Off With Their Hoods!

As they had promised to do, the Hacktivist group Anonymous has outed thousands of Ku Klux Klan members who hold prominent powerful positions.

The KKK outees include the following U.S. Senators:

Thom Tillis (North Carolina), who also happens to be one of the ringleaders of North Carolina's voter suppression drive;

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Texas);

Johnny Isakson (Georgia);

Dan Coats (Indiana).

And the following mayors are running around like a bunch of hoodless chickens:

Madeline Rogero (Knoxville, TN); Paul D. Fraim (Norfolk, VA); Kent Guinn (Ocala, FL); and Tom Henry (Fort Wayne, IN).

That's all for now.  I'll probably add more names as they come out.  As everyone's favorite Blusterfuck would say:  “This is uuuuuge!!!”


UPDATE:  Apparently, yesterday's mass KKK outing was not done by the “real” Anonymous.  It was a “fake” Anonymous trying to discredit the genuine Hacktivist group Anonymous.  Or something.  November 5th is supposed to be the real deal.  And that makes sense, with November 5th being Guy Fawkes Day and all that.

Stay tuned...

Should Anonymous Reveal the Identity of Homicidal Ferguson Cop?

The online hacktivist group Anonymous says they have the name of the Ferguson, MO police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown.  As you'd expect, the Ferguson police department is claiming Anonymous has the wrong name (what else would they say?).

Should Anonymous release this name to the public, and take a chance on having an innocent person suffer from possible retaliation?  Online hacktivist groups shouldn't act as judge, jury and executioner any more than police officers should.

Then again, why should the name of this Ferguson cop be withheld from the public?  The names of accused criminals — unless they're under 18 — are routinely made public.  Why should an inept trigger-happy police officer be held to a different standard?

And this article — The fiasco in Ferguson shows why you don't give military equipment to cops — makes an excellent point:  The constant refrain about the “militarization of police departments” is NOT accurate.  As the author says:

“The great irony of this story is that the military itself would never behave so crudely. And that is precisely why it is beyond reckless to let a bunch of local cops get their hands on a high-grade military arsenal.”

Exactly.   Military personnel have been trained in conducting precise high-risk operations and in the use of advanced weapons; most local police officers have not.  Giving a high-grade military arsenal to a local police department is like giving a cigarette lighter to a 4-year-old and saying “Here, go play in the barn.”

“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”

The above quote is the twenty-first century’s answer to “let them eat cake.”  Here’s the background:

As part of their ongoing protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the hacktivist group Anonymous has published the personal information of two of the most powerful media titans in the U.S.  That would be Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes, and Sumner M. Redstone of CBS and Viacom.

This is part of Anonymous’ “Operation Hiroshima” — the group’s war on high-ranking politicians and media VIPs who are pushing SOPA and its Senate companion, the Protect IP Act.  As you probably know, these two bills would basically bring the Internet to a grinding halt in order to protect the profits of a few Hollywood and music industry CEOs.

Anyway, about the title of this post:  another one of Operation Hiroshima’s targets was a congressman (not named in the linked article).  One of this congressman’s aides, dumbfounded by the level of public anger and the use of such shocking tactics, actually did say:

“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”

Why indeed.  That’s exactly what I was thinking earlier today as I was driving my Ferrari from an investors’ meeting to the yacht club.  The above quotation reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago:

There was a kid from an incredibly wealthy old-money family.  He had the most sheltered pampered life imaginable.  He was now in his mid twenties, having gone to one expensive prep school after another and obtained several college degrees.  And now he was starting his first job — with an advertising agency.  On his first day at work, his co-workers were coming up with an ad campaign, and they decided to run the commercial on the following Sunday afternoon.  And the sheltered kid said “Sunday afternoon?  But nobody will see the ad on Sunday afternoon.  That’s when everybody’s out playing polo.”

OK, so it’s not the most side-splitting joke you’ve ever heard.  But that line always stuck with me as an example of someone being so sheltered inside a magic bubble that he actually thinks everybody else is equally sheltered and pampered.  And now an unknown aide to an unnamed congressman has shown — once again — that you can’t make this shit up.

Anonymous, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Protect IP Act

Whatever one thinks of Anonymous and other “hacktivist” organizations, they couldn’t pick a nicer target than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Anonymous attempted to hack the U.S. Chamber’s computer systems last May, with mixed results.  Now they’re planning another attack.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce exists mostly as a money launderer, enabling large corporations and wealthy individuals to make huge anonymous political contributions.  Elections and politicians can be purchased without the public even knowing who the purchaser was.

But now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has found another purpose:  lobbying aggressively for the Protect IP Act (also known as the Stopping Online Piracy Act, SOPA).

If you like the idea of people getting fined millions of dollars for downloading music without paying, you’ll love the Protect IP Act.  Using the smokescreen of “stopping online piracy,” the Protect IP Act would give the U.S. government sweeping unprecedented powers for censoring the Internet.

So which is it?  Does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce want a tiny bathtub-size government that lets the Free Market run wild, or do they want a gigantic Orwellian Big Brother controlling everything we do online?

Here’s Anonymous’ description of the Protect IP Act:

“This bill would allow the United States Government to force ISP’s and search engines to censor websites they do not like under the guise of ‘copyright protection.’  Instead of reducing piracy, this bill endangers the free flow of information. Through Domain seizures, ISP blockades, search engine censorship, and the restriction of funding to accused websites, this bill takes Internet censorship to a new level…

“The Internet is a place where anyone and everyone can come together freely to share information and opinions.  The freedom the Internet provides has served us well, and driven our intellectual progress, sparked revolutions and changed the lives of many, all of which has been accomplished without the interference of corporations, governments, or any other global institutions until now.”

Aside from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the only other group that favors the Protect IP Act is the entertainment industry — i.e. those Hollywood Elitists that conservatives are always ranting about.

Wanted: Dead or Alive…

An anonymous “donor” has just spent $250,000 to purchase next week’s election in Maine.  Ironically enough, the election issue has to do with voting rights.  As usual, Democrats want people to vote.  Republicans don’t — unless you’re a wealthy property owner who can show the proper receipts for Learjet payments and yacht club dues.

Maine’s Republican legislature and teabagging governor passed one of those cookie-cutter Koch-ordered voter restriction laws (LD 1376).  Voters reacted by collecting more than enough signatures to put Question 1 on the ballot.  Question 1, if passed — i.e. vote Yes on 1 — will repeal Maine’s teatard voter restriction law.

And now at the last minute, some rock-dwelling troglodyte has snuck out of its hole, made a secret $250,000 contribution to the No on 1 campaign, and then quickly slithered back under its rock.

This is the exact kind of shit that needs to be stopped dead.  People can argue ‘til the cows come home whether campaign finance restrictions are necessary to level the playing field, or whether they restrict individual freedom.  But there’s absolutely no valid argument in favor of secret donations.  If somebody uses his/her wealth to steal an election out from under the American people, the public has a right to know the identity of the offending douchebag.

Hopefully Anonymous or some other “hactivist” organization will do the necessary hacking, and smoke out this cocksucker.  The public wants to know who it is and where it lives.