BBC: Images of saffron-robed monks leading throngs of people along the streets of Rangoon have been seeping out of a country famed for its totalitarian regime and repressive control of information. The pictures are sometimes grainy and the video footage shaky — captured at great personal risk on mobile phones — but each represents a powerful statement of political dissent. “It is amazing how the Burmese are able through underground networks to get things from outside and inside,” says Vincent Brussels, head of the Asian section of press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders. “Before, they were moving things hand-to-hand and […]
RIAA Wins $222,000 Downloading Suit Against Mom
In the first lawsuit over file sharing to make it to court, a jury ordered a woman who record labels claimed illegally shared songs to pay the labels $222,000. The lawsuit, filed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the record label lobbying organization, accused Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two, of sharing more than 1,700 songs on the now defunct peer-to-peer file sharing network Kazaa. The suit contended that Thomas violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by distributing songs for free that belonged to the record labels. ABC NEWS: Look Out School For The Blind, Your Next! ARS […]
INFINITE JUSTICE: Spare A Square?
[Click image to activate Internet] BREAKING: Judge Denies GOP Senator Larry Craig’s Motion To Rescind Guilty Plea
NY TIMES: No One Expected The Spanish Inquisition!
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales‘s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization […]
HOT DOCUMENT: I Can See For Miles And Miles
View Si1very’s map Taken in Coronado, California (See more photos here) 32?40′ 34″ N, 117?9′ 28″ W32.676136-117.157767 This Google map satellite pic of a swastika-shaped building on a US Navy base in Coronado, California, has been making its rounds on the internet. According to some sources, the building is part of the training facilities for Navy Seals, and is perhaps their barracks. It’s nicknamed “The Seals Lair.” Apparently, the building was constructed with no intention of promoting the swastika symbol, so it was completely unintentional. I note that for its time period, the design of the building was really optimal […]
Pot-Bellied Cops To Crack Down On Saggy-Assed Pants
EDITOR’S NOTE: Parts of this post first appeared on Phawker on August 14th, 2007 MANSFIELD, LA — “Pull ’em up or pay up.” That’s Police Chief Don English’s interpretation of a new law that took effect in Mansfield on Sept. 15. Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail. Mansfield aldermen voted unanimously at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting to enact the new law. The law makes it illegal to found in a “state of nudity, or […]
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE DIGITIZED: The Video The Burmese Junta Does Not Want The World To See
Shaky amatuer video of pro-Democracy protest in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), at about the five minute mark the soldiers arrive in mass numbers and then the shooting breaks out, the crowd scatters and all is chaos.
HOT DOCUMENT: Bush Eats Kittens, Kicks Puppies
Dear jonathan, You’re not going to believe this — President Bush just vetoed health care for millions of low-income children! I know that’s hard to believe, and I wish I were making it up. But I’m not. Earlier today, President Bush vetoed a bipartisan expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) — a successful program that provides health care to [six] million low-income children. [Bush just vetoed a bill that would have enabled four million more children to join the ranks of the insured] All I can say is, compassionate conservatism indeed. I can’t believe Bush’s nerve, and […]
MONICA: Red Meat For Rotting Vegetables
BY MONICA YANT KINNEY INQUIRER COLUMNIST Dios mio, I’m thinking as Rudy Giuliani graces Geno’s Steaks with his presence the other night.So many young, white college kids hoping the GOP presidential front-runner might accidentally touch them as he moved among the masses. So many Republicans united by disgust over the changing face of America, they don’t notice the enemy playing futbol on a rec center field across the street. As campaign cliches go, it doesn’t get much better than Giuliani dropping by Joey Vento‘s neon palace in South Philly. The Italian American who wants to seal the border, bonding with […]
INSTANT KARMA: We Are With You In Myanmar
THERE is growing concern for hundreds of monks and other protesters detained by the Burmese military regime since it began its crackdown a week ago. Witnesses reported slightly fewer troops on Rangoon’s streets yesterday, but raids on homes by gangs looking for dissident monks and civilians suggested [UN Special Envoy] Gambari’s nascent shuttle diplomacy and international calls for restraint had made little difference. “They are going from apartment to apartment, shaking things inside, threatening the people. You have a climate of terror all over the city,” a Bangkok-based Burma expert said. The UN and regime officials said yesterday that at […]
HE SAID/SHE SAID: We Believe Anita Hill
WASHINGTON — Anita Hill, whose sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas nearly derailed his Supreme Court nomination 16 years ago, said Tuesday she stood by her account of his behavior, disputing Thomas’ assertion in a new book that the charges were politically motivated. “I stand by my testimony” at a 1991 Senate Judiciary hearing on the nomination, Hill wrote in an Op Ed piece in The New York Times. “I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.” She said she believes the workplace environment is better now for women, but added that Thomas’ […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
MESSAGE TO YOU, RUDY: Guiliani outside the House That Joey Vento Built, 8:30ish RELATED: Joey Vento In Bed With Southern Agents Of Intolerance, Oh My! RUDY GOES TO JOEY’S: Click For Slideshow [photos by JONATHAN VALANIA]