Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC. The news, reported this afternoon by the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico, comes after the hugely controversial merger of Comcast and NBC earlier this year. At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued that the “complex and significant transaction” could “bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms.” Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports.
A coalition of campaign groups says the right to hold demonstrations in Britain is being fatally undermined by hardened police tactics, mass criminal trials and pre-emptive arrests.
"Isn’t it ironic that the proprietary software developers call us communists? We are the ones who have provided for a free market, where they allow only monopoly. … if the users chooses this proprietary software package, he then falls into this monopoly for support … the only way to escape from monopoly is to escape from proprietary software, and that is what the free software movement is all about. We want you to escape and our work is to help you escape. We hope you will escape to the free world. The free world is the new continent in cyberspace that we have built so we can live here in freedom. It’s impossible to live in freedom in the old world of cyberspace, where every program has its feudal lord that bullies and mistreats the users. So, to live in freedom we have to build a new continent. Because this is a virtual continent, it has room for everyone, and there are no immigration restrictions. And because there were never indigenous peoples in cyberspace, there is also no issue of taking away their land. So everyone is welcome in the free world, come to the free world, live with us in freedom. The free software movement aims for the liberation of cyberspace and everyone in it."
— Richard Stallman, Founder of the Free Software movement.
Guys, I think we found where all the money went!
Exxon Mobil rode high oil prices to a staggering $30 billion in income, making it the most profitable Fortune 500 company for the eighth year in a row. From Apple to Google, here are the other big winners.
I’m an anargeek, then, because I wish to live in a society based upon self-determination, free cooperation and collective intelligence. Thus I endorse the free software movement, which comes as the result of the worldwide volunteer collaboration of thousands, allowing anyone not only to share and understand, but also to modify and distribute computer programs.
We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a terrorist sympathizer.
(Source: bloodvictory, via themaddestbird)
“Ian Tomlinson was unlawfully killed by a Metropolitan Police officer at the G20 protests, an inquest jury has said. The 47-year-old collapsed and died after he was hit by a baton and pushed to the ground by Pc Simon Harwood at the demonstrations on 1 April 2009. The Crown Prosecution Service could reopen criminal proceedings against Pc Harwood after jurors ruled he acted illegally, recklessly and dangerously.”
An example should be made to all thuggish minded police officers that unreasonable, unnecessary use of force will NOT be tolerated.
Al-Qaida strategists, propagandists, operatives and supporters will be relieved that Osama bin Laden, their iconic figurehead, died a martyr and was not captured alive and imprisoned to stand trial. To this extent the strategists determining US counterterrorism policy have shown a disregard for effective counterterrorism and instead fostered continuity with the war on terror which has boosted, rather than diminished, global support for al-Qaida since 9/11.
Stephen Fry on why you should vote YES on the 5th May (by midnightcrow)
