States region (a geopolitical plan that is diametrically opposed to NATO's plan for the region - a US plan to weaken Russia systemically - and at the same time provide for the moving of Southern Eurasian oil and resources West, rather than East or North.

Therefore the US will have no choice but to support this new Ukrainian fascist state - or lose this particular round in the 'grand game' at a moment when it's economic house is collapsing.

This fact of a fascist state in the middle of Europe will have the effect of a cancer inside Europe. Like a house divided - it will either become all one thing - or all the other.

And as the lynch pin of American hegemony in Europe - it must therefore become all fascist - and so then too the fascist forces inside America would also then gain ascendancy in the grand game inside the gates of Rome Washington.


As the fascist maintain their pivot point at the centre of the Ukrainian popular revolution - so too will we see a continuation of the inability of the opposition to negotiate in Parliament.

A continuation of the dysfunction of the state will lead to further economic hardship in the very short term - thus drawing more and more angry young men to the fascist barricades.

Maintain the truce at the barricades in the squares - but end the occupations of the Government buildings and let the government begin to do it's work.

Begin the coalition government that the majority party has offered. Politically dislodge the fascists from that pivot point they now occupy.




mh

Failure of #Ukraine Progressives - rise of Fascist leadership in #Euromaidan movement

A source on the ground in Kiev - from any stated (democratic) perspective - would be nice...
 ..Voila:

The Final Straw Radio (AshevilleFM)

A weekly Anarchist Radio Show

Euromaidan: An Ukrainian Anarchosyndicalist perspective on these protests

December 31, 2013

In late November of 2013, Kiev and other parts of Ukraine saw the building of spontaneous plaza occupations and street demonstrations against President Yanukovych apparent decision to stall steps towards integrating Ukraine into the European Union. The protests, known as Euromaidan or EuroPlaza in Ukrainian, called on the ruling government to move forward with the integration, fearing that the stalling was a sign that the Ukraine was giving in to pressure from the competing Customs Union (made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) which had been courting Ukrainian participation. The protests are ongoing, despite the signature of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych into a deal with Russia for promised purchases of billions of dollars of Ukrainian products and a 30% discount on Russian Natural Gas. Euromaidan have been compared in scale, and sadly in lack of critical debate about issues among the populace, to the 2004 Ukrainian Orange revolution which saw the rising to power of those who would become the status quo today.

This week on the Final Straw, we’ll be speaking with Denys. Denys is an organizer and activist with the Kiev Local of the Autonomous Worker’s Union

..."

read the rest and listen to the podcast... http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2013/12/31/euromaidan-an-ukrainian-anarchosyndicalist-perspective-on-these-protests/

Podcast link: https://archive.org/download/AfmFinalStraw12222013/afm-final-straw-12222013.mp3



mh

McClatchy says Wikileaks US Diplomatic Cables reveal Oil at the centre of Libyan War

McClatchy Newspaper's investigative reporter, Kevin Hall has spent some time digging through some 25,000 Wikileaks Diplomatic cables that mention Italian, Libyan, Russian and US Oil companies. He says they reveal how Oil has played a central role in a gambit by the US and France to keep Russian and Italian government owned oil companies out of Libyan oil fields - a gambit that is in fact naked, terrible war - the NATO bombing and special operations intervention that is attempting to over-throw Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

From The Real News Network, May 16th 2011: "WikiLeaks Reveals US Wanted to Keep Russia out of Libyan Oil"

Kevin Hall in conversation with Paul Jay

http://therealnews.com/

So here we are again, Canadian Forces - through our NATO membership - fighting another war of aggression to control oil fields that as an oil exporting nation we have no interest in.

After the Conservative Majority was elected on May 2 2011, Bloomburg Press asked Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to reassure Bay Street about his plans for the next budget (June 2011). He said the Conservatives will stay the coarse. (Bloomburg Press May 11, 2011 - "Flaherty Vows to Use Parliament Majority to Erase Budget Deficit by 2014".)

Harper's pledge at the G-20 Summit in Toronto on June 26th, 2010 stands (see excerpt from G20 Summit, Final Declaration at the end of this essay), says Flaherty - all the stimulus spending will be re-coped with spending reductions of C$4.3 Billion/year over three years.

Added to this balance sheet though is a 6B/year corporate tax reduction that lowers the Canadian Corporate tax rate to the lowest of any developed country in the world. Added to that is a promised new income tax rule that allows spouces with children under 18 years to declare their incomes separately. Collectively these measures will reduce Federal income by 10B/year - so $4.3 Billion in reduced spending, coupled with the 10 Billion per year in reduced revenues, leaves $14.3 Billion per year over three years in spending reductions in order to balance Canada's year to year accounts by 2015.

Those spending cuts could come through the cancellation of the contract to purchase 60 - F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from Lockheed Martin - killing airplanes that bomb innocent civilians in the streets of countries chosen by powerful interests who's agenda remains hidden from view - chosen for reasons that will be spun down to us by our 'free press' with words like 'human rights' and 'despotic leader'.

But those kind of cuts won't happen. Instead we'll cut programs that help people, and we'll further embed our economy with the corporate horsemen of a peak oil apocalypse.

Now that's some forward thinking Mr Harper - coming soon to a Federally funded service near you.


* * *

From "The G20 Toronto Summit Final Declaration (June 26 – 27, 2010)" (my emphasis)

...

10. We are committed to taking concerted actions to sustain the recovery, create jobs and to achieve stronger, more sustainable and more balanced growth. These will be differentiated and tailored to national circumstances. We agreed today on:

* Following through on fiscal stimulus and communicating “growth friendly” fiscal consolidation plans in advanced countries that will be implemented going forward. Sound fiscal finances are essential to sustain recovery, provide flexibility to respond to new shocks, ensure the capacity to meet the challenges of aging populations, and avoid leaving future generations with a legacy of deficits and debt. The path of adjustment must be carefully calibrated to sustain the recovery in private demand. There is a risk that synchronized fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely impact the recovery. There is also a risk that the failure to implement consolidation where necessary would undermine confidence and hamper growth. Reflecting this balance, advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016. Recognizing the circumstances of Japan, we welcome the Japanese government’s fiscal consolidation plan announced recently with their growth strategy. Those with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation. Fiscal consolidation plans will be credible, clearly communicated, differentiated to national circumstances, and focused on measures to foster economic growth.
* Strengthening social safety nets, enhancing corporate governance reform, financial market development, infrastructure spending, and greater exchange rate flexibility in some emerging markets;
* Pursuing structural reforms across the entire G-20 membership to increase and sustain our growth prospects; and
* Making more progress on rebalancing global demand.
Monetary policy will continue to be appropriate to achieve price stability and thereby contribute to the recovery.
...

mh

Protests across U.S. against Wisconsin-like anti-union bills - with Video Google Map

TheUpTake.org is aggregating video of the nation wide protests against Wisconsin-like anti-union bills - from people who were there to those of us who were not. They've integrated the social tools in this case by using Google maps to give us the big picture. Below is an embed of the Map; click on any of the blue Placemarks to see video embeds from that place of the Saturday, February 26th demonstrations.

Wisconsin Workers' Rights Rallies-Video Map

View Wisconsin Workers' Rights Rallies-Video Map in a larger map

If you were out demonstrating in your city and have media you'd like to contribute, go to TheUpTake.org contribute page for this story: http://theuptake.org/2011/02/25/national-day-of-workers-rights-support-rallies-send-us-your-videos-photos/.



mh

Encampment at the State Capitol at Madison Wisconsin

Wisconsin Protests - Day 12

From: OneWisconsinNow:  http://www.youtube.com/user/OneWisconsinNow#p/u

100,000 Strong

Looks like more than 100,000 to me...

Democracy Now! reporting from Wisconsin Friday. A nice tour of the 24 hours, now 13 day encampment in the State Capitol Building in Madison to defeat Governor Scott Walker Budget Repair Bill, and protect the rights of citizens to bargain collectively with their employers.



Also from "One Wisconsin Now":  http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/ 

I really like this one - it's a montage of 11 days of protest, the song is real catchy.

("Kids" is the third single from MGMT's album "Oracular Spectacular": spiritual and enlightened; a beautiful melody with lots of synthesizers, the robotized sound is a haunting counterpoint to the lyrics: http://www.whoismgmt.com/ca/home.)

Madison Protests

Democracy Now!  http://www.democracynow.org/
Friday Feb 25, 2011:

"Protesters Expect 100,000 in Madison as Assembly OKs Anti-Union Bill"  http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/25/protesters_expect_100_000_in_madison


"Wisconsin’s Uprising: A Guided Tour of the 11-Day Protest Encampment Inside the State Capitol in Madison" 
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/25/wisconsins_uprising_a_guided_tour_of



mh

Right to Collective Bargaining a foundation stone of Democracy

Not some hedonistic 'entitlement' that 'spoiled' baby boomers are likely to give up easily.

Corporations and their neo-con representatives are hoping we'll forget who caused this "Great Recession" and start blaming our neighbours. More on that in this rather level headed discussion lead by Laura Flanders, founder & host of GRITtv - which is NetCasting yesterday and today, from the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Mary Bottari & Mark Pocan: National Implications in Wisconsin

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by GRITtv



Mary Bottari is the Director of The Center for Media and Democracy's Real Economy Project and the Editor of the BanksterUSA site for bank busting activists. She is an experienced policy wonk and she previously served as a Senior Analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based consumer group Public Citizen in its Global Trade Watch division.

Mark Pocan is a Wisconsin State Assemblyman from the 78th District.


GRITtv - Mary Bottari & Mark Pocan: National Implications in Wisconsin

Via: CommonDreams.org

CommonDreams Video - link list.



mh

"The Uptake" Citizen Journalists covering Wisconsin Protests via "LiveStream" and networking via "Spot.Us"

Wisconsin Protests - Day 6

100,000 people came out on Saturday (Day 5), the biggest demonstration in support of Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Rights yet.

This breaking story offers an opportunity to describe a New Media Model that is evolving.

Below is an embed of a live stream from Madison Wisconsin where The Uptake volunteer journalist/producers are creating content and streaming it through LiveStream.

Pro-Labor Demonstrations Continue In Madison Wisconsin

Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com

How does it all work?

1. Broadcasting

LiveStream is an application that aggregates live streaming video to viewers parceled via subject categories. The first time I saw LiveStream was during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - where a live feed of the broken pipe at the bottom of the gulf streamed day after day, after day.

"Livestream is the leading live video destination and platform. Event organizers, content owners, celebrities and artists around the world use Livestream's social broadcasting tools to engage and grow their audiences on the web, mobile devices, and connected TVs. More than one billion video minutes are streamed each month to a growing community of 20 million monthly viewers (50,000 of whom will be watching right now)."

It's like a TV box with only live streaming channels, no spin, no talking heads - just live streaming video on any subject you can imagine. 


2. Content Production

Will journalism be done by you or to you?

"The UpTake is a citizen-fueled, online video news gathering organization. Established July 2007."

The UpTake have volunteer journalist/producers feeding live streams from the Winsconsin Protests through LiveStream. The UpTake is gathering a community of volunteers, activists and donors via an innovative social networking site, Spot.Us.


3. Funding

Spot.Us

"Community-funded reporting"

"Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the "Center for Media Change" and funded by various groups like the Knight Foundation. We partner with various organizations including the Annenberg School of Communications in Los Angeles."

4. Spread the News

You can embed this LiveStream too.



mh

The Real News Network on Wisconsin Protests

AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Damon A. Silvers lays it all out rather succinctly in this interview with Paul Jay.




More at The Real News

More coverage of this budding national (hopefully international) movement - an updating Google search list: TRNN + Wisconsin + Protests.

TRNN Link list 02/18/2011:

Best of the Web: Wisconsin Videos

 Wisconsin Workers Protest Anti-Union Bill
 Wisconsin Protesters So Loud They Drowned Out FOX Reporter
Democratic Lawmakers In Wisconsin Go Into Hiding
 Wisconsin Gov. Attacks Public Employees & Unions; Threatens to Use National Guard To Quell Protests
 Unions Threatened Across US Featuring: In These Times' Mike Elk debate and Less Government's Seton Motley
 Protesters & Unions In Wisconsin Threatened With National Guard!!
 Wisconsin protests war on unions
 Budget Repair Bill Protest! Madison WI 2 15 2011 Students Arrive
 Governor Walker Discusses Budget Repair Bill with Greta Van Susteren (2.15.11)



mh

Empathic Social Imperatives at odds with populist "Competitive Instinct". Jeremy Rifkin's 'The Empathic Civilization'

A few years ago I noted that solutions to many problems emerging in the new, smaller, better connected world are trending towards the social rather than the dominate meme trumpeted in the mainstream press and talk radio in America - the myth of the magic of market forces that will solve everything - except not surprisingly, it's two key motivators; greed and fear.

This video form RSA illustrates a talk by Jeremy Rifkin about the evolution of empathy.




What's RSA?

"For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."

Find out more...

mh

This guy is really hitting his stride...

Chris Hedges' "Empire of Illusion" talk at New School
(December 8, 2009)

Hedges uses as metaphor, the life and death of Michael Jackson - the star who lost track of his real self and became the celebrity commodity that the star system had created - to describe the end of American Democracy in terms of a schizophrenic culture befuddled, and on the verge of a corporate feudalism.

It is time to abandon the Democratic Party, Hedges says, because they have abandoned the middle class, the working class ... the only ideas that are not victims of a virtual corporate reality are on the left of the political spectrum, socialism. He describes himself as a Radical Keynesian: full employment, the poorest have access to good health care and everyone has a chance to go to university.

In the question and answer after the talk Chris Hedges shows just how nimble his mind is right now. In answer to a question about the post literate image based culture he takes us from Plato as fascist to the codification of the illusion of the present in the hand-helds of our kids... ..gorgeous!

The key to his clear thinking; turn off the Illusion - he doesn't own a TV - plus using the internet 'correctly' - understanding that the constantly vibrating monitor can destroy thinking - go to places where things don't constantly move, places where one can silently contemplate a thing, an idea - like an art gallery, or on a camping trip where reality replaces the illusion ... so you'll always remember...

Google plugs an ad onto the front of this ten minute preview (instead of the love = diamonds ad FORA.tv has) of the 01:22:22 talk.


The kicker? One year and eight days after this speech Chris Hedges turned this depressing requiem into rebirth, getting himself arrested as part of the Veterans for Peace "Hope Is Action" civil disobedience against the wars (Afghan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan) at the White House fence (Thursday December 16 2010).

See my article on that, here: "Hope Is Action" - Chris Hedges & Veterans for Peace.


Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion
at The New School
FORA.tv



mh

"Hope Is Action" - Chris Hedges & Veterans for Peace

Just spreading some news that ain't so fit to print much anymore...

"When you put your body on the line and you say you won't let this happen anymore and you'll do whatever it takes to make that happen, it's something spiritual."
- Veteran for Peace, Washington DC, December 16, 2010

Ellsberg, McGovern, Hedges arrested outside White House...

131 'Veterans for Peace' activists arrested during the nonviolent demonstration...

Sometimes a small demonstration is bigger than the biggest marches. This demonstration may go down as a turning point in the history of these Long Wars (Iraq and Afghanistan). It comes at a moment when any hope that Obama could make the changes needed, that the electoral process could work - has been dashed on rocks that are a House and Senate that cannot change, will not change.

A civil disobedience action in Washington on Thursday December 16th 2010 delivered the message that as, one after the other the avenues for progressive change are closed to the people, and the powers that be become more and more unable to bend - the only way forward is to use the tactics of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi:  to stand in the way of the evil being perpetrated in our names.


TruthDig - December 17, 2010:

"Hedges delivered a rousing speech about the nature of hope (in contrast to what certain campaign slogans might have suggested in recent years), pointing out that “hope has a cost, hope is not comfortable,” before joining other supporters of Veterans for Peace who chained themselves to the White House fence."

Truthdig reports on ‘Hope Is Action’ civil disobedience at White House fence:

To me, this feels like that then unknown demonstration back on October 27, 1967, when the "Baltimore Four" (Berrigan, artist Tom Lewis; and poet, teacher and writer David Eberhardt and United Church of Christ missionary and pastor The Reverend James L. Mengel) poured blood on Selective Service records in the Baltimore Customs House. With this symbolic act of civil disobedience began the peace movement's victory in stopping the Vietnam war.

Veterans for Peace White House Civil Disobedience to End War



Video via Youtube's
Direct From Washington, DC
ebecker2000's Channel



Other speakers at the same event:

Flowers, McGovern, Benjamin and Becker: "End These Wars, Now!"



Video via Youtube's,
William Hughes Presents,
liamh2's Channel



mh

How to 'grab' DRM protected, Microsoft generated rich media from Rogers internet TV and edit it for upload to Youtube.

Today I produced my first video and uploaded it to Youtube.


The grab program

I was trying to grab Toronto City Council meetings from the Rogers internet TV portal. The content there is in huge files containing entire 5 hour meetings in some cases. The file I was learning with was a 200 MB file of the December 7th 2010 City Council Meeting. The inauguration meeting where Don Cherry, the new Mayor Ford's special guest made his "pinko-bicyclist, pinko-media, pinko-bureaucracy, pinko-council" remarks. (A whole different meaning to the term 'rose coloured glasses' eh?)

I wanted to copy that 4 minute speech and upload it to Youtube to use in an article I was writing for BikingToronto.

First I tried my DownloadHelper Application, it grabbed a streaming address file folder, no good for editing. Also on my computer is Replay Media Catcher, by opening up the Web Dump feature on it I was able to record 205 MB file of the meeting. But Replay has this default that throws away the last 1/8 of any download, a nod to right's holders I guess, but the problem here was that it threw away info contained at the end of the file that synced the sound track. The file played fine, but silently. When I tried to run it through several different file converters many of them said the file was protected, other indicated incomplete. I assume this is Digital Rights Management (DRM) software encoded into the video. Which makes me wonder why DRM technology is being applied to documents like the proceedings of Toronto City Council; who owns these records? In my opinion the 'people' should own these files and they should be safely stored on City of Toronto servers, not exclusively on servers owned by Rogers Communications Inc..

After losing track of the empirical spiral of my editing education, several times, and throwing away VideoPad in a fit. I figured I'd better take a break form editing for a while so I sat on the project for a few days. Finally I figured out it was my source that was at fault - not the editor. So I went back into the hell again this morning. The first step was to test the editor on a download from Youtube that I knew didn't have any DRM on it. It worked, I edited a video and played it in my player - sound and everything!

So now I knew my capture of the rich, possibly DRM protected, public files of Toronto City Council at Rogers TV was the problem. I needed a different kind of capture software.

Back to Download.cnet.com, and the first thing I see is a web cam type capture system that reads data just before it hits your monitor. I tried the one that was: not a 'sponsored' placement (the top 5), with the most 'user recommended' stars, that had a good number of downloads 'total' and 'last week'. That software was "Web Cam Video Capture".

You have to set the defaults to human race settings on this thing as it comes with everything hidden - which is very confusing for the rookie. To reset the default view settings; right click on the quick-launch icon and then click Open, click 'setting' in the top bar and choose all three options available, one after the other, and set them to show everything you can until you learn how it works.

I set it to capture a defined area which when I click the 'record' button in the nice, pause-play-record - cassette tape player/recorder style layout - a cross hair appears on my cursor. I click on the top corner of the Rogers DivX player and create a box around it that I like, let off the mouse and your recording everything that happens in that box. Next I set the video to where Don Cherry starts speaking and press play on the Rogers Player. If you press pause on the player the Web Cam Video Capture keeps on recording the paused image, click play and the software captures that. You can even set it to capture the movements of your mouse's pointer arrow if you like.

The video is posted below and you'll immediately see that the frame rate sucks, that's because the file at Rogers is incredibly rich, I think the frame rate is 4X the richest video Youtube allows - so it's taxing my processor to the hilt. It plays fine alone but as soon as I add another application (like the Web Cam Video Capture Application), it starts to skip frames and stutter.

I like Web Cam Video Capture a lot; it's simple, transparent but it has to deal with A LOT of data which taxes a bodies processor.

Pre-monitor data capture is the future of the genre in my opinion.


The editor

Download.cnet.com has a good video editor up under the search term "video editors" called "VideoPad Video Editor". It's quick to load and a fairly low learning curve. It doesn't leave a watermark on your production, which is essential.

The only problem with it is it doesn't give you enough information when it's executing an order; what the name of the file being parsed, and it's location, would be very helpful for beginners.

So I click "Add Media", (top left, very intuitive) open my City Council capture of Don Cherry's remarks, and the file info appears in a column just below the Add Media button. Click on it and the content opens in the editor, right beside the file column.

The first thing I do once I've got the video up in the editor, is click the magnifying glass button and spread the video out a little (Black circle, image below). I like the scroll tab to be about 1/10 of the length of scroll bar, that makes it easy to pick out a single frame in the video.

Once you'd decided which frame you want to start your clip at, just click on the row of frames below the scroll bar, that fixes a red line that indicates your start point - then click on the start video button (image below, Brown Circle). When you've found the last frame you want in your clip click on it in the row of frames and then click on the stop button, the 'end clip button' (in the Blue Circle). Now click the green arrow button (Teal circle) and that adds your clip to the sequencer. Now at the very top of the page press the sixth button from the left (Black circle), "Save Movie" - and voila - your a video producer!

I uploaded the file to Youtube and here it is, two clips edited together, total run time: 4:42.

"Don Cherry places the Chain of Office around Mayor Rob Ford's shoulders and speaks to Council"
From Youtube Channel michaelholloway111



Now... Don't do anything stupid at council over the next 4 years Rob Ford, I'm watching you. ;)



mh

Senator Bernie Sanders - Independent - (Socialist Republic of) Vermont

My hero for this week is Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent - Vermont). Earlier this week I embedded his great speech from the floor of the Senate (from Monday December 6, 2010) in a blog I posted: The Decline and Fall of the Great United States of America.

At 10:25AM on Friday December 10, 2010 Bernie started a 8.5 hour filibuster on the Senate floor to draw attention to a tax deal worked out between the White House and the GOP.

To me, this deal looks like the Democrats set the whole thing up. The White House, and the left of the Democratic Party and their allies, handed the stupid Republicans enough rope to hang themselves over Christmas. And good for them, it's about time progressives used their brains to play the big picture like the Republicans have been doing since Newt Gingrich arrived (the Gingrich agenda towards a Pre 'Great Society' set of laws and institutions where-in the now, monopoly financial and corporate interests will destroy the Republic).

This is a fantastic gambit - and as a precursor for the coming debate about austerity to reduce the deficit and the national debt that reactionary Republicans and Democrats wish to achieve through cuts to social safety net - rather than the central plank of the Obama election campaign - a re-investment in the economy through massive government intervention towards a renewed and sustainable economy - and as such is a welcome development.

Of coarse 60% of the Democratic Party are Pork Barreling sycophants - so it will fail. We'll soon be back to business as usual; gutting the Great Society, pocketing the difference, and then - as the system fails the people - yelling that the system is corrupt due to a lack of conservative values - type-Neo-Con-bullsh*t-spin.

Or as the good Senator says,

"Our (Republican) 'friends' will come here after this tax cut is law saying, 'We're Very concerned with the deficit'."

Senator Bernie Sanders filiBernie on C Span (all 8.5 hrs.):


Part 1: http://cs.pn/fmko4X

Part 2: http://cs.pn/eHTmKU

Part 3: http://cs.pn/gqr0kV

On Twitter on Friday, during the filibuster, the list tag #FiliBernie was trending #1. When I checked the tag last night about 11:00 PM EST Saturday the tag was loading about 60 Tweets/minute - 29 hours after Senator Sanders finished speaking.

At this writing the Youtube page - where the Monday speech was posted - is recording that the video is #1(Education) for the month with 699,658 views.

I 'hate' this upload by calpernia, Filibernie Mix (via BoingBoing). Everything about this 'autoproduced' video rubs me the wrong way, the lines from the speech the creator decided to input, the song, and the way the arms are see-through...

(I would have used his opening to the speech, where he talks about the origins of a coming class war, ".. I'm talking about a war being waged by the some of the wealthiest and most powerful people of this country against working families of the United States of America...")

But, it shows the wide variety of popular creativity around what Senator Sanders is saying - the corporate dominated media leaves no pinhole for the expression of centre-left and especially left ideas - which are the only ones right now with out a giant credibility-gap attached to them.

Bernie Sanders Autotune - "Stay Today" (Filibernie Mix)



***


Democracy for America 'no deal' page.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities/419-no-deal

Thanks to Anon. at BoingBoing for the Colonel Sanders poster link.



mh

Cyber attacks in support of WikiLeaks morph into story writing

PLTA: December 15, 2010:

"PRESS RELEASE - 2600 MAGAZINE CONDEMNS DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS Posted 10 Dec 2010 04:45:38 UTC"

(After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a "Posthumous Long Tail Aperitif" (PLTA): links to related articles published after my original post - or before, but I wasn't aware.)

***

"..the 'WikiLeaked' documents are nothing unless writers sit down, dig through the massive amounts of information, and write entertaining and informative stories about what they've found!"

This morning I began the daunting task of writing an original story using the leaked US Diplomatic Cables as a source. It is my better tactic to help WikiLeaks withstand attacks by the US Government that over the last fortnight have ranged from the arrest of Julian Assange on trumped up charges, to Cyber-attacks by the Pentagon on WikiLeaks funding streams. The US government is using every agency at it's disposal to prevent the continuing release of classified cables (as of this writing, 1,295 of 251,287 US Diplomatic cables have been released).

This week a network of coders known as "Anonymous" (see BoingBoing article) attacked businesses who, under pressure from the US Government, used legal language in their terms of service agreements to suspend services they had earlier agreed to provide Wikileaks. Anonymous volunteers used DDOS attacks (a flood of information requests) to shut down PayPal, MasterCard, Amazon and Visa sites for a short periods. The attack was a mirror of what the Cyber-Warfare division of the Pentagon did to WikiLeaks the week before (a much larger and sustained attack - that worked - WikiLeaks had to change their address and server arrangements).

To me the tactic seemed hedonistic and in the end, a waste of time. More importantly it is a tactic that would quickly evaporate the public good will WikiLeaks has accrued over the years. The tactic shut down portals for short periods but did not affect using your credit card in the market place. The MasterCard, PayPal and Visa sites were marketing and customer serve portals - which I expect royally pissed off people who were having trouble with their cards - people who when they got they're cards working finally would be a lot less inclined to give some of that money to WikiLeaks. People's lives are hectic enough, hitting people with crossfire in a cyber war is not a way to win friends.

My better tactic was thought of by some people in the "Anonymous" network as well, BoingBoing Article). Someone posted the leaflet below on Thursday or Friday (it must be someone in the hacker network because of the exclusionary language, eh boyz?):

The Guardian UK has assigned a lot of resources to the WikiLeaks story, and it made me realize that the 'WikiLeaked' documents are nothing unless writers sit down, dig through the massive amounts of information, and write entertaining and informative stories about what they've found!

So this morning I clicked on my WikiLeaks bookmark (http://213.251.145.96/) and started reading. It's really quite easy to get at the documents, in the last batch of documents the Afghan War Diary the interfaces were new and not so friendly, this time WikiLeaks has the data nicely organized. From the main page I clicked on:

Cablegate: 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic Cables

This took me to the WikiLeaks "Cable Viewer" page. In the side bar (pictured on the left) there are several widgets that with a click of your mouse, you can browse by several different metrics:

Browse latest releases
Browse by creation date
Browse by origin
Browse by tag
Browse by classification

There's a handy graphic which shows if there are any cables in the data base between the US Embassy in your country and The US Department of State.

(click for larger image)

I checked the graphic for Canada which, today is listed on the far right, 6th from the end under "Embassy Ottawa". I took that information and checked the "Browse by origin" widget in the sidebar which has an alphabet list, and clicked on 'O' for Ottawa.

Today at this page, links to five documents come up.

I clicked on the top link which is a cable from the US Ambassador to Canada in 2004, Paul Cellucci to the US Department of State under Condoleezza Rice, a "scene setter" note in advance of a Bush visit to Ottawa just after his second term election. I read down and found in the summary section, in the third paragraph, something about which I knew nothing.

(my emphasis)

[...]

"¶3. (C/NF) Several themes about the future would also be
helpful for your private meetings. You should note the
substantial Canadian support to date for Iraq
reconstruction and encourage Canada to play a larger role
in the development of political and security institutions
there. You should promise continued close cooperation in
places such as Sudan, Afghanistan, and Haiti, and solicit
PM Martin,s views on how to best synergize our efforts.
And finally, you should commit to focus on settling our
trade and environmental disputes. End Summary"

Apparently Canada has spent about 125 Million dollars on Iraqi reconstruction through the "World Bank Iraq Trust Fund" and "United Nations Development Group Iraq Trust Fund".

I did not know that.

I Googled the phrase from the cable - "Canadian support to date for Iraq reconstruction" - to see if anyone else had written anything on this, or if it was in evidence anywhere else on the web. Turns out it is public knowledge.

(Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien did us the Great deed of not cowering to the war hysteria, lies and engineered disinformation that the Bush Administration was producing in 2002-2003 - and luckily we stayed out of the Iraq War --- but in keeping with the stated aims of the over all NATO strategy in the new world order of preventing "failed states", we continue to donate money to Iraq reconstruction - because after the bombing, and the invasion, and the counter insurgency - well, Iraq is now a failed state - so good for us for helping now to prevent it! ;)

The Google search also brought up an article in the Toronto Star which is interesting; it's the cable, published by the Toronto Star, standing alone, with no link back to an article:

Using Google search I found the article: Toronto Star, Wednesday, December 1st 2010, Canada chagrined after cut from intelligence loop on Iraq: WikiLeaks.

I applaud The Toronto Star for testing the limits of freedom of the press and especially for allocating resources to study the cables - and for writing these stories:

CableGate articles published so far at The Toronto Star

• More on WikiLeaks
• Cable: Obama trip to Ottawa
• Cable: Bush visit to Canada
• Cable: Counsellor, CSIS Director discuss CT threats, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran
• Cable: Images of U.S.-Canada border paint U.S. in negative light
• Cable: Canadian election

The 'Canada chagrined...' article has this at the end of it:

"WikiLeaks says there will be as many as 2,648 documents mentioning Canada among the quarter-million it plans to release in coming days."

Unlike the Toronto Star, The New York Times has recently wimped out on publishing the full text of the leaked cables, although they have written a number of stories using the cables as sources (some of which they hadn't received from WikiLeaks but had to ask The Guardian UK to show them). They must be getting advice from their Laywers that is taking them in this direction ( imho, economic and branding considerations will soon trump those legal fetters.

WikiLeaks has given The Guardian much more data from the Cable Leak than The New York Times - possibly because the Guardian agreed to a set of stipulations designed by WikiLeaks to get news stories published - while The NYT would not agree to such stipulations. To me though, I think The Guardian had already decided to put a lot of resources into the story, before they agreed to WikiLeaks conditions. They didn't need to promise anything they weren't already going to do anyway. They would use the information as few papers had (with regard to the previous big leak, The War Diaries).

After the last weeks events The Guardian UK has now positioned themselves as the Global go-to resource for WikiLeaks related news - in the English language at any rate. In doing so they show the way, the strategy is sound business, and the Gaurdian model thus empowers editors at other papers to take the case to ownership that the legal departments objections are mute - the newspapers survival as a leading news organization must use the leaked data going forward - they must fight the government in court if necessary or shut down their presses and go home.

CableGate is the biggest single source of news stories since the Pentagon Papers (which was front page news for 3 months) Stories based on this on-going release from WikiLeaks could be creating stories for a year; and then the next leak.

WikiLeaks is a game changer and The New York Times must be realizing that by now.

So that's the mechanics of a better than DDOS attacks tactic. Now I'll head back into WikiLeaks for some serious reading and see if I can find a story which will encourage other bloggers to do the hard work of parsing this monstrously large data set - and in doing so canonize WikiLeaks in the 4th Estate.


WikiLeaks articles here are linked via a "WikiLeaks" label.

Related Titles here at FilterBlogs:

December 7, 2010 WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange Arrested in London on fake Swedish Rape charge, Denied Bail

December 6, 2010 US systematically shutting down WikiLeaks revenue vectors - here's ways around

December 5, 2010 Secretary of State Clinton Codifies WikiLeaks
Guardian.co.uk does the hard slogging - creates daily 'WikiLeaks' headlines around the globe

December 4, 2010 A New England down for the count - needs help

August 4, 2010 CBC's 'WikiLeaks Release' search-able database of Canadian mentions




mh

The Decline and Fall of the Great United States of America

The Bush Tax cuts for the rich will be renewed under an Obama-Republican deal worked out this week.

Although the very insulated representatives in their ivory towers in Washington are probably not aware of it, this bill declares 'Let them eat cake'. Greed that to the voters must look like class war - by the extremely rich and powerful upon the poor and the middle class - at a moment when they can least tolerate further injustice.

I like the way Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says it in two syllable words and without economist-speak or politico-speak. He's not talking to the Senate, or the lobbyists, or the national media --- he's talking to the people.

In plain English - and in living colour - The End of the Republic:



"Sen Bernie Sanders Amazing Speech!" Via Youtube Channel "InternetSpanker"
(http://www.youtube.com/user/InternetSpanker#g/u)

Via CommonDreams.org: "Senator Bernie Sanders: Obama's Tax Deal is a 'Moral Outrage'"



mh

US systematically shutting down WikiLeaks revenue vectors - here's ways around

Just in case the web site goes down again here's the WikiLeaks page that tells you how to donate: The Top option now doesn't include MasterCard credit cards (cut your MasterCard) as finance capital comes together to shut down embarrassing truths about themselves and their cronies. Visa is still available at this printing but I wouldn't trust it, one day soon they'll freeze what they have and give it to the Empire's war machine.

Wikileaks new address:

http://88.80.13.160

Via the WikiLeaks page,

https://donations.datacell.com/:
-------------------------------------

WikiLeaks brings truth to the world by publishing fact-based stories without fear or favor.
You can help support our independent media by donating financially.

Our organisation exists because of the work of many volunteers who have contributed many hours to building WikiLeaks from the ground up. But we still need donations to pay for computers, expert programmers and other bills.

There are four ways to donate:
1. By Credit Card
2. Bank Transfer to Germany
3. Bank Transfer to Iceland
4. Snail Mail (old fashioned postal mail)

Donations to the Wau Holland Stiftung Bank informations:
Commerzbank Kassel,
bank number (BLZ) 52040021,
Account number (Konto) 277281204
(or you can use IBAN: DE46520400210277281204, BIC: COBADEFF520)

Sunshine Press Productions ehf
Skulagata 19, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Landsbanki Islands Account number 0111-26-611010
BANK/SWIFT:NBIIISREXXX
ACCOUNT/IBAN:IS97 0111 2661 1010 6110 1002 80

Wau Holland Stiftung
Bank Account: 2772812-04
IBAN: DE46 5204 0021 0277 2812 04
BIC Code: COBADEFFXXX
Bank: Commerzbank Kassel
German BLZ: 52040021
Subject: WIKILEAKS / WHS Projekt 04

------------------------------


C/NET News: "MasterCard pulls plug on WikiLeaks payments"
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20024776-281.html)


I missed this - back on September 14 2010, "Counter Punch" found the connection I'd been expecting we'd find, between the spurious Swedish rape case and the CIA: (http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir09142010.html)



mh

Secretary of State Clinton Codifies WikiLeaks

Guardian.co.uk does the hard slogging - creates daily 'WikiLeaks' headlines around the globe

"That a more comprehensive read of the leaked cables did not afterwards support the argument the Secretary of State was making is irrelevant here, what the statement did was to codify WikiLeaks. This week WikiLeaks became a fact on the political landscape."

Several stories this week, driven by WikiLeaks release of 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic Cables, and essential Guardian UK diligent investigative reporting has institutionalized WikiLeaks as a part of the 4th Estate.

At a Monday, November 29th 2010 press conference Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chose specific WikiLeaked Diplomatic cables to support a spin the administration had developed to support the US position on Iran regarding that countries continuing development of nuclear and missile technology.

Later in the week the spin was trumpeted by The New York Times (Nov 28 "Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea") and The Washington Post (AP - Nov 30 "US says Iran got missile boost from North Korea").

The interesting thing is that in official circles up until this moment WikiLeaks' frontman Julian Assange was being compared to Osama Bin Laden - the new America's Most Wanted. Now all of a sudden sighting leaked documents provided to the world via WikiLeaks was a legitimate talking point.

Clinton's remarks denoted a departure point - an acceptance of three things:

1. That the leaked cables were legitimate.
2. That their existence on the political landscape was now accepted as part of the political ferment.
3. And thus, an accepted source from which one could form ones arguments in the course of political discourse at the most official level.

That a more comprehensive read of the leaked cables did not afterwards support the argument the Secretary of State was making (IPS - "Russians Refuted U.S. Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe") is irrelevant here, what the statement did was to codify WikiLeaks. This week WikiLeaks became a fact on the political landscape.

(It should be noted that while the Secretary of State was inching closer to acknowledging WikiLeaks as a legitimate player in the forth estate, the Pentagon was on the verge of launching a DDOS denial of service attack that by Friday December 3rd 2010 had forced WikiLeaks to change it's IP address - so while one hand was open and slightly extended, the other was clenched in a fist.)


Then on Friday, the Guardian UK breaks the Copenhagen story ("WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord"). At the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference the Obama administration tried to spin a story for US consumption. As the UN conference broke down the Administration tried to pull out of it a secondary agreement between specific countries that would then become the 'good news' talking points in the US media. The Diplomatic Cables WikiLeak reveled what sage observers of events back then thought, it was an exercise in damage control from the start. The young administration tried to hide the fact that the Kyoto talks were off the road and in a ditch because it didn't want the perception to abound that, on it's watch, it was failing (even though the Bush administrations head-in-the-sand policy was what put it there).

This second big story doesn't have the ingredients where the National Security State can pull out it's rhetoric about endangering lives on the ground, disrupting sensitive diplomatic negotiations - this story is about power hiding truths from the people - and it involves government from all around the planet.

WikiLeaks and the Gaurdian UK have institutionalized WikiLeaks as a part of the 4th Estate. Next the National Security State will have to go after The Gaurdian - and then it is up to some of the other International papers to step up - like the New York Times for example.



Important stuff:

Remarks to the Press on the Release of Confidential Documents
(US Department of State Archives)

WikiLeaks 'alleged Diplomatic Cable leaks' sighted by the Secretary of State on Monday November 29 2010 with regards their Iranian position, beginning at 13:40 and specifically sighted to back the US position at 14:13 (my bold itallics):

[...]

"I think that it should not be a surprise to anyone that Iran is a source of great concern not only in the United States, that what comes through in every meeting that I have anywhere in the world is a concern about Iranian actions and intentions. So if anything, any of the comments that are being reported on allegedly from the cables confirm the fact that Iran poses a very serious threat in the eyes of many of her neighbors, and a serious concern far beyond her region."

The Guardian.co.uk has a good link page for the stories they've developed researching WikiLeaks leaked documents, and written about the unfolding WikiLeaks story (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-us-embassy-cables+tone/news).

CommonDreams.org on the Iranian Missile threat story: US Media Leaves Iranian Threat Narrative Unquestioned (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/30-6).

Monday 31 May 2010: Guardian UK, "Copenhagen climate failure blamed on 'Danish text' "

WikiLeaks new address: http://213.251.145.96/



mh

A New England down for the count - needs help

I don't usually do this here at FilterBlogs - re-publish the tops of articles researched, written and posted by others elsewhere - I'm not SEO-ing traffic here, I'm just trying to save New England (reference Kirsty MacColl With Billy Bragg), but this is a special occasion.

A "multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack" has shut down Wikileaks starting address. So towards open government, and an open web, I reprint the top of this CommonDreams.org reprint from the BBC...

..and yes, that is the new web address right there at the top of the story. I've changed my bookmark...

"Published on Friday, December 3, 2010 by BBC News

Cyber Attack Forces Wikileaks to Change Web Address

'Free speech has a number: http://88.80.13.160'

Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has been forced to change its web address after the company providing its domain name cut off service.

EveryDNS.net said it had terminated services because Wikileaks.org had come under massive cyber attacks. But Wikileaks has already reappeared using a Swiss web address.
Wikileaks has also used micro-blogging site Twitter to urge its fans to redistribute its "raw" net address so it can be viewed at any time.
This numerical internet protocol (IP) address remains live and accessible even when web domains - the normal "www" addresses used to access most sites - are unavailable.
Experts say it is likely that Wikileaks has done deals with lots of web hosting companies, although many are likely to back away from dealing with the controversial site in the light of recent web attacks.
There is also a published list of mirror sites, which Wikileaks hopes will provide constant access to the site.
Some of these sites have simply copied Wikileaks' content and put it on a different web server, while others are using different domain names to point at the original content.
The more of these sites there are, the more difficult it will be to shut Wikileaks down, security analyst Paul Mutton told the BBC.
In France, the industry minister Eric Besson has called for a ban of Wikileaks on French servers.

One of the mirror sites, Wikileaks.ch, is currently hosted on servers in France.
DowntimeIn a post on Twitter, Wikileaks acknowledged that its domain had been "killed" by EveryDNS.net."

Read the rest...
(http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/03)



mh

National Security State becomes matter of fact - we're left arguing the details

The election of President Obama has done nothing to slow the institutionalization of The National Security State*. In fact, not wanting to appear soft of security the White House may have speeded its triumphant ascendancy.

It's our fault, the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) needs our fear - it feeds on it. On a personal level we must stop being scared of those with less, those squalid squatters who dress in uniforms we don't recognize. Stop staring at the sidewalk, start talking, start helping. It's an old idea - love thy neighbour. This will be the MIC's ultimate undoing. On a political level demand more public resources for social programs, schools, roads. As in the process of getting out of a war, the first step is to withdraw troops, in the process of getting out of The National Security State, the most effective device is to demand spending on caring rather than fear.

The newly installed back-scatter body imaging devices coming to more and more airports in North America, 44 are being placed as we speak at Canadian Airports (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax).They are another example in the ever spiraling spending on National Security that is big business's best weapon against The Liberal Democratic State, which limits they're ability to produce profit. Our tax dollars are being used to scare us into more sending on the military and less spending on our fellow human beings.

***


Bruce Schneier is my go to expert on security issues. He always has an informed and usually unexpected take; and with the propaganda surrounding The National Security State prompted by 9/11 and the rising of the military industrial comple to primacey in American life now in full swing, his take is unfortunately increasingly necessary to remain both informed and sane at the same time.

He calls security aimed at preventing the loss of life through terrorist actions a waste of money, He calls it “security theater”, designed to make the government look good and you feel better about the holocaust they are protecting you from. Schneier says spending on "intelligence, investigations, and emergency response" to terrorist events is money best spent.

You can't stop a lone nut with a bomb in a crowded place, you can only mitigate the effects on society that the horror of a sucessful terrorist action causes. That means you have top notch investigators finding the perpetrators who organized the suicide nutter after the fact, and shut down those networks, after the fact. Our belief in justice is another kind of "security theater", but a much more healthy one than the brand of jack booted military on our streets - like what Israel, for example, has become - this one rather, is based in a belief that perpetrators of evil will be caught and judged and that although there are nutters out there our common love for each other is stronger and will limit their effect at causing general fearfulness in society.

I would add that in a perfect world foreign policy would be geared to support local governments where we do business, and less towards imperial objectives that steal raw materials, impoverish local governments and cause "failed states" which lead to local social in-justices and then to a pool of discontents from which evil doers draw cadre. (Blow-back.)

At the Atlantic Monthly Jeffrey Goldberg has a special understanding of security issues, his experience as a security guard in an Israeli prison (research for a book), and as a frequent flier. In 2008 he wrote a great piece with the help of Bruce Schneier entitled "The Things he Carried".

The sub-header goes,

"Airport security in America is a sham— “security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."

Jeffrey Goldberg:

Nov 14 2010: TSA Opt-Out Day, Now with a Superfantastic New Twist!
Nov 4 2010: American Airlines Pilots in Revolt Against the TSA
Nov 1 2010: 'Are Any Parts of Your Body Sore?'
Oct 29 2010: For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance

***


On Saturday November 13th 2010 'Johnnyedge' - blogger since July of this year - decided to take an fight to be with family. Knowing that the new backscatter scanners were coming to more and more airports, he looked up Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) website and found it said that San Diego hadn't yet received the new technology. Knowing that he would refuse the "porno scan" (a device that basically sees through your clothes) he was worried that refusing the scan might cause him problems, so as soon as be saw the scanners had been installed at San Diego after all, he switched on his cell phones camera and began recording. He doesn't feel comfortable being 'porn scanned' by the backscatter x-ray so he prepared for the "pat down" search. But now he learns from the security guard that the 'opt-out' alternative, the pat down has changed it is now a much more invasive - a full testicular 'fondle', which he also refuses. So that simply means he can't board the airplane, right? End of story right? Off you go - no fly for you.

Nope, not so simple.

After the long "discussion" (interrogation) with the initial TSA security guard, and his supervisor and the supervisor of that supervisor, Johnnyedge was told to leave the airport under escort --- but as he's doing so a plain clothed agent he's never seen before tries to stop him, claiming he must submit to the "porno scan", or the "fondle", before he can not get on an airplane!

Johnnyedge understands his rights and the correct way to frame discussions with authority figures, so he asks if he's being detained. And when the answer comes back, sort of, well no not really ... I'm just trying to help you co-operate with us - Johnnyedge says, "I'm leaving" - thus placing the officer in a situation where either he makes an arrest, or lets him leave.

"We'll sue you, you know" the officer finally retorts.

As he walks away Johnnyedge says "Bring that suit".

Still no word on whether the TSA has the balls to follow through, perhaps the 5,000 comments on the post about this and the hundreds on subsiquent post about it - almost all of which support him - has the TSA thinking it over a little first... .

The law is political - never underestimate a political movements ability to change law. The TSA and the White House are sitting on a powder keg of public outrage on this, and they know it. And what the hell is this lawsuit/fine stuff? Is that actually in the law? That has got to go.

***


Stories of harassment by low paid, badly trained TSA security guards with power lust are abounding around these recent "upgrades" to airport security. (see "For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance") Added to "porn scan" metric is the fact that most (all?) TSA employees don't want to preform these hand searches and because most of them aren't too bright it appears many describe the full-fondle search in such a way that it sounds like they are convincing you to take the back-scatter x-ray, like the hand search is a punishment for being un-cooperative, rather than an option. So now the person who is about to feel your genitals is threatening you. By making the full-feel body search so intrusive at this time the TSA seems to be hoping that people will choose the naked picture and the radiation exposure over the high-school dropout feeling you up. If everyone chose the hand option airline schedules wouldn't be meet, the airlines would complain and the scanners would be removed.

Man at San Diego airport opts out of porno scanner and grope, told he'll be fined $10K unless he submits to fondling
Cory Doctorow at 4:22 PM Saturday, Nov 13, 2010

***


This isn't the first issue that's arisen from these over the top screening procedures that keep on getting more and more intrusive, a fund raiser for Senator Ron Paul's (Independent - extreme libertarian) Campaign for Liberty was recently detained by a TSA employee...

Reason.com article, Detained by TSA:

"In town for a conference, a director of Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty is detained by TSA at the St. Louis airport because when asked to explain why he's carrying $4,700 in cash (it was proceeds from book and ticket sales at the conference), he asks the agents to tell him what law requires him to do so. He managed to surreptitiously record his conversations with TSA officers on a cell phone. The audio is infuriating."

The screenshot shows the embedded Youtube video is no longer up because the account has been "terminated":

"This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement."

The "Reason.com" Youtube Channel is still up - so where at Youtube this video was uploaded remains unknown. Was it Steven Bierfeldt's Youtube channel? If so, the recording is his own property and certainly not the reason the channel has been "terminated". Who complained about copyright infringement - we'll never know. But that link is now dead.

(Note: You don't get a hearing on the "multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement" your account is simply terminated. This is the Millennium Digital Copyright Act (MDCA) in action. It's international version, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), has not been passed into law around the globe yet and secrete meetings - that include only the rich nations of the planet - continue. With-in the MDCA service providers (your cable provider, the internet site, the phone service provider etc..) is required to take down content that rights holders complain is posted with out permission. They are caught between you as a user of the technology, and a lawsuit launched by a corporation with lots of lawyers and deep pockets - thus you lose and you have no recourse to face the accuser.)

This is the first time I've come across a "terminated" account that was directly involved in an unfolding political issue, in my experience these terminations have always involved entertainment copyright violations. This one is particularly scary - it is directly connected to a citizen suing a federal government agency, Steve Bierfeldt and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) versus Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, (which has authority over TSA).


The recording is available at the ALCU site,

Audio Recording of ACLU Client Steve Bierfeldt's Detention and Interrogation by the TSA.

In the tape Steve Bierfeldt repeatedly asks the security personel for advice in the law, "..are you allowed to ask me that question?" he asks, "Am I legally required to answer that?" One security guard takes these questions as double speak, (perhaps he doesn't know the answer) and becomes violent slamming the top of the money box and raising his voice.

***


It should be noted that the officer detaining you doesn't have to act as your council - in fact, why would you ask an officer detaining you to tell you what your rights are? In our adversarial system the person detaining you is the last person you should be asking advice; it's your responsibility to know the law. Steve Bierfeldt finally gets the wording right near the end of the interrogation when he says, "I decline to answer the question." (about his employer and where he got the money).

The only time an officer is required to "read you your rights" is when they arrest you, and a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security guard is not an officer of the law.

Here in Ontario you have to answer some questions put to you by police - like what your name is, your address. You have to produce ID (which you are legally required to have with you), answer where you're coming from, where your going to - and that's about it.

At a Canadian airport the "Canadian Air Transport Security Authority" (CATSA) is our TSA. They're requirements of passengers are almost identical to the TSA framework because Canada is responding to Homeland Security edicts that require carriers and airpot authorities to preform securty proceedures that mirror US law and TSA policy. The responsibilities of CATSA security guards vary from TSA's protocols.

Here's a link to the Canadian Government site, "The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada" that explains your rights and responsibilities at Canadian airports. Nowhere on the page, "Checking In. Your privacy rights at airports and border crossings", is there guidance on a possible interrogation scenario; what questions security guards can ask, what they cannot ask and do. An oversight I assume, and one that should be corrected as soon a possible as the interrogation is where the mot intimate contact happens between passenger and security, and thus is the place where the individuals privacy rights are most likely to be abused.


This is a handy page at the ALCU that goes into some of the American experience on this,

"Know Your Options at the Airport" (updated November 2010)

Specifically this section:

Border Interrogations


Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have the authority to ask your immigration status when you are entering or returning to the United States or leaving the country. They have the power to determine whether or not non-U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents have the right of entry.

Law enforcement officials reportedly ask some people about their political and religious beliefs, where they worship, and how often they pray. The ACLU believes that such questions are inappropriate.

Option: Decline to answer

If you think you are being asked inappropriate questions, you may say, "I am sorry. I believe you are asking me questions about my protected religious and/or political beliefs and practices. I do not wish to answer these questions." This may cause you delay, but is permissible.

Option: Ask to speak to a supervisor

If you think you are being asked inappropriate questions, you can ask to speak to a supervisor--but be aware that this might cause you further delay. Also ask to speak to a supervisor if you are denied the right to use a restroom or to have family or friends told where you are. You may also file a complaint with the Civil Rights Office of the Department of Homeland Security if you have been held for a long time, asked inappropriate questions, or treated inhumanely. See below.


Option: Ask to have an attorney present

If you are selected for a longer interview by law-enforcement officials and you are a U.S. citizen, you have the right to have an attorney present. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you generally do not have the right to an attorney when you are having an extended interview.

Option: Ask for help

If you are delayed a considerable length of time, you can ask CBP officials to allow you to make a call, or make a call for you. At Logan Airport in Boston, MassPort officials have said they can provide help on many problems. You can look for agents with jackets that say "MassPort" on them and ask them for help. Or you can call 1-800-23LOGAN.

* Creating the National Security State: A History of the Law That Transformed America, Douglas T. Stuart, Princeton University Press, 2008)




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