Having a blast here in Austin at SXSW.
I’ll be uploading footage of Lawrence Lessig’s talk, a blogger panel, a Creative Commons panel and more…
But first I need to link to a bunch of stuff I uploaded before I flew out Saturday of Colin Powell, the Daily Show, etc. from last week.
Back in a flash…
The popular belief is that Iraq started those fires. However, there have now been reports from Gulf War Veterans that American soldiers, not Iraq soldiers, started those Gulf War fires in 1991.
That means our government is hiring Halliburton to fight fires it’s planning on starting itself…
Halliburton wins contract on Iraq oil firefighting
By Reuters as published in Forbes.
A Halliburton Co. (nyse: HAL – news – people) subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) has won the contract to oversee any firefighting operations at Iraqi oilfields after any U.S.-led invasion, a Defense Department source said on Thursday.
KBR was widely viewed by many in the oilfield services industry as the likely candidate to oversee firefighting in Iraq’s oilfields. Halliburton does extensive logistic support work for the U.S. military.
This just in from
Elizabeth Barker Brandt,
Professor, University of Idaho College of Law:
Subject: 120 armed FBI agents stage pre-dawn visa raid at Univ. of Idaho
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 13:15:20 -1000
The following letter was forwarded to SEVIS, and is chilling testimony to the campaign of fear and intimidation on university campuses.
Information shared by universities through the SEVIS tracking system enable the INS, FBI and CIA to carry out such crimes. Send copies of this letter to
your International Student Services, and your administration! Put it in your campus newspaper! This raid conveniently happened in a small town
where it is difficult to build a strong movement in support of immigrants and international students. We’ll keep you posted.
From: Prof. Elizabeth Brandt from Univ. of Idaho:
Well, yesterday was an exciting day in my small town. The FBI flew in 120 agents, fully armed in riot gear, on two C-17 military aircraft (I
think — they were BIG planes) to Moscow Idaho (population 17,000 +/-) to arrest one Saudi graduate student for visa fraud. The raid went
down in University of Idaho student housing at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, terrorizing not only the suspect’s family (he lived in student
housing with his wife and three elementary school age children) but also the families of neighboring students who were awakened by the
shouting and lights and were required to remain in their homes until after 8:30 a.m. At least 20 other students who had the misfortune to either know the
suspect or to have some minor immigration irregularities were also subjected to substantial, surprise interrogations (4+ hours) although
none were detained or arrested yesterday. Now, however, a witch hunt for additional unamed suspects who supposedly helped the guy who was
arrested is on.
The INS and FBI are working together using gestapo tactics to question the students — threatening their immigration status (and
hence their education) if they don’t answer questions which are really aimed at the criminal investigation. They have also threatened their partners
and spouses with perjury charges if they don’t talk.
I spent yesterday working with our immigration clinic director and local criminal defense attorneys to organize legal representation for
the students who are being swept into the hunt for co-conspiritors. We have reached out to our entire area (40 -mile radius) to find enough
attorneys. Now I’m working on getting resources and support to them.
The Saudi government is providing financial support.
Reading about this stuff is one thing. Having it in your backyard is another. The international students at the University of Idaho are
terrorized and scared.
Liz Brandt
Elizabeth Barker Brandt
Professor
University of Idaho College of Law
And they’re already off to a great start with petty offenses that violate International Law. Bummer.
Marines May Have Broken International Law
U.N. peacekeepers recently spotted armed U.S. Marines cutting a fence between Kuwait and Iraq, an act which was reported to the Security Council on Thursday as a possible violation of international law.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said peacekeepers who monitor a demilitarized zone set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait reported “numerous violations,” since March 4 “by personnel in civilian clothes in 4 x 4 vehicles, at least some of whom were armed and identified themselves as U.S. Marines.”
…According to Eckhard, peacekeepers observed three breaches that had been cut in an electric fence which Kuwait erected after a U.S.-led coalition forced Iraqi troops out of the country in 1991.
Eckhard went on to say that the U.N. team raised the recent violations with the Kuwaiti government. The information was then sent to the Security Council in the form of a letter from the U.N. peacekeeping department. Eckhard said the breach may violate the Security Council resolution that set up the zone but that it was up for the council to make that determination.
The United States has amassed more than 300,000 troops in the region in preparation for another possible war with Iraq. In the meantime, it is pushing council members to adopt a new resolution that would authorize military force, as it did in 1991.
Here’s Cory answering a question from the audience about file formats and longevity:
“I think that, in general, promiscuity is a better longevity strategy than longevity itself. I think having one copy that’s armor-plated is a less effective strategy for having your work last than having a bizillion copies.” — Cory Doctorow.
Audio – Cory Q and A (Lo-res 3 MB)
Cory Q and A – ALL (Hi-res 74 MB)
Cory Q and A – ALL (Lo-res 32 MB)
Cory Q and A – Part 1 of 2 (Lo-res 18 MB)
Cory Q and A – Part 2 of 2 (Lo-res 14 MB)
Here’s footage from Cory Doctorow‘s reading at the Booksmith Wednesday night.
Here he is reading part of the fourth chapter from his new novel, Eastern Standard Tribe.
Audio – Cory Reading EST Ch 4 – All (MP3 – 8 MB)
Audio – Cory Reading EST Ch 4 – Part 1 of 2 (MP3 – 9 MB)
Audio – Cory Reading EST Ch 4 – Part 2 of 2 (MP3 – 9 MB)
The Daily Show has put together a beautiful little couple of sequences about the Shrub’s latest attack on the Constitution (and the very important separation of church and state).
Part 1 includes the Shrub at a recent conference for religious broadcasters in which he takes a whack at preaching on the pulpit himself.
You have to see this to believe it. Unbelievable.
Part 2 takes a stab at the Shrub’s prison faith programs (when he’s not killing ’em, he’s saving ’em).
Part 3 is Stephen Colbert’s new “Constitution Shmonstitution” series in which he lets the author of the Faith-based initiative explain how vague the requirements are to qualify for funding.
Daily Show Faith Part 1 (All) (Lo-res 13 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 1 (1 of 2) (Lo-res 8 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 1 (2 of 2) (Lo-res 6 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 2 (Lo-res 6 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 3 (All) (Lo-res 12 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 3 (1 of 2) (Lo-res 4 MB)
Daily Show Faith Part 3 (2 of 2) (Lo-res MB)
Ride the Faith-Based Gravy Train! Woo! Woo!
From the “how ’bout telling me something I don’t knowU.S. Expands Clandestine Surveillance Operations
The number of secret searches approved by Ashcroft since the 9/11 attacks is triple those authorized in the previous 20 years.
By Richard B. Schmitt for the LA Times.
The Justice Department has stepped up use of a secretive process that enables the attorney general to personally authorize electronic surveillance and physical searches of suspected terrorists, spies and other national-security threats without immediate court oversight.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday he has authorized more than 170 such emergency searches since the Sept. 11 attacks — more than triple the 47 emergency searches that have been authorized by other attorneys general in the last 20 years.
A 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enables the FBI and other investigators to conduct intelligence operations under the supervision of a secret federal tribunal known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Over the years, the number of such FISA applications has grown — and civil liberties’ groups and defense lawyers have complained that the law has become a tool to dilute suspects’ constitutional rights.
Now, Justice Department officials are pushing the law’s limits even further. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, officials have seized on a provision that allows them to launch emergency searches signed only by the attorney general. The department must still persuade the secret court that the search is justified — but officials have 72 hours from the time the search is launched, and such requests are almost always granted.
Ashcroft’s tally was more fuel for critics of the law who contend that it already operates in the shadows.
“That is a startling increase,” said Timothy Edgar, a legislative counsel for the ACLU.
Pseudo spins hip-hop TV show on Kazaa
By Stefanie Olsen for CNET.
Digital broadcaster Pseudo.com plans to release a weekly TV show hosted by rap star Ice-T on the Internet file-sharing network Kazaa, in attempts to start a new model of advertising-supported television.
Pseudo President Edward Salzano said Thursday that the show–a feature on hip-hop culture called “One Nation”–will be available exclusively to Kazaa’s roughly 60 million registered users beginning in the next two weeks. People using Kazaa to trade video, audio and text files will be able to download a new episode of the hour-long show weekly and watch it anytime.
Free to Kazaa users, the show will be supported through advertising in the form of commercials and product placements, Salzano said. Pseudo.com, which is owned by New York-based INTV, has already signed on soft-drink maker Red Bull as a sponsor.
“We believe there’s a lot of money that is going to people it shouldn’t be going to such as studios, producers and advertising agencies,” Salzano said. “But that money should be going directly from the fans to the artist, so we’re trying to come up with ways to make it legitimate and affordable to do that.”
