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Friday, December 30, 2011

The American Police State


Here's a link to a new post about the rapid militarization of the police departments throughout the United States. 
Starting with the war on drugs more and more local police departments are now using SWAT teams to carry out what was once routine police work. Since 911, the Department of Homeland Security has funded these departments with high tech military hardware and equipment to combat the threat of terrorism and its effects. The only problem is this equipment is currently being used to suppress peaceful dissent, as we have seen in the recent Occupy Wall street movement.

SOPA in 2012: The Year They Stole the Internet

2012 is shaping up to be "interesting times" for the US and probably for most of Europe. The world will probably not end but there certainly seems to be a lot of controversy on its way. The battle for the Internet is just one example. Here is a two-part post I wrote for another blog about the pending bill called SOPA


SOPA: The Trojan Horse of Censorship 1/2

This first part deals with various Constitutional problems with the bill. The past history of corporations and their lawyer abusing the copyright laws to suppress freedom of the press. And the general hypocrisy of the US administrations, past and present, to lecture other countries about Internet openness while proposing what will amount to a "Great Wall of the USA"

In the second part of this post, we will examine the impossibility of ever implementing SOPA should it become a law. The legal challenges will present a nightmare for the courts, leaving questions whether there can ever be justice in the decisions of the court given the confusion between copying and stealing. We also reveal how the companies which are now attempting to pressure Congress into new draconian legislation against anti-piracy were for more than a decade exclusively responsible for promoting the very software, like Limewire and Kazzaa, used to download.  Is SOPA merely a means to dismantle or at least control the Net? What can citizens do about the threat?
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