Yeh I have been up around with the sniffles all week. Finally today the ol' sinus passages cleared out and I feel good once more. This was an interesting week, as on Monday I met the one and only Dries Buytaert, the guy who invented Drupal back in college. (The Drupal team is at the U of M to do badass User Interface research). That was the same day as the Veto Override of the Transportation bill, which included a ban on privatizing the road systems of Minnesota.

I suspect that the ban may have been related to the work I did exposing the NAFTA Superhighway plan for MN back in December, which apparently got picked up by the DFL Capitol staff. have to follow up on that.

So yeah, today is the first in quite a few days where I don't feel totally gunked or garbled. Not bad for a Friday!!!

In an epic battle, Minnesota Democrats and a small tribe of brave, rebellious, Republicans defeated Governor Pawlenty's perpetually stupid transportation policies, and put forth a really good plan to save this whole metro area from a perpetually crappy future. Toll roads and privatization are banned (with some loopholes), the license tab caps enacted under Ventura have been removed, and a ton of money will get put into transit. MnDOT is also directed to make nice with the feds and develop a complete metro-wide transportation plan.

The metro area gets a huge block of new money, much of which will go right into transit, the first time in ages that anything has come that way.

Meanwhile local areas can vote to enact small sales taxes to cover various projects, which will be handed out by new joint boards. Or something along those lines. While it seems like a big slam of money, there is also a small gasoline tax refund for lower brackets.

Also they have to report the state of all the bridges every year. In all, it is a model bill for a troubled metro area such as ours, and should really catch notice within months. It also couldn't come soon enough: the municipal bond market is all screwed up now, so it is going to be hard to borrow money.

TPaw sheds some crocodile tears for the defeat of his hardline friends. Once again, he gets off the hook!

1.1A bill for an act


1.2 relating to transportation finance; appropriating money for transportation

1.3activities; providing funding for highway maintenance, debt service, and local

1.4roads; appropriating funds for emergency relief related to the I-35W bridge

1.5collapse; establishing a trunk highway bridge improvement program; requiring

1.6a study of value capture to reduce the public costs of large transportation

1.7infrastructure investment; authorizing sale and issuance of bonds; modifying

1.8motor vehicle registration and motor fuel taxes; establishing annual surcharge on

1.9motor fuel taxes; creating a motor fuels tax credit; allocating motor vehicle lease

1.10tax revenues; providing for local transportation sales taxes; modifying county

1.11state-aid highway fund revenue allocation; prohibiting tolling or privatization

1.12of existing transportation facilities; establishing bridge improvement program;

1.13modifying driver's license reinstatement fee provisions; regulating certain transit

1.14funding activities; modifying provisions related to various transportation-related

1.15funds and accounts; establishing a task force; requiring reports;amending

1.16Minnesota Statutes 2006, sections 160.84, subdivision 1; 161.081, subdivision 3;

1.17162.06; 162.07, subdivision 1, by adding subdivisions; 168.013, subdivision 1a;

1.18171.29, subdivision 2; 290.06, by adding a subdivision; 296A.07, subdivision

1.193; 296A.08, subdivision 2; 297A.64, subdivision 2; 297A.815, by adding a

1.20subdivision; 297A.99, subdivision 1; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota

1.21Statutes, chapters 160; 165; 296A; 297A; 398A.

1.22BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

.... huzzah (and there was much rejoicing) ..... TPaw blamed someone else, and all was well in the land.... BE IT ENACTED!

Reuters: Impact of 9/11 terror attacks evident in dreams Feb 19, 2008 10:31am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A comparative analysis of dream images suggests how deeply the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks impacted Americans' emotions, researchers report.

Everyone experienced some sort of trauma, or at least emotional arousal by these events, Dr. Ernest Hartmann told Reuters Health. "We found, surprisingly, even dreams could pick this up," said Hartmann, of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hartmann and colleagues assessed the dreams of 11 men and 33 women living outside of Manhattan when the attacks occurred. The participants, who ranged in age from 22 to 70 years, had been recording their dreams for years, and none had relatives or friends who died in the attacks, the investigators note in the journal Sleep.

According to the results, post-9/11 dreams showed more intense images, which is "very consistent with findings in people who have experienced trauma of various kinds," Hartmann said in a statement. "The idea is that that we all experienced at least some trauma on 9/11."

The dreams after 9/11, however, did not contain more images of airplanes or tall buildings. Actually, none of the recorded dreams involved airplanes flying into towers or anything remotely close to that, even though all subjects had seen these images on TV. Hartmann suggests this is because a dream is a creation, not a replay. Dreams make new connections that integrate new material into existing memory, he said. [more on it]

I am cooped up with a cold. I have very little productive to do right now, it's Saturday and I am fidgety. Therefore it is time to listen to some techno and post links like a good little February recluse.

How the spooks took over the news: In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale, Monday, 11 February 2008

On the morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper's Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the "inner circle" of al-Qa'ida's leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.

The letter argued that al-Qa'ida, which is a Sunni network, should attack the Shia population of Iraq: "It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis."......

...There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a fake – and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.

The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I've spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.

The "Zarqawi letter" which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.

This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of "strategic communications" which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda.

.......Some of this comes from freelance political agitators. It was an Iranian opposition group, for example, which was behind the story that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was jailing people for texting each other jokes about him. And notoriously it was Iraqi exiles who supplied the global media with a dirty stream of disinformation about Saddam Hussein.

But clearly a great deal of this carries the fingerprints of officialdom. The Pentagon has now designated "information operations" as its fifth "core competency" alongside land, sea, air and special forces. Since October 2006, every brigade, division and corps in the US military has had its own "psyop" element producing output for local media. This military activity is linked to the State Department's campaign of "public diplomacy" which includes funding radio stations and news websites. In Britain, the Directorate of Targeting and Information Operations in the Ministry of Defence works with specialists from 15 UK psyops, based at the Defence Intelligence and Security School at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.

I have definitely been on top of the Zarqawi PSYOPS case. K thx.

Here's a spooky tale. There are other aspects to this. In fact, Lockheed Martin is developing a kind of RFID control regime for I-35 as we speak.

An Iraq vet told me that this map reminded him of the Iraq supply line...

This story kind of appears to hinge on Peter Dale Scott, who is an old-school decoder of evil establishment conspiracies: Peter Dale Scott: Poetry and Political Writings and also Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps by PD Scott, Feb 2006

Rule by fear or rule by law? Lewis Seiler,Dan Hamburg Monday, February 4, 2008

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?

Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.

Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in the event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "continuity of government." This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it.

According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.

A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.

What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?

The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law......

Don't say yaz wasn't warned!! Of course Alex Jones on it: Former Congressman Warns Of Martial Law Camps In America.

Windows Vista is a terrible prospect: flag.blackened.net/ati/zine/10thingsIHateAboutVista.txt

This week in peak oil | mnblue not bad!

Economic Crash: teh Latest Lols: Gold is up around $925/ounce now. hah. Business Spectator - Twelve steps to meltdown.

The Alternative Information Center - Economy of the Occupation 10: Cheap Wars - Very important!!

Housing vs. voting.

German Banks crashing!!! Worst Financial Crisis since 1931? German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Buffett Sees Poetic Justice in Banks Woes - New York Times

Cloud EV for all your electric car needs!

For your daily secrets: Cryptome.org of course! Brits shaft their own spies. What's up with undersea internet cables? Spies' Battleground Turns Virtual:

The intelligence community has begun contemplating how to use Second Life and other such communities as platforms for cyber weapons that could be used against terrorists or enemies, intelligence officials said.

Because the Terrorists will get depressed when they get booted, etc. AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops. Old news. (AIPAC on Sourcewatch)

OpenMute looks cool. And so does Mute. Cool stuff about Russian urban design conflict.

The Jericho TV series - season 2: It's trucking along, I hope the show makes it. In next week's episode, a virus epidemic crosses the Mississippi into the western martial-law fragment of the United States, and threatens to kill Jericho unless they can get the vaccine from some evil corporation. Meanwhile the Ravenwood Mercenaries have arrived to abuse the townsfolk yet again.... Watch it online, now the writers are getting paid!

Verizon tells the man to screw off and they won't sniff their customers.

Black Hat : Black Hat Briefings and Training for your hacker needs! LayerOne 2007 - Adam Laurie - RFIDiots explains RFID hacking!

Time for dirty laundry! Obama on Rezko deal: It was a mistake :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

There is some kind of thing getting floated about the Obama/Rashid Khalidi connection. This is goofy stuff, but there is some rightwing stuff along these lines, @ NRO , Commentary (the arch-retreat of grouches). More from Larry Johnson, whom I disagreed with (see comments)

Creepy Princess Di thing: Butler "Did Deal" With Queen To Hide Diana Murder Facts, secret video is located here!

Willie Nelson: I'd Rather Have an Electric Chair Named After Me Than a Toll Road. Willie Nelson Joins the 9/11 Conspiracy!! In a good way. He thought it all looked like bullshit especially WTC7. Tehlols. Willie Nelson Questions 9/11 Official Story On National TV. Willie Nelson questions Sept. 11 on local talk radio show - KVUE. FOXNews.com - Willie Nelson: I Question Official Sept. 11 Story. No More Partying For Willie Nelson : GAC. Nelson: Impeach Bush, "Throw The Bastards Out"

I got linked off this blog i thinks: looks cool: Fierce Planet

More from the life of trolls: We're in your docks, kidnapping your flightmaster - WOW Insider related to this great story: The Great Goon Squad Flightmaster Caper - wired

Welcome to free Kosovo and its American Military Masters! I got linked off a blog in Portugal run by one Antonia Maria Cerveira Pinto O António Maria. Pretty awesome. He was noting how Kosovo is dominated by the U.S., and here is teh gigantic and very geopolitically key Camp Bondsteel.

Breakaway Role Model: Separatist Movements Seek Inspiration in Kosovo - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE. Naturally the Romanian/Hungarian separatists have torches.

Techie Drupal bits: Drupal newsletter for February - recommended for the curious! Drupal Dojo is sweet. Not bad, guys. Integrate w/ Google Apps.

The dumbing of America.

Well that's about it guys. Have a great weekend!

Hey everyone, I caught some important news late Friday afternoon (And I've got a cold right now and nothin' better to do!).

The big news is that the City of St. Paul would take all applications for demonstrations and space in parks on March 3rd. Naturally the City put out the news very late on Friday to keep it off the news radar. There are only a few days to offer some kinds of finalized plans for the permitted use of public space during the Republican National Convention. http://www.stpaul.gov/convention/rncpermits.html
Since the process apparently involves a drawing/lottery, it may be a good idea for many groups of people (bands?) to enter into the lottery system and win space/time in a park.
There was a brief story about it in the Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/15883057.html

Protesting at the RNC? Forms due March 3

St. Paul outlines its process for getting permits for demonstrations or large-group park space during the Republican National Convention.

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: February 22, 2008 - 11:06 PM

Protesters, parkgoers and parade organizers, put March 3 on your calendar.

That's the day permit applications will be accepted for demonstrating or getting park space for groups of 25 or more during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Applications are available now.

The permits would cover the time between Aug. 30 and Sept. 4. The convention will be held Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center. More than 45,000 delegates, members of the news media and protesters are expected.

"We hope to accommodate as many people as logistically possible," said Erin Dady, the city's marketing director and convention planner.

Demonstration applications are available at the city website or at the Police Community Services Office, 1169 Rice St. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Some people want a protest area within sight and sound of the Xcel, and that space hasn't been determined yet, Dady said. "By no means will free speech be limited to one area," she said.

Applications will be reviewed by police and decisions made in a timely manner. More specific guidelines might be forthcoming, Dady said. Approvals could be delayed if more clarification or information is needed.

For more information on the city's rules regarding demonstration permits, go to www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/code/lc366a.html.

Applications to use space, pavilions and boat slips in the city's parks system for parties of 25 or more people are available at the city website and at the Parks and Recreation Permit Office, 1100 Hamline Av.

Parks permit applications will be accepted until 2 p.m. March 3, and a public lottery drawing will happen at 3 p.m. Applications received later will be handled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

A limited number of parks have been held for security reasons or convention activities.

Applications are online at www.stpaul.gov.

********

This was posted on the City of St. Paul website and I think matched the initial press release:

http://www.stpaul.gov/convention/rncpermits.html

Permit applications to use space, pavilions, and boat slips in Saint Paul 's parks system for parties and gatherings of 25 or more people during the Republican National Convention Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 are now available online and from the Saint Paul Parks & Recreation Permit Office, 1100 Hamline Ave. North.

In addition, permit applications for demonstrations during the same period are also available online and through the Saint Paul Police Community Services Office, 1169 Rice Street .

A limited number of Parks have been held for security purposes and convention activities, but the vast majority of Saint Paul Parks are available for permits. The City of Saint Paul Division of Parks and Recreation manages over 160 parks and open spaces, the Como Park Zoo and Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, 41 recreation centers, a 9 hole and three 18 hole golf courses, over 100 miles of trails, indoor and outdoor pools, a public beach, sports and aquatics facilities, and wonderful rental facilities for public and private gatherings.

“Hosting the Republican National Convention gives us an incredible opportunity to showcase the city's world-class parks system to visitors from around the globe,” said Bob Bierscheid, director of Saint Paul Parks & Recreation. “Park space will be in high demand, and we want to make sure that everyone has equal opportunity to access our parks and enjoy themselves during this exciting event.”

Similar to the process in which the city awards permits for park use through a lottery at the beginning of the year, permits during the RNC convention period will be accepted up to 2 p.m. March 3 at the permit office.

A lottery drawing from permit applications will then follow at 3 p.m. The drawing is open to the public and will be broadcast through the city's cable channel soon after the drawing. The permit office will notify people of the status of their application by mail.

Based on park availability, permit applications received after March 3 will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Demonstration permit applications will be accepted starting March 3, at which time applications received through the mail also will be opened. Community Services Office hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Applications will be reviewed and decisions made in a timely manner. However, if there are more questions or clarification is needed, the application approval can be delayed until the information is gathered.

More information on the city's rules regarding demonstration permits can be found in the City Charter and Codes section on the city's Web site at www.stpaul.gov/code . Reference Chapter 366A, which describes the procedures for applications as well as the rules, regulations, and fees.

“The City of Saint Paul is committed to accommodating as many people as logistically possible while ensuring a safe and enjoyable convention for residents and visitors,” said Erin Dady, Saint Paul marketing director. “Hosting a national event of this magnitude takes a lot of coordination from many city departments and outside groups. This permitting process facilitates the necessary planning for a successful event.”

**********

That's all. Thanks for reading through! (hopefully not spam to ya!)

--Dan Feidt - dan.feidt@gmail.com

A total lunar eclipse is going on right now. Not too bad. We must always consider the pull of forces stronger than we realize!

And also, a nod to all the poor sorry fools who thought that the political/astrologer cliques predicting eclipses controlled reality. I never saw that Mel Gibson movie, but I think that was the point of it...

Near-perfect viewing in Minnesota for tonight's lunar eclipse - Star tribune

Always good to take note of those things, way out there....

And for that matter, December 2012's astral events are shortly on their way! How many eclipses until then?! December 21 2012, The official Website for 122112 Information

Exactly.....

So many colors and combinations of apocalypse!!

2012 is the supposed apocalytic end of the Mayan calendar, tho this site claims it doesn't, and something random about crop circles. Nice work, internet. (Naturally they say that the shift in the magnetic field will change our pineal glands - thus giving rise to... cool stuff?)

All right here is a new one. WikiLeaks.org got set up a while ago to offer a WikiPedia-style spot for edgy secret documents to get dumped. And they are getting some press. Now, a Situation has arisen, knocking the main server offline as their CA-based domain registrar folds under legal pressure. Because WikiLeaks was leaking.... suspicious bits about the Cayman Islands fronts of some bank or something. Apparently the UK server, among others, are still fine. Here is the list of mirrors.

Here is a list of Wikileaks Cover Name URL links which worked ok for us in the last few hours:

http://wikileaks.la/
https://secure.wikileaks.la/

http://home.e.co.za/
https://secure.home.e.co.za/

http://joburg.e.co.za/
https://secure.joburg.e.co.za/

http://new.alain.co.za/
https://secure.new.alain.co.za/

http://wikileaks.be/
https://secure.wikileaks.be/

http://stockholm.divx.se/
https://secure.stockholm.divx.se/

http://jwdc.org/
https://secure.jwdc.org/

http://ljsf.org/
https://secure.ljsf.org/

http://freedomsbell.org/
https://secure.freedomsbell.org/

http://freedomspen.org/
https://secure.freedomspen.org/

http://libertypen.org/
https://secure.libertypen.org/

http://sunshinepress.org/
https://secure.sunshinepress.org/

http://new.1.vg/
https://secure.new.1.vg/

http://zurich.base-v.ch/
https://secure.zurich.base-v.ch/

http://bratislava.iypt.sk/
https://secure.bratislava.iypt.sk/

http://new.iypt.sk/
https://secure.new.iypt.sk/

http://wikileaks.org.uk/
https://secure.wikileaks.org.uk/

http://new.ilex.cl/
https://secure.new.ilex.cl/

http://wikileaks.tl/
https://secure.wikileaks.tl/

http://freedomsbell.com/
https://secure.freedomsbell.com/

http://wikileaks.in/
https://secure.wikileaks.in/

http://bucharest.roxi.ro/
https://secure.bucharest.roxi.ro/

http://wikileaks.es/
https://secure.wikileaks.es/

http://wikileaks.ws/
https://secure.wikileaks.ws/

http://riga.ax.lt/
https://secure.riga.ax.lt/

http://special.k.vu/
https://secure.special.k.vu/

http://wikileaks.cx/
https://secure.wikileaks.cx/

http://new.it.cx/
https://secure.new.it.cx/

Some of the Cover Names presumably just re-direct traffic to the now missing www.wikileaks.org and so are effectively not working either i.e.

http://wikileaks.org.au/
https://secure.wikileaks.org.au/

http://wikileaks.de/
https://secure.wikileaks.de/

http://wikileaks.org.nz/
https://secure.wikileaks.org.nz/

Some are more peculiar in that unencrypted URLs either time out or are not working,

However, the corresponding SSL URLs work ok e.g.:

https://secure.smoke.ganja.nl/
https://secure.moskva.orts.ru/

There are some caveats about the secure proxy certificates and whatnot - I.E. what are these 'moskva orts' Russians really up to? [Something quite cool i would bet, anyway]

There is a blog here: WikiLeak.org with more news on that.

http://wikileaks.org.uk/wiki/Wikileaks_survives_censorship%2C_ddos%2C_fire :

Spy Blog: Wikileaks survives a fire, but is under Temporary Restraining Order partial censorship

Link

http://spyblog.org.uk

Country

United Kingdom

Date

2008-02-17

It looks as if the interesting and controversial, Wikileaks website, which promises "anonymous, untraceable, uncensorable" publication of leaked documents from whistleblowers, and which recently published the devastating No2ID Campaign annotated leaked UK National Identity Scheme document , is weathering some technical hitches and legal litigation attacks.

It seems that there has been a fire in an Uninterruptible Power Supply, which took the WikiLeaks web servers offline for much of Saturday, at their Swedish co-location hosting company, PRQ Inet, which has experience of attempts at censorship, through their former hosting of the peer to peer filesharing and political phenomenon, The Pirate Bay.

[editor: shortly before the fire unknown persons launched a 500Mbps distributed denial of service attack. It is not known if or how the attack is related to the other events described in this article].

More seriously and for the longer term, the brand name of WikiLeaks.org is no longer online, due to a Temporary Restraining Order issued by the California Northern District Court in San Francisco, aimed at a Domain Name Registrar, rather than just the actual publishers of controversial material, who happen to be outside of US legal jurisdiction..

See this partial public list of Wikileaks Cover Names for alternative URLs which have not yet been censored.

The plaintiffs in the California case are a Swiss Bank bank - Bank Julius Baer and its associated Cayman Islands tax avoidance subsidiaries, egged on by their expensive Hollywood media celebrity shyster lawyers Lavely & Singer. Julius Baer have been pursuing a Swiss whistleblower, some of whose leaked documents have been allegedly published on WikiLeaks.org. Why this is a problem when the world's financial monitoring and tax authorities appear to have already had access to them, is a mystery.

See Bank Julius Baer vs. Wikileaks

WikiLeakS.org have also had legal threats from ineptitude lawyers Schillings -- who in tried to censor blogs critical of the dubious Russian / Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov] which caused much of the UK political and Arsenal football club fan blogosphere, to rally together in condemnation of the "collateral damage" which was to caused to innocent political bloggers, across the political spectrum.

Schillings are acting against WikiLeaks.org because of their publication of a prospectus to potential rescue investors of the Northern Rock plc bank scandal, something which is now obsolete, but was of massive public interest to all UK taxpayers and investors, and which the mainstream media caved in to after Schillings shyster threats, and an expensive (effectively taxpayer funded) High Court Injunction.

See Northern Rock vs. Wikileaks.

It is interesting that the first threats to this supposedly "uncensorable, anonymous, mass whistleblowing" project, do not come from Government Big Brother authorities, but from the private sector, and from equipment failures at a Single Point of Failure.

As with the Alisher Usmanov affair, the tactics of the media celibrity shysters in the Bank Julius Baer case is to threaten parts of what should be neutral, exempt internet infrastructure companies, with potentially expensive litigation in court rather than just the actaul publishers of the allegedly defamatory or confidential or copyright material.

Even if such companies win in court, the expense of kegal advice is such that it could cost them far more money in legal fees, than they are getting from a cheap domain name registration or webhosting package, so they are tempted to cave in to such shyster demands for censorship.

Only by pointing out the damage to their own brand names and potential profits, as a result of the disgust that most active internet customers feel, when the rich and powerful and their shysters, try to bully individuals or small groups of activists, can this economic threat be counterbalanced.

See the Censorship Threats from Lawyers category archive of blog postings on the WikiLeak.org blog, which comments on the technical, legal and ethical aspects of the WikiLeakS.org project.

The official press release: Drupal 6.0 Released - Bringing Greater Simplicity, Performance And Style To This Open Source Social Publishing Platform and in all languages: Drupal 6.0 released | drupal.org

5 Reasons you should choose Drupal for our Website | Translation Designs

What is the future of Drupal? very important!! see here: From infinite extensibility to infinite interoperability by Dries Buytaert who is the leader of the almightay drupal project:

I want the Drupal community to stay ahead of the competition. I want to start implementing today what proprietary CMS vendors will implement in 2013. From a content management system's point of view, I believe, that means (and I really hate to use the term 'Web 3.0'):

Web 3.0 = Web 2.0 + infinite interoperability

which roughly translates to:

Web 3.0 = Web 2.0 + data portability + web service APIs

While the short-term business opportunity might be to go after the social publishing market, I strongly believe that the long-term business opportunity lies in the infinite interoperability and that spans well beyond the social software market.

Thanks to Open Source software and companies like Google, the cost of building Web 2.0 applications will approach zero. Contrary to what one might think, this actually creates a lot of business opportunities. Opportunities that are best monetized through web services. But for that to happen, ubiquitous and seamless interoperability is key.

And here's How Drupal Will Save The World! Start here if you're confused.

Installing Drupal 6 | drupal.org - a great video introduction from Lullabot!

Drupal 6 Released and Ready to Manage your Content | Raincity Studios these guys have a pretty good summary of what is really going on with D6 and the various stuff going on around Drupal. Nice site design too. In Drupal we Trust | Raincity Studios

Another weekend with Drupal 6 | CMS Report sez it's good!

Modules: HOW ARE THE MODULES DOING for 6.0?? Contributed modules status - version 6.x | groups.drupal.org. It's gonna take a while (mid-March prolly) for key things.

Coming soon: Drupal Modules | Review, Rate, And Search Every Drupal Module

OPENID: This is actually of pivotal importance, for it changes how we think of Internet Identity! Make life easier for users with OpenID for Drupal | greenhughes.com

Tell search engines about new content on your Drupal site | greenhughes.com

Various posts trumpeting the Intro of Drupal 6:

• Drupal 6 released. Drupalistas celebrate! | TrevorTwining.com
• Drupal 6, now more than ever | GarfieldTech
• Drupal 6 Release | Idiotprogrammer
• Shiny Drupal 6 | OpenSpring
• Drupal 6 released! | Wim Leers has a good dev overview
• Drupal 6.0 Released | urlgreyhot is one of the more famed webdev blogs

How to rock theme development: if you haven't seen this, you haven't seen teh Futur of Teh Theme Developments! Theme developer module for Drupal 6 - Screencast

Zen theme 5.x-1.0 released for Drupal 5 and also is functional but Beta in D6, available here. Zen! Zen is a 'blank theme' good for developing on top of. Here's the docs for Zen.

For specific uses: Overriding contact.module, no core hacking required! | TrevorTwining.com

How to Remove Drupal System.css And Other Default CSS Files | Blamcast

Drupal Performance Agency | Tag1 Consulting, Inc. has some very helpful PDFs.

API = All new coolness: Saving Drupal code from database nonsense, Schema API is crucial for Module development and also the Batch API which handles... batching!

The nitty gritty: Drupal Hosting | Theme Garden Theme Garden is interesting but may not be cool with D6?

There will be a good Drupal 6 webcomic system which will let you make individual character pages, storylines and other badass elements. not bad! Webcomic 6.x Battle Plan | groups.drupal.org and it has its own group: Webcomics | groups.drupal.org

Lullabot is pretty sweet. They make good podcasts. For example how CCK works at the database level.

Social networking nibbles: SWiK's got stuff about Drupal. Drupal on Del.icio.us. Drupal for NonProfits is teh interesting!

DrupalDojo is teh r0x0rz.

Removing The Default CSS In Drupal 5 this has been an issue for me at various times, so it's quite a helpful nugget of code! This guy is also putting together something VERY cool and VERY needed: Drupal Modules | Review, Rate, And Search Every Drupal Module

Random site: this D6 supporter is getting more columns via Zen theme: brianpuccio.net | from my point of view

DrupalSites.net is cool but not working right at the moment.

For bored developers looking for useful projects: DROP Drupal Really Open Participation, is a project designed for organizing short-term tasks. which was a spinoff of google-highly-open-participation-drupal - Google Code project.

the google project created the very interesting Safe filter gizmo, lets you users make their own input filters : Flexifilter for D6. comes with a 'wiki' filter as example.

Looks like the News.infoshop.org is rocking Drupal. See their bits on Net War and cyber war.

CSS imagemaps: insane! A List Apart: Articles: CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death

Speed up your Drupal site: YSlow | Dries Buytaert. In the grand roster of 'really key things to read about Drupal' this particular article has achieved extreme fame! Apparently! Improving Drupal's page loading performance | Wim Leers

Tips on speeding up your Drupal sites | 2bits.com, Inc. - Drupal Development, Customization and Consulting

Yahoo shares their own more general tips: Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site

I thought that yelvington.com had some interesting bits, from a guy who appears to be an old school journalist & drupal 6 supporter.

beta testing

See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard too.
--Linus Torvalds- via Detroit Wireless Project

Ok I just saw the first few minutes of this one, but clearly it looks pretty damn cool. Steal This Film: hosted on GoogleVideo:

Steal This Film - Part 1 and the official website: Steal This Film II.

The background seems to change upon reload, conveying "JAWS" and "The Godfather" ... intellectual properties - or disk images. downloadables: Steal This Film II available in many languages!

Documenting the steadfast movement against intellectual property, Part 1 of Steal This Film takes account of the prominent players in the Swedish piracy (copyright infringement) culture: The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån (Piracy Bureau), and The Pirate Party. This includes a critical analysis of the regulatory capture asserted by Hollywood film industry to leverage economic sanctions by the United States government on Sweden through the WTO to pressure Swedish police into conducting an illegal search and seizure for the purpose of disrupting a competitive distribution channel: The Pirate Bay tracker for P2P Internet filesharing with the BitTorrent protocol.

Also i found this very interesting: a blog noted of Second Skin - Feature-length Documentary about Virtual Worlds. Here's the official site: Second Skin - a Pure West Documentary. [And accurately enough, my remark is in the context of someone else noticing it. That's really meta people. And thus, fundamentally boring. {way to go}]

Meanwhile in the Establishment: Google To Be Innovation Provider For GOP Convention. That's here, people.

Nerds will like this: CMS Report's Front Page News | CMS Report
I thought that Mashable.com was exceedingly interesting! Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:BitTorrent Developers Pledge To Subvert Comcast Filters
Politics Online Conference 2008: Focus on Privacy
Social Networking: Risks vs. Rewards
and naturally this site is run by Drupal and will be on Drupal 6: Drupal Version Six Released
Which in turn led me to some new things: Searchles | Home - search plus circles. some kinds of social integration thingy.
Why teach journalism students Dreamweaver? | Martin Stabe I really recommend checking out how the interface of tools, internets and Journalism with a capital J fit together. It's a big deal.
Samsung's See'N'Search set-top TV / Internet box demo video - Engadget
Are Social Networks Responsible for Teen Suicides? | CenterNetworks
Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

check out teh Wired Journalists NING social network thingy!! NING lets you make your own social network sites.
Looking for teh opensource? don't forget good ol freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net. I remember checking freshmeat all the damn time in high school senior year. a good 8 years ago and the site still looks EXACTLY the same. That's quality.
Schools going to Linux save tons of money: Techlearning > > Linux Makes the Grade > November 2007. And I'm sure everyone is really sad to be missing the Vista Experience.
Meanwhile is the Associated Press doomed? Down On The Wire - Forbes.comI saw the good old macalester activist wiki is still being used: Main Page - MPKB
When you need a global wireless network syndicate of networks, you need global.freifunk.net | syndicating the free wireless communities and blogs of the world and where is the news of Minnesota, people? (drupal powered, as is their blog: Freifunkblog | Freie Netzwerke, freies WLAN und freie (Funk-)Netze im deutschsprachigen Raum) and here's another German/English site about techs/Drupal/etc: perspektive 89 | Internationale Perspektive aus Berlin
Local lunatic: Slanderous Kook: I'm a Slander Victim - February 14, 2008
....And that's all for this random yet interesting enough post......

Credit Default Swap Tsunami Approaches and also Turmoil in Munis. This is a huge deal.

A few more random political links: municipal bond auctions fail. Bloomberg on it.

AIG Falls on Concern Losses May Have Been Understated (Update5)

Think tank moron Michael O'Hanlon is all about blowing stuff up right away.

Old school conspiracy video! Hilarious old school John Bircher Larry McDonald tells Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden about the 'New World Order' etc. McDonald was dead within 4 months. Hm. I just thought this particular video is such an artifact of the 1980s, and also how odd Braden is - as he was buddies with Al Haig and CIA's Casey, etc. Funny.

And that, oddly enough, is all.

Hey all, if you're interested, check out deep6.hongpong.com for a new Drupal 6.0 test server, with lots of themes and some modules to doodle around with. Not bad!

I haven't set up good levels of permissions yet, but please send me an email and I will grant most anyone I know admin access on Deep6 for testing purposes.

However I have just filed my first official D6 bug report: Fatal error memory exhausted on Modules admin screen | drupal.org. No idea where that one is coming from.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Well finally the browser crashed, leaving only a tide of very important links in the History panel. These are:

The Telecoms are getting away with Immunity for Crimes. It's all some big-ass farce. Etc. Go to Free Press and sign up, petitions etc available against the newest transgressions. SavetheInternet.com!!!

WiGLE - Wireless Geographic Logging Engine - Plotting WiFi on Maps - fantastic!!

Comics: Tom the Dancing Bug, The Normal Streak

LiveLeak.com - Bagpipes on a Police Budget

When they Come For Ya: "Homegrown Terrorism" Bill ~ News and Opinion Round-Up - Six Hours A Week: Adventures of a Sudden Patriot

On the Microsoft front, run YOUR PATCHES to save YOUR COMPUTER Microsoft's Monthlies.

We had to take a moment for the hacker side and appreciate some quality stories: Linux Kernel 2.6.17 - 2.6.24.1 vmsplice Local Root Exploit and who said there were no expl0its for linux?

SourceForge.net: airpwn and better yet, how the 802.11 wireless internet hack first got run @ Defcon, the mythical hacker conference: Goatse at Defcon -- brought to you by airpwn. l0lz indeed. latest on Defcon: hackers.ath.cx News from defcon 2008-01-31 23:09:36

SPORE MADNESS: If you haven't heard about Spore, which is essentially a combination of all awesome games EVER (from PacMan to PaxImperia, SimPetriDish to Civilization to galactic empires)... It's from the guy that invented SimCity. What more need you know? Spore (video game) - Wikipedia more here: Level Up : Exclusive: Will Wright Gives Level Up the Scoop On Why Spore Is Taking So Long to Get Right--And Why It Will Be Worth the Wait, Part I.

Meanwhile in mysteriously small places: 3D Crystal Grown On a DNA Lattice

Somewhere the hackers are looming, and holding seminars and also a very interesting RSS podcast feed: Black Hat : Black Hat Briefings and Training.

Trouble in Scientology: Jerry Connell Parody of Tom Cruise Scientology Video. Exclusive: The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress. LiveLeak.com - Tom Cruise Scientology Video Uncut

If you watch one video today: YouTube - Scientology's L. Ron Hubbard: Kooky Wacky Crazy Talk

Apparently a bunch of surly hacker kids are out to dismantle the Church of Scientology as it currently exists, with a kind of manifesto that was followed up by pretty serious thumpin' of the CoS websites. However I have not followed the story since then. I think maybe the kids got bored with it? YouTube: Message to Scientology

has been followed up with weird imitator videos. Frankly it could all be satire, but really I don't care. Jerry O'Connell and the hackers are basically on the same side. Scientology has a crazy corporate structure all over it, along with patently weird... alien stuff. Anyway there are also knockoff videos of weirdo bubble hacker children or something: VIDEO: War has just begun. Why not I guess? is it aesthetics or subversion? etc?

Which SuperDelegates are where???? 2008 Democratic Convention Watch: Do Superdelegates vote the same as their constituents? and Superdelegates who haven't endorsed and Superdelegate Endorsement List.

Obama seems to have the nomination tied up, but it's not over? It feels like it's over, I hope so... how do progressives get shafted by delegates? Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair: Lessons for Obama

Grumpiness among people: is Obama a cult of personality? what is charisma plus a political platform? a guy on stage? A Cult of Personality, The Revolution Returns: Obama and the Cult of Personality

Wow Microsoft is horrible: Microsoft sued over Windows Vista marketing and evidence of Wrong Doings: "Vista Capable" scheme was panned at Microsoft.

I am always impressed by the links @ cryptogon.com, top notch!

FBI's Infragard program is some kind of operational network, rapidly expanding in the corporate sector. It's apparent goal is to make a 'counter-terrorist' network out of all infrastructrure and big corporations or something. It is organized by FBI field offices, and could perhaps also be used to data mine the stuff held by the corporations. Or something??! Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business | The Progressive Magazine. More stuff about this is out there...

Judge: NYC can't use secret arguments in case of police surveillance of RNC protesters. Ahh the magic of Discovery.

...... I'm not sure what these links represented, but they are certainly interesting to some degree...

scientology

It did not occur to me that outer space could have a smell, but the Don Pettit of the International Space Station sez its "a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation". sweet. (via /.)

"It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space."

The original SimCity got open-sourced as 'Micropolis'! It's cool how old games get open-sourced (see the Marathon Infinity Aleph One project). And better yet, it got donated to the One Laptop Per Child Project. More @ /. As a true SimCity zealot, I have to say that handing it over to all those kids in the developing world is really quite cool!

UK News: you better shut off your fuckin wireless Internet router because if someone grabs a Sony BMG album, you're on the Big Shit List: Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads - Times Online

Drupal 6.0 released: its a big deal. One guru I know dropped what he was doing at his job and installed that right away on his test server. That's devotion, people. That's one hell of a platform.

The McCain version of the schmaltzy black-and-white Obama rock-n-roll celeb video. john.he.is. [satire, people]

Comcast is really getting tangled up by playing content police and jamming competing video services, the Washington Post noticed:

Marvin Ammori, the general counsel for Free Press, said Comcast's behavior is the second major example of an service provider overstepping its authority in an attempt to quash competition. In March 2005, the FCC fined Madison River Communications for blocking calls by competitor Vonage, which provided free calls over the Internet.

Ammori said that by interfering with video transfers, Comcast is trying to protect its television and On Demand video services.

Among the leading pranks of the corporate behemoth: Using pervasive data mining to jam BitTorrent yet claiming that they are somehow not responsible for the vast levels of piracy on their network. But also, that it's legit to jam legal BitTorrents even though the system is a 'killer app' that will eventually destroy their business model (arbitraging the distribution of content, getting a cut from the generators of the content for the privilege of vending it to the ever-fattening American Consumer). The FCC is getting up in their shit. Etc.

The uber-tech savvy audience at Slashdot points out that if Comcast wants to play traffic cop and stop the Torrents, they should not be legally shielded for creating the crime of transmitting the illegal Torrents in the first place. Thansal sez:

The argument here is this:

ISPs are currently not liable for what illegal things their customers do with the service provided.

One of the reasonings behind this is that they should not be mining traffic enough to know wth is going on. (IANAL, this is a bad explanation)

Comcast says that they SHOULD be mining traffic to shape it and see wth is going on.

Comcast should then be held liable for any illegal activities that they 'know' about because of this monitoring.

[IANAL = I Am Not A Lawyer, tho really that twisted tribe is the most anal.] A ton of smart arguments in here about it.

Also they have been bumping the rate for Internet-only connection to a whopping $65 a month, up from about $50. However, if you yell at them enough when they call to tell you about the bump, it is apparently possible to avoid getting charged. This is what I was told. Comcast is such a disaster.

See FreePress.net for more on the battles of Net Neutrality and Corporate Nonsense. And download Miro, an open source RSS-friendly video player which can also slurp the FLV files out of YouTube, and indeed lets you subscribe to HD-quality BitTorrent powered content 'channels'. This program, Miro, is indeed the Comcast Killer. Shit!

That's all........

Fantastic news for the Internets and everyone!!! The free opensource content management system Drupal 6.0 has finally been released today! It is much-improved upon the Drupal 5.x series. See that link for major features.

I am filching a couple grafs of the announcement to point out the many major websites running Drupal these days:

After one year of development we are ready to release Drupal 6.0 to the world. Thanks to the tireless work of the Drupal community, over 1,600 issues have been resolved during the Drupal 6.0 release cycle. These changes are evident in Drupal 6's major usability improvements, security and maintainability advancements, friendlier installer, and expanded development framework. Further, from bug fix to feature request, these issues follow-through on the Drupal project's continued commitment to deliver flexibility and power to themers and developers.

Today, Drupal powers sites including the homepages of Warner Brothers Records, The New York Observer, Fast Company, and Amnesty International and project sites by SonyBMG, Forbes, Harvard University, and more. Drupal can be used to create personal weblogs (Tim Berners-Lee), deliver podcasts (TWIT.tv), connect online communities (SpreadFireFox.com), form artist collectives (Terminus 1525) or inform the masses (The Onion).........

• http://research.yahoo.com
• http://www.ubuntu.com
• http://popsugar.com
• http://teamsugar.com
• http://usmagazine.com
• http://www.mtv.co.uk
• http://www.psu.com
• http://www.spreadfirefox.com
• http://labs.divx.com
• http://dev.aol.com/
• http://officepranks.forbes.com
• http://www.ozzy.com
• http://www.greenpeace.org.uk
• http://opensource.org
• http://www.playboy.de
• http://flock.com
• http://musicbox.sonybmg.com
• http://discoveryclub.de
• http://community.menshealth.de
• http://theworld.org
• http://appel.nasa.gov