In April 2009, Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced a bill “to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure.” The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gave “the president the ability to ‘declare a cybersecurity emergency’ and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any ‘critical’ information network ‘in the interest of national security.’” The bill did not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition was left to the president.
“They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt - PDF), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.
“The new version would allow the president to ‘declare a cybersecurity emergency’ relating to ‘non-governmental’ computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for ‘cybersecurity professionals,’ and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.”
Below you will find two maps of Internet censorship ratings per country. The first is from 2008 and the second from 2009. As is indicated, in one short year, many more countries have begun to censor the Internet.
As well as the above, the mainstream media and the corporate elite have created the “Piracy” buzzword so that they can preserve our present discriminatory and bias system of disseminating information - a dysfunctional system that has given power and control to the elite through archaic copyright laws that have neither benefited artists nor consumers. This model has censored and controlled information, news, and entertainment for the benefit of multinational conglomerates.
As was previously stated, as a collective we must understand that democracy can only exist in a society with an educated populace, and the right for self-governance can only be obtained through knowledge. As long as the Internet remains Neutral and uncensored, we, as a global community, can make a difference. We can fill the gap left behind by our corporate governments by becoming proactive in every aspect of our lives and our civilization.
The more information that we share within our collective the more informed decisions we will be able to make for our society. For those who have not noticed yet, the established hierarchical system is collapsing.
The only way we will be able to bring about positive changes is by sharing our art and our vision without corporate censorship, distribution limitations, or government bureaucracy.
This global community that has been created through the Internet, functioning as the only true free society, is reshaping our world. Where this interaction and connectivity will lead us is yet to be determined, however, the changes are and continue to be unprecedented.
The following three presentations are an excellent introduction to this topic. Here is hoping that we maintain control of the largest library ever known in human existence.
An anthropological introduction to YouTube (55:33)
“Prince Muhammad bin Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, escaped an assassination attempt on Thursday night when a wanted terrorist blew himself up inside the prince's house.”
“This is the first known assassination attempt against a member of the royal family since a group affiliated to al-Qaeda started a campaign to destabilise the house of Saud in 2001.”
It appears that there is a lot more to this story but since the news is coming from Saudi Arabia there is no way to distinguish between fact or fiction, so we’ll leave the speculations for another time.
What is important here is that high-ranking members of the House of Saud have now become legitimate targets in the eyes of their rivals.
This new revelation has far reaching ramifications, especially for the United States of America whose relationship with Saudi Arabia is not only older than its relationship with Israel, but also crucial to the survival of all three States. It is an interdependent relationship, codependent and dysfunctional many would argue, based on oil and the currency in which oil is traded, the Petrodollar.
The following previously posted articles should provide further information about the importance and relevance of the assassination attempt.
Please note that there are a few issues I have with this documentary, one of them is of course related to the events of 11 September 2001. Another is its failure to mention that the United States provided fake satellite photos to the House of Saud regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the build up to the First Gulf War. These photos convinced the Saudi Royal family to allow the United States to establish a 500,000 strong military base on their soil, which in turn galvanized Muslim communities around the world in opposition to Western intervention. You’ll know what this refers to in the second half of the documentary.
Many charts and graphs are being presented by countless people trying to explain the predicament that the United States finds itself in, as well as trying to forecast its future prospects. When reviewing the information please keep one thing in mind, for the United States of America it is projected that the next 10 years will produce the same amount of debt as the last 100 years. A version of the following graph should accompany any analysis being presented by anyone regarding the financial health of the United States.
To find out where this money is meant to come from, and where it will be spent, see the following information, which is a partial repost of “The Game at Play is the Business of War.”
The Business of War
One of the primary methods in which governments maintain control is by allocating tax revenues to projects that expand their power. In most cases, the projects that have been deemed worthy of financing guarantee the prosperity of the ruling class.
For fiscal year 2008, the US Federal Government collected $2.52 trillion, while “spending $2.98 trillion, generating a total deficit of $455 billion, which was added to the United States public debt”, which as of 29 August 2009 was sitting at over $11.7 trillion.
For 2007, the single largest source of revenue for the Federal Government was individual income taxes, accounting for 45% of the receipts.
“On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference to disclose that over $2,000,000,000,000 in Pentagon funds could not be accounted for. Rumsfeld stated: ‘According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.’ According to a report by the Inspector General, the Pentagon cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.”
It is quite important to remember that this announcement occurred one day prior to the events of 911.
2.3 TRillion $$ of the TAXPAYER's MONEY IS MISSING
“Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of increased defense spending. True to his word, Obama's 2010 fiscal year budget calls for $527 billion in defense spending (not including the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan). That is more than the U.S. allocated for defense in 2009 and equals what the Bush administration budgeted for 2010.”
P.W. Singer: Military robots and the future of war
This cycle of perpetual war will continue until either citizens of the United States stop funding their Federal Government, which is clearly in the business of war, or until they completely dismantle and restructure this corporation which has been empowered, legally or not, to run the affairs of their republic.
The solutions to our woes are simple, as Bill Hicks states, this is what we can do to change the world for the better:
“Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
Below you will find the latest additions to the About Page. The page has also been reformatted for ease of reference.
In addition, a new category called “Comics and Graphic Novels” has been added. The list is quite small right now, however, as I filter through my comic book collection, and sample new works, I expect this list to grow.
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