IFPI’s child porn strategy

”Child pornography is great,” the speaker at the podium declared enthusiastically. ”It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites”.

The venue was a seminar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm on May 27, 2007, under the title ”Sweden — A Safe Haven for Pirates?”. The speaker was Johan Schlüter from the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, a lobby organization for the music and film industry associations, like IFPI and others.

I was there together with two other pirates, Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge, and veteran Internet activist Oscar Swartz. Oscar wrote a column about the seminar in Computer Sweden just after it had happened. Rick blogged about it later, and so did I. (All links in Swedish.)

”One day we will have a giant filter that we develop in close cooperation with IFPI and MPA. We continuously monitor the child porn on the net, to show the politicians that filtering works. Child porn is an issue they understand,” Johan Schlüter said with a grin, his whole being radiating pride and enthusiasm from the podium.

And seen from the perspective of IFPI and the rest of the copyright lobby, he of course had every reason to feel both proud and enthusiastic, after the success he had had with this strategy in Denmark.

Today, the file sharing site The Pirate Bay is blocked by all major Internet service providers in Denmark. The strategy explained by Mr. Schlüter worked like clockwork.

Start with child porn, which everybody agrees is revolting, and find some politicians who want to appear like they are doing something. Never mind that the blocking as such is ridiculously easy to circumvent in less than 10 seconds. The purpose at this stage is only to get the politicians and the general public to accept the principle that censorship in the form of ”filters” is okay. Once that principle has been established, it is easy to extend it to other areas, such as illegal file sharing. And once censorship of the Internet has been accepted in principle, they can start looking at ways to make it more technically difficult to circumvent.

In Sweden, the copyright lobby tried exactly the same tactic a couple of months after the seminar where Johan Schlüter had been speaking. In July 2007, the Swedish police was planning to add The Pirate Bay to the Swedish list of alleged child pornography sites, that are blocked by most major Swedish ISPs.

The police made no attempt whatsoever at contacting anybody from The Pirate Bay, which they of course should have done if they had actually found any links to illegal pictures of sexual child abuse. The plan was to just censor the site, and at the same time create a guilt-by-association link between file sharing and child porn.

In the Swedish case, the plan backfired when the updated censorship list leaked before it was put into effect. After an uproar in the bloggosphere, the Swedish police was eventually forced to back down from the claim that they had found illegal child abuse pictures, or had any other legal basis for censoring the file sharing site. Unlike in Denmark, The Pirate Bay is not censored in Sweden today.

But the copyright lobby never gives up. If they are unable to get what they want on the national level, they will try through the EU, and vice versa.
The big film and record companies want censorship of the net, and they are perfectly willing to cynically use child porn as an excuse to get it. All they needed was a politician who was prepared to do their bidding, without spending too much effort on checking facts, or reflecting on the wisdom of introducing censorship on the net.

Unfortunately they found one in the newly appointed Swedish EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström. In March 2010 she presented an EU directive to introduce filtering of the net, exactly along to the lines that Johan Schlüter was advocating in his speech at the seminar in 2007.

I assume that commissioner Malmströms’s motives are honourable, and that she genuinely believes she is doing something good that will prevent sexual child abuse. But sweeping a problem under the carpet, or hiding it behind filters, can never be the proper solution. If there actually are sites distributing pictures of sexual child abuse openly on the net, the sites should be shut down and the people behind them should be put in prison (after a proper trial).

But Cecilia Malmström's Internet censorship directive will have no effect at all on sexual child abuse in the world. All she will have achieved if she is successful with this directive, will be to legitimize the principle of Internet censorship in Europe, just like the copyright lobby wanted her to.

It would be very sad if she succeeds.

from the webpage of Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament for Piratpartiet, Sweden (the Swedish Pirate Party)

(And of course this is exactly the strategy employed by Stephen Conroy and the Labor Party here in Australia regarding their imminent net filter! - Mona)

The financial industry is "supposed to serve our economy, not become our economy."

Well, now that the money has all moved out of the USA and is enjoying tropical weather at offshore accounts, America's middle class is stuck with the overdrafts. 20/20 hindsight can be a painful thing.

"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S. Wise has spoken in 48 states, on over 400 college campuses, and to community groups around the nation. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has trained physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care. His latest book is called Between Barack and a Hard Place.
 

 Sara and Brian Brandsmeier @'Ephphatha Poetry' 

Andrew Sullivan's myopia is becoming embarrasing

The Daily Dish just posted this: "Been Heckled By A Couple Of Smack Heads In A Stairwell :-("

27 Apr 2010 10:14 am

And other things you really shouldn't tweet when you're the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons and running for office.'

If you follow the link there is also this paragraph in the same Telegraph article...

"1526 The Tory party has just announced that Philip Lardner, its candidate for the North Ayrshire and Arran constituency, has been suspended for making "deeply offensive and unacceptable" comments about homosexuality. According to the Pink News website, the words appeared on his personal website but were removed this afternoon. Here's what he wrote:
"I will always support the rights of homosexuals to be treated within concepts of (common-sense) equality and respect, and defend their rights to choose to live the way they want in private, but I will not accept that their behaviour is 'normal' or encourage children to indulge in it.
"The promotion of homosexuality by public bodies (as per 'clause 28′/section 2a in Scotland,) was correctly outlawed by Mrs Thatcher's government. Toleration and understanding is one thing, but state-promotion of homosexuality is quite another.
"Why should Christian churches be forced by the government to employ homosexuals as 'ministers' against all that the Bible teaches? They are being forced by the government to betray their mission – would the Equality and Human Rights Commission be fined for refusing a job to Nick Griffin?
"Christians (and most of the population) believe homosexuality to be somewhere between 'unfortunate' and simply 'wrong' and they should not be penalised for politely saying so – good manners count too, of course.
"The current 'law' is wrong and must be overturned in the interests of freedom as well as Christian values."

I do feel that it is very strange that someone who stands up for gay rights in so many of his posts should choose to ignore this showing of the real thinking in the current Conservative party and while I understand that the person in question was suspended, why do I feel that it would be begrudgingly.

I had to send him an e/mail with the quoted text above followed by:

"...and yet no comment from yourself.
Very strange Andrew, your myopia is becoming a little embarrassing!
Regards/"

The Who's Who Racket

So, I get this email today:
Tom,

It is my honor to inform you that as of April 27, 2010 you are being considered for
inclusion in our forethcoming edition of the 2010 directory representing
the WHO'S WHO of Worldclass Professionals.

Our alliance is recognized by talented individuals who hold knowledge and experience in a particular industry, demonstrate a commitment to excellence, and seek career advancement or enhancement.

On behalf of the CEO and our esteemed staff, we wish you continued success.


How exciting, huh? Well I've been down this road before. These companies are basically a racket. You're buttered up with the prestige of such an honor and asked to proof the directory information about yourself. Once that's done, for the low, low price of $69.95 (plus S&H of course) you can buy a copy of this prestigious book. So WHO else is reading it besides the folks printed inside? I'm thinking nobody.

DJ Stingray interview at The Wire

HERE

A teabagger wants to shut VA hospitals as they are 'socializd' medicine too...

RGB wallpaper by Carnovsky

 Cool or what...

These RGB wallpapers by Carnovsky, which debuted at Milan Design Week, consist of three separate patterns printed over each other. By shining red, green, or blue light on them, you can isolate and hide the different images. 

@'Lost at E Minor'

At least they are honest!

UK Daily Star pulled from airports over volcano ash splash

Today's Daily Star splash headline. The accompanying picture is taken from a TV reconstruction of an incident 28 years ago. Click for full front page

Copies of today's Daily Star have been removed from airport newsagent shelves today over fears that its splash, headlined "Terror as plane hits ash cloud" with an image of a 747 with engines ablaze, could cause panic among travellers.

Richard Desmond's red top was removed from shops at Gatwick and Manchester airports after today's edition was published, with a front-page story claiming to feature "dramatic pictures as jets get OK to defy volcano".

However, the image used in the splash was taken from a TV reconstruction of an incident 28 years ago in which a BA 747's engines were knocked out by a volcanic ash cloud. The documentary, previously broadcast on the National Geographic channel, is to be shown on Channel Five tonight.

Gatwick airport's director of communications, Andrew McCallum, said: "We thought it was inappropriate at this point in time after six days of disruption and as people were anxious to get to their holiday destination or to return home to have these sort of computer-generated images on the front page.

"We had a discussion with other airports having seen the Daily Star's front page today and decided to remove it. It was in our view not appropriate."

Gatwick bosses also asked a Daily Star reporter and photographer to leave the premises today. The airport said it was unrelated to the paper's front-page story and was part of its management of media coverage of the travel disruption story.

The Star story, which featured four images from the documentary, described how a "stricken British Airways jumbo jet is engulfed by 'flames' after flying into a deadly cloud of volcanic ash".

"The dramatic pictures show the horrifying reason why flights were grounded for five days. The images are part of a gripping TV reconstruction tonight of a near disaster when BA Flight 009 flew into volcanic dust in 1982," the story continued.

"Last night the TV show's images were given a new relevance. Planes finally got the go-ahead to fly into ALL of Britain's airports from 10pm last night, despite the ash still being present."

A source at Gatwick airport said the story was "outrageous and irresponsible" as the ban on flights was lifted after the volcanic ash cloud was no longer judged to be a danger to air travel.

"There was no explanation on the front that this was a TV mock-up of an incident from 1982," added the source.

"Anyone who saw that front page would have naturally assumed these were images from a flight that had gone thrown a volcanic cloud after the restrictions were lifted last night. It was clearly designed to sell papers by inducing panic which is the last thing any of us need right now."

Russell Craig, head of communications for Manchester Airport, said the Daily Star splash had the potential to cause "absolute panic" among passengers and said the airport was considering a permanent ban on the paper.

"We felt that having spent an awfully long time in this airport over the last six days with some very frightened people, publishing something like that whether intentional or not would cause absolute panic among our passengers," he said.

"We didn't feel it was appropriate to have that on display in an airport full of people who were very happy that they were able to fly again.

"We have had so much negative feedback from passengers that we are considering whether the Daily Star will remain off the shelves on a permanent basis."

The Daily Star had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

@'The Guardian'

(Maybe Mick Jogger had it pulled so people wouldn't read about the size of his dick LOL!)

One of Sir Michael Phillip Jogger's ex girlfriends says:

“He has the smallest penis alive. He’s a nasty little Sir Mick, with a little dick. It is very little."

The Black Dog - Remixes and Remixed (DJ Set)

    

This is an hour long set The Black Dog did at an afterparty after a gig, it mainly focuses on tracks they've remixed or had remixed for them.

Download at Soundcloud 
More
HERE

‘Woefully Underconceptualised’: Rick McGrath on J.G. Ballard’s Cover Art

'Venus Smiles’: one of five Ballardian ‘ads’ published in Ambit magazine (designer: J.G. Ballard; Ambit, #46, Winter 1970/71)

The incomparable Dali; a very successful union (artist: Salvador Dali; Jonathan Cape, London, 1970)

LEFT: A Mike Foreman illustration for Doubleday’s edition of The Atrocity Exhibition (Doubleday, NY, 1970)

RIGHT: A Phoebe Gloeckner illustration for the RE/Search reprint (RE/Search, San Francisco, 1990)

@'Ballardian'

jesus wept

@'Poorly Dressed'

Happy 70th Birthday Giorgio Moroder (for yesterday!)

  Giorgio Moroder

'Chase'

HERE

(Thanx to 'Moggieboy' for the upload!)

Kate's Party gatecrashed by 60,000 Facebook users

A screen grab from the original Kate's Party Facebook event.

Notorious party boy Corey Worthington appeared to have met his match after more than 60,000 Facebook users invited themselves to fellow Australian Kate Miller's birthday party.

But the joke may in fact be on the gatecrashers as the entire meme - and Miller herself - has now been revealed to be the brainchild of Adelaide-based serial online prankster David Thorne.

The web kicked into gear after learning of the Facebook event "Kate's Birthday Party", which was billed as a small gathering of friends in an apartment but, crucially, the event was not closed, so anyone could invite new attendees.

David Thorne.

The Facebook page for the May 1 event was created on Saturday and garnered 5000 attendees in 10 minutes, growing to 60,000 overnight. By the time the group was shut down by Facebook there were a further 180,000 people who had been invited but not yet confirmed.

Over 500 related Facebook groups sprung up around the party, such as "Who needs a ride to Kate's party", "Which turban should I wear to Kate's", "I hope there's more than one toilet in kate's apartment", "I have enough cheese & crackers for 8 ppl, do you think that's enough for Kates", "Flight QF785 to Kates Party", "Kate's afterparty" and "It's actually a surprise party don't tell kate!!".

The description for the original event was quickly altered as its popularity grew: "WTF?????????? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? WHY ARE THERE 10000 PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN INVITED?????? THIS IS A PRIVATE PARTY AT OUR APARTMENT."

There's now an entire website, KatesParty.com, and a Twitter feed, with people sending in "fanpics" of themselves holding up posters saying "I'm Going to Kate's Party".

The original event page has now been removed from Facebook but several unofficial Kate's Party events are being planned in Australian capital cities for Saturday.

Of course, as with any popular internet meme, there's also a t-shirt on sale emblazoned with the fake photo of Kate used on the Facebook event and the words "I went to Kates Party".

Thorne, who runs the highly popular prankster site 27bslash6.com, came clean when contacted by this website today, saying he constructed the Facebook event as "a bit of pointless fun" to entertain people over the weekend.

Word of the fake party first began to spread virally after Thorne published a link to the event on his Twitter page. "Yay. Kate's having a party in her small apartment. Hit attending & give the host an aneurysm," Thorne's tweet read.

"It took me five minutes to set it up so it would entertain a few people over the weekend," said Thorne.

"I didn't expect there to be 500+ Facebook groups about it and there's also a website called katesparty.com, and they've organised a nationwide party starting at 6pm [on Saturday] in every state."

Thorne said he was impressed with how quickly Facebook acted to shut the event down.

"Usually when stuff goes awry on Facebook it takes them several days to do anything about it, so I think it shows that they're stepping up to the plate," he said.

Thorne's hilarious pranks have entertained internet users for years and he has recently collated the best of them in a new book, The Internet is a Playground.

While the entire birthday party event was a hoax, it illustrates the risks posed by failing to double-check privacy settings on Facebook. Many have found out the hard way by winding up on failbook.com.

Julian Cole, digital strategist at The Conscience Organisation, said the Kates Party meme illustrated how users were becoming more adept at using the platform and creating viral web hits.

Cole himself believed the event was a real party until he was informed it was a prank by this website.

"[But] for users who don't have such a great understanding of the platform they can sometimes fall into these traps where this could happen ... it's very Corey Worthington-esque - I'm sure that this happens a lot," said Cole.

Asher Moses @'The Age'

 See you at Fed Square Mayday 6PM
(Thanx Leisa!)

Cock/Kunst

Facebook privacy hole 'lets you see where strangers plan to go'

Facebook: released new Graph API last Friday. Photograph: Linda Nylind

Facebook's new system for connecting together the web seems to have a serious privacy hole, a web developer has discovered.

Some people report that they are able to see the public "events" that Facebook users have said they will attend – even if they person is not a "friend" on the social network.

The discovery was made by Ka-Ping Yee, a software engineer for the charitable arm of Google, who was trying out the search query system known as the "Graph API" released by Facebook last Friday. In some cases – though not all – it will let you see the public events that people have said they will attend, or have attended.

Yee demonstrated the flaw by showing how the API – which plugs directly into Facebook's databases – can show you a list of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's planned public events.

Yee says that he was very disturbed by the discovery – because there seemed to be no way to prevent the events from appearing on the API, which is publicly accessible, except by saying you were "not attending" an event.

"It seemed that anyone could get this list. Today, I spent a while checking to make sure I wasn't crazy," he wrote on his blog. "I didn't opt in for this. I even tried setting all my privacy settings for maximum privacy. But Facebook is still exposing the list of events I've attended, and maybe your event."

The discovery will intensify the debate over Facebook's new system – which has drawn complaints that it makes it far too difficult to keep personal information private.

The implications of being able to find out the movements of any of the 400m people on Facebook are potentially wide-ranging – although the flaw does not seem to apply to every user, or every event. Yee says that the simplest way to prevent your name appearing in such lists is to put "not attending" against any event you are invited to.

"This kind of event list is not even accessible to your friends on Facebook," noted Yee. "As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn this off with your own privacy settings."

The problem mirrors that which Google ran into when it created its new Buzz systems, which aimed to create a Twitter-like social network – but annoyed people because it assumed that anyone with whom you had exchanged email would want to be part of your network. But the example of a wife who wanted to stay away from her abusive husband – but with whom she had once swapped an email – showed that Buzz had a flawed approach to privacy.

Similarly the Facebook API system may turn out to be crucially flawed. "What can your event list say about you? Quite a bit," wrote Yee. "It might reveal your home address, your friends' home addresses, the names and groups of people you associate with, your hobbies, or your political or religious activities, for example. "

However some people who have tried Yee's method of accessing the site were not able to repeat widespread invasion of privacy – though Zuckerberg's calendar was discoverable by everyone. The accessibility seemed to be semi-random: despite Yee's best efforts, a list of events still shows up for him.

Although the system only reveals data about "open" events – which by definition are public already – the new system changes the game radically. "There's a big difference between publishing an event page with a list of people attending, and publishing a list of events that you attended. Before last Wednesday, to find out which events you attended, I'd have to visit every single event page on Facebook and look for your name among the people attending. Now, I can just ask the API what you've been doing, and it will tell me. This kind of event list is not even accessible to your friends on the Facebook website; I haven't found any page at http://facebook.com/ that lets me list a friend's events. The API provides this list to anyone, so this is newly exposed information."

Charles Arthur @'The Guardian'

DJ Premier talks about his last meeting with Guru

With questions still remaining over details surrounding the death and final wishes of late rapper Guru last week, his former GangStarr parter DJ Premier has been discussing the final time he saw him.

As previously reported, immediately after Guru's death last Monday, his most recent producer Solar issued a statement and a letter purporting to be the rapper's final wishes, which included the desire for Solar to bring up his son KC and run his charitable organisation, and a particularly vitriolic rant against DJ Premier. However, the rapper's family say that they were not aware of any such charity being in operation, and claim that Guru had been in a coma since suffering a heart attack in February, so could not have written, or even dictated, the letter. Nor could he have issued the statement released via Solar in March assuring fans that he was recovering well.

Speaking on his Sirius Hip Hop Nation radio show, Premier recalled visiting his former collaborator in hospital once the rapper had slipped into a coma earlier this year. He recalled: "When I saw Guru it really fucked me up. I wore a GangStarr shirt first of all; just for the energy and so he knew that that's forever with us. And that includes everyone that came before me; I know every one of them... It was so ill [because] of what I was hearing of him waking up, writing, and tweeting and all that stuff. There was no way. He looked so gone".

He added that the rapper looked extremely dishevelled and, although you'd think that would be the responsibility of hospital staff, questioned how much care Solar had actually be providing: "If you love him, and you're taking care of him, why the fuck did his nails look longer than a fucking ruler? [And] a clump Afro? I've taken care of people in the hospital [before]. You can wash their hair and clean their nails off. His feet were swollen and his toenails were really disgusting... I took the logo on my shirt and rubbed it against his whole body and told him a message from me about how much I loved him, and that we were for live and still were for life. Then I kissed him on his face and let him know that I was going to miss him because it seemed like he was already gone"

@'CMU'

Don't forget to grab DJ Premier's wonderful Guru mix

HERE

Magazine - Later with Jools Holland 16.10.2009

 

(Barry Adamson looks magnificent...

Thanx Stan!)

Clement Blair Peach 

(25 March 1946 – 23 April 1979)

"...When called for an identity parade some (SPG) officers grew facial hair whilst others shaved off their beards. Uniforms were dry cleaned before forensic tests could be done."

What can you say?

BP profits more than double to $5.6bn for the first quarter!!!

Blair Peach - Not Forgotten

Although investigators believed police killed Peach, they said there was "insufficient evidence" to bring charges over his death. 2 minutes ago via web
SPG officers lied to seniors during Blair Peach inquiry. The Met wanted them prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. None were. 3 minutes ago via web 
Blair Peach report says he was “almost certainly” killed by a Special Patrol Group officer from carrier U.11. 4 minutes ago via web
Blair Peach report: “it can reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow”. 4 minutes ago via web
http://twitter.com/paul__lewis  

 Blair Peach killed by police at 1979 protest, Met report finds

New Zealand-born Blair Peach died after a blow to the head during a demonstration in Southall, London, against the National Front in April 1979. Photograph: Public Domain

The anti-fascist protester Blair Peach was almost certainly killed by police at a demonstration in 1979, according to a secret report released today.

Documents published on the Metropolitan police's website shed new light on the death of Peach, a 33-year-old teacher from New Zealand, whose death marked one of the most controversial events in modern policing history.

A campaigner against the far right, Peach died from a blow to the head during a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, west London.

A crucial report into the death, which Peach's family have campaigned to see for more than 30 years, was finally released today. It said it could "reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow". A police van carrying six officers was identified as having been at the scene when the fatal blow was struck.

The 130-page report was produced by Commander John Cass, who ran the Met's internal complaints bureau and led the investigation into Peach's death. It reveals:

• Peach was almost certain to have been killed by an officer from its elite riot squad, known as the Special Patrol Group (SPG). A number of witnesses said they saw him being struck by a police officer, and the report found "there is no evidence to show he received the injury to the side of his head in any other way";

• despite concluding Peach was killed by a police officer, Cass said there was "insufficient evidence" to charge any officer over the death, a decision echoed by the director of public prosecutions, to whom his report was delivered. An inquest into the death later returned a verdict of "death by misadventure";

• suspicions centred on the SPG carrier U.11, the first vehicle to arrive on Beechcroft Avenue, the street where Peach was found staggering around and concussed. Cass said there was an "indication" that one officer in particular, who first emerged from the carrier but whose name has been redacted from the report, was responsible;

• the criminal investigation into Peach's death was hampered by SPG officers, who Cass concluded had lied to him to cover up the actions of their colleagues. He "strongly recommended" that three officers should be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, giving detailed evidence to show how they were engaged in a "deliberate attempt to conceal the presence of the carrier at the scene at that time". None were ever charged;

• from the outset, the Cass investigation appeared unlikely to find an officer guilty. He defined Peach as a member of a "rebellious crowd" in his terms of reference, adding: "Without condoning the death I refer to Archbold 38th edition para 2528: 'In case of riot or rebellious assembly the officers endeavouring to disperse the riot are justified in killing them at common law if the riot cannot otherwise be suppressed'."

Along with the Cass report, the Met has released more than 3,000 pages of supporting forensics documents, witness statements, interviews with officers and legal analysis.

They include all the detailed evidence gathered by police in the weeks and months after Peach was killed. The nature of his injuries led at least one pathologist to conclude Peach's skull was crushed with an unauthorised weapon, such as a lead-weighted cosh or police radio.

It was already known that when Cass raided lockers at the SPG headquarters he uncovered a stash of unauthorised weapons, including illegal truncheons, knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3ft wooden stave and a lead-weighted leather stick.

One officer was caught trying to hide a metal cosh, although it was not the weapon that killed Peach. Another officer was found with a collection of Nazi regalia.

In his report, Cass said the arsenal of weapons caused him "grave concern", but claimed there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the officers involved.

A total of 14 witnesses told investigators they saw "a police officer hit the deceased on the head" but, according to Cass, there were discrepancies in their evidence and most could not identify the officer.

The Met has resisted publishing any material relating to the death of Peach for almost 30 years.

That decision was reversed last year after an investigation by the Guardian into the parallels between events surrounding Peach's death in April 1979 and the death of Ian Tomlinson, a 47-year-old newspaper vendor who died during last year's G20 protests in London.

The Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, intervened to support the release of the report after Tomlinson's death.

Peach's long-term partner, Celia Stubbs, said she was "relieved" to see the report after so long. Along with other relatives of Peach, and the officers named in the report, she first received the documents on Friday.

"This report totally vindicates what we have always believed – that Blair was killed by one of six officers from Unit 1 of the Special Patrol Group whose names have been in the public domain over all these years," she said.

Her lawyer, Raju Bhatt, said he was still examining the documents, but his initial reading indicated Cass had tried but struggled to "undermine" evidence, suggesting one of his officers killed Peach.

"What I read in this report is a senior investigating officer desperately trying to explain away this death, but despite himself, he is driven by the weight of the evidence to conclude that the death was caused by one of his officers," he said.

Names of officers and witnesses are blanked out of the report, but their identities can easily be established from published material, including several unofficial reports into Peach's death and transcripts from his inquest, where several officers gave evidence.

Bhatt said friends of Peach would gather outside Scotland Yard today, and read out the names of the six suspected officers inside the SPG carrier U.11.

The names include five officers serving under Alan Murray, the SPG inspector in charge of the carrier. Aged 29 at the time at the time of the death, Murray resigned from the Met in anger at what he believed was an unfair inquiry by Cass.

Last night Murray, who is now a lecturer in corporate social responsibility at Sheffield University, declined to comment on the Cass report, saying he had not been given time to digest its findings.

Deborah Coles, co-director of Inquest, an organisation that was set up in 1981 partly in response to Peach's death and provides advice on contentious deaths, called on the Met commissioner to concede that the force was responsible for Peach's death.

"The whole police investigation into what happened on 23 April 1979 was clearly designed as an exercise in managing the fallout from the events of that iconic day in Southall, to exonerate police violence in the face of legitimate public protest," she said. "The echoes of that exercise sound across the decades to the events of the G20 protest and the death of Ian Tomlinson in 2009."

Paul Lewis @'The Guardian' 

I was there at the protest against the Naional Front that day in Southall and witnessed a lot of police brutality...another time at a Rock Against Racism march I saw a NF sticker on the inside of a police car windscreen!

You have to be fugn kidding me...

"...Our message is this: if you care about our liberties, if you want people to be free from an overbearing state and if you want a government with liberal values vote Conservative."

M.I.A. - Born Free

M.I.A. Born Free

Love the use of Ghost Rider by Suicide...

SFA!

HA!

Refried Bean Swastikas Smeared On Arizona Capitol

Conservative promises to protect the arts remain unconvincing

Hurrah for the more than 40 performers – on the website at least Stephen Frears has signed twice – who wrote to the Observer last weekend pointing out that an incoming Conservative government is likely to serve the interests of the BBC's commercial rivals. No slogan in this election is more chilling than Vote Cameron, Get Murdoch.

My purpose in having coffee with Jeremy Hunt, the personable young shadow culture secretary, was to obtain reassurance, not least because mention of the arts, culture and broadcasting is entirely omitted from the 118-page Conservative party manifesto. Hunt sees nothing sinister in this. "There are lots of things which aren't in the main manifesto," he says. But he is humorously resigned to the suspicion aroused by Tory arts spokespeople. "Rupert Murdoch is not responsible for Conservative media policy. I am responsible, with David Cameron."

What did he feel about the letter? "I thought it was a shame that a group of artists for whom I have great respect were taken in by Labour party spin. I wish they'd written to me. The Conservative party are strong supporters of the BBC. We founded it in 1927, not a fact that widely known, or widely admired by certain elements of the Tory right. We are as proud of founding the BBC as Labour is of founding the NHS."

There are questions, Hunt says, about the specific ways the licence fee is spent. "We don't think it's right that the director general is paid £840,000." But he promises that the Tories "have set the principle. Because of changes to technology, we may have to think of new ways to collect the licence fee, but there will be a household tax which pays for public service broadcasting. That's something we accept".

He adds: "David Cameron will protect the BBC, he sees it as a very important part of his brand of modern conservatism. He loves the BBC programmes. He's a huge fan of Top Gear."

Talking about broadcasting, Hunt is pragmatic. But when he addresses arts subsidy, then, to my old ears, his fantasies of changing an entire culture seem as sweeping and unrealistic as those of any 70s Trot.

Are you ready to use the words 'subsidy works', I ask. "Yes. I'm very happy to say 'subsidy works', although I would tend to say 'public support works'. In fact because I'm feeling quite combative this morning, I will say that I believe funding for the arts will be significantly greater under a Conservative government than it would be under a Labour government."

How is that possible? As soon as Hunt answers by referring to "things in the tax system we can do to boost private giving", I tell him that I see flashing red lights. In the US there is a strong tradition of people making fortunes during their own lifetime and therefore expecting to give something back. But also, Americans have a religious notion of tithing which our culture lacks. The aristocracy here sets an atrocious example by holding on to everything it's got. Or stolen.

'I think, if I may say, David, that's quite an old-fashioned view. My concern is that people who do make their own money aren't, with some exceptions, as generous as they might be. And I would like to encourage them. I don't see it as a panacea. I see it as a 20-year project. If we could make it a social norm that people gave 10% of their legacy to an artistic or charitable organisation, that would be wonderful."

Jeremy Hunt comes across as cleverer than David Cameron, and on first meeting he's certainly way nicer. But I fear his fundamental analysis is wrong. Explaining why Thatcher's government was always so hostile to the arts, he claims we've moved out of a sharply ideological time. But surely, on the contrary, we're just about to move into one. If public service cuts are as severe and damaging as predicted, inclusive politics will soon belong to the past.

The first deal done in a smoke-filled room by representatives of a hung parliament should be as follows: the monarchists get to keep the monarchy, everyone else gets to keep the BBC.

David Hare @'The Guardian'

Dozens Walk Past Dying Hero Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax On New York Sidewalk

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed several times in the chest while saving a woman from a knife-wielding attacker. Then he bled to death while dozens of people walked by -- one stopping to snap a picture of the dying man with his cameraphone before leaving the scene.

Tale-Yax, 31, a homeless Guatemalan immigrant, collapsed at 144th Street and 88th Road in Jamaica, Queens, while in pursuit of the woman's attacker around 5:40 a.m. on April 18. He was pronounced dead by medical workers who responded to a 911 call around 7:20 a.m. But surveillance video obtained the New York Post, which the New York Times got the NYPD to confirm is genuine, shows that plenty of people saw Tale-Yax lying there in his death throes and did nothing.

The police said they were looking for the man who was in the altercation with the woman. He was described as 5-foot-6, with a medium build, wearing a green short-sleeved shirt and a green hat.

The police were not sure if the woman knew what happened to Mr. Tale-Yax, but they said it was possible she knew the suspect. They are waiting for her or a third party to come forward with more information.

@'HuffPo'

A**hat of the day

Leo Berman, Texas State Rep., Says Obama Is 'God's
Punishment On Us'

More blogs gone...

Synthetic Sounds & No Data have both been deleted...

Billy Corgan VS Courtney Love Round whatever...

3 melons for 'Boobquake' day

Christina Hendricks

@'Esquire'

Australia shelves key emissions trading scheme

  The Australian government has shelved plans for an emissions trading scheme (ETS), the centrepiece of its environmental strategy.  It has made repeated attempts to get the measure through parliament, but has been blocked in the Senate, where the government does not enjoy a majority.  The government will now not start the scheme until 2013 at the very earliest.  PM Kevin Rudd blamed the opposition for withdrawing its support for the measure and slow global progress on emissions.  Previously, Mr Rudd has called climate change the "greatest moral challenge of our generation", and pledged to curb pollution by bringing in a comprehensive emissions trading scheme.  But his attempts to enact the measure into law have repeatedly failed because his party does not command a majority in the upper house, Senate, and the opposition Liberal Party is now led by a climate change sceptic who won the leadership of his party by vowing to block the reform.  In announcing his decision to shelve the measure until at least 2013, when the present Kyoto climate pact expires, Mr Rudd blamed the opposition and the slow progress from other countries in combating global warming.  "These two factors together inevitably mean that the implementation of a carbon pollution reduction scheme in Australia will be delayed," he said.  "The implementation of a carbon pollution reduction scheme in Australian will, therefore, be extended until after the conclusion of the current Kyoto commitment period, which finishes at the end of 2012."  This is a major climb-down by the Rudd government, and also reflects the changing politics of climate change in Australia.  Ahead of the Copenhagen climate change conference, Mr Rudd looked set to fight - and win - this year's Australian election on the emissions trading issue, but polls have pointed to an erosion of public support.  Given its reliance on coal, Australia has the highest per capita emissions of any developed country, and this decision could draw strong criticism from abroad.

@'BBC'

Support

M.I.A. vid already banned in the US

Already removed by YouTube in the U.S., the video for M.I.A.'s "Born Free" was released this morning. Directed by Romain Gavras and available on M.I.A's website (also embedded below), this is one of the most violent videos I've ever seen. It is unapologetic in its critique of American military actions, and it depicts a strange and horrific allegory. Definitely not safe for work, and take special care if you're a redhead. Gingercide, anyone?

Carrie Brownstein @'NPR'

(Thanx Anne!)

'They fuck you up your mum and dad'

This Be The Verse

One Love - No Fear (Never Give Up) featuring Dub FX

The iPhone Leak Gets Ugly: Police Raid Gizmodo Editor’s House, Confiscate Computers

Wow. Last week, Gizmodo published a massive scoop when they got their hands on what is mostly likely the next iPhone. At the time there was plenty of talk about the legality of Gizmodo’s actions (as they admitted to paying $5000 for the device). Now Gizmodo has just published a post saying that editor Jason Chen had four of his computers and two servers confiscated last night by California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, who entered the house with a search warrant.

Gawker’s COO Gaby Darbyshire responded to the actions by citing California Penal Code 1524(g), which states that “no warrant shall issue for any items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code”, which protects information obtained in protection of a news organization. Darbyshire also points out that the California Court of Appeal has previously found that these protections apply to online journalists (O’Grady v. Superior Court).

In Gizmodo’s post, Chen recounts last night’s events. Chen wasn’t home when the raid began, and came home after officers had already been in his house for hours. Chen’s door was broken open because he wasn’t home to open it. He wasn’t arrested, but police seized external hard drives, four computers, two servers, phones, and more.

The document detailing what police intended to seize refers to Apple’s “prototype 4G iPhone” and is also referred to as “stolen” (Gizmodo has contended that the device was found in a bar, not stolen). Also note that all of this went down on Friday night, and Gizmodo didn’t say anything until today.

Here’s Chen’s full account, via Gizmodo:

(Click to enlarge)
Gawker founder Nick Denton has tweeted about the situation, saying it will show whether or not bloggers are considered journalists.

Jason Kincaid @'Tech Crunch'

You couldn't make this up!

An Australian restaurant has been forced to apologize and pay compensation after refusing to let a blind man enter because they thought his dog was gay.

In May 2009, Ian Jolly, 57, was attempting to dine at the Thai Spice restaurant in Adelaide, when he was refused entry after staff misheard his female companion, and thought his "guide dog" was a "gay dog."

"The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog," the owners said in a statement to South Australia's Equal Opportunity Tribunal.

Jolly is now set to receive a written apology and $1,400 compensation.

However, Jolly said that the situation had made him embarrassed about going to restaurants.

"I just want to be like everybody else and be able to go out for dinner, to be left alone and just enjoy a meal," he told Australian press.

@'HuffPo'