When the War on Drugs started a generation plus ago , Gambling was also illegal:

When the War on Drugs started a generation plus ago ,

 Gambling was also illegal: There where no state lotteries or Indian Casinos ,

 and the Mafia and other Org Crime ran gambling:

 But Gambling was making White people criminals, as most of the patrons of Gambling where white , and many were rich: 

 SO gambling became a state enterprise with lotteries , and a heavily taxed one with Casinos, and our culture is much better off for it : the Mafia barely exists anymore: :: Legalize DRUGS end the war on our inner cities.

-----------------

"How America and hip-hop failed each other"

http://www.washingtonpost.com

By Touré, Published: July 13:

"President Nixon announced a war on drugs, but it was President Reagan who started the modern battle in 1982, when hip-hop was in its infancy. This fight would not only shape the black community but also mold hip-hop, a music and culture whose undercurrent remains black male anger at a nation that declared young black men monsters and abandoned them, killing any chance they had at the American Dream."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-hip-hop-lost-the-war-on-drugs/2012/07/13/gJQAlcsJiW_story.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1

"The Internet May Have Upended Traditional Institutions, But It’s a Brittle Weapon"

The tools of politics have been greatly  changed by technology during the last decade. How people communicate has changed dramatically as well, with email and cell phones,Blackberrys, iPhones and all else.

But even with the election of Barack Obama asPOTUS -- a moderate-center-liberal Democrat -- the power centers of politics in the USA has not really been changed by the Internet. It is still Democrats and Republicans.

Fifty years from now will the discussions in political science classes be: Why has the Digital Age and the Internet failed to produce any great change in Democracy?

Or: Why was it watershed for better Democracy in the United States (and/or other nations)?[36]

There are also those who assert that Democracy will loose out ---and is loosing out--- to the Globalization of the Government and Corporate Techno-Powers.[37] Seeing the distribution ofacademic and political information, news and views on the Web as dominated by a few mega-corporations[38] some believe the question political-science students will be asked on exams is: “Why and how has the Internet changed democracy for the worst?”

Richard Davis, a Professor of Political Science atBrigham Young University, in his book The Web of Politics rightly points out that “each innovation in mass communications” instead of creating new power centers, has simply reinforced the existing Government and media power structures.[39]Davis highlights how the hope of television as a positive force of democratization was torpedoed by the enactment of the of the Equal Time Provision (ETP) by Congress during the 1950’s.[40]Because the ETP required broadcasters to give “equal access” for free time, but not equal access for paid time.

----------@technopolitical-------

-------------

---

"The Internet May Have Upended Traditional Institutions, But It’s a Brittle Weapon"

by Jamais Cascio

Jun 25, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/24/the-internet-may-have-upended-traditional-institutions-but-it-s-a-brittle-weapon.html

"Despite the Internet’s power, a government bent on control can still shut it down. But rulers quickly discover that doing so harms their own interests, Jamais Cascio writes."

"The notion of the Internet as a force of political and social revolution is not a new one. As far back as the early 1990s, in the early days of the World Wide Web, there were technologists and writers arguing forcefully that the Internet was destined to become the most important tool for cultural change in human history. They were (mostly) right, but not for the reasons they believed; in retrospect, strident manifestos such as John Perry Barlow’s 1996 Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace seem almost preciously naive about the nature of power and participation online. The ability of the Internet to alter the course of nations and economies does not come from being independent of the material world, but from being deeply enmeshed in it."


"In fact, it turns out that the Internet is a rather brittle weapon of transformation. If the icon of revolution in the 20th century was the AK-47, for many observers the 21st century icon is the Internet-connected cameraphone. But the AK-47 is a stand-alone technology. The smartphone, conversely, is completely dependent upon a complex physical infrastructure—cellular towers, mobile network providers, the wires and routers behind it all, and more. Of course, this isn’t just a peculiar limitation of cell phones; every type of Internet technology requires an elaborate physical network in order to function. And as protestors from Tehran to San Francisco have discovered, such networks are easy to shut down"
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/24/the-internet-may-have-upended-traditional-institutions-but-it-s-a-brittle-weapon.html

"2012: Year of #Birthcontrol Moms?"

‎#Democrats win this issue easy @ Mr. #GOP; & Mrs.GOP agrees with me too: "2012: Year of #Birthcontrol Moms?"

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73043.html
‎" >Hasn’t been a front-burner political issue since the Supreme Court decided Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965.
>But then Rick Santorum said states ought to have the right to outlaw the sale of contraception.
>And Susan G. Komen for the Cure yanked its funding for Planned Parenthood.
>And the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops teed off on President Barack Obama’s contraception policy.
>And House Republicans invited a panel of five men — and no women — to debate the issue.
>And a prominent Santorum supporter pined for the days when “the gals” put aspirin “between their knees” to ward off pregnancy. "


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73043.html

Data Security Center In Utah Targets Cyberspace

~~ As long as the USA stays a free Democracy , with a free press & etc., this plan does not alarm me. But maybe I am just getting old and jaded , and getting [too?] used to a growing Big Brother in the name of National Security ~`

"Data Security Center In Utah Targets Cyberspace"

By James Nelson

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah Thu Jan 6, 2011 8:17pm EST

(Reuters) - A $1.5 billion dollar National Security Agency data center under construction in Utah will be an important step in dealing with rising volumes of information in cyberspace, officials said on Thursday. "It's a very important step in protecting the interests of our country. Banking, financial interests, Internet and national security. This is an important step forward in all of those," U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch told Reuters at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Data Center.

Fox News does not need my help looking stupid

Fire Fox, not Shirley Sherrod.

bit.ly

The Obama team has offered Shirley Sherrod her job back. Now, tell Obama to fire FOX News instead by kicking them out of the White House Press Corps.

‎"So we're calling on the White House to remove FOX News." --- ?

I do not feel good about this.

I am a First Amendment Freak, and big Civil Libertarian,

...

Fox News does not need my help looking stupid - they do well w/o my help ! :) - this is a case in point # one.

i have faith in the free market system of journalism -- that the idiots of the world -- both reporters AND the those reported on --- get theirs in the end.

As in: Sen. McCarthy do you not have any decency, sir !?!

The truth will always win out with a fully free press.

For the White House to ban Fox , IMHO would do more harm than good.

Celebrating the birth of copyright : by Sen. Patrick Leahy.

By Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) - 04/13/10 02:31 PM ET :

The copyright laws offer creators incentive to produce new and unique works. These may come in various forms, including movies, music, and books, all of which are important components of American culture.

These works create jobs, from their production and manufacture to the advertising and sales that support them.

To cultivate these new jobs, intellectual property enforcement must keep pace with an ever changing digital world.

As an avid photographer I am intrigued by the debate at the turn of the 20th Century about whether photographs were copyrightable creations, or merely technical representations.

Public discussion then helped shape copyright laws to accommodate the new medium, just as it does now as times and technologies continue to change.

Today people watch television on handheld devices, skim books on digital readers and enjoy music on laptops, benefiting both content owner and the user.

But along with these new opportunities for distributing creative content, the World Wide Web has also brought new challenges.

"A rampant increase in online piracy threatens the financial viability of those same copyright owners who benefit from our new technology.

This risks harming not only those creators, but the hundreds of thousands of jobs that result from their products.

It also instills the user with a fundamental mistrust of the technology. Effective intellectual property enforcement is necessary to counter this attack. "

more

Full Copyrights for Art.

by Suzanne Lainson(profile) , Jun 18th, 2010 @ 2:24pm

poster:"I would like to see a movie released with lots of extra clips so a person can legally make and share their own version of the film using the clips. Imagine how viral that would be."

SL : The tools are already out there and this is being done to one degree or another. (I've been working on a related project.)

Creativity on a personal level is expanding daily. I think we will eventually get to a point where we are much more interested in what we create ourselves for our small circle of friends and family than what others create for a bigger market.

The economics of having millions of people making their own art will change the salability of creativity, but as a culture we will likely be better for it.

(reply to this comment)(link to this comment)

• • insightful
  • informative
  • report

  Re: Creativity on a personal level is expanding daily. // The economics of having millions of people making their own art will change the salability of creativity, but as a culture we will likely be better for it.

  by Technopolitical(profile) , Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 12:03pm

  SL : "The economics of having millions of people making their own art will change the saleability [cor. sp] of creativity, but as a culture we will likely be better for it."
  
  
  

  Me : exactly 100% plus
  
  $$$ who cares.
  
  Control of use .
  
  who. when. where. how. why.
  
  As long as i have full artistic control
  
  i is cool.
  
  Full Copyrights for Art.
  
  It is not just a good idea.
  
  It is the bedrock of our Constitutional Economic System for Artists.
  
  ---------------
  --------
  patents on drugs and cellphones ?
  
  it is a different horse.
  
  not my thing.

  (reply to this comment)(link to this comment)

Justice Kennedy said the court was uncomfortable fashioning comprehensive legal rules, given the pace of technological and cultural change

~` This a biggie from SCOTUS. I think they hit it right on.~~ `
------------------------------

June 17, 2010

Justices Allow Search of Work-Issued Pager

By ADAM LIPTAK

• Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON — A California police department did not violate the constitutional privacy rights of an employee when it audited the text messages on a pager the city had issued him, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday.

The decision represented only a preliminary attempt to define public employees’ Fourth Amendment rights in the digital era, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court, took pains to say that the ruling was narrow and closely tied to the facts.

Still, the decision puts government employees on notice that electronic communications on devices provided to them may not be subject to the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches, as long as their employers have “a legitimate work-related purpose” in inspecting the communications.

Justice Kennedy said the court was uncomfortable fashioning comprehensive legal rules, given the pace of technological and cultural change.

“The court must proceed with care when considering the whole concept of privacy expectations in communications made on electronic equipment owned by a government employer,” Justice Kennedy wrote in a part of the opinion joined by every member of the court except Justice Antonin Scalia.

“Cell phone and text message communications are so pervasive that some persons may consider them to be essential means or necessary instruments for self-expression, even self-identification,”

Justice Kennedy went on. “On the other hand, the ubiquity of those devices has made them generally affordable, so one could counter that employees who need cell phones or similar devices for personal matters can purchase and pay for their own.”

The decision did not address the privacy rights of people employed by private companies.

• Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
• -----------------------------------------------------------------
  

~` So Mr. Smith , you would like to work here?

First fill , out this application.

After we do a background check, drug test , and credit search,

you can go to room "A" for your polygraph ,

and then to room "B" for your Brain Scan.

Let the moral and legal debate begin.

---------------------------

---

Brain Scan Can Read Your Thoughts

New insights into brain activity could explain how memories are formed and how they change over time.

Thu Mar 11, 2010 02:30 PM ET | content provided by AFP

THE GIST:

• Brain scans could reveal what a person is thinking.
• Using fMRI scans, scientists can distinguish memories of a past event a person is recalling.
• The brain scans could provide fresh insight into how memories are stored and how they may change through time.

---

A scan of brain activity can effectively read a person's mind, researchers said Thursday.

British scientists from University College London found they could differentiate brain activity linked to different memories and thereby identifythought patterns by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The evidence suggests researchers can tell which memory of a past event a person is recalling from the pattern of their brain activity alone.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/brain-scan-mind-reading.html?print=true

Congress Considers Limits on Deep-Packet Inspections

~` Now I am for the most a personal civil libertarian. 

But i am not a fanatic, and I accept that in public , using public resources, I have to follow rules. 

Speed Limits and seat belts on the roads. 

 No Smoking in the bar.

The Internet is a public space. I choose to go there.  On the Internet , there is crime , fraud,  and predators (both financial and personal.)

There has to be security.  A Cyber Police.  

So while I am not fond of my ISP or my Gov't being able to track my every move online, I accept it. 

 However I live in a free democracy and i can post anything I want here and write freely against any Gov't or

 Biz  when  I feel so motivated to do so.

 

If  I lived in Tibet I might feel different here.

===========================

Congress Considers Limits on Deep-Packet Inspections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66185&full_skip=1
By Frederick Lane
April 24, 2009 2:19PM
The House Energy and Commerce Internet subcommittee is looking into Internet privacy issues and deep packet inspection by Internet service providers. Chairman Rick Boucher called for greater privacy protection. An industry advocate actually called inspections pro-consumer. Boucher called the potential of ISP snooping "frightening."

At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Internet subcommittee Thursday, Congress began the tricky business of trying to understand Internet privacy issues and launched another round of debates about legislation regulating the collection and handling of personal data online.

The specific focus of the subcommittee's hearing was the practice of deep packet inspection (DPI), a data-handling technique that allows Internet service providers and communication companies to look at the content of all traffic flowing through their servers.

ISPs argue that DPI is a valuable tool because it enables them to block illegal content flowing across the Internet, including copyrighted materials and contraband such as child pornography. One industry advocate -- National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow -- went so far as to argue that DPI is actually a pro-consumer technology, enabling ISPs to better filter viruses and other threatening content.

DPI gained notoriety last year when it was revealed that Comcast used the technique to throttle the flow of BitTorrent data across its networks. Other ISPs have suggested using DPI as a tool to prioritize traffic (perhaps based on a sliding fee scale), a technique that engineers argue is simply good network management.

Strong Privacy Concerns

But many worry that DPI can have profound privacy implications, since it enables ISPs to examine the content of all traffic, not merely that which is illegal or potentially damaging.

"DPI poses unique risks to individual privacy," said Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "Moreover, once the technology is acquired for a legitimate purpose such as responding to network threats, it will be hard to draw the line at ever more intrusive uses as third parties approach the network operators with proposals to monetize Internet traffic and the government makes greater demands."

~~ This is almost Surreal !!!

But it is the Technopolitical Age we
live in . Cyber-Spying among nations ,
even Cyber Warfare , and also Big Time Corprate Cyber-Biz Spying where billions of billions of $$ are at stake.

Man it is a

 rough place,
this
Cyber 

Space.
---------------

---------

---------

(Please use the post labels 

to view more on these topics )~~~

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30280436/

U.S. seeks hackers to protect cyber networks: 

Homeland Security wants someone who can 'think like the bad guy'.

updated 12:06 p.m. ET, Sat., April 18, 2009

WASHINGTON - Wanted: Computer hackers.

Buffeted by millions of digital scans and attacks each day, federal authorities are looking for hackers — not to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30280436/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved.

This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 

~~~  Please Be Real !! 

 Anyway  MSNBC / AP,  you guys  are 

free to post my stuff on your site ! 

Thats fair , right? ~~~

Apple Loses Bid to Unmask Bloggers' Sources :The Sixth District Court of Appeals on Friday

~~ This makes me happy.!! ~~ TP
---------------------------------------------

"Apple Loses Bid to Unmask Bloggers' Sources"
by Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen
Friday, 26 May 2006

"A California appeals court has smacked down Apple's legal assault on bloggers and their sources, finding that the company's efforts to subpoena e-mail received by the publishers of Apple Insider and PowerPage.org runs contrary to federal law, California's reporter's shield law, and the state Constitution.

The Sixth District Court of Appeals on Friday roundly rejected (.pdf) Apple's argument that the bloggers weren't acting as journalists when they posted internal document about future Apple products. 'We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes 'legitimate journalis(m).' The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here,' the court wrote.

'Beyond casting aspersions on the legitimacy of petitioners’ enterprise, Apple offers no cogent reason to conclude that they fall outside the shield law’s protection".

Source:
© Copyright 2006, Lycos, Inc.
Lycos is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Your use.... constitutes acceptance of the Lycos
Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions !!! "

=============================

: Supreme Court Developments on Yahoo! News

Print Story: Supreme Court Developments on Yahoo! News: -- Yahoo! News

Supreme Court Developments
By The Associated PressMon May 22, 4:24 PM ET

Highlights of actions taken Monday by the Supreme Court. The justices:

_Ruled unanimously that police do not need a warrant to go into a home to break up a bloody fight, in a case involving a 'melee' that Brigham City, Utah, police officers saw through a window.

_Rejected an appeal from Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, who wanted the court to declare that the drug protocol used in most executions amounts to cruel punishment.

_Refused to hear an appeal in the case of a mentally ill man, Andrew Goldstein, whose conviction was overturned in the death of a woman pushed into the path of a subway train in New York.

_Said they would not consider the case of convicted murderer James Hamm, who graduated from law school and is being thwarted in his efforts to become a practicing attorney in Arizona.

_Delayed a decision on whether to take up a fight over reporters' confidential sources, apparently because a former government scientist's lawsuit that prompted journalist subpoenas may be settled.

_Declined for the second time to get involved in a child custody fight between a San Diego woman and and her former [female] partner."

============

Court: Hallucinogenic tea OK

~ A major win here for religious civil liberties. And an 8-0 shutout too. I find this to be a "Liberal" ruling, as it is allowing something the Federal Government wanted to ban. Not bad for a "Conservative" court. ~~~ TP

---------
Court: Hallucinogenic tea OK: "WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday rejected government arguments against use of a hallucinogenic tea in religious services.

The 8-0 ruling written by Chief Justice John Roberts stemmed from a New Mexico case involving O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal, a Spiritst Christian sect originating in the Amazon Rainforest. The court`s newest justice, Sam Alito, did not take part in the case."

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/

Cheney Says He Can Declassify Info { but not hunting accidents!}

~~~ However it seems Dick Cheney is not empowered to
publicly report when he shoots someone.
So at least there is some check on his power.~~ TP
-----------------------

Cheney Says He Can Declassify Info WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2006 "(AP) == "Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on Iraq to reporters"

AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping

~~ A new twist in the NSA wiretap mess.

Did Ma Bell do it with Big Brother ?!?!

~~~TP

------------------------------

AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping
Wired News::
By Ryan Singel
04:03 AM Jan, 31, 2006

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Tuesday, accusing the telecom company of violating federal laws by collaborating with the government's secret, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens' phone and internet usage.

The suit, (.pdf) filed by the civil liberties group in federal court in San Francisco, alleges AT&T secretly gave the NSA access to two massive databases that included both the contents of its subscribers' communications and detailed transaction records, such as numbers dialed and internet addresses visited.

'Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible,' says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. 'They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to.'"

US plans to 'fight the net' revealed . BBC NEWS | Americas

~~~ This is well worth the read. ~~ ~ TP
------------
-------------

BBC NEWS | Americas | US plans to 'fight the net' revealed:
By Adam Brookes
BBC Pentagon correspondent

"A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for 'information operations' - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks."

The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap". It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

"Could Your VoIP Phone Be Tapped?"

~~ America has to decide just exactly how "Big" we want our "Big Brother " to be. As reported in New York Times , polls show a 50 -50 split , or so on Americans support of the Bush Wiretaps. ~~ TP
--------------------------------------------------


PCWorld.com - Could Your VoIP Phone Be Tapped?: "

Dennis O'Reilly, PC World

Friday, January 27, 2006

BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA -- "Several privacy and civil-liberties organizations are mounting a legal challenge to prevent VoIP and other Internet-based communications from being subject to taps from law-enforcement agencies."

Google : Communist sympathizer !!

Google is willing to bow to China on search censorship . but yet Google fights the American Government on releasing search data.
Seems clear to me . Google 's motto of " Do no evil", is easy to abide by when you have your own definitions of right and wrong. ~~ TP
-------------
--------

Google faces China challenges

By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, BBC News website

Google has acknowledged that its decision to launch in China will be seen as inconsistent with its mission to make information universally accessible but believes it has little choice.

"We don't want to risk becoming irrelevant or useless due to the way that our content is blocked or filtered currently," Google's senior policy adviser Andrew McLaughlin told the BBC Radio Four's Today programme.

"We feel it is a step forward. Not a big step forward but a step forward. We understand that many people will find the decision either puzzling or objectionable," he said.

NSA Web Site Places 'Cookies' On Computers |

~ I personally now will delete my cookies after visiting any Government website. ~` `TP

---------------

InformationWeek | Privacy | NSA Web Site Places 'Cookies' On Computers | December 29, 2005: " By Anick Jesdanun , NEW YORK (AP)--The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them. These files, known as 'cookies,' disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States. 'Considering the surveillance power the NSA has, cookies are not exactly a major concern,' said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group in Washington, D.C. 'But it does show a general lack of understanding about privacy rules when they are not even following the government's very basic rules for Web privacy.'"