THE NATION: Hackers come in many forms, from criminals stealing credit card details to shadowy government organizations attacking enemy nuclear facilities; but today the most prominent and controversial are cyberactivists—or “hacktivists,” as Davis is alleged to be. Loosely affiliated and rapidly expanding, these groups have thousands of members all over the world and names like AntiSec (which stands for “anti-security”) and, most famously, Anonymous. These groups represent a new front in what has been labeled the “global information war”: the growing battle over who controls information in cyberspace. Operating anonymously, mainly via Internet relay chat (IRC) channels, hacktivist groups crash […]
#OCCUPATION: Bloomberg Blinks, Backs Off Eviction
WASHINGTON POST: Despite city officials announcing a planned cleanup of Zuccotti Park had been canceled, some violence bubbled up in lower Manhattan on Friday morning. After the private owners granted the protesters reprieve from an order to leave the park, some protesters chose to march through the streets in celebration. Police asked protesters to stay on the sidewalk, but when they didn’t, a v-formation of police scooters drove through the crowd, running over one National Lawyers Guild observer. CBS Local News station reports that violence broke out after the man went down. Police told CBS that the reaction was prompted by […]
JAZZER: Jeannie Brooks
BY ZIVIT SHLANK JAZZ CORRESPONDENT Vocalist Jeannie Brooks may be the best kept musical secret in Philadelphia. She’s been quietly on the scene singing for almost 30 years. However what pours forth from her voice is anything but; Jeannie’s exultant style exudes a fiery purity that is inspiring. It certainly doesn’t hurt that she also possesses a charming personality and a story full of surprises. A true lover of music, she has no particular allegiances. From jazz to soul to rock and roll, she is truly a complete musician. See for yourself when she and her Quartet perform tonight at […]
SIDEWALKING: Same Lie, Different War
Independence Mall, 10:05 AM by JONATHAN VALANIA
EARLY WORD: Bastards Of The Young
Take a look at the cover art for Divine Providence, Deer Tick’s fourth album in five years. What the hell is going on you ask? Don’t think too much about it. What you see is what you get — there aren’t a whole lot of deep thoughts behind it. Hey, if that’s the way frontman John McCauley sees it, isn’t that the way you should see it, too? It’s merely a collection of cut-and-paste images that ‘just looks kinda cool.’ It grabs your attention, like good album art should. Keep that same mindset when you listen to the record. Don’t think […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Mission Accomplished
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY If you’re tired of reading rants (mine included) decrying our shameful experiments in nation building and capitalism cloning perhaps better known as Iraq and Afghanistan, you might want to exit now. I’ve raged on the subject(s) so many times I really can’t recall just how often it’s been. One thing I can promise those of you who persevere is that I’ll never stop doing so as long as I have the mental and physical capacity to speak, hold a pen, or pound a key pad. The issue is just too important. Brave American men and women are […]
WORTH REPEATING: The First Honest Story About #OccupyPhilly That We Have Seen
INQUIRER: What Hines wants most are answers – and the confidence that one day she would be able to support a family. Hines, the Drexel Hill camper, graduated from high school in June and now works in a pizza parlor, hoping she can get enough financial aid to attend Delaware County Community College. She turns over half her earnings to her family – two working parents, and two brothers, 20 and 13. The 20-year-old was laid off from a job in a lumber yard. Her father, a news junkie, earned a journalism degree in college and drives a truck. Her […]
DETECTIVE: NYC Cops Routinely Planted The Drugs On The People They Arrested For Possessing Drugs
NY DAILY NEWS: A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas. The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup. Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as “flaking,” on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop […]
#OCCUPY: “It Is The Duty Of Youth To Challenge Corruption.” — Kurt Cobain
LAWRENCE LESSIG: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil” — Thoreau, 1846, On Walden — “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root.” There could be no better place to name that root than on Wall Street, New York. For no place in America better symbolizes the sickness that is our government than Wall Street, New York. For it is there that the largest amount of campaign cash of any industry in America was collected; and it was there that that campaign cash was used to buy the policies […]
FEAR & LOATHING: Maple Shade Just Says No To Medical Marijuana, Yes To Life-Giving Tobacco
INQUIRER: The Maple Shade zoning board Wednesday night voted against a proposal to open a medical-marijuana dispensary at an outlet on Route 73. The company seeking to operate the facility, Compassionate Sciences, said it would assess other options. At a meeting attended by about 50 people, the proposal drew tough questioning from the board. Representatives of Compassionate Sciences, one of six nonprofits approved by the state Health Department in March, were asked questions ranging what traffic the store would generate to whether patients would be driving through the town under the influence. “My wife has cancer, so I know what […]
#OCCUPY WALL STREET: Wall St. Salaries Have Risen 11.2% Annually, All Other Salaries Have Risen 1.8%
THINK PROGRESS: Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum re-engineered a chart from the New York State Comptroller’s office showing how, in the last three decades, salaries in New York City’s securities industry have far outstripped those in the city’s other sectors. “Wall Street salaries have risen 11.2% per year, while all other salaries have risen 1.8% per year,” Drum found. In 2010, the average salary for someone in the securities industry was $366,000 while the average private sector salary in another industry was $66,000. MORE MOTHER JONES: Note also that after nearly destroying the world in 2008 and seeing their average salaries […]
CASUS BELLI: Gulf Of Tonkin Redux?
CBS NEWS: The Obama administration was taking its case against Iran to the world Wednesday, trying to stir up an international response to charges that the Islamic republic plotted to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. “It’s critically important that we unite the world in the isolation of and dealing with the Iranians,” Vice President Joe Biden said on “The Early Show” Wednesday. […] The State Department sent a cable to all American embassies and consulates around the world telling them to put the Iran case before their host governments. The officials said the cable, sent late Tuesday […]
REMEMBERING STEVE: Working For The Man
[Illustrations by ALEX FINE] BY MAYA REDWOOD Are you a Mac or a PC? It seems that most folks feel they are one or the other. They either love Apple or they hate it. They believe that Steve Jobs was a god or the devil. Sides must be chosen. Last week when Steve (yes we are on a first name basis though we’ve never met) passed away I shed a few tears because I am NOT a Mac, nor a PC. I’m not a lover nor a hater nor even a believer. I cried for the loss of a life […]